Adventures in Package Design

This project was inspired by a visit to the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas, where I saw flowers created by artists Yayoi Kusama and Dale Chihuly set in outdoor garden installations.

Spring break had arrived, and the wildflowers and gardens were in full bloom. Like many art teachers, I take photographs of flowers wherever I go, and I’ve amassed quite a collection on my phone. Admiring the works of Kusama and Chihuly, I wondered how I could incorporate an original flower design project into my digital art class. We hadn’t yet covered package design, so a flower seed packet assignment seemed like a natural introduction. What about asking students to invent an imaginary insect to pollinate an imaginary flower and then design a seed packet to sell to gardeners?

Tissue Box Template
Speaking of flowers, we were experiencing a horrible allergy season. One afternoon, as I sat at my desk and turned the third empty tissue box of the week over in my hands, an idea occurred to me.

I carefully pulled apart the glued tabs to create a flat box template, divided it into two pieces to fit on two 8½ x 11" (21.5 x 28 cm) sheets of card stock, and scanned the design. I opened the file in Photoshop, added a layer, created a clean line version of the templates, and printed and assembled a sample box.

Satisfied with my work, I invented a narrative for the project: Design an imaginary flower, the insect that pollinates the flower, the seed packet to sell the flower, a box of tissues for anyone allergic to the flower, and a greeting or get well card that uses both the flower and the insect in its design.

Starting with Symmetry
Insects and flowers are fantastic subjects for exploring bilateral symmetry, rotational symmetry, and reflection. On day one of the project, I introduced and demonstrated the symmetry tools in Adobe Photoshop. Then students looked through my photo collections and experimented with creating symmetrical flower and insect designs.

Artist Inspirations
I saved my Kusama and Chihuly presentation for later in the week, after students’ designs were well underway so they could draw initial inspiration from the natural world without feeling obligated to mimic the artists’ styles. It’s important to me that my students see themselves as designers alongside other artists and not as imitators.

The works by Kusama and Chihuly showed students that designs don’t have to be realistic to be beautiful. An imaginary, whimsical design not found in nature can still be inspired by nature.

A Focus on Color Theory
On day three, I gave a color theory presentation demonstrating how color can express and influence mood. I highlighted the work of several contemporary artists, illustrators, and designers whom I follow on social media. I then used flower samples from my collection to show students how to use color contrast in their designs by employing warm and cool colors, complementary colors, gradients, and dark designs over light colors.

In a mini-activity, students downloaded images of their favorite flowers, analyzed what type of symmetry each flower had, identified key art elements, and used the Eye Dropper tool in Photoshop to create sample color palettes. I asked them to think about how they could integrate those elements into their own artwork.

Designing with Adobe Illustrator
By the end of the first week, students had handed in their flower and insect designs. The following week, I gave them the seed packet template. When they were finished designing their templates in Photoshop, they transferred them to Adobe Illustrator, where I showed them how to use the Type on a Path and Envelope Distort tools to integrate lettering into their artwork.

By the time we got to the tissue box designs and greeting cards, students were comfortable experimenting with typography. I showed them how to create repeating patterns with their flower designs by copying, pasting, transforming, and rotating them. While using the Transform tool in Photoshop, checking a box on the top tool bar allowed them to change the location of the axis around which their design rotated.

Printing, Assembly, and Photography
Students printed their designs on 8½ x 11" card stock and assembled them using scissors, small cutting mats, ceramic blade precision cutters, metal rulers, and glue sticks.

We used a small, portable product photography box and a DSLR camera to photograph the work. With the press of a button, students could select from a variety of background colors and adjust the light levels. Students took turns photographing their work so one photo box was sufficient for the class.

Reflections
This entire unit spanned several weeks. I gave students separate grades for each design, the assembled artwork, and the product photography. They were also required to upload their work to their portfolio websites and caption their images with a description.

Through this project, I was able to introduce new techniques in Photoshop and Illustrator, review design principles, introduce color theory and product photography, and expose students to some beautiful contemporary art.