For our third project, the package design project, I became very familiar with the pen tool in Adobe Illustrator. Prior to lab 6 and this project, I had not used it much and had minimal practice with it. While tracing the Byrne Dairy logo with the pen tool was a bit tedious and rather time consuming, it was a fun way to become familiar with it and its capabilities. I liked the challenge of adjusting the lines the most accurately I could get them. Looking at project 3 specifically, I found that making the background pattern and drawing the coffee cup was the easiest portion of the project, and my favorite. I could have gotten even more creative with my pattern, but I like the simplicity and idea of the pink cow print for this application. I liked drawing the coffee cup and making it a bit abstract and artsy. I would say that the most challenging aspect of this project was the logo, and the scoring, cutting, and assembling of the carton. I used a razor blade to both score and slice the paper, and even though I used a ruler, I found it challenging to obtain a perfectly straight line and fold it perfectly along that line. I also quickly realized that the angle in which you hold the blade is important, as in the beginning the paper was slightly tearing. It was a trial and error process, and although not as perfect as I’d like, I am overall happy with how it turned out. My submission could be improved by perhaps getting more creative and experimenting more with the pattern making, there are endless possibilities and I think I could make something really unique. I also could be more precise with the mocking of the carton to make it look even more realistic and sharper. I have no suggestions for how the professor could improve the project, I had all the resources I needed and the step by step videos were very helpful, especially when it came to the assembling. The class time dedicated to the project was perfect and allowed for thorough direction and questions. In future assignments or working scenarios, I would say that all the attributes of this project could be helpful. This project taught me that the pen tool is great for tracing, even though you need some patience. The pattern making technique is a simple process and there are so many ways to customize it, this could be useful in other assignments or work projects. The assembling of the carton was good practice for a work scenario, if I ever was tasked with making a 3D advertisement or project of that sort. Lastly, I did not have any specific reading or video that I referred to for this project.
