The BIG project of the year in Graphic Design 2 is the cereal box. This project utilized Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, and InDesign.
Students create a cereal box from concept to design to box construction. For the first time, I chose an over-arching theme and had students choose their concept within that theme. The theme is POP MUSIC. Each class chose a decade. One class chose music of the 80s, another chose the 90s, and my third class chose music from 2000 to the present.
The majority of the work goes into the front panel. The logo, mascot, bowl, spoon, cereal pieces, and marshmallows were all rendered in Adobe Illustrator.
• The logo features a gradient on a compound path. It also has a warp effect.
• The bowl and spoon were made by drawing simple curves and letting the 3D revolve effect do the rest.
• The marshmallows were made from dingabat fonts that were converted to vector art. The 3D extrude & bevel effect made them look three-dimensional. The cereal pieces were made using various methods. Some students made O's, some made puffs, and others made flakes or clusters.
• The mascots were drawn with the pen tool. Gradients, blends, and meshes help to bring the renderings to life.
All of these elements were put together, along with a gradient background and some Layer Effects, in Adobe Photoshop. After completing the front, students created the back of the box using photography, as well as puzzles, mazes, and games created online. The rest of the box layout was completed by adding text and additional graphics in Adobe InDesign.
Below are the finished cereal box designs. Click on an image to see it larger....does it make you want to eat cereal, listen to music, or both?