This is number 6 in my Daily Design of a coffee label – the latest one borrowing from the Hard-Edge Modern Art movement that I read about in a great Smashing Magazine article. I designed it in Adobe Illustrator – taking about a half hour. Despite it’s simplicity, I like it.
Author Archives: Aaron
Coffee Label with Art Deco
I was inspired by a post on Smashing Magazine about Modern Art Movements, so I drew up some coffee labels with different art themes. This one is supposed to have an Art Deco feel. I created the “Orange” logo in Adobe Illustrator, but assembled the rest of it in Photoshop. Took about 45 minutes. I think 30 minutes is not enough time to create something from scratch that is worthy to post.
I’m actually out of Brazil Cerrado coffee now. Drinking an iced Americano with Costa Rican beans, roasted about 2 days ago.
Brazil… Number 4
It’s amazing what inspiration and drawing thumbnails can do. I created this in 30 minutes in Adobe Illustrator. Again, my Illustrator skills could use some honing. I find myself unfamiliar with some of the changes implemented between CS2 and CS4.
As for the coffee, I’m continually noticing that most of the coffee I roast tastes much better after a few days of roasting.
Wait. Stupid me, I forgot to put “Brazil Cerrado” on the label. I’m fired!
Back in design action
After being away from the computer (well, not technically, but at least away from the mouse), I’m back with continuing my daily design series of Brazil Cerrado coffee labels. I blew it last night roasting the coffee as I got distracted with other things, so I was paying no attention to listening for first crack of the roast. This morning the coffee tastes…hmm…bleh. Almost as good as this design I whipped out in 30 minutes in Adobe Illustrator. If I had more time, it would have looked better. Needless to say, my Photoshop skills are better than my Illustrator skills. If I still have some Brazilian coffee left tomorrow, I’ll try another crack at it – maybe come up with something better.
Brazil Cerrado label – part 2
Ah, what a difference when you try to sketch something out first. This time during my Design Something Everyday Challenge, I spent 2 minutes sketching out an idea. It’s actually borrowed from a cover of the last O.C. Supertones album.
Again, I spent only 30 minutes on this. One of the interesting things I’ve noticed is that when I’m pressed for time, I discover some of the inefficient ways I use Photoshop (i.e. not using keyboard shortcuts, rendering clouds on empty layers, etc.) Overall, I think this is a huge improvement over my last label.
I also took a screencast of this using QuickTime X’s new screen capture function. I’m not making it available this time but maybe later. Perhaps tomorrow I will design a coffee label using Illustrator only. It may not be Brazil Cerrado though since I think I have one cup left before I need to roast again.
Design something everyday
I recently read a challenge on Smashing Magazine to design something new everyday. I’m going to try to crank out a rudimentary coffee label everyday. I roast my own beans, so why not have a label.
My first attempt at cranking out a label in 30 minutes is… ahem. Okay, well, it’s definitely not my greatest work, but Lord willing, tomorrow I’ll make an even better one.