Design Critique- Week 8
How many typefaces were used ?
Three different typefaces were used.
What kind of typefaces are used and how do they relate to each other?
The main typeface is a san-serif body type. This type is easily legible and is used to convey instructions, benefits of the product, ingredients, headings and safety information.
The second font is a more decorative cursive display font. The font is used to make certain words stand out amongst the other text, such as the scent and the function.
The third front is a serif heading utilised for the logo on the front of the bottle.
How did the designer use space and alignment to organise the text?
Front
Nearly all elements on the front sticker are aligned to the left of the sticker, making them look off centre when viewing the entire bottle. The only elements not left aligned are the symbols, the “1 litre” text at the bottom and the image. Although the bottle is translucent all the text is squeezed onto a fairly skinny sticker, making it look a bit cramped in comparison to all the other free space on the bottle.
Back
The back sticker adopts a very different style with all the elements being aligned towards the centre. Once again, all the information is squeezed onto a fairly narrow sticker. Most of the text is incredibly small, especially the benefits of the product. Spaces between different lines of text differs as well.
What were the treatments used to differentiate text and organise information — size, scale, treatment (colour, effects)?
Colour- this bottle uses the colour white, dark brown and pink to display its fonts. Although the pink font stands out the most, they are smaller than the larger white headline. These lines of text seem to be in a power struggle of contrast vs size. Also, if the bottle is backlit, the small white text becomes somewhat invisible to the eye. Also, the text on the back of the bottle is visible through the front.
Size- the largest font size belongs to the “earth choice” logo featured on the front. Even though the logo is very large, its lack of contrast does not draw the eye. Also, the colour of the logo does not match the rest of the product. On the back certain text is quite hard to read due to its small size.
What are the other elements on the label (logos, images, graphics, rules, background colours)
Logos- the earth logo does not match the colour scheme of the rest of the bottle
Images- use of image is actually quite cleaver as the front side is complimented by the imagery featured on the back of the back side sticker. Having the tag on the back though adds little to the overall design (takes up too much space and does not match the rest of the bottle)
Background colours- the back of the bottle uses a beige colour, which compliments the natural “earthy” marketing of the bottle. I think changing it to white would help to create a more cohesive design.
What is your opinion about the quality of the label? Does it work? Is it aesthetically pleasing? Is it effective? Why do you think that is?
The front of the bottle definitely holds more aesthetic appeal than the back. Although slightly cramped it utilizes the transparency of the bottle to add depth to the bottle. It also shows the colour of the liquid, a very subdued green colour, which compliments the scent and the plant-based formula. The logo does seem disjointed from the rest of the text though as it has a very different font, very large letters and incorporated different colours into the logo than the rest of the bottle.
The back of the bottle is very cramped and the spacing between text is inconsistent. Having the baggage tag does not make much sense in terms of the product. It also takes up too much space. The infographics are quite useful and make following the instructions easier.
How does the use of type and its organisation on the label influence the aesthetic quality and efficiency of this label?
Overall, the use of type is quite inconsistent, especially when comparing the front and back of the label. The back has very small type with varied spacing. The most important information is highlighted as being the benefits and the washing instructions. This seems like a fair assumption. Allowing for a larger sticker and removing unnecessary graphics would improve the design.
The front of the bottle uses space a little better, and the words are more legible. The colours of the text, images and the colour of the liquid flow seamlessly into one another (except for the earth logo). I would change the “natural clean “symbol to 100% recycled plastic symbol as this information is missing from the front of the bottle.
