Hannah evaluated a can and magazine advertisement design for Irn-Bru. In the first draft, she tried to make the magazine advert stand out using a UFO design, but it did not work. With help from her tutor, she realized she wanted a modern, technological feel. Positives included sections that stood out and a large main image, but the font size made words look out of place. To improve, she changed the font, logo size, and rearranged elements. In the second draft, she was pleased with the changes and felt it fit the comic book theme well with each element standing out on its own. The only further change would be decreasing the logo size.

1. Can and Magazine
Evaluation
Hannah Sewell

2. Evaluation
The first thing that stands out to me when looking at this packaging is the fact that the name is in large font and stands out straight away. This is good because
it automatically tells the public what product it is from far away or close up. The colours chosen went really well as they fit Irn-Bru’s original colour scheme,
the orange and blue I feel is really balanced and works well with the white font on the front. I think by making the main colour font white means they all work
together and both mean the same thing, by having ‘energy’ at the bottom is looks quite classy and sophisticated because it has a lot of space around it to look
at the graphics of the product and then the title and text. Even thought the ingredients side took quite a while and was complicated I think the overall look,
looks very professional, the use of black, orange and blue work really well together and fits the colour scheme which is important for the product. The use of
technology and symbols really gives a modern edge to the packaging, which is already used for other energy drinks.
I think the painting work is going very well, the fact that paint has a lot of shading and detail in real life makes it harder to portray onto a product. I Rotoscope
the paint image to give it a cartoon theme and modernisation, this still doesn’t look finished and I think it lets part of the product down. The font for the
ingredients I think needs improving because the it makes the words look like they are different sizes and not very clear to read. The font would have to be
Serif so that it is clear to read and suits the main font (‘American purpose’); this makes it more like a comic book, which needs to be portrayed through the
other fonts. I will have to look at the arrangement of the words in the ingredients column as some are aligned on the left and some are centred which might
be quite difficult to read.
I’d like to improve on the paintwork, font on the ingredients and the alignment in the column. By improving the paintwork I will try and go back on the original
images, this will help to produce more shading that will give a liquid look towards the product. I will look at DaFont.com and see what fonts will suit my
ingredients section so that it is clear and easy to read, I will look for the Serif font because each letter flows which means it will be easy to read for any
audience. When choosing the right font I will find a perfect size that fits that section. By looking at the ingredients box you can see that each section are
aligned differently to each other, this will have to change so that it’s all neat and works well together either in the centre of the box or on the left hand side.

3. Before
Before
After
After
Evaluation I have changed very little on the can because I believe that the view of my product that I wanted
is already shown on the can. I did change the light blue marks on the top of the can by using a
‘Motion Blur’ technique on Photoshop, this helps to show movement through the paint without
looking like it is separated like another layer. By making the colour dark it makes it less obvious
on the can, which is much better so that the name and paint stands out the most. This has
made a positive change because it has motion and a different effect on the can that can make it
more real and modern. I’ve also changed the sidelines of the can because I thought they were a
bit messy and dark, I changed this and used ‘Motion Blur’ on that but then realised it didn’t
make a difference and looked quite messy. To change that further I used the opacity tool to 81%
so that it was smoother and neater. This made it less negative, which helped because the
colours don’t stand out so much, which gives the public full attention on the paint.
Evaluation –
When looking at the ingredients section I didn’t like it because it didn’t look organized
and certain objects were aligned properly. I changed this by taking out the Barcode and
putting it at the bottom so that it gives room for the title and information to be shown.
This means the ingredients; flavoring etc could all be aligned in the centre, which would
link to everything else neatly. This gave much more room for objects to be moved around
in a neater position; I like the fact that it each has their own section:
- Ingredients, flavoring, 250ml section
- Technology section
- Recycle
- Barcode and 500ml
This makes it much clearer to read and understand, when looking at other drinks I found
that a lot of the information was squished together, for it to be spread out will make it
look new and fresh compared to the other products. I changed the ingredients box and
got rid of the black background, this is much better because it’s not to dark and it can
now blend in with the text and images. I made sure that the top of this packaging has
‘Motion Blur’ on the light blue paint because then it would look more realistic and would
stick with the theme. The only thing that I can have done better on this piece was to
completely change the blue markings so that it looked more like splashed paint than blue
strips. I would do this on Photoshop; I might Rotoscope a splash from Google images and
then duplicate the layer so that it looks like it’s splattered. Overall I am pleased with my
product design and feel it fits Irn-Bru and their product theme really well.

4. First Draft
When I first started created the magazine advert I tried to make a UFO that would
highlight the product and make it stand out, instead none of them worked so I got
help of my tutor. From this point I realised that I wanted to make the advert quite
modern and give it a technological feel towards it. The positives about this advert is
the fact that they are all in sections, I love the way the main Irn Bru product is very
large and right in front of the main image. The fact that the image is in a frame makes
it look like it was produced through Instagram which is a very popular social media
website. By making objects look like popular social websites then it will gain more
popular through teenagers but also a bigger mainstream audience. I like the edit that I
made, I firstly went on the ‘Filter Gallery’ on Photoshop, this gave me different types
of edits to use towards the picture without rotoscoping, I found an edit called ‘Poster
Edges’ this makes it look like it was a poster filter. Filters are always used through
Instagram, which also helped to make it look modern and new. When asking my peers
they said that they liked the fact that it looks modern, quirky and would stand out in a
magazine, after hearing this it helped me to see that ages from 17-20 years liked my
advertisement which is perfect as these age groups would drink that product. Each
section has it’s own meaning and really stands out compared to other advertisements,
,through colour and modernisation of it.
What I dislike about this advertisement is the font size, I thought it would look good
because it’s the same font as the can and really stands out when making headline
news etc. Instead the font size makes the words look out of place and not working
within the magazine layout. I would also change the size of the ‘BARR’ logo because
it’s a odd shape and doesn’t work well with the text which is the most important. The
slogan for me is the most important also because that’s the sentence that will sell this
product, more people will think about this product through the slogan and I believe it
is funny but doesn’t really suit the advertisement. I thought by having the word
‘Marvellous’ in it would link well with the English which will help spread the
awareness of the product but I also don’t want to take away the Scottish theme of the
product. I will try change the font, the logo image and the size of the can so they all
work together at the bottom of the advertisement.
To improve the font, image, and Can I will firstly go on DaFont.com, this will give me a
list of different fonts that I can use instead of this one to see if it fits the theme but
also makes the slogan quirky and more fun. Instead the ‘American Purpose’ font has
made it look more like a statement instead of a fun slogan like Irn Bru would use. I will
try change the shape of the ‘BARR’ image so that it goes next to the text instead of on
top of it so it looks like a sentence and more neat. Finally the can, I will improve this
by changing around with shape sizes to see if it fits in with the image and text.

5. After
Second Draft
Evaluation
Before
Now looking at it I don’t think I would change anything more, the only things I
would change would be making the colour in the image less colourful so that it
was less bright, this would give more attention to the audience which is better.
There probably could be a better way in putting the ‘Barr’ logo because it’s in
with the text but I think it is a much better improvement than what it was.
I really like the way I have gone through each element of the magazine
layout and found ways to improve things. The object that really
needed to change was the font and the size of it; I went through a lot
of font on DaFont.com and couldn’t find anything that would be smart
and neat. I used the same font but made it ‘Regular’ instead of the
‘bold’ setting which made it much easier to read and clearer. From
looking at both layouts I can see that the letters within each word is
more spaced out and neat which makes it more sophisticated. I also
realised that by having a simple font it will make the statement stand
out more and it will also make it funnier. By having a complicated font
it will make the statement harder to read and then the joke is over. I
changed the size of the can because I thought each person had there
character and to cover him up would be a big mistake, this looks much
better and fits in with it’s own section. I think the slogan has really
helped to tie everything in by involving laziness and energy together,
this works well because the men working are being lazy by sitting in
chairs whilst they have a energy drink on there table. I thought it was
good to put the cans on there table because it would make it more
realistic and would add a modern object to the image which gives it an
odd look.
On my second attempt of trying different fonts I found the ‘Hand Shop’
font from Dafont.com (image above the text), this didn’t work as it
took up to much room and didn’t go very well with the poster. This is
because it had outlines on it, which made it much harder to read for
the audience and looked creepier than straight forward. I also used
font like Dani’s Handwriting and Old newspaper, both of these didn’t
work as they weren’t eye catching enough and were to quirky for the
magazine layout. A main negative about this magazine layout is that
there isn’t a main colour theme which is normally important, the fact
that it is colourful is good but it doesn’t have a main colour like orange
or blue which would go well with the product. I tried to make it a
strong colour theme by changing the hue/saturation of the ‘Barr’ logo
into a orange colour. I thought this looked quite tacky and didn’t go
with the original logo. I think it would be better if it was less colourful
so that the product would stand out to the public but if the colours
stand out then it might catch the audiences attention anyway.

6. Magazine Layout 2
I think the advert would benefit if I put some more blue in the advert, I tried
using blue for the ‘new Irn-Bru 32’ but it looked quite tacky and didn’t fit with
the orange. I would like to keep as much of the Irn-Bru colour theme as possible
so it goes with the fizzy drinks but also the new energy drink. I would like to
change the Barr logo and put it in another place as it sticks out quite a bit which
doesn’t really go with the advert. I think by making it really small it will go well in
the corner and it wouldn’t catch to much attention towards it.When looking at
this advert, I feel that If I tried to change anything then it wouldn’t be the same
or look as good. I think it’s best if I didn’t make any more changes towards this
advert, this is because it fits the comic book theme perfectly and each element
stands out in it’s own way. The only thing I would change would be the size of
the logo but apart from that I would make a change. When I was looking
through different adverts, I found that one really inspired me to make my own
advert in this way, the simplicity of the advert helped me to make it similar but
to add a comic book theme. This fits well with the Irn-Bru
company and I feel my theme really makes the advert
look better and more exciting.
When finding ideas for the magazine layout I did some research on
magazine advertisements through Google. Then I found out that a lot
of adverts didn’t really have a comic book feel or used hands to show
an object. From this I copied the hand of Google and I used a filter on
it called ‘Accented Edges’, this gave it a wrinkly effect that made it
look unique and clay like. This wouldn’t normally be occasioned with a
hand but I thought it would suit the comic book look because it had a
monster feel towards the texture of the hand. I think the size of the
hand is perfect for the advert because it stands out and makes the IrnBru product look visible and meaningful. By having the text in a
different section and in a shout bubble it makes both section stand
out and have the most importance. Which is feel is very effective and
has a good balance between the product and the text. I’m glad that I
chose a black background for the advert this is because each colour on
top of the black stands out completely, I did have orange before
(picture at the bottom) but this covered the drink and text which
didn’t work. The fact that it’s bold and dark makes it more comic like
and really adventurous. I like the fact that every is large and out there
so that people can look at one thing and then look at another thing,
this makes the advert stand out in a magazine with it’s bright colours
and product design. I also like the fact that my advert is completely
different to there fizzy drinks advert, this is good as it makes the new
Irn-Bru product stand out differently because it’s an energy drink.
When asking my peers I found that they liked having all the
information and product in there faces, they also said they liked the
contrast between dark and bright colours. Finally they commented on
how all the shapes look shape and neat which makes them look more
sophisticated. This information will help me to produce more adverts
in the future with these key elements involved. The font I got was
from DaFont.com called ‘Piston Pressure’ which makes it bold and
easy to read, this works well with the logo and the font on the
product.