Is it bad to only buy something because it caught your eye and and it looked so good that you just had to have it and you don't know why. Well, okay maybe it is sometimes, especially if this something is more expensive than the wimpy version of itself. But what is it about these products that makes us want to buy them or wear them or even just stare at them longer than normal. As we learned in class there is a sort of science behind it and it is called the Gestalt Principles and graphic design within itself which plays a big role as well. For example, lets compare these juice beverages:
Good :)
Bad :(
The first thing that caught my attention from the good were the colors. The simplicity of these bottles was so minimal that the design didn't even need to add any color whatsoever, the only color we see comes from the actual juice itself as well as the fruits natural color. On the label, a colored trim doesn't take away from anything but add a little texture to the design.Compared to the bad designed juice boxes, they used a color background to take up space? On the bad design, the gradient used behind the fruit to make the fruit seem more angelic as if they had a halo around them, it's not not making me sing hallelujah but its trying to contrast the fruit from the background, still not helping though. Besides the simplicity and white space of the good, they are using most of the Gestalt principles. First off, though all the bottles are different flavors and have different fruits on them, their design is using the Law of Similarity in which they may all be different but keep up with the same design in placement and continuity as well as keep the pattern they established going. Besides the lemonade and grape juices that use only the same fruit on their label, the rest use two different fruits or flavors but the Law of Proximity is used to show that though they are not the same they are grouped together to show that they are both being used to make your "orange mango" beverage. Unlike the bad designed juice boxes that just threw all the fruit and stacked it up into a pile on their design, the good design used the Law of Pragnanz that took the fruit and helped show it in its most simplest and basic form. For example, the grape juice of the good design placed each grape separately from each other but close by in comparison the bad design that shows all the grapes even still shown with the leaves. As for the fonts used in the good design, I love how simple the font used in the design is. They didn't have to use gimmicky fonts to lure you in, they get straight to the point. As for the bad design, yea its a san serif font and its easy to read but at the same time is it really? So much type used in such small spot to give too much information about the juicebox. Is it really so necessary.... thats why theres a back. That's something I liked on the good designed bottles, is that everything you really need to know is right there and gets straight to the point.
