Wednesday, September 24, 2014

Good vs Bad Design

Good vs Bad Design

For my good and bad design evaluation I was having a hard time deciding what exactly I wanted to compare. After scouring pinterest for hours I found one of the most beautiful packaging designs I have ever laid my eyes on, a, if you can believe it, honey container from the company BeeLoved. As you can see below, it is a true masterpiece. After deciding on my good design, it was harder than expected to find a poorly designed honey container to compare with. Although I don't think the "bad" design I chose is absolutely atrocious, there are a few things that are less pleasing than my exceptionally well designed honey container. Let me compare using the principles of Gestalt.

First off, when visiting the Law of Similarity, the BeeLoved container out performs almost anything else on the market. The shape itself is mimicking a beehive, which has thousands of recurring shapes and patterns. It is visually appealing not only because of it's reminiscence of a beehive but because it has a very organic feeling to it, which is what many honey shoppers are looking for, something natural. It also has the actual honeycomb hexagons in what appears to be the center of the bottle, giving it additional appeal, in regards to the law of similarity.
The Law of Proximity is also applicable because of, once again, the texture on the outside of the bottle that wraps all the way around and the honeycomb shape grouped in the middle of the bottle.
 The Law of Pragnanz is even visible in this design, because even though it is an extremely intricate container, we are still able to make out the shapes of the honeycomb and the beehive, as well as the shapes that make up the hive itself, i.e. triangles, squares, etc.
The Law of closure is also at work here. The design could be interpreted as just a jagged bottle, but because we know what the shape of a beehive looks like, we are able to bring all the elements together and realize that the shape is meant to be a reproduction of a hive.
Some other notable details with the bottle are the way light refracts from its surface is able to give it loads of depth and interest. It also looks like black highlights were added to create an even greater sense of depth and contrast. The use of clear plastic was a marvelous idea because the honey is fully visible and the viewer is able to interpret what the product is easier and better connect with the product. A absolutely stunning design. Plus, it is so well designed, a label isn't even required because whoever sees this bottle will instantly know it is honey!
For the Ballard Bee Company's bottle, there isn't much going on. It has black text on a white background, how original. I don't hate the design, but I feel like with all the other exceptional idea other companies have, it kind of stand out as the boring brand. That may be appealing to some, but for me, seeing the label makes me feel like the honey is boring and not very special. She shape of the bottle is interesting, but nothing worth throwing a party over, like the BeeLoved bottle... The shape of the Ballard is reminiscent of medicine. There are few Gestalt principles being utilized, perhaps similarity because of the all black text and background. In general, a lackluster design for something that should be creative and eye catching.













 To please your eyes a bit more, some additional pictures of BeeLoved honey.

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