Diet Coke Packaging!
My ranking of Diet Cokes from best to worst:
1. Diet Coke Lime!!!!!!
2. McDonalds fountain
3. Publix fountain
4. Can
5. Glass bottle
6. Small bottle
7. 2-Liter bottle
If there are other Diet Cokes that I did not include, it means that I do not like them enough.
I drink a lot of Diet Coke. I feel like at this point, it is something that I am known for. Right now, I have four cases of Diet Coke sitting in my apartment. Some normal, some cherry, and some lime. In studio, I have a Diet Coke in the fridge waiting for me. I am always drinking Diet Coke.
I think that part of it is because my mom loves it so much. People say that I am my mom’s twin, but what they don’t know is that the similarities extend to taste too. As long as I can remember, my mom and dad have drank Diet Cokes for all occasions. While the drink is delicious, it truly just reminds me of the people that I love.
This semester ended with an independent project, about anything that we wanted. For my Research & Publish, I decided to go with the theme “Diet Coke as Book,” and I extended my independent project to be a packaging design that holds the books. Instead of a case of 6 crisp, cold DCs, I have a case of 6 books!
It started with a lot of prototyping. I built many little boxes to try and gather my bearings of how to create packaging and where all of the little details go. This was also partly brainstorming for Research & Publish, as I was deciding the trim size for my books. This point was where I realized that I wanted to have horizontal books that looked like Diet Coke cans!
This first prototype felt a little too small for me. I was hoping that I could fit the template for the box on an 11x17 paper, but I realized that it would need to be bigger. Plotter, I am coming for you! The size of the book was around 3.5 inches by 5.5 inches, so I decided to change it to 4.25 inches by 8.5 inches. I was much happier with this size!
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After this I did some loose brainstorming with what the box itself can look like. I was having a lot of trouble at this stage with the conceptualization and actual execution of the box.
I was really not a huge fan of the title yet. I didn’t feel convinced about “Work by Christina,” and I got repeated feedback that the “Work by” font wasn’t working. To be fair, it was the closest thing I could get to the “Diet” in Diet Coke. But seen and heard.
I went back to the drawing board, and used a paper template to figure out what needed to be where. This was much easier on my brain for deciding the orientation and placement of certain elements.
After making this template, I went back into Illustrator and made changes to my file. This felt more correct in terms of space and placement.
I got to making! I felt like a woodworker even though I was working with cardboard and paper. The process was so smooth and easy, I forgot to take pictures. I was so locked in on my flow and getting through to the final product.
It took me four tries to print my paper wrap correctly on the plotter. For some reason, it kept cutting off the bottom part of my template. After a few tries, it randomly began working, which was great for me!
After some trimming, glueing, and smoothing, we have a box! I included a test booklet of my AI & Me book for Research & Publish to ensure that the sizing was correct.
For my first packaging design, I feel incredibly content with how it turned out. If I had more time (and maybe I will this summer), I would like to try again and try to get the plotter paper to fold neater. It was giving me a really hard time.
If you’re still reading this, just know that I was drinking a Diet Coke while I wrote this :)
