Just like the cuckoo clock, value is determined by quality craftsmanship and what’s on the inside. With this product, the once shy individual will drink some liquid courage and can finally express the quality of their character, so the drink is the only thing still bottled up.
Each lemonade flavor has a cuckoo clock monster character to represent it. The illustrations are unique to show the personality of the flavors through each respective fruit or plant and distinctive shape language to match. The colors are vivid to relate to the word cuckoo and the illustrations are all asymmetrical to correlate with the handcrafted nature of traditional black forest cuckoo clocks.
The materials used were basswood plywood to build the clock, acrylic paint, and string. On the display, the cans are suspended to emulate the weights of cuckoo clocks. The plywood panels were laser cut patterns so the viewer can see the quality on the inside.
Everything was hand painted on the point of purchase display to represent the handiwork of clock makers. The clock itself is functional, adding additional use for the display after the drinks are gone.
The project goal was to design four cans and a point-of-purchase display to catch the attention of a target audience of young adults. I started with research to better understand how current products achieve this. I wrote what I liked about each design I found and learned how they worked well for each market.
Because my friends and I fit the target audience we took a trip to the local liqueur store and found what caught our attention. The most interesting designs to us had bright colors and a character on them as a focal point. We were more likely to buy cans than bottles as well. The point-of-purchase displays that were the most out of the box tended to be the first thing we noticed and the most likely drinks to buy.
I made three concepts for critique and ended up choosing the Cuckoo Clock Monster based on their feedback.
The concept I chose was already quite visual, but it helped to make a mind map for a more concrete direction.
I did more research as I thought of names for the product. After some critique, I went with Another Cuckoo, because it best matched the brand and vibe I was going with.
I made 60 logos based on some typefaces I found interesting and started making a color palette. After critique, I went with a version of number 26.
I made a collection of fun and wild characters as well as exciting uses of type for inspiration.
I made illustrations based on my research that explored a few different directions. The biggest feedback I got from the critique was that having the logo in the character's mouth was the most eye-catching and included more elements related to the clock.
The monsters I made also were shaped similar to whatever the blend was in the hard lemonade such as lemons, oranges, lavender, and raspberry. I started exploring the layout of the requirements for an alcoholic can such as the name of the drink, barcode, alcohol content, and government warning.
As I was finishing up with the can designs, I made sketches for the point-of-purchase display. I liked the idea of having a cuckoo clock character to hold the cuckoo bird cans. My main piece of feedback was to go bigger than a case and have it freestanding.
I made an illustrator file for the laser cutter. I did a slight engraving to help guide me in hand-painting the typography. Originally my design was going to include eyebrows, but they didn't show up well with the other detail, so I repurposed the pieces for the back of the display.
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