For this task I was required to obtain a cleaning product from around my house. I choose Ajax Spary n’ Wipe for Glass. I then observed the label of this product and concluded some aspects of the labels design.
I believe the intended audience for this labels design is people between the ages of 18 and 35. I have caped the audience to 35 as I believe, for a cleaning product, customers look for different brands when first using these products until they find something they enjoy and tend to stick with that brand for future uses.
The purpose of this labels design is to catch the customers eye with a bright and bold logo, followed by large and read able short product descriptions. In this instance, “Spray n’ Wipe” is the shortened product description. These 2 pieces contrast each other by using bright red and bright blue, these are described as complementary colours and could be described as a specific design strategy to strick customers attention.
In this design, 2 different typefaces can be found, and a 3rd typeface can be found on the backside of the product.
Font 1 (labeled in Red), can be defined by the character “A”. The internal stroke of the “A” character begins at the lowest point compared to the usual central point and finishes slightly higher, completing an arched stroke. The “J” character can also be described as having a short arc of the stem, this is another defining feature of this typeface.
Font 2 (labeled in Green), is very similar to font 1 but can be described as a more basic typeface and contrasts font 1 by having a common “A” character.
Finally, Font 3 (labeled in Purple), is once again very similar to the last 2 fonts, but a visable variation this typeface holds is the stem and stroke lengths. This typeface’s stems and strokes are slightly longer then typeface 1 and 2 (font 1 and 2).
All 3 of these typefaces do not include Serif’s, Terminal’s, Ball Terminal’s, or other embellishments. These visual aspects not being included in any of the 3 typefaces is what makes each of them look greatly similar to the untrained eye.
The designer uses spaces and alignment to organise the text especially on the label on the backside of the product. On this backside label, an area dedicated to recycling information is placed inside a visual box. Inside this box several lines of text use different character spacings to fit the dimensions of the box. These different spacing provide visual aspects to differentiate sentences as well as being used to properly fill the box for visual appeal. Alignment differences can also be seen where various sections of text are center alined, for more imported portions of text, and others left or right aligned for less important information.
Some effects that were used to set the text include Bolding, Scale and Size, Colouring, and Italic.
Some other notable elements of this labels design include a graphic of a window, this illudes to the uses of this product. Graphics of check marks, these imply that this product CAN do certain things. Graphics of lens flares at a few corners of the label to better help fill the label. A background colouring that uses gradient from white in the center to blue at the outer edges of the label. And finally, the “AJAX” is also considered the products creators logo. This logo also includes the yellow swish behind the characters.
In my opinion, this label is of high quality and does catch my eye which I believe is its intended purpose. I would not consider it aethetically pleasing, but I would consider it a funtional design.
The use of type in this design does not contribute aesthetically pleasing aspects but does contribute efficiency and functionality by the use of the types space, alignment, and effects.
