Packaging Design of Commercial Illustration —— The Style of Modern Commercial Illustration

How to express the application of illustration in packaging design? Illustration, also known as illustration, as an important visual communication form of modern design, has been widely used in many fields of modern design and has become one of the important manifestations of packaging and product design. With its unique artistic charm and rich expressive language, illustration has been paid more and more attention by designers. At the same time, it has brought a refreshing experience to the packaging market and is deeply loved by the public because of its unique stylized performance.

There are various forms of illustration, and different brushes and designers have completely different styles. It is precisely because of the variability of its style that we can create packaging works with strong visual appeal on the basis of analyzing the attributes and characteristics of the goods themselves and drawing on the creative style of illustrations, as shown in the following figure. Illustration can express a completely different feeling from photography and create dazzling forms. The combination of illustration and packaging design gives designers great creative freedom, and designers can boldly try various styles of design: exaggerated painting style can highlight the characteristics of packaging, increase the interest of packaging, and is suitable for the packaging of creative products, as shown in the following figure 2. 1; Black-and-white sketch lines reflect the simplicity and naturalness of packaging, giving people a quiet and cordial feeling, which is applied to the packaging of humanistic goods, as shown in Figure 2.2; Illustrations of small fresh wind and healing wind give people a pleasing and warm feeling, which are deeply loved by women and are mostly used for packaging cosmetics, paper towels and other commodities, as shown in Figure 2.3 below. Illustrations with ethnic flavor, influenced by regions and customs, are often used in the packaging of tea and other specialty products, as shown in the following figure.

Illustration itself has rich artistic modeling language, and many styles such as aestheticism, realism and retro can be integrated into the packaging design of clothing, cosmetics and food, which not only meets the different emotional needs of different consumers, but also obtains good design and communication effects. Illustration packaging design gives people reverie through beautiful modeling, and guides consumers' associative feelings to convey information. The application of illustration in packaging endows packaging with new decorative forms and visual communication concepts, brings brand-new packaging means and visual effects to packaging design, and adds artistic charm and cultural connotation.

The concept of commercial illustration. Features. Apply. Use. The qualities that commercial illustrators should possess. Concept of commercial illustration: As its name implies, commercial illustration is an illustration with commercial value, which does not belong to the category of pure art. Commercial illustration can be defined as the commercial sale of digital works drawn by enterprises or products. The author gives up the ownership of the works and only reserves the right to sign. Illustration is a form of commercial illustration, and there are other examples, such as advertising illustration, cartoon mascot design, publication illustration and animated video game scenes. Characteristics of commercial illustration: Illustration is an image expressed by patterns. Based on the principle of unity of aesthetics and practicality, the lines and shapes are as clear and lively as possible, and the production is convenient. Illustration is a universal language in the world, and its design is usually divided into characters, animals and commodity images in commercial applications. Commercial illustration application: 1. Application of product structure decomposition diagram, biological structure diagram and architectural effect diagram II. Applied words and illustrations in layout design. Application in poster design. The application of realistic expression in packaging design The role of cartoon expression in decorative color 5. The application of novel story illustrations in book design. Application in computer games. Application in online media. Web design software interface design mobile phone interface design commercial illustration uses: In the field of modern design, commercial illustration can be said to be the most expressive, and it is closely related to painting art. Many expression techniques of commercial illustration are based on the expression techniques of painting art. The marriage of commercial illustration and digital technology makes the former make great progress in exploring the diversity of expression techniques or the depth and breadth of design theme expression, showing more unique artistic charm and thus more expressive. Commercial illustration is a promising industry, which is widely used in advertising, commodity packaging, newspapers, book binding, environmental art space, computer network and other fields. Various media have great demand for illustrations. However, the service life of commercial illustrations is short. When a commodity or enterprise is updated, this subsidiary work will be declared extinct or terminated. From the scientific definition, the ending of commercial illustration seems a bit tragic, but on the other hand, the brilliance of commercial illustration in a short time is incomparable to artistic painting. Because commercial illustrations spread through advertising channels and have a wide coverage, the social attention rate is many times higher than that of artistic painting. For example, this digital illustration of yogurt packaging (pictured) attracted consumers to buy more than 1 billion in two years of market sales because of its exquisite picture. Imagine that this number will increase before the next product replaces it. How many art paintings can hundreds of millions of people see in two years? Such brilliance is unparalleled! The qualities that a commercial illustrator should have: Illustrators often draw illustrations for graphic designers or directly provide pictures for magazines, newspapers and other media. They are generally professional illustrators or freelance artists, and have their own themes and painting styles like photographers. Their professional sensitivity and desire for new forms and tools have led many of them to use cg animation design tools to create illustrations. The software function of Cg animation makes their creative talent play a greater role. Whether it is simple or complex, whether it is traditional media effects, such as oil painting, watercolor, printmaking style or the endless new changes and new interests of digital graphics, it can be completed more conveniently and quickly. Digital photography is the latest development of photography. Photographers shoot objects with digital cameras or scan traditional positive films into computers through scanners, then adjust, combine and create new visual images on computer screens, and finally output positive films or negative films through film recorders. This new photography technology has completely changed the creative concept of photographic optical imaging, with digital graphics processing as the core, also known as' darkroom photography'. It blurs the boundaries between photographers, illustrators and graphic designers. Nowadays, as long as they are talented, they can complete all three tasks on the same computer. The style of modern commercial illustration when most people's understanding of illustration is still limited to low-end cultural products such as picture books, comics and children's picture books, illustration has penetrated into all aspects of people's lives with lightning speed, from anime blockbusters that people talk about to the cover design of records at hand, and even random product logo in supermarkets. Illustrations and their derivatives are everywhere. People can experience the meaning of "illustration" every day without looking up the dictionary. We still need to clarify the concept of commercial illustration: "Commercial illustration is a commercial transaction in which the author gives up the ownership of the work and only retains the right to sign when drawing illustrations for enterprises or products and getting relevant remuneration." In fact, the power of illustrations in modern life comes from "art" and "business". As a form of advertising communication, commercial illustrations are an important part of modern commercial activities. Most commercial illustrations are commissioned and have a clear creative purpose; At the same time, with the development of printing technology, it has been copied in large quantities; Commercial illustration is inseparable from mass media, and it is destined to have a strong brand of the times and cultural characteristics. The popular culture of commercial illustration The prosperity of commercial illustration can be traced back to World War II, when European countries stopped the development of design industry due to the extreme lack of materials. At this time, American commercial design flourished. From the beginning, it showed a different starting point from European design-not only for the rich, but based on ordinary people and mass consumption. Noble and exquisite is no longer important, but changeable styles, exaggerated decorative techniques and low prices are what people pursue. Correspondingly, the publishing industry is booming. Readers' Digest, Life, Time Weekly and other publications are popular all over the world, with a circulation of more than one million copies. These magazines are printed more and more beautifully, and a large number of advertisements are instilled in consumers, which stimulates their desire for consumption and objectively stimulates the demand for commercial illustrations. In addition, the natural readability of graphic language makes the application of commercial illustration more and more extensive. The application of commercial illustration has also expanded from book inserts to various fashion magazines, outdoor advertisements, packaging design, film and television advertisements and so on. Popular culture is the main field of commercial illustration today. In the fifties and sixties, teenagers became the main consumers of popular culture, and in the seventies, they became the main force to promote social change in the West. This generation of young people grew up in an affluent era and received a good education. Their enthusiasm for new things and indifference to traditional values are completely different from their parents. They are more keen on rock music, pop art and hippie culture. During this period, commercial illustration has also been influenced by various popular cultures, forming a distinct style trend. At that time, many unconventional and distinctive things were quickly imitated, forming new consumption patterns, forms and fashions. Images such as "bull's-eye" and "national flag" created by American pop artist John often appear repeatedly in different commercial illustrations and become visual symbols representing pop style. In the hippie cultural movement, Wilson's font poster works with "Art Nouveau" style are difficult to identify because of excessive font deformation. However, because it reflects the anti-culture of hippie culture, it gives people a grotesque and wild feeling in form, which meets the emotional requirements of hippie youth, so it is also regarded as a symbol with strong symbolism. It is by absorbing and using different symbols of popular culture that commercial illustration has become a means for young people to express their personal views and a powerful weapon to distinguish different ideologies. Another force of popular culture comes from Japanese cartoon illustrations, which gradually matured after the 1980s and became popular among Asian teenagers. The rise of video games, animation and toy industries driven by animation illustrations has formed a cultural trend that affects our lives. The artistic form of commercial illustration The forms of modern commercial illustration are mainly classified through the media. Generally, it can be divided into three categories: first, print media, second, film and television media, and third, online media. Illustrations in print media are mainly divided into periodicals, newspapers, posters, product packaging and corporate image publicity materials. This kind of commercial illustration has a large circulation, wide circulation and short production cycle, which can involve all aspects of people's lives and is also the most common user. Illustrations in the form of film and television media are mainly distributed in TV and movies. The difference between them and film and television advertisements lies in the relative stability and stillness of the pictures. This form of illustration spreads quickly and contains a lot of information. As a film and television illustration, it is also a powerful media for manufacturers and enterprises to strengthen commodity promotion. Illustration in the form of network communication is a new illustration form developed with the development of computer network. Its main carrier is computer network, which is characterized by unique form, strong interaction and large spatial expression. As a new illustration form, illustration also has its limitations, that is, the audience level is uneven, but with the development of the times, this limitation will gradually disappear. Through the analysis of these three forms, we can see that commercial illustration, as a part of visual communication, must have its space, which is endowed by society, commerce and culture. From the very beginning, it is no longer a simple art form to spread specific information locally, but has developed into a visual communication element to spread information, spread influence and serve the society in time, space and audience. The expression techniques of commercial illustrations should pay attention to the popularity and practicality of illustrations, so most commercial illustrations use expression techniques to express objective things, which are mainly divided into three forms: realism, abstraction and mixing. The economic industry of commercial illustration For economic problems, we must first understand how illustration products are circulated. In fact, like any modern product, it needs to go through three steps in the process of entering the market: production-sales-consumption. 1. As a designer in the digital age, an illustrator must master several basic drawing tools and use them skillfully, such as Photoshop, Illustrator and flash. Because most illustrations are delivered in the form of electronic documents. At the same time, the work style of illustrators is more free and diversified. Designers can choose to work in design companies, set up their own studios, or work part-time. Due to the highly developed software, hardware and communication means, more and more illustrators tend to intervene in the market in a personal way. Some star illustrators are mostly freelancers. Good reputation and excellent talents make it easier for them to get business. In the Internet age, making a personal online portfolio website is a good way to obtain customer resources. Its advantage is that customers can see your website at any time and understand your work style, which provides many potential customers for designers. 2. Sellers (sales channels) are in the traditional art sales channels. Art dealers have always played an important role, looking for painters' works with critical eyes and looking for buyers to profit from them. Although illustrators have direct business contact with customers, it still takes a lot of time to find customers. Therefore, many people choose professional agencies to represent their works and contact related businesses and exhibitions. These companies actually play the role of art dealers. 3. People who consume illustrations will have the difference between enthusiastic consumers and accidental consumers among the people who consume illustrations. Different people like the same illustration product to different degrees. For example, an old cartoon during the Cultural Revolution. Older people will show a strong love for it, while young people have no interest, mainly because young people have no relevant cultural experience in this old cartoon. This cultural experience makes people interested in the symbolic meaning of illustration works, thus producing enthusiastic consumers. Moreover, the more consumers like this kind of products, the more concerned they are, and the more relevant experience and knowledge they have accumulated. Compared with those leisure consumers, they have different views on the works. Commercial illustration is different from general commodities, and it is a cultural industry. Its operation is different from the rules of other industries. Kevin Weiss, an American economist, put forward the vertical and horizontal differences of cultural products in Economics of Creative Industries. He pointed out that "cultural products are also different in characteristics, tone and style, which are independent of the buyer's evaluation of product quality." Economically, they have horizontal differences. When horizontally different products are sold at the same price, people's preferences are different. Creative products are usually a mixture of vertical and horizontal differences. "It is this characteristic of cultural products that constitutes its types and consumers benefit from it. Commercial illustration design often shows the characteristics of cooperation between different cultural industries, and popular comic works are not only distributed as printed publications in large quantities. It is also likely to be adapted into cartoons, even movies and TV series. This phenomenon has evolved into a trend. Other related industries caused or spawned by illustration design can be called "added value", and the operation of added value of this cultural product should also be regarded as part of the long-term profit of illustration. In this regard, Disney's experience is worth learning. The image of Mickey Mouse has moved from comic books to the screen. And become the image representative of magazines, clothing, websites and other cultural products, and become the image representative of today's multi-billion-dollar entertainment empire. However, it is a new problem for the commercial illustration industry that how to sign a contract to accurately define illustration and its added value profit sharing in other industries. Although some people still disdain the combination of art and commerce, it is undeniable that their combination has yielded fruitful results, and this trend is irreversible. Just like the bright and short appearance of commercial illustrations, the attitude of this era is exciting and thought-provoking.