In which Ellen is (potentially) too picky...

[ellenmillion]

So, tea.

The tea is awesome. The tins are fine and only a few got banged up. The labels... are okay. Except maybe on the Dead Dragon tea, where it gets tricky to read the instructions. 'Okay' is not really acceptable. 'Maybe not okay' is very disappointing. It wouldn't be that big of a deal if I were a merchant of tea, but this tea is not being purchased for the tea. Probably not, anyway - this is excellent tea, but people will be buying this for Ursula's hysterical labels. The fronts are fine... I pick them up and think critically 'I could do better,' but I tend to think that about damn near everything (with varying levels of accuracy). But the backs are no better than 'okay.'

'Okay' is not sufficient!

Hmm. Hmm. Hmm.

I will almost certainly have to re-do the back labels - at LEAST for DD - and pay the set up fees again. And 200 tins of this tea will need homes. I will take some photos and perhaps you can help me decide...

Comments

[dollraves.livejournal.com]

If you're not satisfied with it now, you never will be. Go with your gut instinct.

And, I'll happily buy a tin of tea and give you my opinion. :P

[sister-bluebird.livejournal.com]

The front labels look find, but the back ones do look like they need a bolder font (or a half point white outline around the existing one to fake bold).

[mon-enfant.livejournal.com]

I'm guessing it is because of the dark background? But yes, if you're not happy with it you should get it redone, otherwise it will just gnaw at you until you do it anyway!

[eaglemaina.livejournal.com]

I think the tins are realllllly neat and the front labels look great to me! Gotta agree about the back labels though. The font does seem blurry on the dark label especially. The font seems thin itself. Maybe a bolder font would fix it (even though I understand that you probably picked this font for a reason)

IMHO, I like the dark font on colored labels better than the dark one. It seems easier to read.

Do you think it would be possible for them to send you test labels next time to proof everything first?

[mizkit.livejournal.com]

If you're not happy with it, perhaps offer those ones at a discount price, or throw a bonus tea tin in with each order to get 'em out of there?

[ursulav.livejournal.com]

Front labels look good from here, but I can see the problem on the Dead Dragon back label--it's readable, but not very. Can you ask the company for a reprint?

[starrydance.livejournal.com]

That back is a bit hard to read, I agree. The fronts are cute! Id be another one of the happy ones to buy the oopps set! <3

Man I want that Jasmine one *bursts into giggles*

[ellenmillion.livejournal.com]

The company seems very cool, and they MAY waive my set up fees the second time, but reprinting these would involve shipping both ways (owie!). So I think these shall get marked down a touch to move them out:

http://www.ellenmilliongraphics.com/fantasyart/ursula.php

[celticelff.livejournal.com]

how much are you selling them for/what's available?

[puffbird.livejournal.com]

If I were a tea drinker (and had disposable cash right now), I would SO be ordering an entire set of these. Alas.

Good idea to put them on discount. I hope the second printing turns out better!

[ellenmillion.livejournal.com]

http://www.ellenmilliongraphics.com/fantasyart/ursula.php :)

[amanda-now.livejournal.com]

The tea is adorable, but I wanted to offer some constructive criticism from a graphic designer's view:

1.) I believe that font is Papyrus, and if not it looks way too similar to Papyrus. Papyrus is probably the most unprofessional and misused font in the history of font creation next to Sand, Comic Sans, and Jokerman. It prints terribly unless it is a very dark color on a very, very light background, the letterforms are awful, and it is without fail a red flag that an item was not designed professionally and as a result carries with it an unprofessional connotation. It makes terrible body copy because its not the easiest to read in paragraphs, and its even worse when its white on a dark background due to bleeding during printing. I have only once seen Papyrus used in an almost appropriate manner and even then it wasn't done well (it was a vegan restaurant and they changed it some). It doesn't help any design, ever, and the only time I can ever imagine it working well is as logotype for an Egyptian papermaking company or something.

2.) Dead Dragon Breakfast Blend is hard to read because you condensed it. I would probably make the type a little smaller rather than condensing it, or shorten the Breakfast Blend to Breakfast Tea or something.

3.) The illustrations are wonderful, and the logos are cute, but the red jagged lines are distracting me from both and as a result they segment rather than unify the design. I would make them the same color as the logo text, or a slightly lighter or darker version of their background color.

4.) Red Wombat Tea Company shouldn't be in the same font as the tea name. Its competing for too much attention. I would make them a complimentary sans serif or the same font as the rest of the type on the front. Also because of the weight the stark contrast of black and white it distracts me from the illustration. In fact, for consistency, you should use the same font for the body copy on the back.

5.) On Dead Dragon, on the back, you have a single word on the last line on a centered paragraph. Its a no-no to have just one word at the end of a paragraph like that. I would adjust the kerning and tracking subtley and add some forced line breaks to make the paragraphs more even and balanced.

I go into detail like this because this is one of the cutest things I've seen from you, aside fromt the soap, and I would hate for little errors like that to keep it from being really great. These are absolutely wonderful. I hope I haven't offended you with the critique!

[ellenmillion.livejournal.com]

I am ALL for critiques - the more detailed the better. Thank you SO much!! Since I'll have to re-set them anyway, I will definitely take this into account while I'm reworking it.

[aminamithri.livejournal.com]

Damn, here I was all set to buy tea, but 35$ shipping to Canada? D: No thanks.

I agree with amanda_now's crits, if it helps.

[ellenmillion.livejournal.com]

They do flatrate to Canada now and I can get that down to $25, but it's still pretty *ouch.* Sorry!

And that does help, thanks for the input!

[pixiewildflower.livejournal.com]

They look cool.

Feedback

[ysabetwordsmith.livejournal.com]

Kachina Chamomile and Shoggoth Jasmine look good to me, front and back, as best I can tell from the photo. Odd Fish Oolong looks okay on the front, maybe on the back but I'm not sure. Dead Dragon Breakfast Blend is hilarious on the front ... but I can't read the back even in the blown up version. I suggest switching to black on white or very pale grey. White ink on black background looks sharp, but it's really hard to make it work.

[toeknuckles.livejournal.com]

hmm....yeah, i see your point. they're not bad. they're ok. but 'ok?'....well, as you said. and like others said - if you're not happy now, you won't suddenly become happy later either. it'll just keep on bugging you.
how damned annoying for you though. 8-(

[amanda-now.livejournal.com]

They look great, I think they are just adorable. You compliment the artist's work so well! What a great concept!

[metasilk.livejournal.com]

I am astonished and delighted at how rapidly they sold for you!

[ellenmillion.livejournal.com]

Me too!

[laffingkat.livejournal.com]

It's a great idea, but yeah, those back labels need a little more work. If the next set is better, I'll probably order several sets for gifts.