Project Goal
A project in Design Fundamentals tasked us to create an eco-friendly product or service. Anything was allowed as long as we could produce a logo, a product page, and an advertisement flier. As a freshman, I wanted to keep my creation simple, so I searched my desk for something I could transform. Lo and behold, I found my trusty old multicolor pen. I though, what if there was such a pen for highlighters? People love to color code, after all. And so, the Master Lighter was ideated.
Project Experience
My brainstorming was frankly, very unorganized. If I ran into a roadblock thinking of one thing, I’d instantly jump to another topic. I shifted from potential catchphrases, to promising names, to imagining what the highlighter would look like, to how it’d be eco-friendly. It all worked out in the end, as I could sort through my thoughts to create the ultimate creation. The appearance was a mixture between my multicolor pen and the nib of a highlighter. I even got carried away with detailing some of the mechanisms of the highlighter itself. The Master Lighter would fulfill its eco-friendly niche by being refillable and made of recyclable materials.
After completing the general ideation, I wanted to develop a logo that showed off the four unique colors to highlight that it was the master highlighter. I went with the rhombus-esque design because all four colors were highlighting it at once. For the advertisement flier, I zoomed into the tip of the highlighter to emphasize the multiple colors in one pen. I also tacked on the eco-friendly aspect by stating it was refillable in the corner.
A year later, I returned to redesign the advertisement flier to make it more appealing. I used my stash of old highlighters (to my advantage) as background props to highlight the Master Lighter. I really wanted to emphasize how compact and handy it was with the new flier. Unfortunately, the eco-friendly aspect was swept a bit to the wayside in this new design.
These are notes on potential catchphrases, names, designs. I also brainstormed
ways for it to be eco-friendly.
These are rough sketches of potential ad and logo designs.
Initial Final Products.
New advertising flier and mockup.
Project Outcome
Although it may not have been the most groundbreaking in the eco-friendly products category, the Master Lighter was a massive success for my design growth. Being able to remake the advertisement flier felt like a significant step artistically and graphically. It was also a helpful starting experience in creating original objects based on existing products.