As a design practitioner, daily mundane things and the surroundings are my main sources of inspiration. Because of that, since I am a food lover at heart, for my very first sticker project, I chose comfort food as the main theme to develop. As for the main character, a cute little panda with a bouncy belly is what reminds me of the word "comfort". So let me present to you, my version of Panda Express.
Stage 1: Sketching and Brainstorming idea
Stage 2: Into Adobe Illustrator
When tracing the sketches with AI, the stickers definitely look more defined but still lack some detail and texture. Additionally, I am also looking for a design that I can play more with, and the winner is the Panda and his Burger Bed. This is because I feel like I can play around more with the texture of the Burger's content and also the placement of the Type.
Stage 3: Choosing color Palettes and Type face
My intentions in choosing these color palettes are to make the sticker look cartoonish and as far from reality as possible to provoke a sense of playfulness. In the end, version 2 is my final decision since these are primary colors, I believe that they can create a sense of balance, and harmony, allowing different parts of the burger to pop but do not outweigh the others.
I chose Modak as the typeface due to its playful and cartoonish energy it radiate which matches the tone I set for this sticker project.
Stage 4: Applying color
These are the best 3 out of a trillion alterations I have made to the Panda-Burger sticker but still, they are not quite good or astonishing. The panda looks uncomfortable, the burger's parts look detached from one another, the burger doesn't feel burger enough even though it is a cartoon version, and finally, the type's readability is low and their placement is odd. Overall, more alterations need to be done until I am sick of burgers and the design is much better.
Stage 6: Finalizing the Design
I am probably tired of burgers by now but I am really proud of the final result. The panda looks more comfortable. With the addition of the tomato and the texture of the cheese, the burger looks more wholesome with the type stacked on top of one another, and other parts.
Overall, everything can always be better as long as I keep looking for things to improve.
