S | 11 | Brand Package | Promotional Spread + Product Mockup
Today you’ll finish and submit both pieces of your Unit 11 brand: a promotional piece and a packaging mockup, built on the same grid and sharing the same brand identity. This is a single focused meeting. Plan your time.
Choose
Look back at your 11.3 brand-concept sketches. Commit to one logo mark, one product label direction, and one dieline shape. You’re building the real thing today, not still exploring options.
Set Up Your Document
Add a second artboard alongside your first. Artboard 1 is your promotional piece (a flyer or poster), artboard 2 is your packaging mockup/dieline. Set up the same grid and margins on both, per 11.2.
Build (~40 min)
- Promotional piece (artboard 1): apply your brand’s logo, color palette, and a tagline, with a clear hierarchy (headline, supporting text, a call to action).
- Packaging mockup (artboard 2): build your dieline shape, then place your product label and logo onto it, showing where each panel folds or wraps.
- Keep your brand identity, the same logo, the same colors, the same type, consistent across both artboards. That consistency IS the assignment.
Peer Review | Plus/Delta (~10 min)
1. Prepare
- The Draft: Ensure your work is exported or ready to view. It doesn’t have to be perfect. Placeholders for missing pieces are okay!
- The Plus/Delta Chart: Create a simple T-chart on a piece of paper or a digital document:
- Plus (+): What is working well? (Strengths, clear storytelling, strong technique).
- Delta (Δ): What should be changed or improved? (The Greek symbol for “change”).
2. The Review Process
- Silent First Pass: Experience the work all the way through once without speaking. This allows the reviewer to experience the “flow” of the piece.
- Second Pass: Go through it again, but this time, the reviewer should jot down specific notes in the Plus and Delta columns.
- The Golden Rule: Feedback should be Specific, Objective, and Kind.
- Bad: “I didn’t like the ending.”
- Good: “The ending felt abrupt because the music cut off before the reporter finished speaking.”
3. Giving Feedback (The Reviewer)
- Identify the “Pluses”: Start with what is successful.
- Suggest the “Deltas”: Instead of just pointing out a mistake, offer a solution.
- Example: “The transition at 0:45 is a bit slow; maybe try a simple cut instead of a dissolve.”
4. Receiving Feedback (The Creator)
- Listen Without Defending: It’s tempting to explain why you made a choice, but for now, just listen and take notes. If a peer is confused, a general audience likely will be too.
- Ask Clarifying Questions: If a note is vague, ask for the exact timestamp or location: “Can you show me exactly where the audio got too loud?”
5. The Revision Plan
After the session, look at your Delta column and prioritize your edits:
- Level 1 (Critical): Technical errors (missing audio, black frames, typos).
- Level 2 (Message): Pacing issues or confusing sequences.
- Level 3 (Polishing): Color tweaks, fancy transitions, or extra effects.
Give your partner one specific Plus and one specific Delta, naming an exact element (not “I like the colors”. Instead, “the tagline is the strongest part because it’s the biggest thing on the page after the logo”). Spend the last few minutes of Build time on your partner’s Delta if you can.
How did your peer’s Delta feedback change (or confirm) a choice you’d already made?
Save, Export & Submit (~8 min)
Organize (File Management)
- Ensure that Google Drive for Desktop is syncing to your computer.
- Create a Project Directory (Folder) in your Google Drive
Google Drive/My Drive/Digital Design/YYYY-MM PROJECT NAME - Try to keep all of your project files for this project together, so your work is not interrupted due to technical issues.
Storing all your files in the /Downloads folder in your computer is a BAD idea. If any of these files are lost/deleted you will have to reconnect them. Put them in your project folder directly. This will also be helpful in the event of any computer issues.
- In your project directory, maintain subdirectories for every category of resource you will be using.
| YYYY-MM Project Name |
| 📁 Graphics |
| 📁 Sketches |
| 📁 Photos |
| 📁 Notes |
- It’s also good to include directories for related files
| 📁 Project Files |
| 📁 Exports |
- Save your file as
LastName_FirstName_S11_BrandPackage.ai. - Export both artboards as separate PNG files for your portfolio. With Use Artboards checked, Illustrator exports one PNG per artboard automatically:
When you're finished, export your design as a PNG image for your portfolio.
1Open the File menu. Choose Export, then Export As…
2Choose PNG as the file format. Check the box for Use Artboards.
This crops your export to the size of your artboard (the page). Always check this box.
3Set your export options, then click OK.
- Write a one-paragraph brand rationale: what’s the brand, who’s it for, and why did you make the design choices you made?
Publish your work to your Google Sites Portfolio
- Create a new page on your Google Sites Portfolio to catalog your work.
- Your work should be exported in a web-safe format in a manner that allows for the work to be embedded without requiring Google Drive permissions
- Your work should be accompanied by a detailed project description
- Submit the published portfolio page to your LMS (Schoology)
🗂 Organize: Put a one-paragraph brand rationale and your Plus/Delta peer review notes in your binder. Save your exported promotional piece in the Exports folder of your Digital Design project folder on Google Drive. Save your exported packaging mockup in the Exports folder of your Digital Design project folder on Google Drive.