ad crit-3

For my third ad crit, I decided to find something 'whimsical' to study. I found in my pantry, this box of tea, "Tension Tamer" herbal tea by Celestial seasonings.

At first glance, my eye is drawn to the bright green dragon in the lower right quadrant, however taming tensions is not the thought that leaps to mind when I see him. Nonetheless, a beautiful maiden with long, flowing hair is the second image that stands out for me. In the distant background, there lies a castle upon a high mountain top.

I'm drawn to the image, or the product because of the bright palette and detailed illustrations used on the front. Although the idea of a dragon seems a bit contradictory with the title of the product, it's still quite interesting, like I want to study the image for more information, or more to the story. While the colors used are bright in the lower right section and across the top of the box, the area where the castle is depicted seems somewhat pale in comparison, literally. The blue in the sky fades to an extremely pale intensity, stark white clouds are added, and to top it off, the mountains are the faintest grey.

As far as the overall design of the piece, it works pretty well, (in my opinion). The very pale yellow banner waves slightly across the top, not dead center, while the Celestial Seasonings logo is placed off-center as well. I don't know that I'm crazy about the warm brown used in the logo on the left, but I suppose something visually heavy was needed to balance out the weighty detail of the dragon and the maiden. The deep periwinkle blue at the top, with the lighter shade of design are a nice compliment with the rest of the color palette, however I would have liked to see the pale yellow "tension tamer" type in a style a little more soft- maybe a thinner script.

All criticism aside, the box did it's job-the tea is wonderful!