Van Nguyen

Artist Statement

For the senior project, I redesigned and rebranded the bubble gum cartons from the eighties that were Produced by Topps. In the original products, there were four classic juice flavors: orange juice, grape juice, apple juice, and pink lemonade. What got my attention to redesign these funky colored bubble gum packaging was the marketing gimmick behind this juice bubble gum cartons. We all could say that kids might be buying these not because they were the best gum available, but because the packaging was fun, creative and unique in juice box form. It is a shame that Topps Bubble Gum Juice Cartons have been lost to time because it was discontinued. I want to bring these cartons filled with juicy bubble gum to the 21st century, where they can shine again with the updated design elements that fit the current period. 

So, my approach to the project is to give this bubble gum product a brand name and redesign the whole packaging with more attractive typography and visual design elements. My approach is to also recreate the four original flavors while adding 26 new flavors to the set to create an even number of 30 available flavors. Since these are not only great to “chug n chew”, but they are also perfect for collectors of pop culture items and other collecting purposes. Therefore, I decided to create 30 weird and funky flavors. With the 30 flavors, I divided them into 3 different groups/families. The juice, the veggie, and the unlimited edition. 

To distinguish each of the groups besides using vector illustration art, I use a different color scheme to help with the differentiation. The juice flavors are in the complementary color scheme since this combination will provide high contrast and high impact color to the fruit flavors. The veggie flavors are in the analogous color scheme since analogous color schemes are a common sight in nature. Therefore, occurring often in plants so analogous color scheme fits well with the veggie edition. Lastly, the limited-edition is in the monochromatic color scheme and since mono means one and limited edition often only happen one time. Therefore, the monochromatic color scheme fits well with the concept of making something special and rare with the limited-edition flavors. Together this is how I apply my project to the theme, critical mass, which is to know more than enough amount of information required to start the project and to do more than enough amount of research required to build the project.