Women's Underwear Packaging Adventure

So my zombie related baseball bat packaging was indeed a challenge for me but I still felt like I was more or less in my comfort zone. Not so with our next challenge... Assets womens' shape wear. This assignment came about because a former student of the Portfolio Center currently works for the company that created Assets. They were planning on changing the current packaging (pictured below) because it is totally lame. So this woman met with our class to explain what they were looking for and see what we could come up with. 

Boring.

One thing I love about our teacher for this class, Hank (who also happens to be the head of the school) is that he is constantly pounding into our heads that design is all about story. I always knew this pertained to theme parks but it never really occurred to me that it would apply to things such as packaging.  It really helped me get into the project. 

At first I tried to come up with characters and scenarios with which to help present the brand on the package.  One of the first ones involved a lady architect...

The girls in the class didn't like it because the idea of remodeling your body sounded more like plastic surgery and less like slimming underpants.  So my next idea involved the silhouette of a woman getting ready to go out on the town as seen through her apartment window. 

The idea was that when they are all on the shelves in the store, it looks like a whole building full of women getting ready to go out on the town. This would be accented by the appropriate display in the store.

Hank didn't like this idea because he said that everything I do is too dark and looks the same. Lame.

At long last I was inspired by the Breakfast at Tiffany's movie poster and the idea of the elegant every- woman. I tried to draw my own version of an Audrey Hepburn over and over and couldn't get the right feel.  At last I saw a book full of fifties and sixties animation that a teacher brought in and I came up with this woman...

The class loved her as well as the idea behind her so I moved on to color tests and the design of the actual package.

I still had to create at least two more women for the other packages. I already had my elegant 50's every-woman in formal attire so I decided to create women representing the 60's and the 70's.

The design of the package is supposed to be kinda like a woman's clutch bag. Each woman is shown wearing an example of an outfit that could be worn with that particular slimmer. 

The 70's MOD girl

The inside shows the actual shaper as well as the character displaying how it is worn.

The back displays the sizing chart as well as the character's rear end.

 The 60's Mary Tyler Moore type

The 50's Audrey Hepburn Type

These went over really well with my panels except a few commented that the women on the front don't  look like they are looking down... they look like they are possessed. Woops. They may have been right.  Better luck next time. 

Sorry about all the bad quality photos. I'll get professional photos taken eventually.

-Mike