Food Truck

ASSIGNMENT

Students will create a comprehensive visual identity for a fictional food truck. Through 11 structured steps, they will design the truck's branding elements, including a logotype, combination mark, and truck graphics, culminating in a professional-quality presentation of their concept.

Learning Objectives

• Students will analyze a photograph and break it down into basic shapes for vectorization.

• Students will use the Pen Tool and Shape Builder Tool in Adobe Illustrator to create a vector portrait.

• Students will apply knowledge of color theory to create harmonious and visually appealing palettes.

• Students will demonstrate the ability to organize their artwork using layers.

• Students will evaluate their work and peers’ work, providing constructive feedback.

Big Ideas

• • • Design can communicate a brand's identity and appeal to specific audiences.

    • Iterative design processes lead to more refined and effective visual communication.

    • Branding integrates visual elements to tell a cohesive story about a product or service.

Essential Questions

• How can visual design influence the success of a business or brand?

• What elements contribute to creating a cohesive and appealing brand identity?

• How does research and iteration improve design outcomes?

• How can the principles of design and color theory be applied to brand development?

Vocabulary

• Branding: The process of creating a unique identity for a product, service, or business through visual and conceptual elements.

• Mood Board: A collage of images, colors, textures, and text that visually represents the desired style and tone of a project.

• Logotype: A text-based logo design that represents a brand’s name in a stylized manner.

• Combination Mark: A logo that combines both text and a graphic/icon to create a cohesive brand mark.

• Grayscale: A color scheme using varying shades of gray to represent light and dark without color.

• Iteration: The process of refining and improving a design through multiple versions or drafts.

• Hierarchy: The arrangement of visual elements in order of importance to guide the viewer’s attention.

• Color Theory: The study of how colors interact and the effects they have on design and communication.

• Target Audience: The specific group of people a product, service, or design is intended to reach.

• Stylized Text Logo: a logo design where the company name or text is presented in a unique and distinctive font, color scheme, or arrangement, essentially meaning the letters are not just plain text but are creatively designed to convey a specific brand identity or aesthetic, often with special flourishes, curves, or other visual elements added to the lettering itself. 

• Adobe Illustrator: A vector-based graphic design software used for creating logos, illustrations, and other digital artwork.

Lesson Outline

11-Step Food Truck Design Process

Step 1: Spinner - Due Feb 8

Students spin a digital or physical "wheel" to determine their food truck’s cuisine, theme and location (e.g., tacos, sushi, desserts, BBQ). Spin each wheel 3 times and record the spin each time for each catagory. If the spin is a duplicate you may spin again. From the 3 options in each category select 1, Cuisine, 1 Location, and 1 Famous Artist Style

• Cuisine

• Location

• Famous Artist

Example

Step 2: Research - Due Feb 8  (HW  Submitted at the beginning of class)
Students research the chosen cuisine/theme and its target audience.

• Answer the questions on a google doc first and then copy the answers to the form so  you don't loose your information if your computer crashes and have a copy for your presentation

• Fill out the FORM

• Form Responses

Step 3: Menu - Due Feb 8  (HW  Submitted at the beginning of class)
Create a menu for your food truck. Remember, you are trying to cater to people who will probably be holding the food in their hands with not many places to sit and have a full meal. Think about making bite size portions, food on a stick, or any other clever things you can come up with!

• Requirements:

  1. Must have 3 Main dishes WITH descriptions *** If you get a bakery you can do 6 desserts if you would like

     1. One dish MUST incorporate local ideas in some way. 

     2. Example: if your location is Sydney, consider putting Vegemite on something

     3. One dish MUST be a vegetarian option

  2. Must have 3 Side dishes

  3. Must have 3 drink options

  4. 1 dessert option

  5. Prices for everything (in the currency of the location; ex. Pounds, euros, peso…)

Create this menu as a google doc, TEXT only

EXAMPLE

Step 4: Mood Board Feb 13
Students create a digital mood board that captures the essence of their food truck theme.

Using illustrator or Photoshop , Prepare a mood/brand board. This mood board should include images, colors, textures, and personalities (NO WORDS) you want your Food Truck to be associated with. This will provide inspiration and focus. Prepare to present this to the class. JPEG 11 x 17

TO DOWNLOAD THE TEMPLATE

• Click on the file above

• click on the download symbol in the right corner

• the file will download to the downloads folder

• *Minimum of 8 images

• *To save as a PDF from Illustrator

• File > Save As > To your computer >Name the file (LastName_FirstName_Moodboard-Typefaces) > Format (Dropdown menu) Adobe PDF (pdf) > Save (Make sure you knowwhere you are saving to

*Moodboard and Logotype are saved in the same document

Example

Step 5: Black-and-White Logotype Feb 13
Students find 30 black-and-white logotypes.

A typeface is a particular set of glyphs or sorts (an alphabet and its corresponding accessories such as numerals and punctuation) that share a common design. For example, Helvetica is a well known typeface. A font is a particular set of glyphs within a typeface. So, 12 point Helvetica is a font, and 10 point Helvetica is a separate font. The same goes for different weights – a 14 point Helvetica Bold is a different font than a 14 pt Helvetica Light. They are different fonts, but the same typeface.

• Prepare 30 logotype (Typeface) treatments for the company

  1. www.dafont.com

• 3 vertical pages, 8.5 x 11, each with 10 typefaces per page.

• Numbered solutions 1 - 30

EXAMPLE

TO DOWNLOAD THE TEMPLATE

• Click on the file above

• click on the download symbol in the right corner

• the file will download to the downloads folder

• KEEP A LIST OF YOUR TYPEFACES IN YOUR NOTEBOOK OR A GOOGLE DOC THAT YOU HAVE ACCESS TO

EXAMPLE:

1. Helvetica

2. Arial

3. Arial

4. Comic Sans

5. Etc...

• OUTLINE YOUR TYPEFACES BEFORE SUBMITTING AS AN .AI DOCUMENT

  1. Once completed save your document as Last_First_logotype.ai

  2. Select all your typefaces (Commad A)

  3. Got to the menu select

  4. Type > Create outlines

• *To save as a PDF from Illustrator

• File > Save As > To your computer >Name the file (LastName_FirstName_Moodboard-Typefaces) > Format (Dropdown menu) Adobe PDF (pdf) > Save (Make sure you know where you are saving to

*Moodboard and Logotype are saved in the same document

Step 6: Logo Sketches Feb 19
Students create 15 unique logo symbol only sketches.

• Create a logo for your company.  Sketch 15 grayscale thumbnail logos in your sketchbook and take a photo of it and upload it to Google forms.

  1. Symbols only

  2. **Number Each Symbol 1-15

  3. No text unless its a stylized text logo like Google, FedEx, Coca-Cola, Barbie

  4. 15 Effective Tips To Come Up With A Logo That Fits Your Brand

  5. Logo Characteristics 

• Make sure the photo is clear, has good lighting, and does not have shadows of your phone or hands

• EXAMPLE 

Step 7: Grayscale Logos in Adobe Illustrator March 5 (PRINTED BY THE END OF CLASS)
Students digitize their sketches into 5 grayscale logos using Adobe Illustrator.

• Use your sketches and recreate  your top 5 symbols ONLY (UNLESS ITS STYLIZED TEXT) using Adobe Illustrator

• Maximum of 3 colors

  1. Black and white are considered colors

  2. Use shades of gray to represent your colors 

• 5 horizontal pages, 11 x 17, each with 3 solutions.

• ***USE TEMPLATE PROVIDED

• Click on the file above

• click on the download symbol in the right corner

• The file will download to the downloads folder

• ***SAVE AS OUTLINED ILLUSTRATOR DOCUMENT

• EXAMPLE

• Create a Vector Logo from a Rough Sketch

Step 8 a/b: Combination Marks March 19 (PRINTED BY THE END OF CLASS)
Students integrate text and graphic elements to create combination marks.

Part A

1. Submit 3 combination marks @ 2 different sizes B&W

2. 3 Horizontal pages with B&W solutions in a large and small size

   1. EXAMPLE

Part B

3. SUBMIT YOUR EXPLORATION OF YOUR COMBINATION MARKS AS A SEPARATE ILLUSTRATOR DOCUMENT (not printed)

   1. EXAMPLE

***MAKE SURE YOU OUTLINE YOUR FONTS

Cmd or Ctrl + A > Type (menu) > Outline text

***Use Template Provided

• Click on the file above

• click on the download symbol in the right corner

• the file will download to the downloads folder

***SAVE AS OUTLINED ILLUSTRATOR DOCUMENT located Communication arts drive > 2016-2017 Graphics >_Corperate ID Project - COPY AND PASTE

Step 9: Final Combination Mark March 27
Students select one combination mark and refine it into a final design with both color and black-and-white versions (maximum 3 colors).

• Submit combination final mark @ 2 different sizes large and small B&W on one page and large and small color on another. Small would be a size like you would see on a T-shirt and large like you may see on a billboard. Both the small and large logo should be exactly the same, just different sizes. Maximum of 3 colors may be used, black and white are considered colors. Is recommended that gradients are avoided.

• Submit as a single text outlined illustrator document 11 x 17

** when choosing your colors, think about the psychological meanings of colors look at the two links below

**Use Provided Template 

• Click on the file above

• click on the download symbol in the right corner

• the file will download to the downloads folder

EXAMPLE

Step 10: Overall Food Truck Design (Work in Progress) April 21
Students design their food truck’s exterior, incorporating the brand’s aesthetic and logo.

• Using the templates below design your food truck. Your logo must be on the truck and your menu must be on the truck as well. Design using the graphic style that was you received from your spinner

Food Truck Template

• Click on the file above

• click on the download symbol in the right corner

• the file will download to the downloads folder

• WHAT IM LOOKING FOR IN THE WIP

  1. Your design is in the style that you selected from the spinner

  2. B&W design on all 4 sides (front, back, left and right)

OR

• 3. Fully rendered color design on 2 sides of the food truck

**You make use digital art software for this step, the logo must be included on multiple sides of the truck

Step 11: Final Food Truck Design  May 7
Students present their completed food truck design with a detailed rendering.

• Fully rendered color design on 4 sides of the food truck

**You make use digital art software for this step, the logo must be included on multiple sides of the truck

Graphic Design Standards

Creating

VAHSGD.CR.1 Visualize and generate ideas for creating works of art.

VAHSGD.CR.2 Choose from a range of materials and methods of traditional and contemporary artistic practices to plan and create works of art.

VAHSGD.CR.3 Engage in an array of processes, media, techniques, and technology through experimentation, practice and persistence.

VAHSGD.CR.4 Incorporate formal and informal components to create works of art.

VAHSGD.CR.5 Reflect on, revise, and refine works of art considering relevant traditional and contemporary practices as well as artistic ideation.

VAHSGD.CR.6 Keep an ongoing visual and verbal record to explore and develop works of art.

Presenting

VAHSGD.PR.1 Plan, prepare, and present works of art for exhibition in school, virtual environment, and/or portfolio presentation

Responding

VAHSGD.RE.1 Reflect on the context of personal works of art in relation to community, culture, and the world.

VAHSGD.RE.2 Critique personal works of art and the artwork of others, individually and collaboratively, using a variety of approaches.

VAHSGD.RE.3 Engage in the process of art criticism to make meaning and increase visual literacy.

Connecting

VAHSGD.CN.1 Develop personal artistic voice through connecting uses of art within a variety of cultural, historical, and contemporary contexts.

VAHSGD.CN.2 Develop life skills through the study and production of art (e.g. collaboration, creativity, critical thinking, communication).

VAHSGD.CN.3 Utilize a variety of resources to understand how artistic learning extends beyond the walls of the classroom.