Look at this cereal box

[Nestof3]

My son said, "I know what 'hexa' means -- 8." I said, "No, 'oct' means eight -- like in octopus. 'Hex' means six."

 

He asked me why this bowl has 8 sides. :tongue_smilie: I know the cereal has six sides, but I really think they were being intentional in the shape of the bowl too.

 

[Desert Rat]

Wow. That one took me a minute. I didn't even look at the bowl. I only checked the cereal until you mentioned the octo-bowl. Consistency would be nice. :) Maybe they are counting on others, like me, who didn't pay attention to the bowl!

[thescrappyhomeschooler]

What an observant kid!

[Natalieclare]

Maybe they wanted you to stop and take notice.

[Jean in Newcastle]

Maybe they couldn't find a six sided bowl and say, "Aw, no one will notice!"

[i.love.lucy]

My husband works in advertising and I can almost guarantee that no one noticed the bowl had more sides than the cereal. They were probably THRILLED to find a bowl that looked even similar to the cereal that they just went with it.

 

My DH on the other hand WOULD have noticed and probably created a fake bowl in Photoshop!:lol:

[Tap]

IMHO......Visually the oct shaped bowl is more pleasing to the eye. It frames the box and brings your eye back up to the top. It may not be on accident after all.

 

A hex shaped bowl would direct your eye off the box. When you look at the picture you eye goes to the words, the cereal, the bowl and back up. The pair of diagonal sides (compared to the rectangle of a box) of a 6 sided figure would send your eye in the wrong direction. It would lead your eyes off the box. It would be less visually appealing and wouldn't hold your attention as long as the oct. The flat side of the cereal bowl, aligns with the flat surfaces of the box, creating a 'frame within the frame' to keep your attention there. The diagonal sides, just lop of the corners and are less significant to the parallel sides of the cereal bowl and box. The mismatch of hex and oct make the picture less boring and even if you don't know it, you brain may be trying to solve the problem.

 

The artist also put a point of interest in each lopped off corner. Words on the bottom and cereal on the top. This fills in the corners that are missing. Very light words are on each vertical side.

 

 

I don't think it was on accident at all.

Edited May 11, 2010 by Tap, tap, tap

[Nestof3]

Our store is called Kroger here. They have one in San Diego as well, but it's called something else (I cannot remember).

 

Mine would have noticed and created the bowl as well. That s what makes him good at his job - good design is in the details!

 

OT - I had no idea that you had Freddy's in Virginia!

[Nestof3]

But why not just use a round bowl? Oh well, it doesn't really matter. It sure messed Ben up though. He probably also thinks 'through' is spelled 'thru.'

 

IMHO......Visually the oct shaped bowl is more pleasing to the eye. It frames the box and brings your eye back up to the top. It may not be on accident after all.

 

A hex shaped bowl would direct your eye off the box. When you look at the picture you eye goes to the words, the cereal, the bowl and back up. The pair of diagonal sides (compared to the rectangle of a box) of a 6 sided figure would send your eye in the wrong direction. It would lead your eyes off the box. It would be less visually appealing and wouldn't hold your attention as long as the oct. The flat side of the cereal bowl, aligns with the flat surfaces of the box, creating a 'frame within the frame' to keep your attention there. The diagonal sides, just lop of the corners and are less significant to the parallel sides of the cereal bowl and box. The mismatch of hex and oct make the picture less boring and even if you don't know it, you brain may be trying to solve the problem.

 

The artist also put a point of interest in each lopped off corner. Words on the bottom and cereal on the top. This fills in the corners that are missing. Very light words are on each vertical side.

 

 

I don't think it was on accident at all.

[Tap]

But why not just use a round bowl? Oh well, it doesn't really matter. It sure messed Ben up though. He probably also thinks 'through' is spelled 'thru.'

 

To mimic the shape not conflict with it.

[Tap]

Did you also notice that there 5 raspberries placed neatly at equal distances around the bowl? Those add interest too, by having an odd number 5, next to an even number 8.

 

The berries have one at the top, bringing the diagonal visual line back to center/top of the box.

 

It is amazing how our eye tracking and visual pleasure play into our shopping trips.

 

 

BTW, I think the bowl was created in photoshop.

[Tap]

But why not just use a round bowl? Oh well, it doesn't really matter. It sure messed Ben up though. He probably also thinks 'through' is spelled 'thru.'

 

 

Here is a pix with a round bowl and almost identical cereal. The round bowl and round edge designs in the logo, don't do anything to reinforce the design. The concept of hexagon is visually lost even though it is spelled out.

 

More people look at a box, than read it. Women do the most grocery shopping. Women tend to prefer visual messages. Think about giving directions on how to drive somewhere. Most women (I know not all!- )will give landmark or visual directions like 'turn at the blue house'. Men tend to give names of streets. The visual part of the design makes it easier to remember the brand. Even if 6 and 8 don't match, it is closer than a circle.

[Nestof3]

I just bought it because it was generic. LOL I buy a lot of Cascadian Farms and Kashi, but sometimes I buy cheap, generic cereal. I honestly didn't care what was on the box.

 

My son, though, was looking at it while eating this morning. I remember him saying a couple of weeks ago that he knew hexa meant eight, but I was not really paying much attention. I just said, "No, it means 6." End of conversation.

 

But, now, he still thinks hexa means six despite me telling him about the octopus two times! :tongue_smilie:

 

That's what bothers me. I'm all for art and design. I do it all the time in scrapbooking.

 

Did you also notice that there 5 raspberries placed neatly at equal distances around the bowl? Those add interest too, by having an odd number 5, next to an even number 8.

 

The berries have one at the top, bringing the diagonal visual line back to center/top of the box.

 

It is amazing how our eye tracking and visual pleasure play into our shopping trips.

 

 

BTW, I think the bowl was created in photoshop.

[bookfiend]

Here is a pix with a round bowl and almost identical cereal. The round bowl and round edge designs in the logo, don't do anything to reinforce the design. The concept of hexagon is visually lost even though it is spelled out.

 

QUOTE]

 

Oh yuck, a geometrically shaped cereal shouldn't be paired with a bubble-lettered font. That whole box is awful.

[MamaSheep]

I'm with Tap on this one. I don't think it was an accident either. The sides of the octagonal bowl line up parallel with all four sides of the rectangular box. The large rectangle of the box is, in fact, the dominant geometric shape in the design. And you can bet that even the proportions of the rectangle were chosen for visual appeal. The four sets of parallel lines provide a self-contained framework for the package design so that the viewer's eye stays on the box, whereas a hexagonal bowl would point off two or more sides. A circular bowl would lead the eye around and around on the same part of the package, which isn't what the designer would be after either. In fact, on packages where a round bowl is used, it's generally tilted so that it forms an ellipse rather than a circle, and the ellipse is usually parallel to the bottom of the package, forming a stable visual base. Also, there is generally a spoon in the image at an angle, or milk pouring (dynamically) into the bowl. These items provide a break in the curve of the bowl and a line to lead your eye into another part of the composition.

 

Tap also pointed out the pentagon formed by the berries with the point up, directing the eye upward to the product name. It's not a hexagon either, because if there were a point on the bottom as well as the top, it would point the eye off the bottom of the package, presumably to another brand of cereal on the shelf below, and NObody wants THAT! Lol. As a pentagon, however, it has another flat line there at the bottom, to line up parallel with the line of the bowl and the line of the bottom of the box, providing a very stable visual base. It's tilted ever so slightly off exact parallel, though, in order to give a sense of informality and keep the design from being rigid.

 

So that's a rectangle, an octogon, and a pentagon in addition to the obvious hexagon shapes. There's also an interesting triangle going on, though it's much more subtle. Stay with me. As Tap pointed out, there are graphic elements of one kind or another in each of the "lopped off" corners of the bowl (these would be the NE, NW, SE, SW corners if the bowl were a compass). There are some very light elements on the sides, but they are made rather inconspicuous by using a delicate font in a color close to the background color so it blends in. The elements at the lower left and upper right are the darkest and visually "strongest" of these elements around the bowl. That creates a diagonal line, visually speaking.

The bottom left element even has an arrow pointing to the right (back onto the box, not away) so you don't get stuck going round and round the circle down there. The piece of cereal at the upper right of the bowl is tilted in such a way that there is a "line" cutting right across that diagonal movement, and the "points" of the cereal are set so that your eye is redirected diagonally upward and to the LEFT (back onto the box), instead of continuing upward and to the right (off the box). In fact, it points almost (but not quite, because we do want to appear "casual" here) along the same line as one of the diagonals of the X in the product name. This being the case, the eye travels along the diagonal of the X until it gets to the E, which is to the left of the X and is set slightly higher (continuing the diagonal movement upward and to the left) and is a little darker, giving it a little more weight, which helps with the diagonal movement, since the lines of the E are horizontal and vertical rather than diagonal. In fact, the E is a little problematic in our upward diagonal motion, so it's not relied upon for very long, and a large (comparatively) hexagon in the contrasting color is set overlapping it, and along that same diagonal line in order to keep your eye moving that direction. This hexagon is tipped so that it has a flat line parallel to the top of the box, slowing the motion of the eye. In fact, it would act as a "stop", visually, except that the brightest, boldest element on the box is up and to the left, right along that same diagonal line. So that hexagon slows the eye, and prepares it to stop right on the red logo, which is placed parallel with the top of the box and the top horizontal line of that hexagon, almost forming a stage or a platter on which the logo is presented. Ta dah! Straight down from there, about the middle of the left side of the box is another piece of cereal, large, dark, and echoing (somewhat, but not quite, we are casual around here, remember) the circular shape at the bottom left, getting us back to where we started, and forming the third side of the triangle down the left side of the box.

 

Now, this triangle is easiest to describe moving in that direction, but I would suggest that it is intended to be "read" (subconscously, of course) in the opposite direction, starting at the top left, sliding down the hexagon, E, and X to the cereal piece, turning down the other diagonal and across the cereal bowl to the circle, then being led by the single cereal piece on the left back up to the top, to start the trip again.

 

Readers of English habitually engage with a rectangular shape at the upper left hand corner. In this design the brightest, most visually dominant element (the red logo--and notice that its red is brighter than the red in the berries) is placed at the upper left hand corner. That gives the eye not one, but two reasons to start "reading" the design from that corner. The eye pauses slightly on the logo, sitting on its stage, and then continues its journey, "reading" the package sort of like this:

 

Fred Meyer (company logo)

makes HEXA grains (product name)

Which looks delicious (bowl)

And is nutritious (nutrition info at bottom left in the circle).

 

So then you have a no-sided circle (lower left), 3- sided triangle (visual composition), a 4-sided rectangle (the box), a 5-sided pentagon (berries), several 6-sided hexagons (cereal pieces and graphic elements), and an 8-sided octogon (bowl). There's a lot of visual interest going on in there with all that geometry. The eight sided bowl helps create the frame for the whole thing by reinforcing the rectangular edges of the package and keeping your eyes from wandering next door. I don't think any of it is accidental.