Cereal Box Abstract Design
Submitted by: Stephen Watson, at The University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa
Lesson Plan: "Cereal Box Deconstruction"
for ART 130: Design I (2D)
Description:
Reduce a cereal box into basic art elements and rearrange the elements to create a new design. Art elements may include lines, shapes, and colors.
Objectives:
Understand that design is an "art of arrangement."
Reverse-engineer a design from a cereal box.
Be creative within the limits of a cereal box.
Implementation:
Materials and Tools:
Two identical cereal boxes (To compare the before and after design)
X-acto Knives
Process:
1) Use an X-acto knife or sharp scissors to cut off the front of two identical cereal box covers. The remaining scraps of the box can be discarded. You may save or eat the cereal inside if you wish. One of the identical covers will remain whole and as is. Use the back (plain cardboard) of your cover to draw your new design.
2) You will cut apart and deconstruct one of the covers while considering the basic art elements of lines, colors, shape, and values. No pieces are to be discarded. All pieces of the box must be present in your design.
3) You will use the cut-out cardboard pieces to create a design on the back of the other uncut cover. When you finish the project, you will view your finished design by flipping over the uncut cover.
Guidelines:
Your craftsmanship should be clean and precise. Cut your pieces cleanly and wipe off any excessive glue.
You must use every piece of the deconstructed cereal box cover when creating your design.
You may overlap your pieces, but they must not completely conceal any other pieces. At least a small portion of every piece should still be visible from under the overlapped piece.
The plain cardboard background of the other uncut cover may be visible in your final design.
Your design must make your cover unrecognizable from the original box. It should not be apparent what brand of cereal the box was prior to desconstruction. In fact, the design should not be easily recognized as coming from a cereal box.
Focus on creating an interesting design and avoid any representational imagery or narrative.
Examples Above:
Student Work by Joy, ART 130: Design I
Student Work by Victoria, ART 130: Design I
Evaluation:
Students will be graded while considering the following:
Creativity of Design
Craftsmanship
Quality of Transformation
The Receptivity of the design to Critique
Questions:
By creating the new design, what did you learn about the original cereal box design?
What did this project teach you about gestalt, the essence or shape of box's complete form? Be aware that both your design and the original box are made up from a sum of parts that create a different whole.
