Chiquita Bananas

We’ve been waiting for this bad boy to go live for a little while because it’s a terrific show piece for the Spike Likes web portfolio. The Chiquita Bananas project also helped me get over an 8 year love affair with WD-40!

Before we dig into behind-the-scenes details about the design – a big congratulations to the Sitelab Interactive team. Drew and Angelina – great job!

NASA and “it’s not banana science”

During the initial design phase with Sitelab, I raised my hand eagerly to draw the “risky” straw when the design team was divvying up directions to take. I had this idea of taking a conceptual risk by doing a spoof on banana science complete with rockets and 50’s styled artwork that smacked of NASA. I even found a banana rocket ship recipe on a NASA web site.

However, the more I thought about it, the more I realized the banana science direction had a quick expiration date and that the idea was better suited for a short duration ad campaign.

Cue artistic risks stage right!

I found inspiration from all kinds of unexpected areas (more on that later) particularly when I visited multiple grocery stores and noticed the little Chiquita stickers on the bananas. Not the logo sticker, we all know that one, but the second stickers…the stickers with the cute sayings like “I’m Hand-Picked,” “I Love Lunch Boxes,” “Brain Fuel” and “Appetite a Peel” – too funny.

It was the hand-picked sticker that truly acted like a trigger and got me thinking about the human touch, local farmers markets, hand-made/hand-crafted, personalization and creating something that conceptually matches the naturalness found in the “hand” connection.

I grabbed a Sharpie and began drawing on a piece of printer paper.

Next, I scanned the drawings and drew some more…actually it was doodled some more. That’s the point. My intention behind all the Chiquita drawings is NOT “high art” or refined illustration – they’re doodley  doo-dads. Like, scribbles possibly found on a kitchen notepad by the phone. Eventually, I wore the Sharpie out and switched to a black ballpoint pen.

Sticky, like digital Elmer’s Glue

The design began to evolve and through the nature of web media, I started digitally scrapbooking, stitching and gluing the artwork together – simultaneously drawing more doodles and scanning as needed. I began to see how beautiful the work was becoming with this gorgeous hand-crafted feel and got really excited because, for the first time in my web career, I created a mixed media piece that has my physicality stamped all over it. Essentially, a direct reflection of the physical world and the imprint of the hand.

You can see the final web site design in our web design portfolio.