Monarch Pasta
LIU Post VISL 1 / October 2020


Monarch Pasta
The goal of this project was to create a fully illustrated product box. Students had the choice of remaking an existing package or creating their own product and packaging.
Since we could choose between remaking a package or creating our own, I decided to try and make my own fictitious brand of pasta. Using pasta for art purposes is normally done by children so I wanted to explore the idea of using pasta in a more mature setting. My goal was to combine the whimsy of pasta art and the refined nature of the fine art world. Using pasta farfalle to represent a butterfly is common among children’s pasta art so I chose to make a box for that pasta shape.
The brand name “Monarch” was chosen to establish a regal essence as well as have the name be a reference to the monarch butterfly. Since many people care about their health and shopping sustainably the Monarch brand sells organic pasta. Having the product be organic then led me to finalize the image of a butterfly pasta sitting on a flower in a jungle to show how the pasta is natural and sustainably sourced. To tie the pasta brand into the fine art world I researched the paintings of Henri Rousseau to create the jungle foliage surrounding the image of the pasta.

Painting by Henri Rousseau for inspiration

Flower and butterfly (pasta) illustration

Yellow flower illustration