"No 3D, no renders. Just colour and curves."
A vector illustration study of soft-drink cans, drawn entirely in Illustrator — no 3D, no rendering, just flat colour doing the work. A personal exercise, unaffiliated with any of the brands depicted.
A pet project, made for fun. The rule was strict: Illustrator only, no 3D software, no rendering, no photographic textures. Form had to come purely from flat colour and line.
The cans are recognisable soft drinks, drawn from memory as a study in how little you need to make an object read.
A can is a cylinder, and a cylinder without gradients or shading is just a rectangle. Getting the volume across with flat fills means every highlight and shadow has to be a deliberate shape rather than a soft blend.
The silhouette does most of the work, so it has to be exactly right.
Each can sits on one saturated field of its own brand colour, so the object and the ground fight slightly and the edges pop. Volume comes from two or three flat tone shapes and a single hard highlight.
A dropped shadow and two escaping bubbles are the only things suggesting depth or motion. Nothing else is needed.
A note on this one: these are unofficial personal illustrations. The brands depicted are the trademarks of their owners, and this study is not affiliated with or endorsed by any of them.