Skip to main content

Less is generally más.

I recently received an interesting mailer for a restaurant close to my home. Measuring 6" x 11" there didn't appear anything too out of the ordinary with this printed piece, but opening it revealed that there was more to it than meets the eye.



After removing the 3 circular stickers that kept it shut (as if 4 would've been overkill), you're invited to open a gatefold held shut with the same rubbery adhesive used to adhere credit cards to paper.


Once opened, you are greeted by two pup-up images — one a Margarita, and the other an appetizer platter. Flanking these gems are a couple card stock gift cards for free food, and also a QR code that needs to be scanned in order to activate the gift cards before coming in.


But wait — there's more! What was covering the pop-up graphics once opened? That's right, a GIANT 11" x 14" letter with lengthy explanation about the restaurant and why after 2 years of business they decided to extend an invitation to the restaurant in this special way.

It's obvious that this was a pretty expensive piece. From the folds, to the adhesives and stickers, the pop-ups with special plastic mechanisms to ensure they work, and the multiple gift cards with giant letter, this was designed to grab your attention. By the size of things it seems they didn't want you to lose anything and miss out on their offer. It definitely did it's job in that aspect and hopefully for them their big gamble paid off. From a design standpoint they could have simplified their messaging much more to make their bells and whistles stand out. The pop-ups were a bust since they were covered by the big letter upon opening. Perhaps simplifying the folds or offering only one gift card and saving the other for a similar mailer to be mailed out later might be a better strategy. When you're trying to woo your audience, it's one thing to "wow" them, but to also bombard them with information is a bit much. It's like getting pecked to death by a duck. 

-Joel Penos





Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Packaging: 10 Steps to a Better Process

1. Prioritize. Prioritize. Prioritize. When three people are talking to you, you can’t hear them all. The same is true for design. Visual priority must be established from the very beginning of the design process. If every item is given primary importance, nothing becomes important. The visual priorities are what drive how all creative will be judged. The design firm should include as part of their creative brief, a hierarchy of 5 communication points for the front of the package. This includes 1) brand 2) product name 3) why-to-buy statement 4) feature points 5) product image. 2. Come together. Everyone has an opinion, so clear project objectives are vital to any job. Consensus regarding the creative brief must be obtained from the people expected to judge the package design from within your corporation. Without this consensus, the design process will fall apart. Without clearly stated, agreed-upon objectives, you are not able to provide constructive feedback. As soon as you start t

New and Not Necessarily Improved

A story in the March 3, 2009 issue of the LA Times regarding the unfavorably received new Pepsi brand redesign reminded me of another recent unsuccessful redesign—the one for Tropicana orange juice. A few months ago, I was in a Target store buying some orange juice. I usually get the Tropicana brand, and was disappointed when I didn't see any in the cases. I just saw a bunch of unfamiliar cartons that I immediately wrote off as "not Tropicana" and kept looking around. It was only during a second pass that I realized that these new cartons were indeed Tropicana. Wow, I thought, that's a pretty radical new look. Gone were any vestiges of familiarity--the funky old-style logo, and especially the orange with the straw stuck in it. The new carton is dominated by a large shot of a tasteful-looking (not necessarily tasty-looking) glass of orange juice, with the word "Tropicana" in an unfamiliar sans serif font and green color turned 90º clockwise along the side. T

Let Your Packaging Sell Your Product, Not a Funny Name!

So I ran across this product while I was traveling in NY and needed some earplugs.  I can't sleep without them. Earplugs are notoriously hard to find on shelf so I had to scan many products. I came across this product and got quite a chuckle. I don't think I need to explain why (To be fair, it was awhile ago, and the package design could have changed since then.): Zim's Crack Creme---we can assume that Zim is the pharmacist who created this all-natural herbal wonder cream (creme) for your crack. Or is that really what this means. Surly it couldn't. We design packaging and I couldn't help but analyze this package as I would for a client. The first thing we help our clients do is to prioritize the elements on the front of the package. What is the most important thing to communicate? The name? The brand? The why-to-buy? The features? Obviously, Zim felt the name of the product was most important. But if the name of the product doesn't really convey what it doe