Ineffective vs. Effective Communication Design

Rachel Park
Aug 31, 2018 · 2 min read
Regular Giant Eagle plastic grocery bag vs. YKM Sports shopping bag

For this assignment, I was to find different examples that I thought were ineffective and also effective at communicating the design intended for the public eye. In this case, I chose to look at shopping bags and how they were portrayed.

Ineffectively, the Giant Eagle plastic bag seems like it was made just for the sole purpose of carrying items. In terms of colors, the bag uses just two shades of blue, which actually tend to blend into each other, making the text and branding not as noticeable to the consumer. Because of this, I would say that the bag itself is not the best example to use for advertisements for the grocery store. The thin plastic material is also susceptible to intense crinkles, therefore also hiding the text itself on the bag. Overall, other the functional use of carrying things, the bag is easily forgettable and makes for the user to quickly discard the bag without much imprint of the grocery store and its impact on the user.

Effectively, the clever use of graphics and interactivity of the YKM bag immediately catches the my eye. I think for most people, graphics are easier and more interesting to look at because it requires little to no reading and it gets the message across a lot faster. The images of the people clearly indicate the type of products sold because of the type of outfits that they are wearing as well as the movements and actions taking place in the image itself. The overall design is very simple and uses just the plain white background along with shades of black. The bag is also made of a more stiffer material that holds its shape even when placed on the ground, keeping the design very clear and open to the viewer. The bag can be easily utilized and also entertaining to the user because of the interactivity created between the bag and user.

CDF 2018 Fall

CDF 18F Class Blog

Rachel Park

Written by

Carnegie Mellon Architecture student with a strong curiosity for Design

CDF 2018 Fall

CDF 18F Class Blog

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