Effective vs. Ineffective Design
Effective Design
Postmates’ promotional coupon
I assume this coupon was being handed out to students on campus, meaning the company is attempting to market their business to young college students. The goal of this design is to market their business as an easy and economical way of eating delicious food — “The Best of your City Delivered in Minutes”. I believe the design of this coupon effectively communicates that message due to its simplicity, hierarchy, and humor. What first caught my attention was the simplicity of the color scheme. By only using black and white for their logo it comes off as clean and easy to understand quickly. The pop of teal on the back of the card reveals information that the reader of the coupon is able to differentiate as information that is usable to them. The hierarchy of information used on the back is also effective because the largest idea is that they are essentially giving you $100. This will attract and grab the attention of many in debt college students. I also really enjoy the humor used in the logo, where the bike delivery person is doing a wheely and wearing a cape. This heroic delivery biker will appeal to young college students and therefore they will be more likely to actually use this delivery service. From these cohesive elements I gather that this is a cool, new and hip company that seems reliable and wants to deliver quality foods for cheap.
Ineffective Design
Great American Banana Split Celebration Poster
This poster is spreading the word of the Banana Split celebration in Latrobe, PA. This poster was found in the University Center and was intended to be seen by young students who would not be able to resist the plentiful Instagram opportunities at such an event as this. This poster is attempting to demonstrate every crazy thing that will be happening at this festival, which they have succeeded in. This was achieved by literally putting images of everything on this poster. There are upside down people, vintage cars, a rock climbing wall, bubbles and floating bananas. While these are all considered fun exciting things, it is an overload of imagery and it dilutes the clarity of what they are actually marketing. The makers of this poster want to communicate how fun and “bananas” this event would be, however the result is an overwhelming mashup of seemingly random images. Not only are we bombarded by imagery, the color scheme of this poster makes it hard to retrieve information quickly. There is a main basic color scheme of muted down royal blue, cadmium yellow, pink and teal. I personally enjoy these colors together however since they are low in contrast it is difficult to understand where to look for information. Also, the main red logo completely throws off the previously mentioned muted color scheme, resulting in a garish appearance. Finally, the hierarchy of information in this poster is very misleading. The largest words are “We’ve gone Bananas” which doesn’t reveal much — Who is we? Is this an improv group/cult? The second thing that grabs my attention is the high contrast black and white section describing the musical entertainment. This seems to be an out of place afterthought that probably is covering even more horrendous cut outs of ecstatic people. These two elements that pop out the most to me do not get me even close to understanding what this is. It also does not help that they have about three different type styles that are all very unique. Due to the ineffective elements of imagery, color scheme and hierarchy this poster is unfortunately unsuccessful in delivering a clear message.
