All coup-ed up

Photo by Pro Church Media on Unsplash

Even though Thanksgiving this year will be like no other, one thing hasn’t changed — and that’s the onslaught of Black Friday deals that come at the end of this week. It seems like every year Black Friday sales come earlier and earlier, and since I’ve already taken advantage of one or two of these sales, it was top of mind for me. I thought it might be fun to create a brandless Black Friday coupon for anything — one that might appear in your inbox this week. Here’s where I landed:

Since I wasn’t tying this to any particular company or product, I decided to lean into autumn colors for the theme. I went with a trendy wide font to give the text a little personality. On top of that, I added a dotted line border, mimicking what you might see in a paper ad where you would clip the coupon.

The most challenging part of this exercise was figuring out the right combination and shades of colors that felt both legible but also not too dull or too dynamic. It turns out autumn colors are pretty muted, so it was tough finding a middle ground between being a little bold and a little boring. For instance, with the headline “Black Friday Begins Now!” I had originally made the color of the text a pure black, but it seemed to overwhelm the entire layout. At the same time, changing it to the same shade of brown as the “Redeem Coupon” button made my eyes gloss over it. I ultimately ended up making the color of this heading pure black, but I dialed down the transparency to 80%, and that was what felt best.

On that note, making this coupon reinforced something I hadn’t thought about in a while — just how much of the creative process is about a feeling. It’s all about what feels good vs. what doesn’t, and it took me a while to get this to feel just about right with the spacing, placement, colors, etc.

Even though this Thanksgiving is going to be odd in a lot of ways, I’m thankful for health, good food, and the privilege to be able to work on things that are all about vibes.

Oh, and I’m always thankful for a good Black Friday deal too.