Can typography "touch" someone?
The text at the bottom of this ad says: "If you really want to touch someone, send them a letter."
• Do you think this is a successful ad? Who is the intended target audience? (Although I'm sure the Postal Service wants to increase all sales...this is clearly targeted towards only a segment of the population.) Why did they choose this target audience?
• Next, how do you think this image was built?
• Lastly, if you were the designer working on this campaign, what other imagery would you create for additional audiences?
I think that it is a very weird ad? I mean it's interesting but at the same time creepy? If that makes any sense? I say that because of the random "page thing" hugging a person. I understand the meaning and as too maybe why they choose this. I think target audience is adults? maybe it's to get people to send more letters to make it more of a personal thing? I think that's why they chose that target audience so its more personal. I think possibly the image was built with a clipping mask?
ReplyDeleteI think if i were to design this I would put artwork from a little kid and make it seem like he wants to mail it to someone? Something like that to make people connect with the ad.
I don't really think this was a successful ad because you can't tell instantly what point it's trying to get across. Even if i could read what the bottoms says, that's still not the focal point of the ad. At first glance I would have said the target audience is for readers/writers, until I saw the postal service logo. This may have used a clipping mask as Naidin said and I think layers were definitely a big part in developing this.
ReplyDeleteI have to agree with Naidin. I too looked at this ad and feel like a child's image may have helped get the heart involved in the viewer's interpretation. I feel like the target audience is actually young adults though, and primarily women if that isn't obvious enough. If you look closely the person coming out of the page has more masculine features as well which could be a CTA for men to be more expressive. How they did it, I'm also going to say a mask of some sort. It is good design work nonetheless just takes a bit longer than some would like to interpret. I would if I were on this design team utilize children maybe in the same style as the man here and possible have more than one working together to create a letter. Maybe all working on one thing laying around it on the floor. Not really sure but definitely would incorporate a child, maybe a pet.
ReplyDeleteThere appears to be a deeper meaning behind this ad that wants to let us know that communication through letters reaches out to people on a more personal level. I'm not too sure that this message is easy to clarify immediately so in that aspect, it needs to rethink its direction. As far as the question of who this is aimed for, it isn't your average person anymore. For those who love the tradition, this ad may be reassuring, but it's popularity is just too low that it's on the brink of extinction. Instant messaging is far too superior when it comes to making life easy and that's what almost everybody wants. As far as the design goes, things like opacity/overlay could create a similar effect, but it looks most like a clipping mask between the image of the letter and one of the people in the photograph. This is more apparent due to the fact that the shape of the text fits the form as well as the guy's arm. It's a neat image, but if it wants to reach a younger audience, they need to find out a way (if even possible) to make writing letters trendy again. I'd try to appeal to "hipsters" if that were the case.
ReplyDeleteI cannot say this is a successful ad. The fact that the second I looked at it I had no idea what the main point was makes it already faulty. I have to agree with Ashleigh I'd assume the ad was for writers/readers before I would ever think it was a postal ad. The target audience I feel would be for adults, and to be even more narrow with the audience people who live far away from their loved ones and their only communication with each other would be through sending letters in the mail. They probably chose this audience because it would be the most home-hitting audience to send letters.
ReplyDeleteI agree with everyone else that this image was most likely built with a clipping mask, they took the photo of the two hugging and masked him out with lettering.
If I were to design this campaign, my approach would have been different. Maybe putting an image of someone from far away opening their mailbox with joy and another image of someone from a clearly different region of the world sending a letter? I feel like the fact that there is no actual "post card/letter" being sent the actual campaign just looks like a book to me, it definitely needs more postal elements to get the message across.
I think that this ad is pretty neat. Yeah from a designers side there is a lot of stuff that could be done but sometimes we need to think on the other side. This ad really caught peoples attention because it is easy to convey.
ReplyDeleteI think this was built by using the liquify tool in Photoshop.
This ad is a little boring so I would defiantly cook up something a little more brave!