by Annie | Dec 24, 2009 | Adchievements, Typographically Speaking
When I decided to venture into the field of digital design, my mom’s main worry was that my college degree in psychology was completely unrelated to design. But in fact, the two fields are inextricably intertwined. Color and typography both have emotional underpinnings, and the subliminal messages behind logos and ads often play mind tricks on uninformed consumers. Take menu design, for example. Did you know that restaurants (along with the menu engineers and menu consultants they hire) spend hours and hours painstakingly obsessing over every element on their menus? Pictures, no pictures, size of text, fonts, colors, adjectives, price display, and spacing are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to designing an effective menu. Researchers have found that the following can subconsciously massage consumer wallets: 1. Remove dollar signs and cents from prices. Dollar signs remind people of money they don’t want to spend. Cents remind people of pennies they don’t want to deal with. 2. Choose the right colors. Apparently, red and blue stimulate your appetite, while gray and purple make you feel full. 3. Use descriptive menu labels. Packing in adjectives, geographic markers, and even relative names (e.g., Aunt Sally’s Famous Potato Salad) will make dishes sound more appealing. 4. Remove pictures. Imagination always trumps even the best picture a camera can take. 5. Employ the art of contrast. Place an expensive item at the top of the menu, and suddenly everything else seems more affordable. So you decide: which restaurant would you spend more money at? Restaurant A: Restaurant B: For more information on the psychology behind menu design, check out...
by Annie | Dec 18, 2009 | Adchievements
The period between Thanksgiving and Christmas is one of the most heavily ad-littered times of the year. Between Black Friday and last-minute Christmas shopping, these few weeks often fill store fronts, circulars, and online banners with holiday ads as retailers hope for looser consumer wallets. Here are some ads that have taken a creative and fresh outlook on age-old holiday...
by Annie | Dec 14, 2009 | Adchievements, Typographically Speaking
It’s amazing how the simple ideas stick with us the longest. Many designers use text in interesting ways in their designs. Some use big bold text, others use scripty and flowy text. Even the fourth graders I taught could change fonts, sizes, and colors. However, the designs that we remember most are those in which the text blends seamlessly into the image. Image relies on text, and text relies on...
by Annie | Nov 30, 2009 | Adchievements, Illustration Station, Logoland, Typographically Speaking
Looking for the perfect gift for the designer in your life? Here are some ideas to help them show off their inner design geek. Gift Idea #1: An invisible T-shirt for the disappearing designer Gift Idea #2: Coffee tastes better in your favorite Pantone mug Gift Idea #3: Foster HTML peace with this “begin love, end hate” cap Gift Idea #4: Make banana the new apple by showing off this tile coaster Gift Idea #5: Use Adobe app pillows to start a designer pillow fight Gift Idea #6: Make every photo on your fridge look Photoshopped Gift Idea #8: When all else fails… Happy shopping, and whatever you buy, make sure it’s well...
