Mail Fail x3

What's a Mail Fail? When a direct mail mail fails to: target the proper audience and/or other fun errors such as typos.

The other day I literally received three Mail Fails in one day! I was thrilled and entertained by these off-the-mark and mailers:

1) Toyota Wants Your Car! I received this official looking letter from a local Toyota dealer. According to the letter, they NEED my 04 Corolla on their used car lot and because of my status as their customer, they will reward me with a great deal on a new Toyota. That's funny, I bought my Toyota at another dealer in town...so I guess not being a customer has its rewards in this case!

2) Pretend AD to Pretend Designer: "Why save money on postage in these tough economic times? Let's put the postcard inside a clear envelope so we can pay full postage on the mailing and how In-Housers how we can save them money!"

3) Dear Nick, Rick, Whatever: I've saved the best for last. This gem starts off on a good note... they have my name on the front...

Wait a minute, what the heck is that in the upper left? It looks like a bee fighting a spider! Are these the "customers" I'm supposed to attract? Not sure I want to attract bugs, especially not ones that sting/bite. You're starting to lose me here...

And now, you've completely lost me...

Rick?! Seriously? If you're going to use variable data, please don't drink and work with databases!

While targeted marketing and variable data can go wrong, done properly, it can be a great tool to help reach your target audience. Don't let these poor examples scare ya away, just keep them in mind and don't do what they did so your mailpiece rocks!

Even A 3 Year Old Knows Branding

As a designer, I do my best to make sure that the solutions I develop for my clients are appropriate and meaningful to their target audience in order to help them sell their wares or services. For the most part, I believe that it's not evil, however when even a 3 year old makes judgements based on brands, I think it's time to re-think all this advertising we're doing. Is it really such a good idea to push so much crap, most of it what people don't need and won't help them feel better in the long run.

And now their little kids apparently are already judging who they'd play with and how they feel about themselves based on branding. This is unacceptable. We as designers need to spend more time using our skills for good and helping others. Maybe it's time for less is more and the smaller the logo, the better.

I'm sure corporate America will never go for this, they are in it for the money and recognition after all. But maybe if enough folks start one by one designing better solutions without branding the hell of it, maybe it will catch on and we can have kids that can just enjoy being kids and not worry that they won't have any friends because they don't have the "right" toys.

Haiti Poster Project

I'd love it if you'd vote for my poster here, but please pick your fav, great work here all around.

Like many people, I was shocked and saddened by the earthquake that struck Haiti on January 12, 2010. I did my small part by donated a few bucks to a good organization. But in situations of this magnitude, it never seems like enough.

Luckily, designers are a generous bunch and the same folks that did the The Hurricane Poster Project when Katrina struck also started The Haiti Poster Project. The premise is simple: artists create limited edition posters signed and numbered and the posters will be sold online to raise money for Doctors Without Borders. Their goal: $1,000,000. I know they can do it.

I was a bit hesitant to participate as the artists do have to pay for the printing and shipping of the posters. However, my friends over at Red Dog Graphics have offered to donate the cost of printing up one lucky designer's poster. Voting on their Facebook begins today. I've entered my poster, and whether or not I win, I will plan on printing the posters and sending them in to the poster project. It's the least I can do. (I will post a link to vote once it goes live).

My poster concept is simple and stark: I used the flag of Haiti as my base colors and layout to represent the country. The crackled texture obviously represents the earthquake. I added in “Haiti” to the text in black to reflect the darkness of that January 12 when the earthquake hit with the plea to “Help” overlaid in white (peace, hospital).

Pepsi Should Make Throwback Formula "the Pepsi"

I apparently haven't been keeping up with the Pepsi throwbacks. I found a new version (from the 80s(?) at my local supermarket. And of course, I had to buy 'em!

I still prefer the first throwback design. It's clean simple, nostalgic, and just plain cool. Pepsi needs to ditch the current formula, go back to the throwback formula as the regular "Pepsi".

Peace on Earth

Wishing you the gifts of peace, love, & joy.

Hope your 2010 rocks!

See you all in 2010

Hey all, thanks for reading in 2009! I look forward to more blogging, twittering, and Facebooking in 2010. I've got quite a lot of work and play this month, so I'm going to skip the blogging until next year.

Hope everyone has a great holiday season and a safe, fun new year!

Gobble Gobble!

Wishing everyone a wonderful Thanksgiving! I hope your day with family and friends is full of joy and happiness.

Creative Postcard Club: Pantone Blocks

A seemingly easy round this time: fill 15 half-inch square blocks with Pantone colors and arrange them however you wish.

15 blocks of color is a lot of color! Especially since I was determined to use a different color for each block.

I turned to my favorite theme: Art Deco. The very formal and gridded structure of the layout suited the Art Deco style perfectly. The most challenging part was to figure out how to make the color progressions flow smoothly. My first few attempts created a bit of visual chaos until I found the rhythm.

Enjoy!

Disturbed by Direct Mail

Here's the story: my dad served in the Navy in WWII. Over the years, he lost his 2 medals. Luckily, there are online stores that sell veterans replacement medals. I ordered the ones my dad had and thought nothing more of it.

Until I realized that the company I bought from sold my name all over the place.

And for the most part, I just toss the mail and think nothing of it.

But then I got this "certificate" in the mail:

Direct from the American Legion: a certificate for my war-time service to the United States.

Say what? I've never served in any branch of the military in either peace time or war time.

I must say that I'm ashamed of the American Legion for not double checking who they are sending this "invitations" to. I think it's disrespectful to all those fine men and women who have served.

Since the American Legion did not take the time (or money) to set more specific criteria, they risk alienating folks who otherwise think highly of their organization. And by sending out false certificates that dishonor our veterans, they are going to damage their reputation and right quick.

I know that it does cost more to set criteria and that the AL probably doesn't have a lot of extra money to spread around. Surely there is a solution: send less but more qualified mail, maybe see if the database company would donate by giving a discount for an upgraded service, etc. Anything would be better than sending out bad direct mail like this.

For all of those out there who have really served our country in peace or war, thank you and may you have a good Veteran's Day today.