Strong Visuals

More often than not, when local businesses get involved in the design process for their advertising, they try to put everything, including the kitchen sink, into their ad. They may not even sell kitchen sinks but that doesn't stop them from trying.

My approach toward design is to only put in enough information to communicate what is absolutely necessary. And if I can let a strong visual do all of the heavy lifting then I say let that suffice. 

When I was asked to design a two-page spread for a local tile store to run in a high-end glossy magazine, I went minimal, allowing the image to do all the “talking”. Here is my design:

I wonder what product this store sells.

(click the image for a larger view)

Name, rank and serial number will suffice at this point; the image is the key here. How do you show potential customers all of the tile samples a store has to offer? How do you fit enough copy into an ad to explain all of the  potential applications for their tile and installation services? You can’t! If you try you will likely end up with an ad that is so busy no one will even bother looking at it. What you can do is present an image that communicates, in an instant, that this business can meet any tiling need you might possibly dream up. That alone will be enough to get them into the place of business where a highly trained sales staff can dazzle them with a billion possibilities.