AmazonFresh - Collaboration

A creative advertising student requested some help in creating the art direction for her AmazonFresh campaign. I took the opportunity to further expand on working collaboratively and to practice the techniques of poster designs which I have been reading up on recently. 

The first meeting was to get to know her ideas for the brief and what she outlined in terms of audience, tone of voice, and where the campaign will be seen. 

The most prominent aspect was that she identified that her target audience be 30-40 year old professionals living in Greater/Central London. Thus the campaign is aimed towards a mature audience who are well off financially being that they presumably live in Central London. Therefore the art direction of the campaign should reflect their professional lifestyle. 

The current art direction does not reflect her target audience effectively. The bright pastel colours lower the posters intended age group significantly. The typesetting is loose with no uniformity across the various ones which does not effectively establish an identity for AmazonFresh. This is an aim that was set by Amazon. The food images are placed arbitrarily with little consideration to the copy. This lowers the appeal of the food items. 

The addition of the stamp is her idea of communicating that Amazon delivers the food to the customer. 

Rough sketches of possible poster composition and initial ideas

Some initial ideas 

1. Taking the stamp idea, the poster could be made up of various smaller stamps that would have the type overlaid. 

2. The food items could be reduced to simple paper cut outs. The paper's texture would help in communicating AmazonFresh's postal service. This art direction would also not require attaining licensing for professional food photography. 

3. The poster could be made into one huge stamp. Extending her original idea and better linking it to the content. 

4. The poster could use the amazon arrow as a motif to better communicate the Amazon brand onto the viewer. 

Choosing the final idea

Reading further into the Amazon brand guidelines, using the amazon arrow solely as a motif is not allowed. Therefore that idea can't be developed. 

Having the poster be made up out of smaller stamps may become visually chaotic and hard for the viewer to read the information. Furthermore because these posters are meant to be shown in the London Underground, people do not have the time to stop and read. Information in this context should be communicated quickly with high legibility and bold enough to capture their attention. 

A simple cut out approach may not effectively achieve Amazons aims of appealing to those who live for the "love of food". It is clear through reading the brief that Amazon wants food at the heart of the campaign and reducing the items to paper textures may stray away from the aim. 

Having the poster be made into one large stamp still retains her original idea, whilst at the same time keeps the composition open. I.e. the art direction isn't restricted to a point where it compromises on the aims of the brief. 

These new compositions are more reflective of the professional and mature audience she has identified for the brief. The left set type with ample leading allow of high legibility and quick reading for the underground commuters. Placing the images on the right creates visual balance and having them be cut off stimulates curiosity from the viewer. Following on from Muller-Brockmanns laws of poster design, placing images on the right creates a 'heavier' visual impact and therefore more impactful on the viewer, which is advantage in terms of getting AmazonFresh into the customers minds. Both foods have been changed from the original as well, not only does it have to be displayed properly but the kind of food on display as well adds to the appeal.

Both the header and images are large because of the intended viewing distance, people will see these posters from the platform and not up close. Therefore the poster has to be legible from a distance. 

The overlapping of type and image further increases the unity of the posters elements which is beneficial in terms of creating a link between the campaigns unique copy writing and food photography.

The use of halftone is aimed to give maturity to the term of being a 'foodie'. On one hand it lowers the visual appeal of the food but on the other it allows for Amazon's food service to be communicated clearly to the reader, without distraction. 

The choice to set the type in all lowercase is meant to achieve high readability. Being that Akzidenz has rounded characteristics, setting it in all lowercase maintains a visual rhythm that is easy to read. 

The green background is taken from AmazonFresh's guidelines. Initially it was going to be the orange as seen on Amazon's arrow.

Early composition

However the colour scheme is too glaring and doesn't effectively communicate the 'Fresh' in AmazonFresh. 

Finally, the AmazonFresh logo is set in black to help it standout against the copy. 

These compositions are produced as an alternative to the stamp idea. The high impact type setting is aimed to grab the readers attention from the visually busy London Underground. The highly contrasting white on black colour scheme allows for the vibrant food to standout and stimulate the viewers appetite. The effect of having 'FOR' in an outline allows for the rhyming scheme to be prominent for the reader. 

When viewing both variations side by side. The black on white variation produces a more contemporary look for the campaign. This may be due to lack of halftone used which is reminiscent of older design attitudes. Furthermore having the coloured images better appeals the campaign to foodies, who appreciate good food photography.