ad design system - custom ink

CustomInk wanted to increase the number of print ads they purchased in large and niche publications, with a focus on discounted remnant ad space. If the team was able to produce an ad in under 24 hours, the company could use ad spend more cost effectively. Purchasing space in niche publications ( ie. Cheerleading, Boating, Dance Magazine and more) CustomInk could cater the content to speak directly to the audience giving the ad a higher chance for conversion.

GOAL: Design an Ad system that allows for unique imagery and copy, with a focus on expedited production times.

• Develop a copy matrix for easy editing to speak to unique audiences, and to test offers.

• Create brand guidelines for production.

• Develop guidelines for photography and art selection to speak to unique audiences.

• Create design templates for efficient editing and production ensuring turn times under 24 hours.

• Eliminate need for outside contractors.

RESEARCH & PROCESS

The existing print ads were being done by a contractor who’s only contact was the Marketing Team. Therefore the designs were not on brand, and often utilized design elements not ideal for print. I presented an overview of the existing ads highlighting the wide range of off-brand elements, and brand inconsistencies between them. I paired this with a solution for how we can easily improve them with a design and production system, ensuring they would be consistent across publications, and allowing our team to bring the work back in-house.

I partnered with Marketing and Brand Manager to develop a copy matrix that illustrated the messaging hierarchy, yet still allowed for the designer to easily edit the copy to speak to broad and niche customer segments. The messaging hierarchy directly informed design decisions about visual elements that would be key to telling the full CustomInk story: Custom T-shirts for groups and events, Design Online, its easy.

I reviewed all the existing publication specs for ad space, and developed a design that could be easily adapted for all potential sizes. The layout elevated real customer photos or brand photography, and partnered that with a laptop of the website showing clipart that spoke to the customer.

Additionally, I created two alternative designs for publications with a broad audience. One with a focus on the “design online” aspect of the shopping experience, and the other on the customization but with a product forward image.

After the design was approved by stake holders. I created file templates at the most common sizes that could easily be edited by production artists, and wrote an in-depth brand guideline documenting how to create the ads.

FINAL DESIGN

The final result was a success. The system freed up the design team’s time for larger company initiatives, while still supporting the Marketing team’s ad spend push. It made it easier for the design team partner with marketing to create new variations on offer testing, evaluate what was working or not, and improve the design system incrementally every few months. This meant more opportunity to explore and evolve the brand’s visual language for how we spoke about value propositions informing other initiatives with tangible results.