Point of sale | Graphically Speaking

Love fruit poster with fruit heart in the middle

: Love Fruit 3

: Love Fruit 4

: Love veg on red

: Love fruit on green

: Love veg

: Love Fruit

I am slightly conscious of working in my own bubble recently and although I have been getting feedback from friends and family it felt like I was at a point where I needed something more. I decided that with the point of sale exercise I would go to some of my fellow students and ask for their views.

I am not as confident in the graphic design field as I am with my photography so this was quite a big step. I felt comfortable approaching the Facebook Visual Communications group, partly because it is more visual platform and partly because I still seem to have tech gremlins logging into the OCA fora for some reason.

That aside I got some very generous responses and I am grateful to everyone that replied. Opinions naturally varied and some people preferred the backlit fruit whereas others liked the puppet warped fruit. Comments included:

…It reminds me of a stained glass window and I think would definitely work well from a distance. Using lots of different fruits too makes it versatile…

…this feels like 2 totally separate posters (the landscape version of sliced fruits) and not as coherent as the first image.

I like this, fresh and simple.

…it’s my favourite but I feel like the fruit blends into the background a bit. Perhaps a green or blue background would be punchier?

I really like the photographed fruit but the Heart + ‘Fruit’ in the middle is not as interesting to look at… I’d rather fill my eyes with all those translucent shapes! Why the typewriter font? Is there a reason for choosing it?

It was obviously great that people responded positively to the ideas but what was interesting was the questions that were raised:

The colour of the backgrounds
The choice of typeface
Whether there should be gap in the centre of the sliced fruit
The red heart being distracting

All the points were useful insights because they were not necessarily the things I had seen and/or they were a good test of whether I had made conscious choices about what I put where. Taking on the comments I played a little with the backgrounds, and the typeface and heart on the sliced fruit version. Thanks to Charlotte for suggesting what now seems obvious about combining the two ideas (if I were to rework it again I’d use a backlit orange slice too)! In the end my preference is still with the single fruit & veg on a white background but other people did seem to prefer the backlit versions.

While the process was a little nerve-wracking I’m glad I did it and it has given me confidence to ask for feedback again. It was particularly useful in highlighting the value of different iterations of a design and a good test of how willing I was to let go of some of the aspects of what I had produced. The exercise also highlighted the challenge of managing the seemingly infinite variety of solutions – colour, composition, typography etc.!

Exercise (pg.52 Graphic Design One): Your local greengrocer has asked you to produce a point of sale display to go above the fruit and vegetables in their shop. They want the display to be seen from the street through the shop window to attract passing shoppers to increase trade.

You can use photographs, illustrations or a combination to develop two images – one of fruit and one of vegetables. The posters will be seen from a distance and mainly in people’s peripheral vision so the visuals need to be clear and dynamic. Ask others for feedback.

: Orange heart

: Veg heart

: Love fruit portrait

: Love Fruit landscape

: Love veg portrait

: Love veg landscape

The brief

The elements I took from the brief are:

Attractive
Seen from a distance
A call to action
Clear and dynamic
Format is open

Researching and developing ideas

: POS Thumbnails 1

: POS Thumbnails 2

I have worked on this exercise over a number of weeks; collecting images, looking at POS displays in the shops and making thumbnail sketches. While this was helpful there was also a moment where the ideas felt almost limitless – from bowls of fruit, saucepans of steaming vegetables, to piles of individual fruit or fruit/veg shaped layouts.

I decided that I would go for backlit slices of fruit, as they are both colourful and intriguing, they show the structures of the fruit and vegetables in a way that I thought might be unfamiliar and would encourage curiosity. I wanted to try something that was less obvious. I also wanted an approach that could showcase some of the variety of what might be available to buy.

Visualising ideas

Lots of slicing later I took a range of photographs that I thought my work using a lightbox to provide even backlighting. Having worked on the visual approach I then focused on the text, this posed a new dilemma, as arguably the right visuals might be able to stand without any text. Given the brief I decided I would add some text but it needed to be simple, easily recognisable and work at a distance.

I worked on a range of approaches:

Alliteration – Fabulous fruit, Various vegetables, Virtuous vegetables, Feel Fabulous, Feeling Fruity! …
Health benefits – 5 a day – ‘Don’t forget your five a day,’ ‘Fruit five ways,’ ‘Have you had your 5 today?’
Puns – ‘Take your pick,’ ‘Pick me! ’ ‘Peas on Earth,’ etc. I liked the idea of some fruit/veg related jokes which might appeal to children and encourage them to want fruit/veg but I wasn’t sure they would be easily seen from outside the shop
Simple recipes – illustrations of some quick and easy recipes, like Grilled Pink Grapefruit with honey, or a quick green smoothie

In working through the different approaches I thought some were too complicated. I wanted the display to focus on a positive message about eating fruit and veg, reminding me of the various ‘I heart…’ slogans, which I then discovered was created by Milton Glaser for the ‘I love NY’ campaign. This kept it very simple and I decided to use it for the text although I thought I would leave out the ‘I’ and make it a more general statement.

I played with placement of the text and having got some feedback I decided I preferred the version with the slogan to the right hand side, with some white space around it. I created these versions in Photoshop because I could mock them up quickly. If I were to develop them further I would use Illustrator to create a smooth vector version.

At this point I thought I had finished, but then! I decided to try and go for a font close to Glaser’s original so found ‘Another Typewriter’, which I really liked with the visuals.

But then…! I looked again at some of my earlier sketches that were based on an idea to make the fruit/veg in the shape of hearts. I had sketched there being four types on a poster but when I placed the orange slice I decided to go for one – given that the poster needs to be seen from a distance. Some puppet warp later and I had two new versions which I felt worked better than the other posters.

I liked their simplicity and I felt they worked with the brief to attract buyers into the shop. Although I have kept the text to single words there is space to add logos or other information if needed.

: Orange heart

: Veg heart

Critique

I found the process of working and reworking my ideas to be invaluable. This helps keep me open to different ideas and not become too wedded to an initial idea or solution. It also reinforced for me the value of mocking up early ideas however crude.

In all honesty I was a little disappointed with the first posters, as they didn’t have quite the crispness or clarity I was looking for. Although I like the effect of the backlit fruit and veg I think in the end it was too busy and complicated (I also forgot to include the celery which has irritated me ever since!).

I did keep to the ‘love’ notion as it gave me the simplicity I thought the design needed and was easily seen at a distance. It is also in keeping with advice around enjoying fruit and veg, and encouraging more balanced diets.

The final design choice might be regarded as too simplistic but in looking at fruit & veg points of sales in local supermarkets there is a tendency towards pictures of the fruit/veg with very simple slogans. Few have logos or wider information.

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