Graphic Design at Work
The old adage a picture is worth a thousand words is often true, and in the marketing realm, a great logo or graphic design is worth millions of dollars. This is not to say that you need to spend millions of dollars for your visual assets, but proper consideration should be given to this very vital aspect of any business. In this blog, we will be looking at the humanization of graphic design. We will be looking at two specific instances, cereal boxes and Amazon.
When we discuss cereal boxes, we want you to think of those that are skewing young. Fruit Loops, Lucky Charms, Frosted Flakes, basically any sort of sugar-filled food that has been marketed towards children for consumption. Take a moment to picture these boxes or do a cursory Google search of them. Animals used in commercials have been anthropomorphized, this of course plays into the fact that humans are more likely to be endeared by and trust other humans. By adding humanistic traits, the marketers are keying into this instinct. This tactic applies to both the child that sees the box and the parent that purchases it.
An interesting challenge in the marketing of cereals to children is the fact that they lack a job or funds to purchase the product. In order to overcome this challenge, the cereal industry has relied heavily upon graphic design with intent to grab the child’s attention and then the child will demand that their parent purchase the cereal for them. One of the obvious tactics is the use of vibrate colors that vary in pallet but are very eye-catching. In fact, it is interesting to note that the color aesthetic theory differs from those targeting adults. When targeting adults with food, marketers often use yellow, as this elicits a hunger response in the viewers (such as Subway, McDonalds and Burger king). In the case of cereals, it is an attempt to grab attention of a hyper young child and therefore does not need to trigger hunger.
While viewing these boxes, you may also notice something that is a bit unnerving to you as an adult: none of the characters on the boxes are looking at you. Almost without fail, each of these characters is looking down and to the left or right. The rationale behind this is that they are attempting to make eye contact with someone that is significantly shorter than you: a child. Eye contact is an extremely important thing for all humans. When a young child makes eye contact with a cereal box character, they immediately form a connection with that character. From there, it is a simple step of parental pestering before a sale is completed.
Amazon also employs a humanization of logo in order to instill confidence and trust. The smile on the Amazon logo (and the fact that they have the Amazon Smile program for non-profits) shows that it is a calculated move in order to build a sense of goodwill with consumers. The smile is even present when it is just the trademark lower case “a”. Furthermore, you will note that the smile line goes from A to Z which is a very subtle hint that Amazon carries everything from A to Z. A brilliant and human logo design to say the least.
At Zero Six Media, we have a team of creatives who are masters at the creation of assets. Give us a call or visit us anytime for all of your graphic design needs!
