Don't Pass Me By

The aim of this exercise was to produce a point of sale display to go above fruit and vegetables in a grocer's shop. It needed to be seen from the street and attract passing shoppers. The street is on the route to a well respected primary school. Photographs or illustrations could be used. Two images were required - one for fruit and one for vegetables.

In the brief it also mentioned that the posters would be seen from quite a distance and in peripheral vision, requiring the visuals to be clear and dynamic. The exercise also stressed the importance of the way the food looked in the images used.

I began by mind-mapping the words 'fruit' and 'vegetables' and the key themes that kept recurring centred around the words tasty, juicy, fresh, refreshing and healthy. I decided that to fully reflect these themes I would need to use photographs rather than illustrations - and this in turn led me to using Photoshop rather than Illustrator.

As the image was to be seen from a distance and in peripheral vision I decided to keep words to a minimum and opted for 'fruit' and 'vegetables' in the respective posters. My initial idea was to have a different, unpeeled/unsliced piece of fruit/veg. behind each letter with a different piece of fruit/veg. peeled inside the lettershape - thereby creating a contrast. The result of this is seen below:

The overall effect was far 'busier' than I was aiming for and did not 'shout out' to the prospective customers walking past the shop. However, I still liked the idea of peeled/unpeeled as it was a way of representing both the appearance/quality of the goods and the taste. I decided to narrow the image down to one type of fruit. Aware of the potential market - respectable - I decided against 'everyday' fruits (apples, bananas, etc) but was keen not to be too obscure (I didn't want to limit the customers to just Guardian reading, guava-eating Chlamydias).

Finally, I decided on a watermelon. It fitted the above criteria and its colours - green and red - provided the perfect contrast. I chose a typeface that complemented the image but, after finishing the type, I felt something was missing. After playing around with a few ideas I decided to add a yellow stroke to increase the likelihood of it catching the attention of prospective customers. I felt that the addition of some yellow to the red and green seemed to complete the image. I also felt the halved watermelon in the bottom right helped balance the poster.   

I wanted the two posters to complement each other and soon after starting the vegetable poster I realised that I needed to shorten the word 'vegetables' for it to balance with the fruit poster. I decided on the wording '& veg'. Although this is slightly more down-market than I would have wished, I feel that the poster I produced struck the right balance. I decided that aubergines would be a sound choice. They have a broad appeal but also have a strong appeal to the target audience. They are also one of the few aesthetically pleasing vegetables that also provide a good contrast between their outer and inner colours (purple and cream). Once again I played around with strokes and white seemed to work best with the picture and text.

Overall I'm pleased with the results in this exercise and enjoyed it. I feel that I met the brief and produced two striking posters that provided sufficent contrast but still managed to complement each other.