Smucker’s Ad Design
A poster advertising Smucker’s jam.
Skills
Graphic Design, Branding
Tools
Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop
Class
Graphic Design
the task
I was tasked with designing an ad for Smucker’s jam that reflected their brand identity while using my own creative design style.
The goal of this project was to develop a design that reflected the brand’s identity while showcasing a specific design style and personal creativity. Through the process, I experimented with the mood of the product, typography, and layout.
research
First, I researched Smuckers’ brand mission and values, which are to:
Engage, delight and inspire consumers
Make meals and snacks more delicious
Be a classic, nostalgic, family company that you can trust
Then, I took a look as what their marketing currently looks like.
…and decided I wasn’t the biggest fan. I felt that it made them look too cheap and further solidified the association I had previously of them being the “hotel brand”—something I was trying to avoid.
inspiration
I originally wanted to give it an illustrated look because I felt it was fun and conveyed “family friendly” effectively.
…but that didn’t feel consistent with their current brand.
So, I decided to take inspiration from past Smucker’s ads.
I liked the feel of their old ads, which is what led me to make my ad with a vintage, retro look.
drafting
Here were some of my initial ideas:
These ideas still felt mostly illustrative to me, and I noticed that many of the older Smucker’s posters were mainly photo-based. This lead me to try using bolder photos (edited in Photoshop to feel more vintage) that emphasized the brand and real ingredients used.
I liked this look and decided to play with it further. It felt very boxy and stuck in a grid to me, so I tried to break those barriers while keeping order to the composition. I also decided to spice up the tagline to further personalize the poster to Smucker’s jam.
the final design
final thoughts
Overall, this was a very fun exercise in designing for a brand! I got to explore using Photoshop to edit photos, and using type, composition, and color to convey meaning. (Hopefully, you’re in the mood for toast now ;))