Big time in-store marketing—wah-wah

I've often done promotional pieces for in-store displays. Oh, wait, that is the majority of my job. Back track... it used to be the entirity of my job. Now that we (i.e. publishing) seem to be working less and less with paper, creating printed material is becoming scarce. It's rare to print an ad for a magazine... it's rare that people pick up magazines. Ok that's a bit dramatic, but still the printed advertisement or marketing tool is slowly melting away. Downloadable activities, internet mumbo-jumbos, apps and the dreaded e-book interactive back ads have pretty much taken place of everything I learned in design school.

Every once in a while a store or event takes place that will really use all the print knowledge I mustered in school, exciting! Usually reserved for conventions and expos, the big ass printed poster is a headache of scant scratch-disc memory, complicated rivet placement, and how exactly do we showcase this without it screaming at you? Figuring out this puzzle can be a lot of fun. Because usually (and if you do it right) the visual of a big ass poster can be awesome. Behold the awesome problem of Pinkalicious.

The author of Pinkalicious is having a cupcake decorating party Dylan's Candy Bar tomorrow. If you've never entered Dylan's Candy Bar I highly recommend. The store itself just oozes sugar shock. Bright colors and shiny floors of printed candy gleam around every treat you could possibly imagine—except Snaps, I combed that place for my father's favorite candy coated licorice to no avail.

I couldn't think of how set off a gigantic pinkerrific poster against the extreme colorful and intense store decor. We did our best, of course. Pinkalicious floats awesomely from her books, wand waving proudly at all her Pinkerbelles. It'd been a while since the pieces were printed and I was wondering if my efforts in the Pinkalicious poster would stand out against Dylan's already candy-crazy decor.

When I ran up to the shop on 3rd ave, at first I couldn't even find her! I mistakenly thought she'd be in the frames within the window. Instead she was sort of propped up against the glass of the building. One poster had "Three Floors of Candy" etched across her face, for shame! I seriously hope the managers at Dylan's change this for the event, it's so slap-dash. I did snap a picture of the one unobstructed Pinkalicious I saw.

 Eh. I'm more drawn to the marshmallow shooters myself.