Competing with design

Like most folks, I get envelopes full of coupons all the time. So far, the only ones I […]

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Like most folks, I get envelopes full of coupons all the time. So far, the only ones I save are the ones for Chicago Pizza, and I’ve been reconsidering that since I went on the South Beach diet (after all, why torture myself? I could eat the coupon before I could eat pizza these days…)

But getting an envelope from Target these days is a lot like getting mail from the AIGA. These coupons look like IDEO’s idea cards, like a AIGA fundraiser, like a tarot deck predicting the future of my nose… these coupon-art-cards came three days ago, and I can’t quite recycle them yet. I have them spread out on the dining room table right now, because I like how they look.

They may actually be around when I run out of detergent. Which would be a win for Target, and a win for Tide. And won via aesthetics, and won by a designer smart enough to question the ink-on-your sweaty-fingers thin-newspaper-glossy coupon. God bless ’em, whoever it was.

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  1. 1
    David Adam Edelstein

    Wow, those are great. I’m not sure I’ve ever been jealous about not getting a Target mailing before.

    Re: Lawrence’s question, there are of course entire countries (Japan, The Netherlands) where most people think good design is important — or more accurately, maybe, where they just assume good design, like they assume air and gravity.

    I think the question we need to answer is “how did that happen?”

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