Design Thinking applied to catalog design
Inspired by a comment from one of the guys on marketing team who had said: “I love to give gifts but I never know what to get.” I decided that to help him was the way to solve this. So unlike everyone else targeting “WHO” in a generic marketingy way… I chose to focus on WHAT – the distinguishing traits and unique characteristics that were not dependent on a gender or a role.
So, not “the perfect gift for mom” – rather, the perfect gift for the person who sings in the shower or can never find a taxi or has big ideas and a small apartment… could be a friend, a lover, a dad or a mom. These ideas were not restrictive or limiting and they were open to interpretation by the gift giver. How well you know and recognize what is special and unique about the person you were giving a gift to.
Every single item in the catalog was presented this way. The campaign emphasized empathy and thoughtfulness and the things that make us relate to eachother as New Yorkers.
This changed the catalog experience for the giver and it made it fun and entertaining.
The entire catalog was a dialog. (Top of page) The cover of the catalog featured all the questions (white text bubbles) and the inside had all the answers (green text bubble)