Room for improvement

The SmartSaver is a Value coupon magazine/newspaper. It is usually around the 18 page mark and is full of coupons for health and beauty, home services, food and other misc. coupons. It comes out in 8 different areas in sydney with each edition coming out every three weeks.

The coupon are are seen on their website and can be printed their

It's function is to offer discounted prices to its readers

It is a design that is around me a lot because I do casual graphic design work for them.

I was compelled to blog about the SmartSaver because the design is, on the most part, ineffective and predictable. The industry word for this kind of design is a 'dog's breakfast'. To explain, it's easier to do it in point form:

As single adverts some may be slightly effective and usually get the job done but as an over all design there are many problems.

• There is minimal hierarchy and almost no flow between ads and within them.

• There is no contrast or dynamic. In almost all cases SmartSaver uses colour to draw attention and neglects dynamics in texture, tone, shape, direction and scale.

• No differentiating style between adverts.

• No anchor points and readers find it difficult to find an ad

• Extreme over use of drop shadows, exclamation marks and starburts

The smaller to ad the worse it seems. The only thing that brings in the design in, is the ones people do for them like, Subway and Hungry Jacks etc. also their logo is quiet simple and straight to the point which is good.

The give the graphic artist 20 mins to create a 1 unit ad because they claim that any longer is to expensive, however to me it's more logical to make a product that is easy and comfortable for its consumers to read and effectively convey a message about a business so in turn the businesses that advertise with SmartSaver will have more customers therefore getting more money and then more likely to pay and stay with SmartSaver and mention it to their friends.

SmartSaver is a successful business esp. during the recession, but I see a lot more potential in the way it communicate to it's readers and a lot more potential to make money.

The design is slightly aggressive and orderly (in the sense that it has a structure)