Creative Cut

A beautiful front cover shot beckons the recipient of Fancy Flours’ Holiday 2007 catalog to open up and browse. Most bakers would be drawn to these cookies, frosted and decorated in the holiday spirit. It has a Martha Stewart feeling, with the soft photography and the celadon coloration.

Unfortunately, after the photography, it’s all downhill. First of all, where’s the name of the catalog? Oh, there it is, on the bottom of the cover, in small, hard-to-read script type. Logos belong front and center. A cataloger’s name should be the first thing customers see, hopefully peaking out on the top. In the glut of catalogs that so many customers receive, a catalog’s name should be treated like a masthead and should be the biggest element on the page — not an afterthought.

Back Cover
Consistent with the understated front cover logo, Fancy Flours’ back cover doesn’t fare much better. It looks moderate and boring, with four very small silhouette shots. There’s no romance, drama or sense of uniqueness here. Brand isn’t communicated, and only three of the shots sell product.

The company should drop the nonselling product, making the other product shots bigger, and have at least one product that’s more representative of the decorations inside. A feature shot would be nice and can be accomplished if Fancy Flours minimizes the online copy below.

What’s more, the copy supporting the online push on the back cover is very hard to read. Comprehension goes down with the use of center-justified type and wide columns. People just don’t read that far along a line without losing their place. Two columns of left-justified type with bullets is more effective.

Opening Spread
Here lies a field of opportunity. It’s terrific to have editorial content that explains the vision and point of view of the company. This is all positioning, which is great, especially for prospects who might need an extra push to feel comfortable to shop and order from Fancy Flours. But the general information here could be consolidated to make more room for information that’s more meaningful to the customers.