Lynne Grainger's Blog

So who’s behind all this craft? This unique gallery-quality artwork that fills Artisans’ World Marketplace? Think about traveling the world. Literally. The craft is imported from Bali, Bangladesh, Bolivia, Chile, Ecuador, Ghana, Guatemala, Haiti, India, Kenya, Nicaragua, Pakistan, Phillippines, Sri Lanka and the United States….you get where I’m going with this. When Sandy says you can rebuild a village with your shopping dollars, she means just that. Additionally, all the cooperatives that she works with are part of Fair Trade. What does that mean? Fair trade is better than aid. “These are people who desperately need a bag of rice, but once the bag of rice is gone the problem is still there. If we can teach them to market their product and get paid fairly, that is an ongoing solution.” Artisans’ World Marketplace is dedicated to this association and the organization’s credo and we wanted to get this message out in a subtle manner. Consequently, the ad campaign I designed led with this headline — The Many Faces of Fair Trade. Subhead — Your purchase feeds families, save villages. Not only are we boldly stating what your shopping dollars do, we back that up with the artisan, the artisan’s product and name. We’re not just shooting from the hip here….we are talking about making a difference for individuals and families all over the world. And if you don’t think that doesn’t create a powerful, uplifting, positive effect, think again.

As I discuss the campaign, not only will I be sharing a series of ads, but how we inexpensively pulled these together. I shot several of the products, enhanced and modified the images in Photoshop, and added the image of the artisan. How’s it working? Some customers walk into the store with the ad in hand and ask for that product. And even in a slow economy, Artisans’ continues to make big differences for people all over the world. What will you see when you walk into the store? Quality products utilizing simple resources like wire, stone, and fabrics made with natural dyes become woven bowls, graceful forms, and vibrant clothing. We invite you to meet some of our gifted artisans, through their work, where you will unravel talent, determination, and an artisans’ desire to connect with others. Keep on looking around, Lynne

We found that customers of Artisans’ World Marketplace wanted to know how their dollars were making a difference. What exactly does Fair Trade do? Who are the artisans? Consequently, we developed materials that would educate, inform and visually captivate while answering those questions. We wanted to continue with the message of hope — given that spirit allowed for ideas, products, solutions and a better quality-of-life. How “hope” appeared had many faces — from a cooperative in Kenya teaching both women and men how to knit, which allowed them to care for their children; to women in Calcutta making gift bags, rather than turning to prostitution; to children pulling strangling vines from thriving trees in the Amazon to created picture frames and creating schools; the stories are as plentiful as the talents and desires of these people.

The challenge is to show these stories visually to inspire. To have customers leave with a positive attitude that their shopping dollars made a difference half way around the world. We decided on a quarterly newsletter filled with images of products, articles that spoke about various cooperatives and artisans, while strengthening Artisans’ World Marketplace message and brand. The newsletter, a journey of HOPE, a never-ending story, was the header/masthead I designed. Selecting a big bold, sans serif font with irregularities in the characters (Keedy Sans Two) and some rounded strokes, so not too sharp. I pulled in a very condensed sans serif font for the tag line and letter space it heavily so more legible. Created a nice push-pull with these two fonts. With the large open counter in the letter O, I had the room I needed to bring in the giraffe’s head (remember this graphic element from the letterhead?). With the adjacent space I created a linear, boxed space that mimicked the space held for the word HOPE; in this area I placed the mission statement in capital letters, with lots of leading (space between the lines). Why all caps? Because the eye needs lowercase letters to follow along and recognize the characters to more readily see a word, but in all caps the text becomes graphic lines – much cleaner visually. And you the reader have to slow down to read this. I know this is considered shouting in the email world, but this is print. And hey, if you need the volume turned up to hear this message, I think Sandy would proudly do so. The 3-column grid gives me flexibility in layout — photos could be stretched over several columns or violate the grid and create some interest.  The newsletter spoke about traveling the world; explained Fair Trade; introduced new services, ie. Gift Registry; highlighted a cooperative; gave a calendar of events, and more. Again the newsletter was printed on a natural, fiber, paper with black ink. (see sample below). Budget and appearance is always a consideration.

We purposely didn’t sell in the newsletter, opting to teach and inspire. To show how each person’s dollars do make a difference. As Sandy Ramsey, said, “ We can watch the nightly news seeing all the starvation in the world and think, I’m one person what can I do. Mother Teresa was one person, and she had quite an impact on the world.” As the conversation continues, consider how design facilitates all types of messages. – Lynne