Are these designs just images and not relating with the product any way?

Question

There is a long detail. I kindly request you to ready it carefully, so we can understand each other in better way. Please tell me how can I improve it, if you think it must be down voted.

We do designs to promote our product and engage people. The client is related to medical devices and equipment.

For the current campaign (campaign is 4-5 days long and we share 1 design per day on social media), the product was Nebulizer.

Normally, we combine the product and the event related (we do events based designs for campaigns) elements together, just like these.

But this, time, it wasn't seeming easy to combine things. I discussed properly with my director (not art director) and content team that we can do around Monsoon, as it's rainy season here. I well explained them the concept.

Here I made 5 options (copies are pending, some fixes pending), so we can go with at least 3 to finalize:

1st - Like the mask in Nebulizer ultimately cares for your health in asthma, here Umbrella also represents the care for kid.

2nd - The window glass is stopping the rain entering to home. So its relatable, as product also help eliminate asthma.

3rd - Cool breeze in rainy season may trigger asthma. So the kid with umbrella flying away because of wind is relatable.

4th - Same concept as 2nd.

5th - Just like paper boat has a smooth flow, sails forward and saves you during storm, is somewhat same way, Nebulizer help you breathe easily, and saves your life.

These were basics concepts. They agreed before making them.

In a few of them, I changed background accordingly (like Windows).

But my director said we just can't use Shutterstock images. Do something creative we did before.

My whole belief about this campaign was that they will brainstorm the copies for them, so the message can be properly shown.

It looks like I did the most work, even provided them a rough guide for writing copies. But my content team and director team hardly give 20 minutes to writing creative copies. I never saw them brainstorming.

So they rejected my designs without any specific reason.

Are my designs really not related? If not, how do I effectively explain my director that sometimes we have to go with this way?

I remember some good user here said that we can sometimes use happy images just to show the outcome of product. But according to my director that will also be wrong in current scenario.

How should I proceed?

PS: I don't mind rejections. We have always done a lot of changes, re design things. The thing is my director is thinking we should stick to same format (like combining things, which visually looks creative), even when it's not possible. In past we have done similar things like design with simple images. But now they expect every campaign should have great manipulation. I will definitely change the designs again here, but I just wanted to know this, as I have invested some time in it.

I'm the only designer in my startup agency, and only I do research about creative campaigns. They write copies based on designs I make. So their ultimate message about campaign is highly dependent on my designs. So ultimately I'm doing marketing as well (which I suppose I'm not very good at).

Answer 1

Though I have some of the same trepidations about this question's fitness for our GD.SE as others, I will hazard answering.

As with @Scott in comments, for me it's been a long time since I was in an agency situation, but until a couple of years ago I was one designer of many in an architectural firm, which is similar in dynamic, though project scopes are far larger and longer, and infinitely more complex and multivariate.

However, my response is not primarily to the workplace blame part of the discussion, but rather the design conceptual query: I am deeply asthmatic, and so am a member of one of your primary target audiences; I am also the parent of two asthmatic kids, (one now grown, one early teen) and so am a member of your other primary target group.

To be clear, you're not aiming at the kids, you're aiming at their parents; you are also aiming at adult asthma sufferers.

So as a member of both of your target audiences, and a multi-decade graphic designer, I should be in a position to immediately Gestalt grasp the fitness of image to intent of product, and determine if, for me, these images convey the necessary ideation.

I can't. They don't.

That is, there's no Gestalt grasped across the range of images and concepts, there's not a clear unconsciously-understood graphic or conceptual language established which conveys either difficulty breathing or protection against same.

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The conditions and situations which most asthma sufferers or caregivers have learned through bitter experience to be on guard against are hot dry conditions, dusty conditions, pollen-infused conditions, late spring / summer in general, gusty wind conditions, mouldy spaces and smoke.

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I don't have to do precedent research to know the typical imagery most associated woth these concepts and situation - I've been seeing advertising and technical communications on this topic for two decades - here ares some thoughts on typical imagery just off the top of my head.

Flowers, particularly those on the various asthma watchlists due to frequency of severe allergic reaction, (ragweed e.g.) can convey the idea of pollen, particularly if you add a graphic element / overlay to indicate high pollen counts; so can grasses, oak trees, olive trees, or for sheer drama pollen clouds pouring off Douglas Fir or pine trees. Dust clouds, dust mite micrographs, cracked desert earth and dust in the image all can convey both dust and dry air triggers; faux-X-rays of inflamed or occluded lungs, bronchii, and alveoli, a coughing person, someone blowing into a peak-flow meter and looking pained all convey asthma suffering and / or treatment pretty well.

I think you need to completely re-conceptualise, bearing in mind a need to create and convey a singular graphic and conceptual language which spans all the sub-ads you create, whilst allowing for sufficient variation to give interest and variety.

Hope this helps; bonne chance.

Answer 2

Since this is a director vs. employee situation, you will ultimately have to do what the director says: don't use Shutterstock, do something creative like you did before. We don't know what he's referring to with the 'before', but i guess you know what he's talking about.

Also, this is in fact NOT a graphic design question, but a marketing, concept-related question. This is not about the composition of the actual layouts, but about you linking the product with the images and the copy, the director with the copywriter and the rainy season and ultimately managing this internal workflow. Just adding a 'photoshop' tag does not make it on-topic.