Creatives by Sarah

In just two days of work, I was able to design multiple pieces of marketing content, from start to finish, that helped my client bring in $75,000 in sales for this new start up! The Sweet, an ice cream shop with prime real-estate in the tourist town of Mission Beach, San Diego, California, needed an eye-catching brand and imagery that made both parents and kids stop what they were doing and snag a couple scoops of delicious dessert.

In less than two days I photographed, branded, designed, wrote copy, designed the menu, increased the prices, and named the most expensive product (the 'Waffle Bottom') which has since become a hit amongst locals and tourists alike.

WHAT I CREATED: Large window posters, sandwich board posters for the boardwalk, large alternating menus for the 60" TV that sits behind the gelato, a printed menu for walk-in patrons, and more.

The Menu: I staged and photographed the products, wrote the copy, named the Waffle Bottom, Waffle Sandwich, and Gelato Pint-to-Go, and selected the brand colors for this San Diego based gelato shop to draw in kids and make the parent's pony up for the whole family to enjoy cold desserts beachside.

The Posters: The high-traffic spot of the gelato shop needed to have stand out posters to pull in passerby's. I started out by using the most attractive and colorful scoops of ice cream available, matched the spoons for a dual-sharing affect making the ice cream more relatable, and displayed colorful sprinkles to add an element of nostalgic-familiarity, texture, and depth to the imagery. These posters were printed out as 24"x36" posters and displayed proudly in the shop's windows along the main strip in Mission Beach.

Sandwich Board Posters: Mission Beach's boardwalk that lines the Pacific Ocean, is high-traffic all year long. With the dessert shop being only a block away, I needed to design a creative and informative poster to make even roller blader's break for a cold refreshing scoop, or a sun-toasted, beach dwelling parent want to haul their chairs and towels an entire block just for a quick scoop.

Using the photographs that I staged, I kept the poster designs simple with just the product name, an arrow, the distance (important for tourists who don't know their way around the area) and the a business name and address in case they felt the need to punch it into their smartphone's map or Yelp. Within one day these posters started drawing in crowds and more than doubled daily sales.

The TV Menu: At the time, the only way to know what flavors were available for shave ice were by them looking at the poorly handwritten labels on each bottle or by asking the shop owner.

After a TV was installed, the first priority was to design a menu that would fit its large screen that sat behind the counter. It needed to be eye-catching from the sidewalk and legible.

I pulled a stock image of multiple cups of shave ice (creating a sense of abundance) and cropped the image so it showed mostly the shave ice. I color matched the copy to the shop's available flavors and used a simple and easy-to-read font.

This simple but prominent graphic has proven to be helpful for all the patrons waiting in line, allowing them to see and choose their flavors prior to ordering.