The Objective
Sphere’s goal with this poster was to inform students on the University of Toronto campus about their device buyback service. The company partnered up with U of T to allow students to trade in their phones at the university book store (instead of having to mail in their device as Sphere customers normally do).
Design Decisions
My first consideration was the client’s target market: students on a university campus. Knowing that students move quickly from class to class on campus, it was important to me that the poster conveyed as much information as possible in the shortest amount of time.
Because of this, I chose a bold, all-caps font for the poster’s headline and secondary headings (“Step 1”, etc.), and relied on simple, communicative icons to explain the Sphere process. I chose a solid colour for the background to maximize text visibility, and kept the amount of content low to minimize the time a viewer needed to understand the poster.
Copywriting
Though copy was minimal, I made it a point to include only what was completely necessary with a focus on benefit-driven language.
I chose a straightforward headline (“Get cash for your old phone”) to quickly communicate to students the benefit of using a service like Sphere’s. This headline directly addresses a question many students have when it’s time to upgrade their phones: “What do I do with my old phone?” Simple: trade it in for money.
The client requested that the poster include a quick summary of their services in a step-by-step format. I concluded that a no-nonsense explanation of the trade-in process was optimal, as other details could be explained by book store employees.
