Bad Design Sometimes Gets Results

Hallmark announced that this years best selling Valentines Day card is a repeat champion from last year. The card shown below apparently really catches consumer's eyes. According to Emily West, a communications professor who has researched the greeting card as a cultural communication vehicle, the card uses imagery and text that is widely shared and understood. If this card were hung up to be critiqued at a graphic design studio however, I feel it would be ripped to shreds. Why the flower needs to be boxed in a dense heavy black border, why another senseless black boarder reaches out to the edge of the card (but awkwardly not all the way), and why the font has to be so unreadable and void of contrast I will never know. I would have to say though, that this is one instance where bad design sold well. Click here to read a more complete article about the card.