Fowled Out.

Illustration for exotic bird food packaging. (Click image to view larger)

This project was a lot of fun to work on. I was commissioned to create a fun and colorful illustration of a pet owner and their exotic bird. In this case an Amazon. The product this illustration was going to be used with was an exotic pet food for birds called "Fruit Blend Flavor."

The agency in charge was going to do test marketing and if that went well I'd be doing about seven other pet food products in the same illustrative fashion.


Custom hand lettering for logo type.

Well I provided the above art to the agency and they loved it. The agency mocked up the packaging with my art and logotype and showed it to their pet food client and they also loved it.

Of course I was happy and who wouldn't be, the agency loved it, the company loved it, things were looking great. But when they test marketed it the public hated it. That's right, it totally tanked. So the agency called me and let me know that because of that the client was going in another direction, a safer direction if you will.

As an Illustrative Designer I am familiar with the normal creative speed bumps like "Design by Committee" or the heavy-handed marketing folk who fancy themselves as Art Directors. But this was a new type of experience for me. It made me wonder, would the iPod have been so cool if they let the design be dictated by test marketing it first? I doubt it.

The blind public rejection of my art hung over my head like the Sword of Damocles for a few days. I decided to show my art to a friend of mine who is a bird aficionado and he loved it. I then told him what had happened and he made a good point I hadn't considered.

"These type of bird owners are very serious types. They look for scientific formulas to keep their pets health optimal and I'd bet this was too playful, and thus in their minds, too fun to take it seriously."

Fair enough, I could at least understand that point of view. I don't have to like it though. If we let the public dictate design on everything then what's the point of being a designer? But I digress.

You can view the art larger here.