Minding my own business while I am looking for an ad, this attention grabbing ad popped up on the side of the page. Hummm, since I am in an analyzing mode I wondered what caught my attention? So I took a screen shot.

Side Pop Up while on the internet

Who designed this ad? Google search engine mentions that Carnival Cruise lines uses Visionworks Marketing Group,. Rhics on Facebook had another entry of Carnival Cruise Lines advertising, and Monika Molina – a Visual Designer noted on her Linkedin.com page that she works for Carnival Cruise lines. I couldn’t find this particular ad in any of the sites. No idea who designed or produced it. This ad pops up and down on the side of internet pages, so the only way to find it again is to …… wait while scrolling.

What catches attention?

Number 1: Red Color – Logo, Accommodations, All included, Book Now. Message received.

After you have been drawn in for the second look, the title in Modern typeface proclaims the title.

vertical stress, thick/thin transitions, serifs on lowercase letters – thin and horizontal serifs

The “body” of the message is in Sans Serif typeface, bold, in large and attention grabbing capitals!

Even thick transitions, no stress, no serifs

Size works

The two typefaces work well together as they are so different. The size is interesting because the Title is smaller than the “body”. The body is screaming out for attention which works because the designer did a great job in Kerning and line spacing. Note there is a little more space between Carnival and FOOD, FUN, with no spaces between the O’s, AT’s or IO’s. Proximity to each other enhances the Importance of Title (who) and Body (message) with white space and proximity to next message of what (cruises) and price.

The size of the what and price are a repetition of Title and Body.  Size is the contrast.

Large size price accompanied by smaller print, asterisk big and small..

Small sans serif though in all capitals, is accompanied by much larger sans serif price. Don’t we all want the price?! So I have to laugh as I didn’t even notice the tiny asterisk in san serif without caps, until I enlarged the picture to examine it. *Legal.  I have to wonder if any print was so blue and small it can’t be seen. (My husband is a lawyer, so no jokes today.)

Though the typeface works very well, the color contrast wins hands down on why this ad works. The Sizes may seem backwards but they work well together in this ad’s message.

Cool color blue dominates as important red message shines through, with just a touch of orange to contrast the turquoise.

That solid red box sitting outside of the rest of the alignment boxes, invites you to push and see what awaits!