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Upon my arrival at Dinan in 2014 the one piece of printed literature that was historically offered to customers and dealers alike was a product brochure/catalog that gave a brief synopsis of the major product lines. It was a non-standard size with a lot of extra bindery processes involved that offered no real extra uniqueness to the piece other than making it more expensive to produce. The content and design were also dated and unimaginative. Although this was not a project tasked to me out of the gate it was one that I knew I wanted to tackle as time presented itself. With this piece being the only article that one could take home and look at it, it was a critical way to showcase the image of the brand.
Over the following months I formulated some ideas for the catalog and toyed with them in my down time. The goal; to create an informational piece that attracted attention through artistic imagery that exuded class and sophistication. The Dinan brand was modeled to cater specifically to those with a refined automotive palette so the printed piece needed to follow suit. While this would in its most basic form, be a product catalog, I also wanted it to be able to look the part of a coffee table book that would be kept around and not simply thrown away after one quick perusal of its pages. I also knew I wanted to get away from the non-standard size that ballooned the unit cost, and in doing so, limited the overall page count. By going to a standard 8.5×11 finish size the printing and bindery costs plummeted while also providing more print area (previous catalog was smaller). The reduction in cost also allowed for the page count to be significantly increased resulting in the content being more comprehensive than past iterations. Even though the end catalog grew in size and content, the cost per unit ended up dropping by 2x— a significant savings to the marketing departments bottom line.
The design itself was to be weighted heavily towards the graphical side with numerous full-page photos. This was done with the intention that it would draw the viewer in, even if they were just casually flipping through the catalog. In theory, a heavily laden picture book would also have the tendency to be retained for longer periods of time. These images were then supported by in depth descriptions of the various product lines. Probably more importantly however, the descriptions focused on what make the Dinan product unique from other vendors in each respective category. Coupled with clean typography and an easy flowing design the catalog has been a huge success, revitalizing a stagnant marketing effort that has been a staple program for decades.
PDFs of the above referenced catalogs can be found below.
2017 | Dinan High Performance Product Catalog
2018 | Dinan High Performance Product Catalog
Client | Dinan Corp
Category | Branding, Photography, Print
Year Created | 2015+
Media | Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe InDesign