Staples, Inc. 2016 Back-to-school package and signage design

Background

Staples has always viewed their busiest, most profitable time period to be the back-to-school season. Promoting back-to-school is critical to its success and a key part of that is the look, feel and voice of the campaign. Every year it’s new. However, the campaigns have never really distinguished themselves visually from their competitors, such as Office Max, Target, etc. For 2016, they wanted something not only new, but unique and fresh.

Solution

The new campaign design is a significant departure from anything Staples had ever done before. At it’s core are word bubbles that hold both brand and supportive copy. A variety of “hand-drawn” typefaces add to the playfulness and spontaneous feeling  of the design. Whimsical copy is utilized to support the overall theme. All are placed over a blue background collage of “kids’ doodles”.

Fall sales far exceeded expectations, making this one of Staples most successful back-to-school campaigns ever.