Mobile Warming Product Catalog
2023-24
One of my most challenging yet rewarding annual projects at Fieldsheer was developing the yearly B2B Mobile Warming product catalog. This detailed and informative booklet provides our customers with all the information they need regarding our Mobile Warming product line for the up coming season. The catalog is an essential tool for the sales team as it allows them to showcase our product offerings to customers and provides them with the information they need to make informed purchasing decisions. As a digital designer, my role is to ensure that the catalog is visually appealing, easy to navigate, and accurately represents our products. We also have to ensure that the catalog is user-friendly and easy to navigate. This means organizing the content in a logical and intuitive way and including features such as a table of contents and index to help customers find what they are looking for quickly and easily.
CHALLENGES
1. Design Layout
2. Data Organization
3. Printing & Distribution
- Design Layout: Creating a visually appealing and effective catalog layout is subjective, and it’s crucial to involve senior employees and managers in the decision-making process. One challenge I faced was the need to provide multiple preliminary design layouts for review and approval. This involved creating different design options, each with its own unique aesthetic and layout variations.
- Product Data Organization: The Mobile Warming catalog required comprehensive and accurate product information, including detailed descriptions, pricing, sizing options, and product images. Collating and organizing this vast amount of data from various departments across the organization always presents a significant challenge.
- Printing & Distribution: Once the catalog design was finalized, we faced the challenge of finding reliable third-party printers to produce physical copies of the catalog for distribution in both the US and Canada. This involved considering factors such as quality, cost, turnaround time, and shipping logistics to ensure efficient delivery. Simultaneously, we recognized the importance of providing an easily accessible digital PDF viewer for the catalog, enabling online browsing and convenient access for customers.
Data Organization...
The process of developing the catalog starts with collecting all the necessary product data & product samples from our product development team. With my duties as the in-house product photographer, it was also my responsibility to capture clean and crisp product photos to ensure that the products are presented in the best possible light. Once I have all the information and photography, I begin the design layout process using Adobe InDesign. I utilize the Data Merge feature in InDesign to automatically import all the product information, such as product names, descriptions, sizes, and pricing, into the catalog layout, which saves time and reduces the risk of errors. We then format the catalog to ensure that it is visually appealing and easy to navigate, which involves selecting the appropriate font, color palette, and imagery to showcase our products. This step also includes organizing the content in a logical and intuitive way, such as grouping products by category, and including features such as a table of contents and index to help customers find what they are looking for quickly and easily.