Bic Lighters

What I love about my Bic lighter ads that I have in my portfolio is that, well, they are laid out cleanly and the copywriting is something I did, and I think I did a good job coming up with a tag line that was sassy, subtle, and provocative without being so obvious. I think it really would connect with a target audience.



But my problem wasn't the concept with it. I always looked at my Bic lighter ads and loved them, but the graphics on them weren't mine. They were either stock photography or in the public domain.

So I began brainstorming about how I would want to refashion these three concepts. i want to feep the font, because I love how hip it looks. And I liked the website at the bottom, but I also wanted to very easily give the point of your lighter options. So the three concepts are "Original" for the solid colored lighters, "Special Edition" for the artsy, pre-designed one, and "Custom," which I am making an original design for. Hopefully, I can play with the predesigned one since cropping within the actual lighter would be able to make a spin on older artwork. I'm thinking art nouvaeu or something recognizeable and classy but still provacative and sexy.

So, I came up with this first concept based off the "flick, flick, pass" copy, which I haven't placed on it, yet. I want to make my concepts and then place the copy on it. I just remember how when I was younger I would do these henna designs and paint these lace-like figures. You can see the henna influence in the Izze bubbles, especially the pear, but I wanted to use it in a more obvious way here so that the graphic grabs you and makes you interested in it. Hopefully.


That one was for the "Original" Bic Lighter. For "Custom," I almost wanted to go all out. But as I noticed, the nighter got lost in the...I guess...clutter. My diction choice there isn't the correct one, because I don't think my designs look cluttered. But I over designed it. So I simplified, and without the copy I got this:


So, the "Original" and "Customize" or whatever are laid out, and I'm pretty happy with them. My target for them is kind of this chic hipster, which I am not, but I think that I have the same interests as. These would catch my eye, anyway. But I needed one for the "Special Edition" concept, and I was thinking Frank Miller Collection or DC comics collection, because the back banner could easily be a comic strip and the light could have a cropped portrait of, say, the joker. It would have been nice as a deck where there is Catwoman's portrait on a queen of diamonds card, or Poison Ivy on a queen of clubs/clovers card...but make the clubs into ivy leaves. It coulda been cool. But I have always loved 19th century graphic art or any type of poster art, and after looking at Cuban posters or Soviet propaganda fliers, I just decided to go with art nouveau because I like it best:


The center circle motif needs to be reworked. It needs more whimsy. And the background texture in the brown is reused from the "Original" ad. But it needed a texture badly or it felt really empty. Gradients weren't fixing it either...

No, I like it.

So I needed to ad the copy...

I don't know if I like it. The tag line. I like the bottom font. But the neat little tag, I'm not sure if I like it with the other copy because it just seems like a lot of sass and it looks better being more subtle. I'm not sure if I like it being diagonal. So, this is what they look like now. I'll see what happens with them.