ABOVE: A CD-ROM that played con-
tinuously in the booth during the
show was also given away to inter-
ested parties wanting to learn
more about the firm.
(performance tested graphics)
The Client
“We needed something fun,” remembers
Chris West, art director on LPG Design’s
Performance Tested Graphics campaign
that spotlighted the firm’s creative capa-
bilities to the automotive aftermarket
industry, which is widely recognized as
a lucrative market, albeit one that is also
static and stale when it comes to graphic
presentations. “We wanted something
fun that would promote our point of view
about design. It’s a very dry market. You’re
selling hubcaps and transmissions. So, we
were interested in ratcheting the excite-
ment level up a little bit.”
SELF-PROMOTION FUELS TRADE SHOW EVENT
CLIENT:
LPG Design
(formerly Love Packaging Group)
DESIGN F IRM:
LPG Design
ART D IRECTOR:
Chris West
DESIGNERS:
Dustin Commer, Rick Gimlin, Lorna West
STRUCTURAL D ESIGNER:
Mitch McCullough
PHOTOGRAPHER:
Jack Jacobs Photography
CAMPAIGN R UN:
October 1999 through March 2000
TARGET MARKET:
Automotive aftermarket business owners
and/or marketing directors
The Brief
A division of the Love Box Company, Wichita,
Kansas–based LPG Design, formerly known as the
Love Packaging Group, wanted to build on Love Box’s
reputation in the automotive aftermarket, where the
corrugated manufacturer had made a name for itself.
The SEMA (Specialty Equipment Market Association)
trade show provided just the right opportunity to make
a statement. Because of its relationship with the Love
Box Company, LPG Design had plenty of experience
designing corrugated packaging for the automotive
market; now, its goal was to tap into that expertise and
pursue the industry in its own right.
“Corrugated was our entrée into this market; it’s huge
and it needs improvement,” explains West. However,
complicating their message was that few prospects
recognized that LPG Design did more than package
design, it was also a full-service studio (which is one
reason the firm subsequently changed its name offi-
cially from Love Packaging Group to LPG Design in
October 1999). So, while their trade show message
had to emphasize packaging, they also wanted to pro-
mote their capabilities with other collateral materials
and advertising.
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Setting the Scene
The design team opted to pursue a multipart trade show campaign based on a retro, postwar service
station theme. Designer/illustrator Rick Gimlin came up with the idea of creating a vintage gas pump of
corrugated, and with that as the centerpiece item, designers quickly generated dozens of spin-off ideas.
Foremost, the team decided they needed a character to communicate their message and Gimlin created
Hank, “your friendly service station attendant.” Because the postwar-era gas station attendant is rec-
ognized as an American pop culture icon for incomparable quality, it was the perfect symbol for the
campaign. “Remember the days when we had full-service gas attendants? That’s what he represents,”
explains Jolynn Berk, account executive. The concept of full-service easily communicated LPG Design’s
core message, “meaning that we’re reliable; we can provide all of your marketing needs. We’re full
service,” she adds.
As the focal point of the campaign, Hank reinforced the slogan, “Performance Tested Graphics,” which
linked the automotive aftermarket with LPG’s design capabilities in the minds of prospective clients.
Designer Dustin Commer added the tagline—
Premo,
which he adapted from a 1920s advertisement
he had seen. The word fit the theme perfectly, while communicating premium to its audience.
The design team decided they
needed a character to communi-
cate their message and created
Hank, “your friendly full-service
station attendant.”
LEFT: Designers created and
produced a full-size, 70
inch-tall x 22-inch-wide x
13-inch-deep (178 cm x 56
cm x 33 cm), 1940s-style
gas pump constructed of
corrugated substrated.
Graphics came off a
Displaymaker printer in
four-color process before it
was gloss laminated. Both
the structural and graphic
design of the piece included
plug-in side panels, gas noz-
zle, laminated Mylar number
wheels, plastic knobs, and
mechanical workings, topped
off with a 9 1/2-inch (24 cm)
-diameter plastic globe dis-
playing the LPG logo.
THE CHALLENGES
Working with a Minimal Budget
While the campaign was a resounding success, it came with its
share of challenges. LPG created this entire campaign in-house
with the exception of screening the shop rag, purchasing the
tin oil cans, and offset printing three brochures in four-color
process—all of which were outsourced. Everything else was
manufactured in-house, which allowed designers to produce a
campaign with maximum impact with a minimal budget of
$5000. Naturally, this covered only outside costs. All design
work was completed during off-peak or downtime hours, while
the box manufacturing capabilities were also absorbed in-house.
Unusual Materials
The gas pump was among the trickiest pieces to produce, pri-
marily due to its size. Commer’s computer sketches went to the
firm’s structural division group on the Love Box side of the busi-
ness, where it went through a few variations before it was
finalized. From there, the design was sent via computer to a
huge vacuum cutting table where the corrugated material was
held in place while an automatic knife cut out the pieces like
a jigsaw puzzle. “We have all of our pieces precisely die-cut
on the cutting table, which is a competitive advantage we offer
clients. If they have a prototype and they want to see some-
thing that is an idea or a concept, we can make their samples,”
says West.
In the meantime, the artwork was downloaded to a large for-
mat printer and was laminated to the corrugated. “When you
deal with corrugated that is 70 inches (178 cm) tall and it’s a
three-dimensional subject, it is huge when you have it flat.
So it was rather difficult to get it figured out, put together, and
then get a print on it, laminate it, and get it assembled. But
we were stretching the capabilities and that is what we have
to show. We stretch the perimeters so that the client can see
what we can do for them,” adds West.
The Creative Process
The biggest design challenge, according to West, was coming
up with the whole marketing scheme in the first place and
ensuring that all the elements that worked within the frame-
work of LPG’s communication goals while being fun and prac-
tical. “I think we did a good job integrating all the pieces,” sug-
gests Berk. “Everything is very well thought out as to what the
purpose was for each piece.”
So how did LPG integrate all these elements into one cohesive
campaign? “We have a free flow of ideas and we work from a
creative center. We start with our creativity and then we take
the elements that need to be addressed within the scope of the
project...and keep building on the theme. We had a specific
agenda of elements that needed to be included in the whole
scope of the project,” says West. “We limited our designs to
something we could afford and decided to be as creative as
we could within that context.”
“Everything we designed is producible,” adds Commer.
“Nothing is too far-fetched.”
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The Build-Up
The campaign began with a teaser black-and-white,
1/8-page advertisement that ran in
SEMA News.
The
preshow version with the headline, Performance
Tested Graphics, listed LPG Design’s booth number
and appeared in the October and November 1999
issues; a second version, minus the booth information,
appeared in the December 1999 as well as the January,
February, and March 2000 issues.
Overlapping the advertising run, was a preshow mailer/
teaser that repeated the Performance Tested Graphics
headline on a trifold brochure/invitation inviting show
attendees to LPG Design’s booth to take part in a cus-
tomized giveaway offer: Visit the booth and register to
win a miniature corrugated scale model of a vintage
1940s-style gas pump.
At the Show
The theme was carried out further at LPG’s booth. The show displays included
numerous items primarily constructed of folding carton, a printable, white heavy-
weight card stock that is typically used for doughnut boxes, and corrugated, which
is recognized by a sheet of fluting that is sandwiched between paper liners.
In the booth, Hank greeted visitors from a prominent 17-1/2" x 9-1/2" (44 cm x 24 cm)
motion-activated display with vintage-inspired graphics using 22-point Carolina
Board and a 3/16–inch (4.5 mm) foam core backing. A light-sensing device allowed
Hank to wave Hi at passersby. The vintage signage again repeated the Performance
Tested Graphics headline.
ABOVE: LPG Design created a preshow mailer that
directed SEMA attendees directly to the firm’s booth.
RIGHT: Hank, “your friendly full-service attendant,”
added personality to the campaign. Here, thanks to a
light-sensor-activated motor, Hank’s uniformed image
waves at booth visitors from a 17-1/2" x 9-1/2" (44 cm
x 24 cm) motion activated display with vintage-inspired
graphics using 22-point Carolina Board and a 3/16-
inch (4.5 mm) multiple plug-ins (graphic layers) gave
the piece dimensionality for a total depth of 3 inches
(8 cm).
LEFT: Prior to the SEMA trade show,
LPG Design ran a preshow black-
and-white 1/8-page advertisement
in the
SEMA News;
later, a second
version without the booth informa-
tion appeared in the publication.
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Getting the Message Out
Nearby, LPG Premo brand oil cans were showcased in
a replica of the steel, point-of-sale displays found in
service stations. The display appears to be made of alu-
minum tread plate, but is actually made of corrugated
that designers laminated with a silver foil. “We can’t
make a tread plate display, so we made it out of corru-
gated. That is what is so unique about it,” says West.
“We make corrugated look like aluminum or enameled
metal or brushed aluminum. We try and push the
envelope as to what corrugated can look like.”
The cans were no ordinary oil cans, either. Open their pop-top and inside is a minia-
ture pamphlet showcasing LPG’s work in the aftermarket industry along with an
authentic shop cloth that was screened with the LPG logo. The giveaway cans were
distributed throughout the show—as an incentive to visit the booth—in a brushed-
aluminum toolbox also made of corrugated and laminated with a brushed silver foil.
The toolbox held about twenty-four cans.
Another show-stopping piece was LPG’s gas can. Designers could have slapped their
logo onto a plastic shopping bag, which is commonly seen at such trade shows for
exhibitors to tote around all the literature and freebies they pick-up, but they weren’t
about to do anything so ordinary. They wanted to carry the gas station theme
through everything—including the giveaway carryall, which they created to resem-
ble a gas can, complete with a nozzle, using folding carton and corrugated. “We
wanted something that could be used as a sales kit because that’s another one of
our direct-marketing tools that we have a lot of expertise in,” says West. “We wanted
to express our creativity in this arena so we took the whole idea one step further
and created a device for collecting and carrying materials around. And, this one has
a spout on it. How much more fun can you have with a sales kit?”
RIGHT: Tucked inside the
giveaway oil cans was a
miniature pamphlet show-
casing LPG’s work along
with an authentic shop
cloth that was screened
with the LPG logo.
FAR RIGHT: The oil cans were
showcased in a corrugated
replica of a steel, point-of-
sale display found in service
stations.
RIGHT: The oil cans were
distributed throughout the
show in a brushed-aluminum
toolbox also made of corru-
gated.
BELOW RIGHT: LPG’s gas can
carryall was given to booth
visitors to tote around the
materials they collected
during the show and was
later used as a sales kit.
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Of course, the centerpiece of the booth was the full-size,
1940s-style gas pump that inspired the entire campaign.
Constructed predominantly of corrugated material, it
stood 70 inches (178 cm) high and was topped with a
round, plastic globe emblazoned with the LPG logo. The
artwork for the pump was printed in four-color process
on a large-format printer and laminated to the corru-
gated surface. Both the structural and graphic design
of the piece included plug-in side panels, gas nozzle,
and mechanical workings, topped off with the lighted
globe that was perfectly accented by LPG’s logo, which
is also circular and sports a vintage styling.
An exact duplicate of the full-size gas pump was pro-
duced as a 40 percent scale model, measuring 30 inches
(76 cm) high, 9 inches (23 cm) wide, and 5 1/4 inches
(13.5 cm) deep. It was made of lighter gauge corru-
gated, but in all other details was an exact replica of
the large version. After the show, LPG Design pulled
a name from more than four hundred entrants who
registered in the booth for the prize and designers
then created and customized a tabletop version of
the pump with the winner’s name and logo, and then
shipped the prize free of charge to their business.
Taking LPG Home
In total, the show displays and giveaways proved to be ample demonstrations of
LPG’s capabilities. “These are all golden opportunities for a lot of direct-mail devices.
It’s a fun approach to showing what we can do with corrugated rather than just a
box,” says West. While all the fun twists on corrugated intrigued visitors, LPG
Design did not want to ignore all of its noncarton and corrugated work done outside
of the automotive industry and to reinforce its diverse capabilities, they produced
a CD-ROM that played continually in the booth and was given away to interested
parties wanted to learn more about the firm’s creative efforts.
The Finishing Touch
Capping off the campaign was a follow-up thank you that was hand delivered. From
start to finish, the design portion of the campaign took approximately fifteen weeks.
ABOVE: LPG Design created a
preshow mailer that directed
SEMA attendees directly to
the firm’s booth.
LEFT: A follow-up thank you
brochure was hand delivered
after the show.
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