Without the 's', it's just a mint

No really, it's the most simple branding idea on earth.

For our first project of the year, we were given the guidelines to use and abuse the resource pack supplied by Smint, to create a poster in which to enter their poster competition.
That may sound a little crap, and I thought it was pretty crap to start with also; but the fact it was so limited and un-established (when compared to Coca-Cola who often run this same campaign) that the constraint of it all added to the fun of it.

I'll say, I think little of their branding guidelines and campaign title; but they gave me a lot of weights of Avant Garde for free, so I'm just going to say thank you on that font.

Their competition ran under the mast head of their new 'ingenious' slogan Fresh To Impress, which is a pretty poor excuse for a slogan. When was the last time you were out on a hot date, and they go "Oh, you're breathe is very fresh" and you've replied with "Oh yeah, thanks. I got a smint from the machine next to the condoms in the bathroom".

Anyhow, I had two strong ideas for this project. One had classic painting and the other I removed the 's'—and there was me slagging of Smint's mediocre ideas.

So as you'll of see, above is my idea with the classic paintings. It works on the idea of photoshopping the 'iconic' Smint box into the paintings; with the tag line, reinforcing that the main characters of the painting are impressive because they are fresh rather than the subject matter of the original artwork.

This may be a big blasphemous middle finger to my love for oil paintings and the early works of Picasso but my goodness, look how happy Jesus' disciples are to see that mint box in the age of standardised halitosis.

I really liked this idea but within the conjunction of possible copyright issues and people actually fully understanding the premise of the poster; I went back to the drawing board, stood there wondering why I still have a full scale drawing board in the 21st century and started again.

After a bit of thinking & some tutor intervention, I came to coin the term "Without the 's', It's just a mint." and that's where the fun (and pain) began. I got a dictionary and hired the help of many immature students as we embarked on trying to think of any word that would mean something else if the 's' was removed.

Above are some that I rather liked, but below is the one that made me giggle my toilet humour right through my rib cage and straight onto the page.

So this, is the polished poster that made it to the final cut. I would have done something else but I had to follow the branding guidelines and other such rules; either way I still rather like it.

Now it's in the competition and I was wondering if you could vote on it? I could win £500, and I will happily buy you a pint for your effort.

You can vote every 15 hours (I think) and the cash would really make my overdraft feel a lot better than it currently does. Thank you please.

https://www.facebook.com/SmintUK?sk=app_451684954848385&brandloc=DISABLE&app_data=from-g25g1l%2Cchk-561946cfe8663

I've heard from people that there are problems accessing it, so if you are on mobile or can't access via that link; go on this one and click "Gallery". THANKS!
http://woobox.com/nhb4de/g25g1l