Big Ass Fans Tervis Tumbler.
It all began with a wish. A Christmas wish! Our head of Consumer Insights/Research Analytics wanted to buy everyone in the Big Ass Fans marketing department a branded Tervis® Tumbler for Christmas to boost team morale and bring us all together in the spirit of the season.
design process.
Using a template found on the Tervis® website for large, custom corporate orders, the illustrations were drawn to scale using a graphite pencil on a 22”w x 34”h piece of printer paper taped seamlessly together.
Each illustration represents a piece of the marketing culture, including the elements of every day shenanigans (like our beer fridge and name badges), brand products, and sub-departments — video production, web & graphic design, social media, direct mail, analytics, swag, and trade shows.
The approved sketch was traced with black ink and uploaded to the computer. Using Photoshop, safety yellow highlights various illustrations and draws the eye around the cup.
unique challenges.
Not up to scale — Since our order didn’t fit the requirements for a “large, custom corporate order” (over 1,000), we had to use their builder, which unfortunately warped my illustration and further distorted the design. I ended up warping my original sketch in Photoshop, so that it’d be correctly distorted in the builder. A quick and simple solution.
Breaking the Rules — Unknown to me at the time, even if you hand draw another company’s logo, it still counts as copyright infringement. The offending illustrations (classic social media icons) were redrawn to WiFi, a star, heart, and check mark. Again a simple solution to avoid the copyright issues.
No obscene language — After dealing with their customer service team for about 10 hrs trying to get all these issues resolved, they promptly informed us that they wouldn’t print our design because of a big “ass”. We repeatedly told them that it’s our company’s name, so they allowed it. However, during a secondary order, they still gave us hell over the name.
outcome.
The team loved their new tumblers! We even ordered more when new members joined the team. I still have mine years later, and you better believe I’ll be getting a replacement if it ever bites the dust.
