What's In an Ad?

In my time at Diamond Select Toys, I was lucky to work with a very talented designer, Steve Rowan, who always captured my design notes perfectly, and was a great guy. Here are a few of the ads we worked on over the years, many of which were designed for the Previews catalog, but then were resized for comic books, specifically Archie comics.   

This first one I think did a great job showcasing the different Transformers factions within each set of Minimates block figures. Three series were out at the time, and I think Steve made it very colorful and eye-catching while keeping clear who was in each set. 

The Cobra Kai action figures were a great line, and we were lucky to have some great photography to work with from master photographer Peter Minges. This one is fairly straightforward, but president Chuck T. was always a fan of cross-selling the older figures, especially when we had them in stock. I think they create a nice "co-starring" element, and Steve's layout has real movie-poster vibes. 

Asking Steve to showcase the four main Turtles in this TMNT ad while showing that each came in a different set was a challenging request, but Steve delivered, creating a pretty unique ad, I think. I love Minimates, and squeezing 15 of them into one ad was a recipe for disaster, but I think it came out neat and organized and does a great job of selling the product.

I worked with a different designer on Ironguard Supplies ads, Brian Desautel of Infernal Machinery, and together we went with a more story-driven ad style, with a text block that talks about the product in a fun way. I don't think "Zombie Proof" was mine, but I'm pretty sure "Shields Up" was -- we must have brainstormed over 100 short catchphrases to use in ads like these, not to mention packaging. 

This is just a fraction of the ads I worked on over 14 years. Thanks to my design partners for helping create them!

The Art of Zach: Wild Toys

 

Back when I worked at ToyFare Magazine, shooting toys was my job. I took pictures of toys well into the night, for the Twisted ToyFare Theatre comic strip and sometimes for visual price guides, where we would document every toy (or character) in a toy line. It was fun, but it was also work. 

When I started working at Diamond Select Toys, I shot toys out of necessity -- we had a photographer who took pics of prototypes on white backgrounds, but prototypes usually can't do much, and I wanted to show off what each toy could do. So I took samples out in the street, made them walk around, switched out their accessories, and posted the pics on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. 

I still work for DST, but we've since hired people to run the social media accounts, and even a second photographer to take pictures of toys. So for the first time, I don't really HAVE to take pictures of toys. But now I WANT to. So I shoot for myself, posting on my Instagram account, and posting behind-the-scenes videos on YouTube and TikTok. 

But I'm a book guy. I WAS a magazine guy, and I still like magazines, but I REALLY like books. So I made a book. You can still see all of my pics on Instagram, but if you want to own them and possess them, like Gollum, you can buy the book. It's called "Wild Toys," and it is the first in what I hope will be a series. Enjoy!