You Grow Girl™

Posted: 12-01-07 13:31

As a graphic designer, I've noticed a lot of seed catalogs are rather, ahem, crapily designed? (let me stop right here and say, that doesn't hinder my enjoyment of looking through them, nor in any way make me not want to buy lots of plants from them anyway. Wink

) It just struck me as funny that so many of the photos (which look like they could very well be from the 60s) are obviously colored in Photoshop. There's no lack of cheesy clip art either. I guess cheaply done catalogs = cheap seeds and plants for us? if so, I'm all for it. Smile

Posted: 12-01-07 13:44

Ha, that reminds me of when I took journalism in high school and became appalled reading the local newspaper because of the poor way the articles were written, researched, and edited.

Posted: 12-01-07 19:07

seedsavers has a really nice catalog.

Posted: 13-01-07 8:58

Finding typos in publications is a little, well, hobby of mine. But you're right, it doesn't really hinder one's overall enjoyment of the work in question.

And yes, the Seedsavers catalogue is the nicest one I've seen!

Posted: 14-01-07 17:34

Black Dahlia wrote:

Ha, that reminds me of when I took journalism in high school and became appalled reading the local newspaper because of the poor way the articles were written, researched, and edited.

That's like my local paper, except 8 year olds point out grammatical and spelling errors.

Posted: 15-01-07 9:53

that sounds familiar. the paper in the town near where I grew up was about that bad.

Posted: 15-01-07 16:11

LOL merwing, I work as a web designer, and I get the same hilarity from seed companies websites. On of my favorite seed companies has a website featuring the designers pictures of himself in weird costumes... For that matter, it amuses me how often HUGE companies have issues. One day the Nissan car builder app wasn't working... at least all day.. due to a missing semi-colon in the javascript. I wanted to build a car. Sad

Posted: 16-01-07 14:44

haha, that's funny. my favorite pictures are the ones of giant pumkins or whatever with a tiny uninterested kid sitting next to it for scale. Very Happy

Posted: 16-01-07 17:03

Ever notice how many pictures are upside-down too?

Posted: 03-02-07 12:06

What they don't realize is that for people like me it's the pictures and design that draws me in... I've had to fight hard to overlook that badness.

Guest

Hi All,
new here! but I can sure relate!! as I own a product that appears in many of those seed catalogs LOL.. I can say they have done a pretty good job .. thank goodness.. I am waspgirl you can go to the introduce myself thread for more into on that..,..
I like this site A LOT>> thanks
Waspgirl

Posted: 06-01-09 18:23

I got my 2009 Baker Creek catalog last week though and I am pretty sure it was the most beautiful thing I've seen Wink

Posted: 07-01-09 22:30

Our college newspaper is horrible. I wonder how those people can be so oblivious to the errors.. but whatever.

Oh, and our local paper.. lol.. we just never bring it in. Like the kid delivers it and by the next week, the previous paper is still sittin where he threw it. I just usually take them every once in a while and throw them directly into the recycling at the curb. lol

Posted: 07-01-09 22:48

I love Baker Creek but I do wish they had more pictures. Smile

Ancient Joined: 13 Jun 2006 Posts: 1380 Location: Toronto

LOL, for all you poor visual gardeners, don't look at the Sandhill catalogue then. They have absolutely fabulous prices, but the catalogue is printed on recycled paper and only lists varieties in black print. NO photos, not a one. You need to know what you're looking for with them. Tomatofest has a great website, but their prices totally suck, HUGE huge rip-off. Look at their photos and then order from Sandhill. That's what I do.

Posted: 08-01-09 23:37

I have the Heronswood catalogue- glossy, really great photos- I haven't ordered anything from them, but last year I cut up their pages for collages, and some really cute gift tags and decoupaged coasters.

Posted: 09-01-09 13:20

Sorellina - as always such good advice ... I was baffled reading through my first cats without pics (now I know to mix & match) ... thanks!

Posted: 09-01-09 21:57

The seed web sites are so bad I am currently trying to get my own up and running.
Some of them are so terrible they motivated me to change my whole career. lol. I'll fill you in as the launch date approaches.

Posted: 09-01-09 22:04

I just found these folks http://www.hopeseed.com out in New Brunswick, Canada if anyone is interested.

Posted: 10-01-09 12:27

Thanks for the link to Hope Seeds Janet! I hadn't found them before on my quest for Canadian heirlooms/OP seeds, and I'm very pleased to see they have some seed potatoes as well!