Gallery

Thanking your beta testers is important! They are the people that helped you get your application to a point where it’s ready to be unleashed to the world. How better to reward them then by sending a little treat via a simple, yet fantastic looking email.

This campaign for the Dropmark collaboration app by oak is split into five different sections, two of which are the obligatory header and footer areas, just as you would expect. The first main content area is short, sweet and very succinct, thanking testers and giving the opportunity to upgrade. Then we have a little section showing what’s new, including screen shots. Nice touch as the tester may not have seen these updates. Finally, there is a section which provides information about what Dropmark is, which is handy for those recipients that may have been forwarded the email… Or if you’re absent minded, like me.

We’re really pleased to introduce… This neat little notification email from WorkFu!

When it comes to letting your users know that you have made changes to your application, it can be easy to over do things a little. Here however, is a great example in getting the details out in a simple and efficient way. Even though it hasn’t been optimised for mobile devices, it still reads really well on my iPhone. The customised Twitter button, inviting current users to share with friends is a fine touch.

It’s great to see Mike Kus and team keeping their users so keenly up to date during the beta of their up-and-coming job site, especially as communications like this are so often just an after-thought amidst all the development and design busyness that leads up to a launch.

Really simple, but really effective!

Do you remember the day you discovered all those TED videos that were suddenly available to the common joe? It was like a whole new world opened up. This smart and visually stunning email by TBD captures the Ted brand so well with it’s modern art styling, dramatic colors, and that deceptively simple yet enticing graphic that is reminiscent of those static “moving” illusions.

A nice narrow layout ensures mobile friendliness and a clever use of layout space means that a lot of the important info gets above the proverbial fold. All around, an email that will grab attention when it arrives.

Hello, my name is Davida and I like Courier. I’ve always liked it, sometimes secretly, like when my colleagues would be bashing it’s name loudly from the desk next over. But I’ve always loved the way it gives a typewriter feel and when combined with the visual metaphor of paper, although commonly used, I really do think works well. 

Adding to this design by The Turtle Conservancy are pleasing textures and adorable photos. The designers make nice use of white space to separate out the articles which helps bring attention to the ‘Read More’ link on the shortened articles.  Generally, I would recommend against such a long email, but with such a specialized topic I’d be willing to bet that this audience is very engaged and would be happy to receive a lot of information on a topic dear to their hearts.

This eye-capturing email campaign, designed by Matt Hackett, packs a lot of content well into a small area but remains uncrowded and easy to read. A peek at David Bostock’s stunning wedding photography portfolio is accompanied by testimonials, contact information, links and more.

The distinct separation of foreground and background colors is emphasized so simply by the subtle shadows around the top and bottom corners, assisting the photographs to leap from the screen to the viewer’s attention.

We particularly like the detailed permission reminder, which leaves no doubt in the reader’s mind as to why they’re receiving the email. Overall, this is a thoughtfully-designed email and a credit to Matt Hackett’s familiarity with the medium.

This invitation email for St. Theresa Catholic School by Fervor Creative knows what its job is, and does it well.  It’s simple use of three colours and subtle shades thereof, basic but effective imagery, plus short but informative content that makes this campaign a delight. The ample use of text ensures that most of the message can be read, even when images aren’t displaying in the inbox.

On that note, the only minor suggestion would be to have a text alternative for those buttons, to be sure they still have some context under these conditions. But overall, this is a great campaign that’s sure to captivate subscribers at any time of day or night.

The Ghostly Store sells a variety of cool stuff like music, art and clothing - and we thought this campaign by Daniel Hunninghake looked pretty cool too!

The overall appearance is a very neat, lightweight design. The right balance of text and the variety of ways the products have been laid out make the email an interesting browse. Also achieving this balance are the call to action links, which are subtle, yet striking. The purple text mimics Ghostly’s logo and the light gray background and fine shadow give the links a tactile “button-like” feel.

We always like mobile-friendly layouts and this is one of them. For example, the links here have been set apart from the text (and each other), reducing the risk of accidentally tapping things that by accident.

The little sketches on this email produced by DanceXchange for the International Dance Festival Birmingham really bring it alive. The newsletter layout makes for an easy read in email clients - for example, the single column of text is likely to display nicely on a mobile device. Well done to designers Supercool for making it happen.

That said, we’d love the permission reminder in the footer to be more meaningful. Something like, “You’re receiving this email because you signed up for Home updates via …” would be appropriate. We’ve featured a couple of tips for writing effective permission reminders.

Overall, this is a carefully designed and visually interesting campaign, not to mention a great example for other organizations taking part in events leading up to the 2012 Olympic Games.

If Enigma‘s goal is to make 2012 “bigger, bright, better…” then they are definitely off to a great start with this email design. The colors absolutely leap off the screen in what could have been an overly bright cacophony of colors and images, but instead just work incredibly well and come across as a cheerful and exuberant tone.

We love their focus on mobile optimization, as shown by their use of media queries and a one-column layout. If you think this looks nice on the desktop monitor, it looks even better when viewed on your @media -supporting phone. If you’re keen to do the same, why not take a look at their code, check out our blog post on mobile email design, or easier yet, use the template builder?

One suggestion would be that they increase the contrast between their text and background colors, though. Some areas with grey or white text weren’t as easy to read as they could have been. But overall, this is a campaign that’s worth cracking open the champagne for!

Just in time for TYPO San Francisco (5-6 April), we’re featuring one of their beautiful email newsletters, by event organizer and cool customer, FontShop. As can be expected, its been designed by type nerds, for type nerds. A variety of typefaces have been used, mostly of the sans-serif variety, to create a modern, harmonious look. There’s a lot of visual interest to be had, thanks to the use of their molecular model motif, bright colors and good-quality images. Before anyone goes on to say it’s too image-heavy, it’s to be noted that all the important stuff - registration details, speaker bios - are all in text, so the message is not lost when images are off.

My only recommendation is that this announcement should feature a call-to-action and links that are not so buried in the text - my fear is that after a couple of seconds, a reader may not know how to respond. But all up, this is a great design that practices what TYPO preaches by placing typography in the fore.

Tickets are still available for TYPO SF, so if you don’t have one already, it’s your last chance to register!