Travers Collins

A few years ago I was asked to be apart of a focus group for Travers Collins which is located on Exchange street down town Buffalo. My roommate who actually works for the company asked me to help them pick a design for billboards for the advertisement for the Buffalo Police Department entry exam. When I arrived to Travers Collins I was introduce to the product manager and other individuals that have been working on the project. I was offered some refreshments, Pizza and wings and soda, yummy!!


I was sat in a room with four or five other individuals that were there to help with the selection. We were shown six different ideas they came up with. All six ideas were presented to us and I really did not know what to think about it at first. I remember some were really busy and others were really simple. I remember one were it was busy were they had the lights and people in the back ground and a yellow caution tape in the front, but instead of the yellow tape reading caution it said something about signing up for the Buffalo Police exam which was coming up shortly. There was another similar one like that but without the busy back ground and just the yellow tape. A couple of the posters played with words, such as the Miranda rights. I believed it said "You have the right to make a difference... take the Buffalo exam" something along those lines. I actually didn't know it was playing on words with the Miranda rights "You have the right to remain silent..." till one of the project managers brought it to our attention.


They also asked us what we thought about the images, how it was presented, if the message was getting across, if the poster would grab my attention. They also asked about faces, names and what not being present on the poster.

I believe they choose only two of the posters that were presented to me to be placed on billboards around Buffalo. One was with two officers faces and a badge telling them to sign up and that they can make a difference and the other one was with blue back ground and the yellow caution tape saying to sign up for the exam.

Now that I think about it, some of the designs that my class mates came up with for our posters were as good if not better then some of the designs that were shown to me that day.