Diana’s Bananas
Solutions don’t have to be complicated, exhausting, or overwhelming. Diana’s Bananas flips the script for overthinkers, using long-form storytelling to expose the comedy of making life harder than it needs to be. The payoff? A simpler, sweeter answer, hidden in plain sight.
To the Rescue™
Print ads were placed where they’d hit hardest: in spaces where people have no choice but to pause, in stressful environments like offices, along busy commutes where chaos rules, and even in magazines. Places where people are often looking for a quick escape or a quick moment to unwind.
Freezer Door Decision Wheel
Interactive decision wheels were placed on freezer aisle doors to simplify the overthinking spiral, reminding shoppers that choosing a treat doesn’t need to be a life crisis. Sometimes the easiest answer really is a chocolate-covered banana.
The freezer-door decision wheel gives shoppers one simple answer: Diana’s. The first spin lands on the brand, and any quick follow-up spins trigger messages. Each new variation redirects you back to Diana’s, reinforcing that the choice isn’t actually that hard. After a minute of no spinning, the wheel resets for the next overthinker.
Sponsored One-Way Signs
One-way street signs were “sponsored” to poke fun at how we tend to turn simple choices into dramatic internal debates. A gentle nudge from Diana’s Bananas helps point overthinkers in the right direction (literally and emotionally).
Spotify Playlist
“Peel Back the Stress” is a curated playlist of songs that joke about overthinking through their titles, offering a quick, musical wink whenever people hit play in their everyday routines.
Copy: Kat Stanek
Art Direction: Olivia Reynolds
Where it Started…
Minerva begins with a focus on craft. In my first course, I created these print ads entirely by hand—concept, copy, and design—before later working with an art director to render them in full. These were the original hand-rendered versions:
Let’s not talk about how long it took me to hand-trace, color, scan, crop, and individually drag-and-drop every single letter of the alphabet. Uppercase. Lowercase. Even some punctuation. All of it. It nearly broke me. But honestly? I’d do it again. (Bonus points for the confused faces when I started scanning my bathmat and a full bedsheet like it was just any other Tuesday.)