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.
Behind the Banana
The graduate school asked me to present this campaign at our Creative Activity & Research Showcase, so I spent some time nerding out over strategy, advertising theory, and the thought process behind all my creative decisions.
If you'd like to take the scenic route...
A Spin on Second-Guessing
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 Road Less Overthought
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).
Peel Back the Noise
“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 before later working with an art director to render them in full. These were the original hand-rendered versions:
I'd rather not calculate the number of hours I spent hand-tracing, coloring, scanning, cropping, and placing every single character in this font. I suspect the answer would upset me. On the bright side, I can now confidently say I've scanned both a bathmat and a bedsheet on a university printer without being asked to leave.