Rolling Words, designed by San Francisco based advertising agency Pereira & O’Dell , is a smokable songbook created to promote rapper Snoop Dogg’s latest product, a range of Kingsize Slim rolling papers.
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The design solution draws together the lyrics of Snoops’ most popular songs, prints these on perforated rolling paper and binds them together inside a hemp seed fabric cover. The book, distributed to a select few, has also been translated into a sample poster for the wider audience of the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival, an event due to take place later this month.”We’d been working with Pereira O’Dell on the “Obrigado” song & video with Snoop Dogg & Marcel D2 to debut Jawbone’s Jambox in Brazil when they came to us with the idea for Rolling Words””Honestly, we were kind of blown away. It’s a fantastic brand extension for us, and totally captures the vibe and spirit of Snoop and our platform. We’re excited about the project and eager to see where it takes us.”
Nick Adler, Strategic Brand Director, Stampede Management.This a lovely piece of design that contrasts the multiple textures, print treatments and a saddle stitched binding of the book’s exterior with the light substrate and non-format, spontaneous script approach of the internal pages to deliver a sense of handcraft and creativity.
The ‘Rolling Words’ typographical construction, drawn from the Snoop Dogg logo-type, has been wonderfully executed with a subtle mix of imperfections across the curves that tie neatly to the script based internal pages while a well thought-out set of horizontal and vertical layout and spacing combinations gives each letter and both words a strong sense of cohesiveness and fluidity. The flourishes are a touch superfluous and the hemp leaves a little expected but suitably visualise the hidden material properties of the cover and perhaps Snoop Dogg’s liberal cultural influence. The heat stamped treatment of this illustration across the front of the cover has a subtle charred quality that feels appropriate for the smoking theme while adding further texture to the design. The strike panel, following the conventions of a match box, appears a little awkward on the curved spine of the book and attempts to deliver an all-in-one quality, unfortunately without matches this feature is perhaps a little redundant. The tactile quality and natural tones of the materials have an earthy sustainable sensibility and while these may not carry the typical characteristics of the Snoop Dogg brand it does communicate a distinctive and high quality proposition.
The poster appears as an afterthought rather than part of a single fully resolved idea. A fairly typical call to action, takes a more conventional approach to advertising, replaces the smart linguistic resolution of the book concept and while it has been executed with the same typeface there is significantly less cohesiveness and points of interest between the characters. Some of the materials, binding and textures are carried over from the book, resolved under a room-for-rent concept, is far less engaging, places more weight on the lackluster product packaging and an unimaginative and visually dull ‘#Ask 4 Snoop’ type across the tear-off papers.
There is little to indicate what the conceptual relevance of smoking lyrics may be but both pieces comfortably mix practical functionality with product promotion and while the book is significantly more interesting they should both manage to stimulate consumer engagement.
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Opinion by Richard Baird@richbaird
