Until recently, if you spent a couple of million on works of art with Sotheby’s, there’s a strong chance you would have got one of these. If you’d spent thirty pounds on paper and staples you would probably get something similar.
And so a brief was born: using the same system as many businesses around the world (in this case, SAP) redesign the invoices to reflect Sotheby’s premium brand – and brands don’t get much more premium!
Some of the features of the new invoice designs were:
- On-brand fonts (selected by the client’s branding agency).
- A title making it clear which auction the invoice is related to.
- Detail about each item that was won at the auction.
- Clear breakdown of additional costs.
- A clear call to action in the right hand column, with relevant instructions to complete this action.
And it wasn’t just invoices: it was letters too.
Before: the previous letters (we’ve all seen plenty like this)
The letters were designed as a ‘list of contents’, with instructions (written by Copylab) for each document in the envelope.
After: redesigned (and rewritten) letters using a ‘list of contents’
Sadly, these didn’t make it live in time for the record-breaking sale of Edvard Munch’s The Scream, but if they had I’d like to think they would make parting with $120,000,000 just a little more bearable.