Simple design = clear message

I recently redesigned an outdoor advertising campaign for the Louisiana Credit Union league. Last year, they gave me strict instructions to adapt a design that was used in California to the Louisiana market.

Here are the final designs that were used:

LCLU outdoor 2012

Technically, the layouts were difficult with all of the colored digits in different shapes and orientations. They look nice, but the message was not clear. 

This year I was given the freedom to come up with a new design. The only parameters were to use text that reinforced the savings message and to keep the design somewhat consistent with the national campaign. One part of the national campaign featured a pink piggy bank with a teal and green color scheme. I liked the idea of building on the piggy bank imagery for an outdoor campaign. A pink piggy bank image is identifiable and flexible, but the key was to make it memorable. By doing some quick photoshop work, I came up with a simple, catchy campaign:

LCUL outdoor 2013

 

Which billboard makes more sense to you? The colored digits or the pink piggies? In design, many times less is more.