With a little help from my "Friends of Atomic Ranch"

Over a month ago, I ask a friend (Diane) if she'd take a look at a few options for the image I'd be using for my Winter - Atomic Ranch magazine ad. She's a true MCM aficionado and I value (greatly!) her insight into what she feels "works"...especially for projects like this. Diane is active on the Friends of Atomic Ranch FaceBook site and I got the idea that it might be fun to have her post the 3 images and ask those readers for their opinions.

I had decided that in creating an ad for the Winter edition it might be fun to show an ad that was more seasonal for the edition; moodier colors, maybe snow... Although I like the snow concept, I wasn't sure if it was right way to proceed for this publication.

Diane posted the three concepts: one with snow filling the whole background. One with snow that fell above a "s" shape design, and another with no snow at all.

I was a very fun, interesting and surprising experiment to show the 3 ideas to this highly motivated group and ask which version they liked.

Using the seasonal snow background was clearly the way to go (I was hoping for this outcome). With only a few exceptions, the winner was split between A and C. It was really interesting to hear how people interpreted the snow. Some thought they were "stars", others thought the "swoosh" pattern was a hill - and, as you can image, everything in between.

My final choice? It ended up being "C". I hope you'll think it was the right choice too!

Atomic Ranch has shipped to subscribers in the past week+ and if not already, it will be on newsstands any day now. I hope you'll check it out.

Thanks, Friends of Atomic Ranch! I appreciated your responses and interest in being part of this process.