When I hear ransom notes I think of the typical things, murder, money negotiation a hostage situation. As I type this out I realize that saying those things are “normal” is… questionable. But I’ve learned recently that the weird and unusual should be my new normal. If I want to one day make something that will go viral or catch the attention of my future employer then I need to adopt a new mindset. I need my normal to change.

I’ve never had to create a ransom note before. I hope that’s surprising to anybody readying this. But that means when I was tasked with creating my very own I knew I had to think differently from my normal and get out of my comfort zone. Think like a criminal… no think like a kidnapper! Should I have something to bargain for? What would be the funniest and craziest thing I can think of.

I ran through a few first thoughts until I landed on an idea I actually liked. Dogs. What if a criminal had kidnapped a dog to use as a bargaining tool to get money from the dog’s owner but ended up falling in love with the dog and not wanting to return it or get the money at all? I loved it, but it was long. I settled eventually on:

I have your dog. I’m keeping him. Send treats.

Short, sweet, funny and memorable. I’ve never seen a ransom note like it and I hope it doesn’t actually exist. When designing this I had wanted it to be readable. In my researching I had a hard time reading a lot of the examples because the background clashed with the words and my eyes couldn’t handle it.

However in creating this project I did learn something very quickly.

This stuff will make an absolute mess of your room. Is this why criminals don’t use ransom notes anymore? Is there such a thing as a ransom email? I think I’d prefer that next time.