When I was in high school, I entertained the idea of a career in art. So many of us at that age have unrealistic opinions of our talents, strengths, and, yes, even weaknesses. Fortunately, I came to realize - before applying to art school - that I had neither the talent nor the discipline for that life.
One of the eye-openers was a class in advertising and commercial design. While I generally earned "A"s in the "fine art" classes, the graphic art course was much more challenging. I could no longer get away with fuzzy edges of my drawings and I had to deal with the preciseness of lettering. This was in the 70s so everything was done by hand.
So, when I was presented with an opportunity to participate in the development of a marketing campaign for a new company, I decided to give the challenges of advertising and commercial design another shot in the digital world.
My approach to this project included:
Creating a proposal for the campaign.
Understanding the company and the audience for the ads.
Developing a theme for the message.
Creating a design.
Getting to Know You
The company's name is kr3c. They're a "think tank" or venture capital group headquartered in Princeton, New Jersey. The first step in this project was understanding the company. What were they planning to do? What problems or initiatives did they intend to work on? Where were they getting their funding? And what did they want to accomplish with their campaign?
kr3c will be working with government and private industry to develop solutions and innovations in technology and industry. Pinning down exactly what they will be working on was not an easy process. Their interests are diverse: from clean energy to screenless computers to education initiatives. The common elements seem to be creative solutions and change. Unlike many of the "think tanks" we hear about on news reports, there appears to be no interest in making public policy or promoting particular agendas.
Funding will be acquired through private investors, grants from foundations, and fees for services - the sale of the "ideas". The purposes of the ad campaign include attracting investors as well as promoting awareness and soliciting clients.
What's It All About?
Designing ads for a concept is a lot more difficult than designing ads for tangible products like clothing, food, or appliances. Tangible products visually speak for themselves. You can dress them up, put them in a certain context to give them "personality". But they can also stand alone and still tell you what they're about.
Concepts are harder to express visually. Since I was working on the print ads, I found this to be pretty tricky. I could go with the "infomercial" type ad. You know the kind. It says "Advertisement" at the top but it resembles an article in the magazine. They must work for some things; there are so many of them. And they certainly would be informative. However, it did not seem like the correct approach.
So, I needed a theme. I decided to focus on change by:
Finding the answers to pressing issues; and
Shaping the future.
I Can See It Now
Before designing the ads, I did a little research.
First, I had to consider design elements. Things like:
Layout
Proportion
Color
Typeface
Fortunately, I've been studying design lately so I had easy access to elementary information. One little piece I picked up was the "Rule of Thirds". With the Rule of Thirds, you take the space you're working with and divide it into three equal rows and three equal columns. Important elements should appear on two to four of the intersections of the lines creating the columns and rows.
Colors were determined in part by the marketing team's selection of a logo and the colors of the logos. (One standard logo and one for "green" initiatives. I chose to only use the standard logo but separated out a leaf graphic from the green logo for one ad.)
For layout and typeface, I did a lot of research by leafing through financial magazines and newspapers. The client wanted two magazine ads, two newspaper ads, and two web banners so the layouts, and even the content, would be significantly different.
What I found was a large number of ads with a top-heavy graphic - usually a photo - with a short message and a web link underneath. There were also a number of text ads but they all (but the infomercial variety) had limited, clear text. Newspaper ads were simple, usually text of various sizes. Web banners, due to their size, had limited information with small graphics.
The following are the results:
Magazine Ad
Magazine Ad
Newspaper Ad
Newspaper Ad
Web Banners
Is It Easier The Second Time Around?
I've been asking myself if this was easier than it was back in high school. As far as coming up with ideas and text. A little but not much. Having more life experience, I guess I have more ways to say things than I did back then but finding the ideas is still hard.
I've been asking myself if this was easier than it was back in high school. As far as coming up with ideas and text. A little but not much. Having more life experience, I guess I have more ways to say things than I did back then but finding the ideas is still hard.
As for creating the end product, I have to say "absolutely". I can't say I'm any more creative than I was back then or that I've acquired any talent I didn't have at 17. Creating material on a computer, though, makes all the difference in the world. Having tools to line up images, create straight lines, and create the lettering for me. Wow!
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