Analysis and Replication

Slide Design/ Presentation

I have been working on designing a slide presentation for creating an ad. My goal was to create a mock presentation for an employer. I was to analyze an an existing ad and then use the same design aspects to create a new ad for the campaign. I chose to use something from Coca-Cola and the Olympics.

Original Ad

I chose this specific ad from the 2012 Summer Olympics because I was really impressed with the use of the Coke logo as the ribbon for the rhythmic gymnastics. I also really liked how they used the brand colors throughout the entire image. Using the athlete to represent the Olympics and then the ribbon and background to represent Coke. I found this ad here.

My Ad

I chose to use a sport that was also in the same Olympic season as the rhythmic gymnast, but I didn’t want something that was too obvious. I went with Kayaking since it’s not usually the first thing people think of when it comes to the Summer Olympics.

How it’s Made

I used three programs in this project. I have spent the last few months learning how to use each of these programs and I am so happy to finally be able to use them all in the same piece. I used Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, and InDesign.

• Illustrator:

  • I used this to create the silhouette image of the kayaker. I grabbed a stock photo and used the curvature tool to trace around the image and make custom shapes for his body, clothing, and kayak gear.

• Photoshop:

  • This was used to put together the kayaker, background, logos, and Coke Swish.

• InDesign:

  • I made a slide presentation that shows my full analysis of the original ad and how I used it to create my addition to the campaign.

The Final Product

I used a screen capture program to record my presentation. Take a look!

I am really happy with how my ad turned out. This is one of the coolest things I have made so far. I think it’s pretty tied with my icon project. I also think I should take a public speaking course. I was so uncomfortable with recording my presentation. I want to be able to get over that so I can be FEARLESS!

 

Advertising Attempt

And The Winner Is…

This most recent project was to create an advert for an everyday product. I used a random generator to find a target audience and product. Here are the results.

• Product: Pencil
• Brand: Ticonderoga
• Gender: Male
• Age: 45-54
• Relationship: Married
• Education: Associates
• Income: $15,000- $39,000
• Media Consumption: Magazines and Social Media

Brain Storming

I figured that a man in that age bracket might not be satisfied with an associates degree or maybe never had a chance to further his education. He could be dissatisfied with his current job or maybe is looking to increase his income. Pencils are pretty mundane and people don’t usually think of them as something special. However, everyone uses pencils or pens all the time. They use them for work and school and everything in between. With that being said. It would be ideal to make an advertisement appealing to improve life situations by focusing on the tool that is used to make it all happen. This phrase was constantly coming to mind as I was making my sketches. “By small and simple things are great things brought to pass” (Alma 37:6 from the Book of Mormon)

Sketches

I made each of these quick sketches on my phone so they aren’t the most beautiful drawings.

Contestant #1

A puppet whose strings are being sliced by a pencil. I imagined someone being stuck in a low paying corporate job. I was planning on making the average business man as the puppet, advertising the pencil as a tool for freedom be it self-employment or a promotion.

Contestant #2

This next sketch depicts a man holding the keys to a new sports car. A pencil is drawing the car meaning it is the source of this good fortune. By using the quote, “life is what you make it” my goal was to put the power of fortune in the hands of the audience by way of my product.

Contestant #3

This sketch was to inspire the audience to gain a higher education to hopefully improve their quality of life or work. I felt this was the way to go since pencils are essentially a symbol of education. I decided this was going to be my ad.

First Draft

I was pretty satisfied with my first draft aside from the obviously horrible text. The only problem I had I couldn’t really put my thumb on it. Thankfully, I had a couple of great peer reviews that pointed out what needed fixing. My biggest design fails were that the brick background was too busy and distracting and my dream bubble needed better placement.

Final Drafts

I fixed the two main problems and chose better fonts for my text. Since my audience mainly spent time on social media and reading magazines for their media consumption, I created a one page magazine ad and a small Facebook ad. Since the ad for Facebook was rather small I decided to simplify my message to make it more clear and to the point.

Final thoughts

I had a really hard time with this assignment. While I am fairly creative when it comes to art and design, I found out that I am not metaphorically creative. These ads were supposed to be crazy cool like this awesome list here, but I could not come up with anything for the life of me. This was the best I could do and I am severely unsatisfied with my final product. For a first attempt, it wasn’t bad, though it could have been much better. Despite my disappointment, my favorite part of this whole project was learning to use Adobe Photoshop. I can’t wait to improve my skills with that.