Advertisements - Next Phase of the Branding Project

ADS DUE 04.06.09 (Monday - two weeks from tomorrow): 10% of your grade

Now that the self-mailer is due Wednesday, we will officially start the ads then; however, those of you who are pretty much done with your piece, you can work on ads tomorrow. I will talk to you individually about what you're doing.

As you start the ad project, start off by looking at ads and picking out ones that you like. Post those on your blog, and talk about what it is that you like about each of them. You can look up good advertising online, but also, Communication Arts has their Advertising Annual out, which is also a good place to see strong ads, both in design and concept. The issue is from December 2008, but I saw it at B&N Friday.

Once you go through at look at some ads and post them to your blog, then start sketching and concepting for your ads. I know we don't have tons of time for these, but I still want the concepts to be strong: try to stay away from using just pure design to sell your company. Both concept and design should be really strong. Your concept can definitely be visually based, but make it clever.

For the next project, you will be creating two ads in a campaign for your chosen company/organization. They need to be different from each other, but they still must maintain cohesiveness between the two through concept and visuals. You will be creating two full page ads.

Dimensions (taken from Readymade magazine's full page ad specs): Width: 8 3/8" x Height: 10 7/8"

At the end of the semester, when you do your major presentation, you'll present each ad on its own board.

Here is one article I found right off about designing for advertising:
How to Create an Effective Print Advertisement - Tips for Graphic Designers

Also, here is a good advertising book to check out:

Creative Advertising, New Edition

Anyway, look at ads, post them, get inspired, and start sketching out your ideas!

Also, just as a reminder, your blog is 15% of your grade, so if you aren't keeping up with it, you need to get on it.

See you tomorrow!