Print advertisement evaluations

1. Design for
Advertising
Producing and evaluating

2. Task 6: Advert Development
I started with wanting to product the male version of the advertisement so I could get a feel on what
kind of advertisement I wanted to make. I started with the initial elements from my product &
wanted to use these within the advertisement.
I decided that to use simple silhouette image of a male running & make it the same initial colour of
the name of the product. I changed the shape of the silhouette so it would fit and looks as good as
possible. I wanted to keep the colours all the same. I decided to keep the name of the product
portrait instead of landscape, just like the product. I then brought in the heart rate monitor line. I
thought this could be a key part of the design as it could split up the slogan & it would be the line the
person was running on. I used a different female silhouette for the first draft of the female
advertisement & decided that I did not like it & felt like it did not take up enough space.
Underneath I put what the energy drink is & the slogan for the product. I also changed the
background of the bottom part below the heartbeat line just to break both parts up.
With the final female draft on the right, I added some dark definition around the edges.
I feel like I need to add social media links as my target audience use things like that.

3. Task 6: Advert Development
The bottom left the updated version I have added a white glow outline to the silhouette to remove
the rough edges & allow it to stand out more. I then added a white glow on the blue advertisement &
added the links to there two main social media websites (Twitter & Facebook). I also added a blue box
with a strong opacity so it is only slightly visible & breaks it apart from the slogan and what the drink
is. I changed the colour of the Twitter bird & the Facebook thumb to the same colour as the beat logo.
I wanted to test out different sizes & positions of it. I prefer the text smaller than larger.

4. Task 6: Advert Development
I prefer the social media links to be on the right hand side of the A3 poster. On the bottom right
I added some lighter grey definition to draw attention and break it up from the bottom part of
the A3 poster. I am now looking at the word stimulant & feel like it doesn't work on the poster
as there is not no bottle on the poster so you don’t know exactly what the product is, so I may
change it to say ‘sport energy drink’ or ‘sport drink’. I may try the advertisement with the bottle
on.

5. Task 6: Advert Development
I have now done this and I do like the way it looks. I started with producing the poster using
the same initial bottom (the heart beat monitor line & the text). I have decided this does not
work & wanted to make the focal point the bottle so made a conscious decision to make the
advertisement half text & half bottle. This works better than that but a key problem with this
design is the fact the bottle has the same information on it as the advertisement. I feel like
this is unneeded. A solution I came up with to change this is to enlarge the bottle & remove
the text. On this I also decided to simplify the design even further. As the target audience for
the product are also included in the target audience for these social media sites, we can
assume that they will know the social media sites just from the label. Although I like this
version and I feel like I have almost reached the level of quality I am looking for, I think there
is an element missing & I believe it is the graphic of the human exercising. I am going to
produce a version of the advert with graphic.

6. Task 6: Advert Development
As stated on the previous paragraph, I wanted to add the graphic of the sportsperson into the
advertisement as I felt like there was something missing. I also liked how the graphic looked in
the first versions of the advertisements I created. The first image shows how I first added the
graphic. What I did was introduce it with a slight opacity and outer glow, just like the outer
glow of the bottle. Although I liked this, I felt like there was too much blue & the attention was
drawn to the graphic instead of the bottle, this is when I came up with the idea of removing the
blue inside graphic & just have the outer edge blue & glowing. At first I made the graphic
black, the same colour as the bottle & I also brought it forward so it removed the blue glow
around the bottle. I believe the black is too dark for the graphic & would rather the colour it
was filled with blended with the background. I also believed the graphic would look better if it
was broken up from the bottle more so than it is in that advertisement. I changed what I have
stated above & I prefer this so much more. It was recommended to me to make the words
‘sport stimulant’ & ‘your best’ larger, just how it looked on the first advertisement produced. I
did this and It looks better aesthetically. I now need to produce the female version of the
advertisement to make sure it also looks just as good like this.

7. Task 6: Final Advert

8. Task 6: Advert Evaluation
What are the technical qualities of your work?
I used the program Photoshop to produce my final adverts. As this program is the industry
standard to produce a piece of work like this, it allows me to create an advertisement that is of a
high technical quality. As I started producing my first advertisement, I knew some key elements I
wanted to use throughout, which included a heart rate monitor line. I started by producing this on
an individual page with the background removed, so I could use it to my disposal. I used the
rectangle tool to do this & whilst I was joining the individual lines together, I used the eraser tool
with a strong hardness to remove parts of the line that didn't match up (this element was also used
on the bottle). Once I had done this, I started to produce a background. This changed from the first
advertisement I made, as I added dimension using the paint brush tool with a high opacity & a 0%
hardness. I used a pre-made graphic of a male & female on my work as I found the ones I
eventually used on my advertisement were exactly what I was looking for. I also used the warp tool
to adjust both so they would fit well with the other elements within the work. This graphic was
removed on the product examples on slide number five as I felt they did not work on a technical
level as they would not fit. I reintroduced the element on slide 6 & on my final advertisements. I
have often changed the way the graphic looks. On a technical level, I first changed the colour of
the graphic to the primary colour found on either poster (blue & purple). This then changed to
adding an inner glow & white outer glow to remove rough edges & to draw attention to the element.
I then decided during the final stages of putting my advertisement to change it further. I firstly
changed the opacity so it blended slightly with the background, then removed the fill altogether and
made it the same colour as the background & just have a blue outer glow, just like the bottle. I am
now happy with the technical quality of this element. Another technical quality are the Twitter &
Facebook graphics. From a technical perspective, I wanted to only use a logo as it was a simple
element that could be moved easily & it often was. I removed the background of the Twitter bird &
changed the colour to the same blue/purple hue. Like mentioned earlier, I used the same outer
glow that can be found on the person running graphic.

9. Task 6: Advert Evaluation
What are the aesthetic qualities of your work?
Like mentioned on the previous slide, I used Photoshop to produce & work on my advertisements.
This allowed me to produce a piece of work with very strong & high quality aesthetic qualities. Like
mentioned previously, I produced a a heart rate monitor line graphic that would be used on the
advertisements & the bottle. With my first advertisement testing, I used it as an element that split
up the bottom fifth of the advert from the top, as it had the only aspect of information in it (apart
from the name of the product). It worked well from an aesthetic perspective as it linked well with
the theme of the product (the product being named beat, as the name is linked to the heartbeat
you get from doing exercise & trying to beat competition whilst exercising). I could of simply used a
straight line to break up the section, but this is a much more stylised way to do this. It also worked
well with the person doing exercise graphic as it made the graphic look like it was running
on/jumping over the heart beats. I believe this gave the advertisement strong aesthetic appeal as it
all worked well together. This aspect was later removed from the final advertisement as it does not
work as well, but the graphic is still featured on the bottle design (which is in the advertisement).
Another aesthetic quality to the work is the background colour. I started with simply using one
block colour, just like what would be featured on the bottle. But I decided to test out a subtle colour
gradient that I was in control of, so I used the paint brush tool to do this. I used a darker colour on
the female advertisements & a lighter colour on the male ones. This gave the advert aesthetic
appeal as it added dimension to an other wise one block colour advertisement, so this was an
important element to add. The graphic of the person running was a crucial element to get right, so I
worked on this a lot to get the aesthetics just right. As stated on the previous slide, I started with it
all being one block colour & then started to switch & change it. On the first advertisement
practices, I found that too much attention was being drawn to them as they were the most colourful
aspect. I decided to change this once I re-introduced the element by changing the opacity. I still felt
like this did not work aesthetically, so I changed it further by removing the fill colour & just have a
blue glow outline, just like the bottle. This works very well aesthetically as it doesn't draw attention
away from the main element (which is the bottle), it enhances it & blends well. The element is also
behind the bottle. When I first started to produce the print advertisements, I did not use the bottle

10. Task 6: Advert Evaluation
What are the aesthetic qualities of your work?
On the advertisement as I felt it would be too much. Once I started to test this out, I found that I
actually preferred it because the elements that were featured on the bottle is also the information
found on the bottle. This made me test out what the advertisement would look like with just the
bottle, with the bottle + the information & then the bottle + the graphic. As you can see, the
combination I believe that works bed aesthetically is the bottle + the graphic. The bottle &
information combination just did not work as it was just repetition of the same information & it was
not needed. Testing with just the bottle worked better, but still felt like there was something missing
aesthetically, so I re-introduced the person running element & it works very well altogether.

11. Task 6: Advert Evaluation
Are there opportunities for further development of your work?
There are always opportunities to further push my work & to try out different technical & aesthetic
qualities, but I have to say I am very pleased with how my initial development went & where it has
brought me for my final advertisement.
Some simple development that could be done ranges from a simple element movement e.g.
changing the placement of the elements within the image. Further development could also come
when I start to produce the final design of my bottle, as this could change what the advertisement
looks like overall, this may mean I need to change where it is placed or even how much
information needs to be added onto the advertisement. I could also develop a poster that
incorporates both types of the drink together, so instead of having to advertisements there was just
one. Although this advertisement may not be beneficial in a magazine (as they are usually targeted
at one specific gender), it could work outside a place like a unisex gym. This would also mean that
only one poster advertisement will have to be rented. I may look into this further in spare time.
Development of this work may occur after I have produced my final web advertisement/banner &
the TV advertisement storyboard, as these aspects of the advertising campaign could take a
different turn once in production (right now they all will work together well as an advertising
campaign).
Another aspect I wish I had the opportunity to do would be to use a model in the advertisement
instead of a graphic, just to see if it would work well or not. The model that would be featured
would be the male/female featured in the TV advertisement & possibly on the web banner. I may
try & do this if I can either find two models that would be willing to do this or find a stock image that
I could use. A celebrity endorsement, like a sports person/personality could also be beneficial to
the brand. Although the idea of using a graphic was to remove the aspiration that the viewer may
get if an attractive model/celebrity is used. Although this can be useful, I wanted the product to be
more about the individual, specially when it comes to the print advertisement (links with the idea of
the product being about beating yourself).

12. Task 6: Advert Evaluation
Are your final pieces are fit for purpose?
I believe my final pieces are fit for purpose once the final finished bottle design has been created.
The rest of the advertisement is up to a very high, professional standard & would not look out of
place next to other energy drink advertisements. It also would not look out of place next to
advertisement for a high-end product like a perfume, as it is targeted at a higher ABC1 target
audience. I wanted the design for the advertisement to be as simple & modern as possible, which
is something you would expect from a high end advertisement.
The purpose of the advertisement is to be used in magazines & other print products. As stated
above, I believe the advertisement would work well within one. A decision I made early on when
making the product was coming up with an idea that could include men & women. This has come
in useful when it comes to advertising as I have two different advertisements (one for male & one
for female). This is useful because each audience has different magazines & print products they
read. You would not expect a male to read a magazine titled ‘Women’s Health’ & vies versa.
You could also expect that the advertisements could be used as large posters outside gyms &
such, to reach an even larger audience. Like mentioned on the previous slide, I would possibly like
to possibly make an advertisement that features both the male & female advertisements.
The advertisements features the essential components to a successful advertisement: social
media logos, showing of the product, clearly states what the poster it advertising & targets the
audience well.

13. Task 6: Advert Evaluation
What areas of planning and development worked well?
A lot of areas of the planning & development worked very well. I decided instead of using the pro-forma,
I used a simple word document that would show all my ideas forming from one aspect to
the next & how I got from one idea & how it developed into another. The development of names &
audience ideas was very detailed & allowed me to pick my best idea & develop it to a place where
I was happy with it. On a personal level it felt like it was a stream of my ideas & I could easily
follow. Using a mind map & a mood board to show these ideas in a clearer & concise way was
useful to someone from an outside perspective & to myself to see how my brain was generating.
Font testing was an important aspect of the planning as I needed to find one that would work with
the overall brand well. Another important testing factor was the colour of the product. I knew I
wanted to use blue & purple to target specific members of an audience, but I also knew that finding
a colour that would work well alongside it was important. Colour matching the different hues of
blues with the black & different hues of purple/pink with the white was so important & I believe this
part of the development really allowed me to produce a great looking product & advertisement.
Another aspect of evaluation we were introduced to during the Experimental Photography unit was
evaluating different versions & variations of the work as you go along. This allows you to show how
your brain is working & gets you to think about what you like, dislike & what you will eventually
change about the work. It is a very usual tool to maximise your ideas & potential.

14. Task 6: Advert Evaluation
What areas of planning and development could have done with more work?
One area of the planning & development that could of had more work was the fact no flat plan was
used to plan out how the advertisement would look. At the time, this aspect was irritating to me as I
had nothing to look back at to see how I originally planned for my print advertisement to look like,
but now that I’m thinking about it now I feel that It gave me the opportunity to test different versions
and variations out of the advertisement until I was happy with the result.
The order in which we do this project in was also slightly mismatched as I have not yet produced
the final bottle of the drink and, to me, it slightly confused me to produce and advertisement for a
product that had not be 100% finished yet. We had worked on the bottle design & how it will look,
we had produced the final product that would be featured. If we had developed & planned out the
bottles better, I feel the design for my advertisement also would have.
Another area that could of done with more work was my work on the male & female
advertisements. I started & focused my work on the male advertisement & then hoped that these
ideas would transfer into the female version of the advertisement. This worked to varying degrees.
I wish I had planned an idea beforehand where I would work on both equally & not just focus on
one. Even though the idea behind the elements were the same, I found that due to the different
colours used some ideas just didn't translate well & did not look as good as the male version e.g.
the female bottle version with just the bottle. In future projects are will work on both equally &
hopefully this will lead to a strong advertisement(s).

15. Task 6: Advert Evaluation
What effect did you think your development stages had on the final product?
The development stages really helped me decide what product I am going to make, how I am
going to do it & the outcome I am wanting from the advert. The development side of things allowed
me to test out different ideas/variations that would lead up to my final advertisements.
Development is key when producing a product/advertisement, as you should never just go with
your first idea straight off the bat. Just because it’s the first does not mean it’s the best. Coming up
with many ideas you can develop and look at is very useful & important. I also feel like that the
development is almost like the different elements are in competition with one another to be the
best & because they are your ideas you push them as far as you can possibly. Once I was happy
with the stage of development I would move onto the next aspect of the advertisement e.g. name
to slogan, font to colour etc. Development doesn’t put you in a box when it comes to ideas either, it
allows you to really think & pushes you to create something amazing. There is room for
improvements & you cannot be ashamed of something produced as it is all part of the
development of the final product. Everything, the good & the bad, goes towards this. For example,
when it came to developing my font, I searched pages & pages of dafont.com to find the perfect
one & then test it out with my colour scheme. I downloaded the ones that had potential & talked
about them until I had decided which one to use. I talked about why I liked them, why I didn't &
how they could possibly work with my theme. Testing out with the colour scheme was an important
task as some colours just did not work out & that it why development is important.