Creative Concepts

This ad is featured in Australia from a water safety and drowning prevention organization. I like where the ad is advertised. It is painted on the bottom of a swimming pool. The slogan states “where is your child?” The image is of a drowned young boy; it almost looks three- dimensional. It might be a little too graphic for a child’s swimming pool, but the ad is very simply for adults to understand.

This Denver Water advertisement is awesome! I love how they used an interactive object to grab people’s attention. This makes the advertisement so much more effective rather than being on a piece of paper/ billboard! This ad works so well it doesn’t even need an image or explanation. “Only use what you need,” enough said.

I think this Pepsi-twist advertisement is great because of its use of humor! So simple, yet funny. It actually made me chuckle.

BaLanCe

                          Symmetry

The above advertisement shows horizontal symmetry. If you were to fold the ad horizontally in half, there would be an equal balance of elements on each side. You can also tell this design is symmetrical because the image is in the center of the page. Most designs that are center aligned represent symmetry.

                                                      Asymmetry

This design is asymmetrical, yet still balanced because it uses lower thirds. This is achieved by dividing the design into thirds both vertically and horizontally. The most important elements are places at the intersection of these thirds. This design is aligned to the left to represent asymmetry.

InDesign... It's a love/hate relationship

I used InDesign in undergrad while working with the college newspaper. Therefore, I only knew how to layout text, create headlines, etc. AKA the basics! Even learning these basics over a two year time span took me sometime. Let’s just say I’m not very tech savvy. There are so many tiny icon in the program that do so many different things. I do not think the program’s use of semiotics is very helpful because there are just too many icons to memorize. Other then that, I love InDesign and it’s accuracy. It’s a lot easier to create fliers, invitations, advertisements, with InDesign rather then Microsoft Word (which I have used previously)!
I think this obstacle of mine can only be achieved over time, and I definitely think taking this class will improve my technical skills with InDesign. I have so many awesome ideas popping in my head, it is just difficult to get them down on paper using InDesign. I cannot wait to learn how to use Photoshop and apply that to what I’ve learned using InDesign to come up with some amazing designs!

C.R.A.P

This advertisement for Almay was found in People Magazine. This ad shows a whole lot of C.R.A.P. First, the running footer at the bottom of the ad shows contrast. The footer has a winter green box with bold text inside. This allows for the word Almay to stand out on the page against all other elements. There is a small amount of repetition in the ad, but it’s there. There are three tall makeup products on the left standing up-right. Everything is aligned under the quote at the top of the page. Overall the ad uses center alignment, but the text above the eye shadows is aligned to the left to help create proximity. Images are grouped together that are related, but things are not spread out all over the page randomly. The negative space is used effectively.

Ground/ Figure Relation

This image is an example of ground/ figure relation. When you first glance at the image you see repetition of men’s legs. The men’s legs are the darker/shaded region and represent the figure, which is why we see them first. When you look at the image again you see repetition of women’s legs in the ground, the region that is not shaded.

...And The Bad

MegaRed Advertisement

Way too much text for this publication. This advertisement was found in Housekeeping Magazine. Most magazine readers would not have the patience to read this advertisement in it’s entirety. It looks like a brochure rather then an ad, especially with the chart on the left. There is a lot of negative space. The actual size of the pill is shown in the middle of the page . There is a ton of negative space surrounding the pill, which takes up half the page!

Vera Wng Princess Perfume

This advertisement was found online at cosmopolitan,com. The font type that spells out “Princess Born to Rule” is difficult to read with that background. Also the color of the text makes the font even more difficult to read. I like the idea of the ad, I would just change the type face and make it more legible.

The Good

Smyth Jeweler Ad

This advertisement is located in a billboard in Canton. It shows two Baltimore icons, the Utz potato chip girl and the Natty Boe. This appeals to the Baltimore audience very well. The billboard is located in the heart of Baltimore and can be seen off interstate 95. I think the idea is genius! The advertisement is black and white and allows for the jeweler’s name to be the only thing in color. The designer used a bright yellow font to make the jeweler’s name stand out and be most visible.

L'Oreal Ad

This advertisement was found in Good Housekeeping Magazine. The alignment and spacing for this advertisement is very well done. The name of the product is stretched across the top of the page so it is the first thing the viewer reads. The remaining text is right aligned. The fine print explains to the reader to visit their website for more information. This is a great idea so the advertisement does not bombard the reader with too much text.

Hiii Everyone!

I am a grad student in the Publication Design Program at the University of Baltimore...and this is my design blog!  Enjoy and feel freee to leave comments!

First assignments will be coming soon...

xoxo Heather