An Appeal from all Pugs

Introduction

Since animals are always cute fuzzy and can gain the fondness of our hearts oh so quickly I thought that a cute dog (a pug in this instance) would be just the ticket to sell Swiffer dry mops to reach my female target audience.

Audience

When creating this ad I had to think deeply in order to discover what the typical 45-55 year old would want to see. Whatever the person though, most people and particularly women do tend to like quite fuzzy animals so I thought that an emotional appeal to the safety of their pets would be a good way to go.

The Ad

The advertisement is pretty simple but I think that it appeals to the emotional side of most people pretty well. I enlarged the word “love” and set it in a more decorative font to make the feeling stronger.

As far as the pug goes I used Photoshop to blend him into the image using a layer mask which worked marvelously. It was difficult to make it look like the pug and the background are in the same place but I think that the overall message of the ad is more important then whether you can tell for sure or not whether it’s Photoshopped.

 

Final Thoughts

Overall I’m pleased with the final result and think that it uses the images to its advantage rather than just simply having them there for aesthetics.

Images

Magazine Ad

Blog Ad

Original Photos

Inside House – Personally Taken

Pug – https://pixabay.com/en/pug-dog-pet-animal-cute-tongue-698659/

Songs Sung and Unsung – A not so musical but still entertaining journey.

At first glance arranging shapes and words on a page may sound like a cake walk. But in reality that couldn’t be farther from the truth!

I picked the article Songs Sung & Unsung (https://www.lds.org/ensign/2017/05/saturday-afternoon-session/songs-sung-and-unsung?lang=eng) by Jeffery R. Holland because I really liked what he was talking about. I thought it was amazing the way he was able to reach every kind of person you can think of.

Text

For this assignment I wanted to create a layout that would appeal largely to the people that would be reading the Ensign, so that meant it would have to have an adult feel to it while not being overly boring.

One of the biggest challenges I faced was fitting all of the text into three pages. All in all the talk came out to be about 1750 words, which is a hefty amount. I had previously planned to have a bit of white space for the title page but once I got everything placed I was missing a lot of text and the font was very small. So instead of placing the majority of the text on pages two and three, I decided to distribute it onto all three and make the text part of the design on the title page. I made it so that the text would wrap around the musical note I created and left a large amount of space around the title because I didn’t want it to feel too crowded. I also made the beginning two characters larger then the rest so that the reader would know where to start and not feel lost.

Even though it wasn’t what I first intended it worked out pretty well and feel like it creates an interesting beginning for the article.

Color

I chose to use a monochromatic color scheme with a few black, white, and gray accents. While the mood of the talk varies from cheerful to serious I felt like wanted to leave the reader with a more positive feel as they read the article, so I chose yellow. The black and white accents were drawn from the musical analogies used in the talk.

Images and Shapes

As I began to complete my layout I noticed that I had a lot of smooth shapes, like the swoosh at the bottom of the page and the circles that contained the images. To contrast some of these softer shapes I chose to insert lines between the columns of text and also to border the title page. I think this also helped to make the text feel more organized and not like it was just floating in space. I chose the picture of the tall grass in the sun for the title page because I wanted something bright that reminded the reader of the sun, since Elder Holland begins his talk with “There is sunshine in my soul today”.

Conclusion

Although this article may not have been ideal for a three page spread I think I made it work. Perhaps the font size could have been larger or the title page a little less crowded, but overall the yellow color and nods to the musical theme really help to create a setting that will leave the reader with a hopeful and positive attitude.

All pictures were taken personally

Purposeful Photography

Rule of Thirds

“Birds” captured by Anthony Chan – http://www.picturecorrect.com/tips/garden-bird-photography-tips/

This image utilizes the rule of thirds in two ways. First, the photographer placed the subject of his photograph (the bird) at an intersection of two lines. Second, the photographer framed the picture so that the branches fell in alignment with the bottom and top horizontal lines.

 

Bryce Corning –  Tucson, AZ

My example does so in a similar manner but without as good of framing. The bird rests on the far right horizontal line, but because of the branches and leaves it’s more difficult to distinguish.

Leading lines

“La promesse du sud” Paul Siemen – https://www.flickr.com/photos/alentours_ailleurs/6683231537/in/dateposted/

In this example Paul Siemen uses the road as leading lines to point towards the sun. Although the lines of the road itself are faint the effect is still very strong in the photograph.

Bryce Corning – Cottonwood Canyon

Though not as straight as the road on the previous photograph, this road creates the same effect, leading the viewer’s eyes to the sky.

Depth of Field

“Altitude #799” Paul Siemen – https://www.flickr.com/photos/alentours_ailleurs/5978630793/in/dateposted/

Depth of field is created in this photograph by its multiple “layers”. The lake is in the foreground, the greenest parts of the mountains in the middle, and blue cloud covered mountains, in the background. Giving the picture the illusion of depth.

Bryce Corning – Banff, Canada

This photograph is similar to Paul Siemens. The river rocks to the right create the foreground, the green hill, the middle, and the snow capped mountains the background.

Wrap-Up

In conclusion these photographic elements can be very effective in creating an interesting composition for a photograph, or any piece of art. Sometimes we already have the elements incorporated in the picture itself (leading lines, depth) and other times we have to purposefully incorporate them into our design (rule of thirds).

To Coke or not to Coke, that is the Question…of Course you Coke!

Introduction

I like this ad. Obviously it’s for Coca-Cola, one of the beverage industries biggest competitors. As far as the history of it goes , it seems to have originated from around the 50’s. It features bright colors and few lines of content, “Every job needs the pause that refreshes”. A “Coke brake”, if you will.

Type Face – Oldstyle

The yellow text on the left of the image, featured in the red circle, seems be a type of oldstyle. This is made clear by its serifs which feature some amount of bracketing, as well as the moderate thick-to-thin transitions. I think this text was selected because the designer wanted to give information to the reader that was important but not the most important.

Type Face – Modern

The feature text of the ad appears to be in a Modern type face. Identified by the radical thick to thin transitions and thinner serifs which feature little or no bracketing. I think the designer used this as the feature text of the ad because he wanted to attract the reader’s attention.

Contrast

Although these type faces may appear to be similar in some ways, the main differences are seen in the thickness of the serifs, bracketing, and the thick to thin transitions in the letters themselves. Notably, the designer also chose to make the text sizes significantly different further emphasizing their differences.

Conclusion

In conclusion the designer chose fonts that were different enough in size and style that they did not conflict. Also the designer to care to make sure that he used the colors of the ad to further increase the contrast between the bodies of text. Overall, the designer was successful in creating an effective and eye-catching ad.

Save