Lecture 2 Design and Advertising

When I think about the word advertising other words like promotion, brands and products come to mind. But advertising doesn't just have to be about profit or gain, it could be to educate or inform the general public. Many companies like to lie to their customers often bragging that their product has some special function when more often than not this turns out to be a false claim. The most successful advertising is the kind that doesn't lie to the customer advertising that give the facts, one of the most iconic example of companies telling the truth through advertising was Volkswagon's 1950s 'Think Small' campaign. The advertising agency Doyle Dane Bernbach took a risk by advertising a car that was smaller than the bigger american cars of the time. They told the the truth by saying yes the can is small but with the economic climate being bad at the time people need a car that is cheaper to run.

Dove Real Woman Campaign

In 2004 Dove launched a campaign to promote the average bodied woman instead of the stick thin models often used in campaigns of the sort. This was an example of advertising telling the truth to its customers, they also challenged the mindset of the audience by having the 'Fit or Fat' idea causing the viewer of the ad to think.

Visual Language

This ad has a very clear message and that's one that get the audience thinking about what a real woman is. This series of ads isn't for profit of gain but exposes the Dove brand by delivering a question that will stick in the viewers mind. 

Audience

I believe that the audience for these ads are everyday people but at the same time they are targeting people's belief of what models should look like and since the product will most likely be bought by average looking people they visualise this in their ads.

Cadburys Gorilla Advert

In 2007 Cadburys and designer Juan Cabral teamed up to create the gorilla advertisement. The brief that was pitched to ad agency Fallon was simply 'Bring back the joy' which was an attempt by Cadburys to get consumers back on their after the 2006/2007 salmonella scare.

Visual Language 

The message behind the ad isn't clear at first but by the gorilla expressing itself through playing the drums it is evident that there is a positive feel to the ad. The advertising agency Fallon took a risk with them not knowing how the audience would take the ad but due to its wacky concept it was well received.

Audience 

After the salmonella scare trust in the Cadburys company by the general public was depleted and they saw sales drop. they wanted to let customers know that their chocolate was safe to eat and wanted to connect to the feeling of joy associated with eating their product.

The best advertising is the sort that tells the truth about the product, advertising that ask questions or gets its audience thinking also advertising that is different enough to stick in the viewers mind. not all advertising has to show the product they're selling either.

Lecture 1-Bertrand De Langeron

Bertrand De Langeron aka So-Me is a Parisian graphic designer, animator and also the art director of Ed Banger Records. It is evident from So-Me’s body of work that he has taken inspiration from some of the iconic graphic designers and illustrators.(Saul Bass) 

Composition

So-Me deeply considers the composition and layout of text and image within his work making sure his own illustrative style is still present as well as keeping everything legible, an example of this is SoMe’s ‘Response to Kanye West’ album artwork.

 

He uses visual hierarchy so you focus on the eye catching ‘Kanye’ in red then your eye naturally follows to the ‘West’ then to the stylised image of he man himself. Your eye finally ends up in the bottom right corner this is because the information or text ‘Roc-A-Fella Record 2007’ is not as important as the actual headline. The hand drawn styling of the type gives a more relaxed and personal feel to the illustration, the merging of the ‘ Always Be Alone’ type works well due to the yellow text being on a black background.

Target Audience and Context

Research into the target  audience is essential for the message behind any piece of work to be understood, without that depth of research the work might miss, offend or be interpreted by the audience in an unintended way. In the following music video So-Me has thought about the target audience and the context of how graphic illustration would fit into the video and have meaning.

 

In this video So-Me has visualised the contrast between reality and the warped reality  form being on a euphoric high. The way he has done this is very clever, as the the character (Kid Cudi) walks about town everything he sees or come into contact with is illustrated causing the character to do a double take like whatever he's seeing isn't real.

Creative Thinking

Creative thinking exercises and activities in design give a wider range of ideas and often give a totally different approach to solving a design problem or brief. There are various different exercises that utilise a persons creative brain, here are a few I have found.Creative Thinking Excercises

So-Me recently teamed up with Coca-Cola to create a specially designed bottle for Club Coke. He has displayed creative thinking in the design of of the bottle and the display box, the box and bottle are more of a collectors piece of art as So-Me has used his hand drawn style to illustrate the joy of music in the whole design.