Design by Ashley

Use Your “&” to Deliver Beautiful Design & a Powerful Message

Link to ad: https://www.girlmuseum.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/ErinSykes-GilletteVenusAdCampaign-29102015.jpg

Link to article I where I found the ad: https://www.girlmuseum.org/gillette-venus-ad-campaign-encourages-women-to-move-beyond-labels/

INTRODUCTION

In January 2015 Gillette launched a campaign called Use Your & to help tear down the one dimensional labels they felt were placed upon them. Charlene Patten, Gillette Venus Global Brand Franchise Leader said, “At Gillette Venus, we believe that all women have the right to achieve their full potential by embracing their ‘ANDs’ and not be limited by any ‘ORs’ ” This campaign wanted women to feel like they could be pretty & smart, smart & funny, etc. Their message was to make women feel comfortable to stand out and be different, be their best selves and embrace the &!

More info/sources: http://theinspirationroom.com/daily/2015/gillette-venus-use-your-and/ | https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20150108005039/en/New-Gillette-Venus-Global-Survey-Reveals-70

ORIGINAL – DESIGN:

Design-Contrast, Alignment, Proximity, Repetition

While I really like this ad, I believe it uses some principles of design better than others. For example it’s using Contrast in a strong way with the photo fading into black and white, making the girl’s purple jacket and the blue from the logo stand out very well. And you see contrast in the difference between the fonts in the slogan.

There is great Alignment with the slogan and the girl following a straight line in the center. I think the blue ‘swoop’ of the Venus logo next to the straight line of the slogan creates a ‘v’ shape, V for Venus!

I think the Proximity of the bottom corner Venus logo directly below the girl’s legs was smart, making the connection between Venus razors and the girl’s smooth legs.

I don’t feel like this ad uses a lot of Repetition, and where it did I feel like it was weak. The only repetition I see is the second logo, but the ad is so small that I don’t feel like it was needed, although the logos are different colors so it looks different.

COLOR:

The cool tones of grey in the photo allow the bright blue of the logo and the girl to come forward in a strong way. And the warm purple of the girl’s jacket contrasts great with the soft background, making her stand out and be different, representing the message of the campaign to women.

TYPOGRAPHY:

I liked how simple this design kept the typography, there is contrast but just enough to make a point. The ‘&’ is what is important here, and they gave it small serifs, almost like a script font but no so much that it’s too fancy. It matches the V in the Venus logo. The sans serif Arial font is simple and clean, contrasting well with the ‘&’.

Ashley’s Ad-Design:

Design – Contrast, Repetition, Alignment, Proximity

Contrast-I tried to bring in a little more contrast using color; I made the city background black and white, to make the girl ‘stand out’ more, making the message of the campaign be clear. I also made the ‘&’ a different color, adding to the contrast of the serif to sans-serif in the typography.

Repetition-You see the Gillette Venus logo twice in the ad, but I added the ‘&’ to the bottom logo, making a stronger connection the ‘&’ in the slogan and to repeat the message throughout the ad.

Alignment-The two logos in the bottom and top corners create a nice square shape, while the girl’s hands make a ‘v’ shape for Venus. I also made sure to align the two ‘&’s in the slogan at the top and the logo at the bottom.

Proximity – by placing the model in the very center of the ad, the two logos and slogan are all next to her, and if your eye follows her down to her pink mat, the Venus logo with the ‘&’ is the last thing you see, tying it all together.

I also wanted to point out the obvious difference between the blue swoop in the original vs mine; I did not want to just cut and paste it to my new ad, mainly because it looked really blurry and I feel like it wouldn’t have looked good. But I also wanted to try free-drawing it, so it was fun to try and match it best I could.

COLOR:

I wanted to keep the muted colors of the background, so I made it black and white, and wanted the model to stand out, so I made sure her colors were vibrant. I wanted her colors to contrast against the blue, making her stand out even more. I continued to use the same blue as the logo where ever Venus was mentioned, in the logo and the ‘&’ from the campaign.

TYPOGRAPHY:

I chose Arial for my font, believing it most closely matched the original, and I grabbed the ‘&’ from a Venus logo and just changed the color and size. I like how the sans serif contrasts against the script font of the ‘&’ making the slogan and the whole ad look clean and not too cluttered.

CONCLUSION:

I loved the integrity of the message of this campaign and kept it in mind as I designed my new ad: helping women feel empowered by standing out. My ad kept the muted colors of the city background while keeping the woman bright. While I did make some design decisions that were a little different from the original ad such as adding color to the ‘&’ and adding the ‘&’ to the logo at the bottom, I believe it only enhanced the message of standing out, while still fitting in perfectly with any other ad created to join this campaign.

Avocados and Typography.

Give a round of applause for the avocado – and for excellent typography & photography.

This spread was designed for what appears to be the Summer 2014 issue of ‘Foodie for Thought’ magazine, written about the positive affects avocado can have on a diet. I chose this ad because the typography and photography give a clean and modern feel, and you don’t have to search too much to see what the focus of the article is.

Designed by: Becky Samowitz | Published: March 16, 2014 https://issuu.com/beckysamowitz/docs/beckysamowitz_avo_mock_spread

ANALYSIS: CATEGORY IDENTIFICATION

The first typeface that the eye is drawn to is Sans-Serif in the title, subtitle and first letter of the article. It is easily identified by the absence of Serif and the mono-weight, in that there is no thick to thin transition in the strokes. The body font is Oldstyle, identified by the presence of serif, the serif being slanted, and the thick to thin transitions on each character.

ANALYSIS: CONTRASTING TYPEFACES

The biggest contrast between the two typefaces is the obvious difference between the serif in the Oldstyle and the sans serif. The sans serif gives a crisp and clean look and feel to the design, while the Oldstyle gives a more professional look, giving readers the feeling that the author is knowledgeable about the topic. These two typefaces contrast enough that the eyes don’t just slide down the page; there is a definite change between the title and body.

ANALYSIS: RULE OF THIRDS

The designer here uses the rule of thirds for her spread to focus in on the avocado, the star of the article. The avocado touches all but one of the 9 squares, and the seed is in the very middle square, giving it a strong presence.

MY PHOTOGRAPHY:

I did choose the photograph avocados in all three of my photos because that is what the article is about, however I did try to show it in different ways.

The first photo is the avocado cut in half, showing the seed, just like the photograph in the original ad. I kept the seed in the middle of the photo, using the Rule of Thirds to focus on the subject – the diva avocado itself. I continued to use the Rule of Thirds with the avocado toast, and the avocado cutting board, continuing to make the avocado the focus of the photographs.

CONCLUSION

I chose this ad because of how much the avocado jumped out at me; my eyes zeroed in on the avocado seed immediately because of the excellent use of Rule of Thirds by the photographer. Some might say that the colors don’t contrast well enough, or that the brown and green mix a little too much, but I think that because the avocado seed is so front and center the ad stands out very well. The two typefaces contrast enough that the reader can easily transition from title and subtitle to the article body. I believe the Sans Serif font was a good choice for the title because it looks clean even though it is large, while the Oldstyle works well as the article body because it’s not very distracting, making it easy to read. The skillful use of contrasting typography and rule of thirds in this ad deserves a round of applause.

Sugar helps fuel your Game

Basic principles can fuel your Design

Introduction

This is a Gatorade ad (https://www.gatorade.com/) I found while googling ads for this assignment, however the link on the ad led me to Larry Scott Copywriter http://cargocollective.com/larryscott/filter/Print-Ads/Gatorade-Print-Ads

It seems to be one ad from a campaign promoting and defending the sugar that is in Gatorade and promoting it’s positive effects on physical activity. I found examples of excellent use of contrast, repetition, alignment, proximity and color and will explain each in detail below.

contrast

The best use of contrast in this ad is the decision to have the black and somewhat blurred backdrop, making the bright orange text stand out. There’s also a great use of contrast in the lighter grey box where we read the facts. The contrast between the bold orange font and the slim, white font works very well together, allowing your eyes to immediately focus on the important text and prioritize.

repetition

I love how the designer of this ad used color as the main repetition tool here. The Gatorade (the product) is orange. The large, bold slogan is the same orange. The 3 facts that are informing you on this product are orange, and finally the company website is the same orange. This immediately creates a hierarchy of importance of information by forcing your eyes to what the company wants you to remember: the product itself, the slogan, the facts, and the website. We also see the use of repetition in the simple lines (I’ve highlighted them in yellow) separating each fact.

Alignment

The slogan and small paragraph in the top right corner are perfectly aligned in a straight line at the top quarter of the page. I also think the alignment of everything on the right gives a clean look, and even though the facts text is centered, the edge aligns perfectly with everything else on that side of the page. The Gatorade logo at the bottom is perfectly centered with the fact list.

proximity

The designer keeps the Gatorade bottle close to the ‘SUGAR’, ‘GAME’, AND ‘FACT’, guiding the viewer to make the instant connection that the product will give them sugar, improve their game, and the facts to back it up.

Color

This ad uses a bold choice of orange against a black and grey background. This really forces the eye to notice the most important parts of the ad: the product and the slogan, highlighting the small orange Gatorade logo on the bottle. Using such a warm color gives energy to the ad, making the viewer feel energized; a good thing to feel if you’re looking at a Gatorade ad.

Conclusion

By using bold contrasts with warm, energized colors, this ad immediately draws the eye to it’s page; it’s hard to miss the product due to strong color choices. The proximity of the product to the important information, the slogan and the facts, helps get the reader right to the point. While there is a lot of information, bad alignment would make this ad look messy. But thoughtful alignment displayed here makes this ad informative yet easy to read. Repeating fonts and colors throughout the ad ties together all the elements the company wants the viewer to see, including the logo, product and slogan. Now go grab a cold Gatorade and fuel your design game.