February, 29 2012

I felt pleased with our with our group ad. We made the improvements recommended by the classmates from the class before.  Now for the next and final project, we need to make a 2-3 minute video clip that later needs to be uploaded to the net (youtube?), also we need to make a offline piece that goes with.  To be honest, I am worried because I am not really sure what to do and this is due in 2 weeks.  I really hope that new my partner and I can pull together to create a good video representing our school.

February, 27 2012

We continued class as normal, but Jimmy, was not present.  The class instantly knew what what to do, we did the critique as if he was here.  Everyone put up there works and we gave feedback where it was needed.  It seemed that even without the professor, we knew what was expected of us and we did it as if nothing changed.  One would have thought that everyone would just sign their names on a piece of paper and leave, but we needed each other's input in order to better our works, especially since it was our final comps for the project that we were going to present on wednesday. 

February 22, 2012

Another round of critiques with our three layouts that we decided to run with.  During our critique, the professor he pointed out that the mood/tone and the message of our ad had to be felt and seen right off the bat.  A message/tagline that once read, it will stay in the reader's head even after the page has been turned and the reader already started to read the next tagline.  With those in mind, Alyssa and I need to make our ad stand out more, or emphasize the current message, product or eye catching.
  I now see ads on tv, magazines, newspapers, etc.,  with more appreciation and analyze them more carefully with what the message is and who they are trying to lure into using their products.  Good or bad, ads are there and always will be, now with the internet being one of the main media of choice, some ads are just crappy but are good enough to get people's attention.

February 20, 2012

The class began with an open discussion about the artist, Kali Nikitas, everyone seemed have their opinions of her.  What really caught my attention was her website, how one could move drop-down menus anywhere on the page.  I thought that was unique and allowed the person moving things around the customize how they wanted to view the page.  That was completely out of the norm, because, usually websites' drop downs are stationary and you can't move them around.

  After that, everyone went around the tables and looked at each other's ads.  I felt more confident this time around, maybe because I was able to get my ideas out faster and with less stress.  I suppose it was thanks to the first project that allowed me to spit out ideas faster.  Unfortunately, the styles between my group partner and I were different so the professor gave us a similar chat from the first project: work together, have the same style of drawings, but keep the themes similar.

February 15, 2012 class review

  With first round of sketches through, it is now time for us to refine the ideas that we have and have them all drawn in one style with better taglines.  Through the professor's critiques of all the groups sketches and ideas, there were many useful ideas that could be used to improve the current ideas, such as concentrating on the headline/tagline more than the product.  I have noticed that most if not all of our sketches have the product.

February 13, 2012 class review

  The next assignment the class was told to chose a consumer product that was not well advertised. My partner, Alyssa and I decided to do the energy drink, Rockstar. We have not come across an interesting ads that advertise this brand of energy drink on TV or anywhere.  We were to write a creative brief before starting on the project to indicate what are our intentions were to do with the product, create an ad campaign to really grab people's attention. In Advertising, I found out that one don't always need a flashy image with a great headline to be successful. I learned that you can have a great headline with an okay image or vice versa to get the point across and be still successful. 

2/8/2012 final presentaion #1

During the presentations, it was very nerve racking because, it seemed that all the other groups ads that were presented before us, were much more polished than ours.  Presenting ours last did not make things any easier.  Our professor, told everyone to relax, take a deep breathe, and shake our limbs to take some of the tension off.  It helped a little, but in the end I ended up forgetting to mention some of the information out the ads as I presented it.  It seemed that even though preparations were done beforehand, when it comes to presenting, some do it better than others.

1/6/2012 First presentation

There were many well put together ads, I though, fellow classmates pointed out flaws and suggestion on how the ads could improve.  There were improvements needed on everyone's ads, both for and against issues.  It appeared that ours, capital punishment, needed the most work.  There were issues with the both images and hierarchy of type.  What a well created ad is supposed to do it grab one's attention while flipping through the paper, and once attention has been baited, the rest of the ad is supposed to keep the reader wanting more.

February 1, 2012 class

Seeing our ad side-by-side with other groups' ad, displayed the different views and approaches on how they wanted to represent their issue.  Some ads caught one's attention right away; drawing in one's interest to read and learn more on what was the subject.  Others were interesting but did not hold on to my interest for long.  Now having seen everyone's work, and had the professor critique everyone's work, the first presentation need everything to be ready to present; no visible errors, everything printed to scale and mounted on a grey or black board, and have a nice cover sheet to protect the work.  A lot of work needs to be done before the everything can be mounted, like all other assignments, this final version of the ad will determine whether or not we have clearly conveyed the message that we want everyone to see and later formulate their own decision from the message that we sent.

1/30/2012 class overview

Choosing two ideas that my partner and I have come up with in a few short seconds was intense.  The two campaign ideas that we were going to run with were the ones that we were going to make into a full size newspaper ad and present.  There were many good ideas that we drew up but only two out of the forty had to stick out; grab one's attention and we had to run with those.  After deciding on the two that we were going  to represent, we had to had make some final adjustments so that it sends the message that we wanted to deliver to out intended audience.  In advertisement, whatever message that one is trying to convey to an audience, crowd, or client had to hit the mark.

1/25 Wednesday's post

I realized that thumbnails are not just random ideas that one can come up with.  To make a thumbnail, critique worthy and to be taken seriously, a rough sketch needs to be thought through a little, even if its just a quick sketch.  At first, I thought that thumbnails were just quick rough sketches that were a way of weeding out the bad ideas first and later down the line when the better ideas start to emerge, that is when the project can take the next step in the process.  No matter how one looks at it, rough ideas are supposed to represent some idea on the subject matter.

1/23; monday's class overview

What makes a good advertisement?  What makes a good advertisement catch a person's attention as they flip through a magazine?  It takes a several elements of design to create an advertisement that people want to say, "hey, this looks interesting, what's it about?"  For one, the usage of colors can get one's attention pretty quickly.  For instance, red is a fierce, hot and the same color as the stop sign and every (usually) pays attention to those and stops.  Blue has a strong sense of structural support; corporal standing.  The use of type can also make or break an ad.  A typeface with a well balance of weight, size, spacing and color(s) could also allow a reader to read the ad easily and keep them reading.  The placement of type can also let the eye flow from word to word.

1/18 meeting review

Arguments must be backed up by facts and not with just "feeling," rumors, or here says.  If an argument is not supported by research then it is nothing more than just a thought.  These days, in the world, it is constant because of the media and advertising is in people's faces all day everyday.  An example is politics. Trying to persuade people to feel one way is a difficult task since there are facts that are supported by hard facts not to ignore politics.

Wednesday's class overview

After the class went over the three ads that everyone brought in, the professor went into detail about how much effort goes into making ads.  Every little detail of an ad has its purpose, colors, scheme, theme, the audience aimed towards.  Then we went into how campaigns are ways to lure consumers.  Overall, I am looking forward seeing what else this course has in store for me.