Reading Reflection Ch 1, 2, 3 & 4 - MEADE

01: What Is Advertising?

In a free-market system/economy, advertising is a way to promote something; a competition of the subject/object over another. It’s also ‘the pop culture vehicle’ and common denominator that joins people of a culture 

(we’ve all seen those coca cola ads with the bears during Christmas, so that advert is integrated within our culture)

 PSAs, cause advertising and commercial advertising are some of the forms of advertising, with conventional (tv, print), screen-based media and aps (web sites, web commericals, vlogs, etc.), support media, in-store, unconventional (ambush), sponsorship and branded entertainment, and miscellaneous branding objects (calendar, pens, mugs) being the different forms advertising can take shape.

The Volkswagen ‘Think Small’ advert does a good job at both grabbing someone’s attention (“why is there so much space? Oh look it’s a car! Oh it’s so small!”), while conveying its message.

02: The Project Process

There are six phases of the project process, all of which need creative thinking and imagination to fulfill the desired conclusion. Phase 1 is Overview, where we gather information, research, talk to clients, write down notes, identify audience, agree on a budget, schedule, just get a sense of the point of the advert. Phase 2 is Strategy, this is where the creative brief comes along and where you start to outline objects and plan the direction in which the advert will go towards. Phase 3 is Ideas, when it’s time to come up with a concept that captures what you are trying to say and how. Phase 4 is Design, this is where you finally get down to designing, sketching, putting together a collage, roughs, etc. Phase 5 is Production, the part where you print or finalize. Finally, Phase 6 is Implementation, where you review the final product and put it into effect.

SPDR’s Clocktower advert was interesting to see from pictures of sketches to final screen captures and how things changed, but the Idea stayed the same.

I thought this logo, and the example of how the idea started out - sketches - to it’s final product and Implementation was really interesting and fun to see.

03: Creative Thinking

Brainstorming, analyzing, organizing/framing/questioning and seeing something from a different perspective, mapping out relationships, listing attributes, storyboarding, sketching, bouncing ideas around are all ways of getting yourself to think outside of the box - to think creatively and to see if those ideas pan out into an advert that you see fit.

Seeing those different types of graphic organizers is interesting, we all have different ways to map out things in our heads, but seeing those in the book gave me even more ways of going about coming up with an idea. In one of my other graphic design books: Graphic Design Thinking by Ellen Lupton, she has this picture in the Mind Mapping section. It combines sketching with words, a tree like mapping.. it's really interesting to see.

(design by Alex Roulette)

04: The Brand Idea

The thing to keep in mind is that we live in a time when advertising is expected to bombard our every waking moment, so adverts have to go above and beyond what's expected of them to be successful. It's important to build a branding identity, so much so that the brand is advertising itself from its identity. Engaging, witty, interactive, storytelling, experiences all help branding and make adverts successful. Any tactic, using irony, attitude, wit, so long as it gets the audience to react is key. Like the Daffy's advert on page 61, it's funny, and funny is always a good idea. That idea of being funny with 'swearing' reminds me of this ad for AirAsia. It's clever/funny and therefore memorable.