publication advertisement

Thumbs


Full page rough


1/3 page rough


Full page finished.
Bleed: 8 1/4" x 11 1/8"
Trim: 8" x 10 7/8"
Live: 7 1/2" x 10 3/8"


1/3 page finished.
Bleed: 2 7/8" x 11 1/8"
Trim: 2 5/8" x 10 7/8"
Live: 2 1/8" x 10 3/8"

As per requirements by Glamour magazine, minimum size for reverse type is 8 point, all fonts are embedded and no True Type fonts have been used, only CMYK colors have been used, and PMS colors have been converted to CMYK.

Project Specifications
When given the assignment to create a magazine advertisement, I chose to create an ad for Glamour magazine. I researched advertisement specifications and discovered Glamour's Mechanical Requirements web page. This provided me with all the information I needed to make an advertisement for the magazine.

I researched common product categories that often appear in Glamour magazine and found the following categories to be most predominant: clothing, makeup, perfume, and vehicles. These four categories appeal to twenty-something women who are concerned with their appearance. These women are likely to shop for more expensive luxury items. They make up my target audience.

Before deciding on what product I would be advertising, I wanted to be sure I would have a high quality photo to represent the product. I decided to use a stock photo I downloaded from istockphoto's weekly free files. The photo is of a beautiful young woman with simple, clean looking makeup. This photo will be used to advertise an imaginary brand of makeup.

Our assignment is to make a full page advertisement and a 1/3 page advertisement. For the full page, I plan to use a full bleed on the stock photo I found. For the 1/3 page, I will be making representations of the products in Illustrator. The full page will be heavy on image, while the 1/3 page will have slightly more information about the product.

The call to action for these advertisements will be to purchase the product.

Copyright Information
Large Advertisement
The woman photo was downloaded as a weekly free file from istockphoto.
The light texture background is from here and can be found here. This image was available for free use with credit.
Small Advertisement
I created the vector art in Illustrator.

The Impact of Emerging Media

Last Thursday, at the Four States Regional Technology Conference, Joe Grigsby of VML spoke about "The Impact of Emerging Media."

He began the seminar with a history of VML, noting that education and marketing are similar in that they both require a connection to an audience to make an impact. He then introduced the concept of emerging media, which is determined by consumer behavior trends. These trends include how consumers connect to content, to each other, and to the broader society. He grouped the category of emerging media into two subcategories - social and mobile.

http://gregverdino.typepad.com/greg_verdinos_blog/2007/07/social-media-ho.html

When speaking of social media, form doesn't matter. In other words, it doesn't matter if you connect via your iPod, iPad, or laptop, what matters is the content and the response. Social media is certainly booming, and provides a way for businesses to link to consumers. It's no mystery why Facebook is overtaking Google as the "starting point" for the internet. Through Facebook, users are given the opportunity to react to information. Their input to any given conversation holds weight and value. Google provides an opportunity to consume a service only. As social media users react to information and provide input, they are participating in a sort of social media conversation. This conversation is very important to marketers, because it provides the reach and influence that all marketers are aiming for. In fact, consumers trust other consumers' recommendations two times more than they trust traditional advertising. If marketers can somehow harness this reach and influence and use it as a promotional tool, they will benefit enormously. Therefore, marketers must listen to and add to the social media conversation.

http://iabuksocial.co.uk/?tag=mobile-and-social-media

The second portion of emerging media pertains to mobile media. Our society is increasing becoming more mobile. It is predicted that by 2012, tablet sales will overtake netbooks sales. If a marketer can use messaging, mobile web, downloads, and apps successfully, they can influence a particular target market more effectively and efficiently.

Overall, this seminar was very helpful in shifting my views about social media. Social media is not only a way for people to connect to other people, it is an important marketing tool that can be used to influence a wide range of people in a very effective way.

variable data direct mail

Thumbnails


Back of direct mail piece


Front of direct mail piece


Back of "child" version


Front of "child" version


Back of "senior" version


Front of "senior" version

Project Specifications
For my variable data direct mail piece, I have decided to design a postcard to be sent to customers of a fictional photography studio. I knew I wanted to use photography for this particular assignment and I wanted it to be high quality. I didn't want to mess with paying for stock images, so I've decided to use some of my personal photos for the postcard. This will enable me to differentiate my data according to photography needs such as maternity, wedding, and senior photos.

Part of this assignment is to include two data changes. I've decided that one piece of data change will be my photos, according to the client's needs. The second piece of data I'll be including is a name change. For example, "Dear Jane,". I will also be including a data change in the form of the client's address.

My target audience for this piece will be people with important events approaching, especially fictitious past clients who I know are, for example, pregnant. This makes my target audience fairly widespread as it will include high school juniors and seniors, young adults, 20-somethings, soon-to-be parents, new parents, families with older kids, and pretty much everything in between. It follows that I will need to be very careful with my design to make it appeal to both teenagers and older parents.

The call to action for this piece will be to encourage the client to get in contact with the photography studio via phone or email. Through the photography provided on the direct mail piece, they will be reminded of the quality of work of the studio, which will lead them to schedule a portrait session for the upcoming event in their life.

heidi elizabeth

Occasionally, I find time in my ridiculously busy schedule to design something just for fun. I got caught up enough in my homework that I made time to make something for my roommate's sister, who just had a baby, Heidi. My roommate, Paige, has three sisters, so I had Paige message them to get five adjectives to describe Heidi. I took these fifteen adjectives (some were duplicates, that's why fifteen don't show up in the finished product) and combined them in an Illustrator file. I'm having this file printed and then plan to frame it for Paige's sister.

save the date

As of last Tuesday, I'm engaged! I've decided to do the design for all my paper goods for the wedding, including save the dates, invitations, and thank you cards.

This weekend, I put together a save the date postcard: