Great Art Direction: by Ros

In this lecture Ros spoke about advertising and branding. One of my most favorite areas of Graphic Design. We learnt that in today's society there are tons of messages communicating with us, however only a small minority are noticed. In this lecture Ros stressed the importance of simplicity within advertising; as it can be so powerful at portraying a message across to you if it has been done in the correct way. Simple messages are often way more clearer to understand and therefore the message will be successfully received to it's appropriate audience. Although simple can be effective, you still have to be careful you do not state the obvious; as this can be boring for the audience and  therefore they will not be engaged enough as to what is being portrayed, because their brains will switch off. When delivering a certain message practitioners must ensure that the message is being delivered in it's original state; as otherwise the visual will not be successful at saying what you would like it to say.

However if delivered in the correct manner, the message will interact with the audience on a emotional level, engaging them and arousing emotion. This will then lead to a positive response, which is what the practitioner is looking for as a outcome. During this lecture Ros showed us a variety of different practitioners work and advertisements, one which stood out to me was the work by Helmut Krone. Helmut has an advertising campaign whose work I found very inspiring. This was because of the fact that he always simplified his designs so much, however they still remained so effective at delivering a message across to its audience. I was greatly intrigued by his capability to do this; as often simple things can usually be very plain and boring, this was not the case in Helmut's adverts. Whilst looking through his work, I noticed the way he lay out his work with exceptionally 'weird' layouts. This automatically made me remember his visuals as they were different. One of his advertisements I really liked was the poster for Volkswagen ( image shown below). The use of white space has been so effective in this advert and the positioning of the small black car just makes everything look so perfect!


                                 'S I M P L E     B U T      D I F F E R E N T'                                                                

The use of white space helps deliver the clear message of 'Think small' as the main attention is on the quotation rather than anything else. This is a perfect example of a powerful, simple advertisement. Throughout his work you can see the passion Krone had for visual hierarchy; as he was very concerned about the positioning and layouts of his work. The bold black font half way down the middle of the page has deliberately been put there for maximum impact. This will straight away draw your consumers attention and then they will go on to looking at the image of the car and then, reading the small text on the bottom of the page.

 This has been very cleverly done so that the message is portrayed in the correct order and the audience do not get confused. In this lecture I also learnt that by implying a visual hierarchy in your work, you have control over what you want your audience to digest first. By delivering the main powerful message first, the audience will then want to read more about the smaller text at the bottom of the Volkswagen advertisement. Overall I like how Helmut has done something different to his competitors and produced such a successful piece of advertisement. This will inspire me in the future to use simplicity within my work and give me ideas on how to make simple work look effective at the same time, just as Helmut has done here. 

Another advertising campaign which caught my attention was the campaign designed by BBH agency in London. This was amongst one of the most successful advertisements I have ever seen. The visuals were so effectively portrayed and made great emphasis on the emotion of the targeted audience. The advertisement is for Audi and I love the way it is so different and quirky and not just of a simple car. This makes the advert more interesting rather than obvious and boring. I also love the way the Cat and Cheetah have both been emerged together to create such a strong piece of work. '8 cylinders when you need it', '4 when you don't' this saying on the sides of the animals face implies that the cheetah has more power than the cat, I think this relates very well within the theme. 

The advertisement is so simple yet, again, so effective. I admire this piece of work alot, as the simplicity and effectiveness inspires me widely; also the colour, layout, typography and the use of white space have all been put together so correctly and look so sophisticated, just like the personality of the owners of Audi and the style of their cars. I love the way BBH agency have thought outside of the box and not even included the logo of the car company of the visual. This intrigues the viewer even further and instantly makes them want to find out more about the concept behind the visual, automatically engaging them into your business and forming that attraction, that bond, with your audience is vital. Overall from this lecture I learnt the importance of stripping down the most obvious aspects of the company/product you are advertising for, to think of something powerful, unique and something which will make your audience think. I also learnt that sometimes less is more, in terms of advertising and the special skills associated with promoting simply but effectively, so that your product actually sells. 

I certainly do anyway!