Ideas Ideas Ideas...

After having the sketches done we started to work on our posters. The posters started to take form, but my partner and I still had some problems communicating our ideas. Because is difficult to meet and do the projects we first did separate posters. The took the route of the common ads by using pretty images, but the problem was all the wording that didn't make sense. In my case I went by making the chocolates into pieces of art. The chocolate is unique, different and is done by artisans. Artisans are people who make items that can be decorative or useful. The chocolate is done by hand and that is a unique art. Plus the word artisan has the word art in it. Not sure if it makes sense to others but to me that made total sense.

Sketches, sketches, sketches

After spending many hours trying to come up with ideas for a chocolate campaign at the end they were all busts. It seems our instructor wants something more abstract that does not show the product  nor make it the focus of the ad. To my understating he wants something that attracts and gives the viewer the sense of the product without seen it. This project should not be this hard and I think my own head is making it hard. Because in theory is simple to come out with and and and the hard part is making it. I think I need to get a some inspiration from the world. 

Time to choose a the underdog

It can time to make the choice for a product that had bad advertising.  Jewelry is not an option in my head no matter how much my partner wanted to. From what I was told she had been doing lots of jewelry projects for school before, so I wanted to take her out of her confort zone. Hair gel from Mexico was also a bad choice. A new drink that no one has heard about equals another bad choice. So we decided to go with Godiva chocolate and I have to stand up next to our choice. I will trust my partner and do my best to make good ads for the brand. In order to get to this decision we had to go to a grocery store for inspiration. I noticed something for the first time. The "good brands" are at eye level. The not so good products (bad advertised) are on the bottom and in smaller quantities on the shelves.  I wonder who chooses the location of the name brands?  

Presentation Day

Well the day came to present our pro/con posters to the class. Sincerely we do feel it was a huge improvement compered to the one 2 days before. But I got extremely nervous and I feel we didn't do as well as the other teams. Probably been told that the project before wasn't as good as everyone else got me stressed and nervous. Next time I will just stay with my strengths photography and not illustrating. Maybe my problem was that we were told to make so many sketches. My partner and I were not that good drawing and been told that the sketches had to be perfect was our problem. We had invision some ideas on photography and sketched them out, but we were told they didn't look real or make sense. They were sketches come on there was no need to make them perfect. Should we had taken pictures and present them as sketches? Well it seem I will need to learn to draw perfectly. I learned to just deal with it and do it.

ReDesign

Well Monday the class had to critique my team's set of posters on capital punishment. I was really disappointed that our illustration were not up to the standards set for this project. I am not a great illustrator and I can't talk for my teammate. But we did do our best on those images maybe they were just not the right solution to the problem. After the class we went back to the ideas board. We decided that instead of using illustration we were going to use photography. My partner and I went around campus to look for a dandelion flower, which for some reazon they seem to be no where. At last we found no next to one of the buildings on campus. We took the picture with a common digital camera and headed back to the computers. After the design was done we still needed another image of a brick wall. We got the final pic and worked on the projects all night. We only had one day to finish the project before final presentation and we still needed to find a place to print. We got it printed on campus after beging Reprographics to print it the day before final presentation. To me this was a really hard experience to have to do final changes a day before the project was do and change the whole vision from one day to another.

Web design

      I been trying to make a website for the past few days. It's not as simple to create a site as I thought. Many things come into play when designing. First of all I had trouble deciding on which software to use. I started by using photoshop for my first drafts. After redesigning and redesigning I think my project is almost finish. But where should I go after the initial design is done? What web design software should I use? Well I been taking lessons on Dreamweaver at Lynda.com. But I have also heard about another design software by adobe Fireworks. Fireworks seems simple and fast to learn. After giving it much tough I think Dreamweaver will be the best way to go.

Lynda.com has great tutorials

Inspiration and a site #2

      While searching for advertisements in the web I came up with a site that is interesting, well at least to me  (http://www.webdesignerdepot.com). I found some packages for inspiration (http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2009/05/50-beautiful-and-effective-package-designs/). Also I found many tips about been a designer and not just someone that uses photoshop to create stuff. The site has lots of info in different subjects and it seems to be a interesting site to visit ones or twice a week to get some design knowledge. The site has tips on how to use the adobe software (http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2009/04/how-to-make-a-photoshop-montage/). I hope while searching the site you guys find something interesting, I know I did.
      This week my design partner and I got together. We were assigned to do a pro and con ads in a social issue. Decided to do the project assigned to us on Capital Punishment. The ads are going to be in favor and against SB 490 a bill that would abolish the death penalty in California. Onces we finish the ads I will post them up for your viewing.

New year new post #1: Ads

  For all those that ever wondered which was the first Old Spice Guy commercial here it is. 

     This video is the famous commercial used during the commercials during the 2010 Super Bowl. I still remember been caught off guard when I saw the commercial. The whole idea for the campaign is to tell women that Old Spice can make your man the ultimate man. All the different commercials from this campaign always has the guy stating facts to the female viewers. In return because guys fell they aren't been talk to they start thinking females want a man like the Old Spice Guy. The commercials and printed ads just keep getting weirder and weirder. At one point even Fabio with his bad acting did some ads for Old Spice.

     There is a ad company that reminds me of the Old Spice Guy is a campaign by Dos Equis. The campaign of The Most Interesting Man in the World is more sophisticated than the Old Spice ads. To me the idea of making a beer sophisticated is perfect for Dos Equis because other beers aim to the sport manly man, but not to the classy respectful guys. Plus, the original colors of the beer do say class especially because of the red and gold colors.  

  A good advertisement is one that gets a persons attention, stays in your head and at the end gets you buy the product. I bet many will remember the printed ad below for Dos Equis.