Newspaper Ads

The newspaper ad assignment for my digital file preparation course required the creation of a single or series of newspaper ads for the Pittsburg State University Newspaper, The Collegio. The assignment required the identification of a target audience, a call to action, a proposed budget of up to $100, and a production schedule. The newspaper ad was theoretical and was not mean to actually be featured in the newspaper. I decided to make a series of ads for the Crimson Villas apartments in Pittsburg.

Target Audience:
My target audience consists of people looking for a place to rent in Pittsburg, KS. More specifically the target audience would most likely be single college age students, as Crimson Villas features roommate matching and individual no hassle leases. The target audience would likely be low income students who would be looking to live near campus.

Call to Action:
The purpose of these ads would be to get the target audience to call, stop by or visit the Crimson Villas website and ultimately end up renting an apartment.

Budget:
The column widths in the Collegio newspaper are as follows:

1 column = 1.83”
2 columns = 3.59”
3 columns = 5.75”
4 columns = 4.71”
5 columns = 9.67”
6 columns = 11.63”

From these measurements the ad sizes were to be determined so that as many or as large an ad as possible could be produced within the $100 budget.

The formula for determining the cost of the ads is this:

# columns the ad will use   x   the height of the ad   =   total inches   x   $4   =   total cost

Using this formula I decided to create a series of three ads of the following sizes:

2 columns  x  3”
2 columns  x  2”
2 columns  x  6”

The total cost of these ads based on the about formula calculates as:

2 columns  x  3”  =  6” total inches  x  $4  =  $24 total cost
2 columns  x  2”  =  4” total inches  x  $4  =  $16 total cost
2 columns  x  6”  =  12” total inches  x  $4  =  $48 total cost

The three ads total up to $98 which is in the budget stated earlier.

Schedule:
• Oct. 7:    Newspaper ads assigned
• Oct. 12:  Thumbs, roughs, and identification of target audience, call to action, and budget due
• Oct. 14:  Approval of ads
• Oct. 18:  Edits and revisions
• Oct. 21:  Final approval
• Oct. 26:  In-class critique of ads
• Oct. 28:  Final due date for newspaper ads

These are the thumbnails for the ads:

These are the roughs for the ads:

 Theses are the final ads:

3.79" x 2"

3.79" x 3"

3.79" x 6"

Brendan Murphy Symposium

Brendan Murphy, senior graphic designer at Lippincott in New York and Pittsburg State University graduate, came back to the PSU campus for homecoming weekend and spoke at a symposium. He spoke of his work for Lippincott and how he came to be where he is today. Brendan was an inspiration for many reasons. He expressed how much of graphic design is based around the need for communication, and how important writing is in this field. He mentioned that he probably spends about 75% of his time writing, 5-10% drawing, and the rest on administrative work. This just goes to show how important the ability to produce good writing really is in graphics communication. The inspiration I got from this is to not neglect focusing on writing even though many would think writing in the graphics design field would be minimal. He also expressed that general communication is very important when making changes, bringing up the example of the recent logo change that GAP tried to implement. His take on the change and the upset it caused was that there was not enough communication involved with the change. I would agree with this statement because the logo change was sudden and happened without GAP communicating anything to the public about their intention to redevelop their logo.

Brendan showed off a few of his projects which brought about more inspiration. One example was his redesign of the common handicap sign which portrays a person in a wheelchair. The common one seen in many public places makes the person in the wheelchair seem immobile and stagnant while Brendan?s design gives the image a feel of movement. His reasoning for this new design, he said, was that the one seen in most public places makes is seem like someone with a handicap is incapable of fending for themselves. The new design however, makes the person mobile despite their disability. As Brendan said, we should recognize people for their abilities not their disabilities. This made a point that it is important to examine how simple things such as a handicap sign could be communicating a certain message about someone or something that may be interpreted as somewhat negative or demeaning.

What was truly inspiring about Brendan is that he came to Pittsburg State University on a track scholarship and went on to be Senior Graphic Designer for Lippincott, a company that has developed and worked for General Mills, Chevron, Campbell?s Soup, Coke, Infinity, McDonald?s, Duracell, and more. It shows that nothing is impossible if you truly apply yourself. One of the points Brendan made was that it is important not to fall in love with technology. What he meant by this is that technology is constantly changing and the person using the technology must change with it. He added to this point by saying, ?you will get hired for your ideas not your ability to operate machinery or programs?. I think that is very important to remember in a field like the graphics field because although you may have the knowledge or ability to operate a design program, if you do not have good ideas, you will have nothing worth producing when using the programs. This shows how important planning, brainstorming, and idea generating is to good design. On an average project Brendan said that he does anywhere from 300 to 3,000 alternatives to a logo design or project branding before reaching the final piece.

A final point to make is that Brendan mentioned how much he works with other fields and industries when creating a brand experience. Again the need for communication is important when working with people from audio fields and people who focus on other things like scents when creating a brand experience.

Overall there were a lot of interesting points and ideas brought up during the symposium and it was great to hear from someone who is so successful who graduated from the same college I am attending.



GAP Logo Change

http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2010/10/gap-logo-fiasco-spawns-twitter-parody-accounts/64326

The GAP clothing company changed its online logo this month (October) and the result was much discontent from GAP fans and customers. The company made the unannounced change from their classic blue box with white lettering to a black font and small blue box on a white background. The online logo change caused an online outcry from fans. GAP had experienced a 4 percent decrease in sales, which may have been a reason for their logo change. The logo was going for a more modern look but did not deliver the desired results. It seems that the decline in sales would further with the implementation of the new disliked logo, not to mention the cost to replace all the signage, bags, clothing labels etc. of stores all around the country. The new logo has a simplistic and corporate design feel to it but seems not nearly as effective as the old logo. This shows the importance of brand identity and how long it takes a brand to build up its image. The logo change was a very drastic one and the logos look nothing alike. Perhaps this was part of the problem the GAP made with evolving their logo. There would be no brand recognition with this logo as it appears like a logo for an entirely different company. The old logo is highly recognizable, and many would not recognize the new logo as being for the same company. The company must realize that logo changes are a progressive process and changes to any logo should be minimal and subtle. Many companies like Pepsi and Coke have changed their logos overtime, but the changes have been subtle and more of an evolution than a complete identity change like GAP attempted to do. This whole fiasco has generated more publicity for the company however, getting the company?s name in the media, news, and social media. The fact that the logo change was just an online change means the company did not lose money trying to reinvent themselves and did not have to invest in sign and bag changes. This may actually be a positive thing for the GAP overall if the added publicity ends up generating more purchase for the GAP.

Notepad Project

As part of my digital file preparation course at PSU, I was assigned a project which I was to design a notepad of my chosen size using black ink only. The notepad would be printed 50 sheets a pad and perfect bound. The notepad project was aimed at creating a notepad which would be given to high school students visiting the College of Technology at Pittsburg State University. The notepad was intended to inspire and entice high school students visiting the college to consider pursing a degree in the Graphics and Imaging Technologies department at Pittsburg State University. The process began with brainstorming ideas by use of a word matrix to generate words associated with high school students:

Next I created thumbnail sketches based on ideas I had generated through my word matrix:

The next stage required creating two roughs based on two of my thumbnail sketches. I decided to make my roughs, and ultimately my notepad, 6.5" x 4.25" with one featuring a landscape layout and one with a portrait layout:

Of these two roughs I decided to go with the one depicting the graphics symbols at the top of the notepad. However I decided to leave out the bottom images and leave only the web address because I felt as though these elements did not match the feel of the rest of the piece. Here is a printed proof of the final result:

Notepad Synopsis

The notepad assignment was a 50 page notepad of a chosen size aimed at attracting the attention of high school students visiting the Pittsburg State University's College of Technology. The notepad could be any size and I chose to make mine 4.25" x 6.5". Some of the ideas I associated with high school students were sports, music, electronics, and art. I tried to incorporate these elements in my thumbnail sketches, and then took my two favorites and created roughs. One of the roughs originally had a combination of more than thumbnail, but after a class critique I decided to leave the vector elements at the bottom out of the piece, as it did not seem to relate to the feel of the rest of the piece. I decided to go with the rough that featured elements of the Graphics and Imaging Technologies department, including the images of a camera for photography, a CD for gaming or programming, a paper for page layout, and a computer for imaging. In this rough I used symmetrical balance with the four graphics spaced evenly apart over text reading 'Department of Graphics and Imaging Technologies'. The bottom of the piece is also symmetrical with the centered web address. The other rough, which I decided not to use for my final piece includes symmetrical balance with images from outer space in the corners. My original thought was that this design might appeal to a high school age student's interest in their future as well as possible art interests. In both pieces there is reference to the PSU College of Technology or the Graphics and Imaging Technologies department. I decided to go with the piece that had the vector art of the computer, CD, camera, and paper because I felt that it better related to the Graphics and Imaging Technologies department.

One Color T-Shirt

I have been learning the process of screen printing in a class I am taking through Pittsburg State University, and thought I would post the design of my first design for my first blog post. Here is what the design looks like applied to a t-shirt as well as alone and with placement specifications. According to the tech pack this shirt uses white ink on a gray shirt, however I printed a few different colored inks on different colored shirts. I may post an image of a finished shirt but for now I'll leave it at the tech pack version.