Newspaper Ad

Hello all. A new week means a new project! And you may ask what the project is this week...I'll give you a hint, look at the title! Yep, that's right a newspaper ad! So in my digital file prep class our project this week is to create a newspaper ad and the options are pretty much limitless. There are certain aspects we are to follow though. Included we must have a formula to determine our cost (newspaper ads aren't measured in inches either, folks). A newspaper ad is measured in columns AND inches. The formula I'm using is 3 columns by 5 inches, which converts to 5.75 inches by 5 inches-that is my InDesign document sizes. My cost formula is 3col x 5"=28.75 x $4= $115.00. We have an imaginary budget of $197.00 also. Since my cost is within budget I'm good to go! My target audience is going to be traditional college students and my Call to Action is going to be to sway the target audience into the store. My design that I created is for a coffee shop, so this is why I chose traditional college students to be my audience. In the design I've incorporated music, food and computers/internet into the equation. College students seem to really love coffee, as well as internet and music. So if the traditional college student buys coffee, food, and listens to music in the wi-fi cafe...they get the best of both worlds. Included are my 10 thumbnails and rough draft. Enjoy!

 

10 thumbnails

 

 Rough 

 

Final printed piece

A Little Inspiration

During our time off of school for fall break, our teacher asked us to take pictures of our environment for inspirational designs, whether they be good or bad designs. I went to Joplin this weekend and was driving past Freeman Hospital and a banner caught my eye. It was a well-designed banner of a tree made with hands and hearts. I found it quite inspirational and a really good design. On the way to Joplin, my mom and I stopped by a flea market in Crestline. I was looking all over the place for good design and just as we were about to leave, I stumbled upon a vintage box for Oreo cookies. I thought it was pretty neat so I snapped a picture of that as well. Also, I got a butterfly die-cut and I thought the package it came in was really cool so that was inspirational as well. Enjoy!

Completed Direct Mail piece

Okay...so after our on-screen critiques in class last Thursday I've made some changes to the Direct Mail piece. This project was a little on the confusing side, but it's over now and turned in to be graded (*fingers crossed*). Even though this project was a bit of a headache, in the long run it was helpful to learn and it was pretty fun as well. I am pretty pleased with the final result. What do you think? Changes? Thanks for taking a peek!

Direct Mail Piece

Our current project now is a direct mail piece. For this, we have to include 2 fronts and 2 backs of possible direct mail pieces, keeping 2 audiences in mind. I chose to do a day spa and organic health mail piece. My two audiences are the Spa side of the mail piece and the other side is the organic health part. I figured that spas and health go hand in hand together and would be good to incorporate one another in this direct mail piece. One piece is going to be made up of Spa pictures and material, while the other piece will be made of organic health foods. They will each include addresses from students in the class and will be printed as a 5x7. This is a very exciting, yet stressful project and I hope the end result is satisfactory!

Front 1

Back 1

Front 2



Back 2



Finished Notepad

As promised, here is my completed notepad for Digital File Prep. The logo is based on my love for photography and included is a QR code. We were only required to print one page of the notepad but can print the whole notepad if we wish...so I may do that later. I am pleased with how it turned out, but I do wish I could have thought up a more complex design. It wasn't about the design this time though, so that's good!

QR codes: What are they and why are they used?

So...one of the things that had to be included in our final notepad was a QR code. You may be asking yourself, "What is that?!" Well, a QR code stands for Quick Response, and it is just a small square consisting of smaller black squares that happen to make up a code to something. If you have a smart phone, you're at an advantage because you can actually take a picture (scan) of the QR code, the phone reads it, and opens whatever the content of the QR code is. It enables print material to become interactive media so very easily. Think of it like a scan-friendly bar code. Pretty neat! Anyway we had to include those somewhere in our final notepad. This is what a QR code looks like, maybe you've seen or used one before! The final product is coming soon!!

My Notepad

For my first project in Digital File Prep, we are to create notepads. These notepads are reflective of the skills we’re good at; whether they are art, design, music, shopping, sports…you name it! The target audience we’re shooting for are professionals. So obviously the design must look professional, but fun as well! Included in the notepad we are to have: a target audience, call to action, QR code, dimensions of 5x7 inches, black and white only, and 50 sheets per pad. I will be using my name, phone number, and email address for the call to action. Prerequisites for this particular job included drawing a word matrix, 10 thumbnails, 1 rough, and the estimated cost of the printed final product. I decided to create a logo based on my intense photography interest.

                                                           Here is my word matrix.

These are my 10 thumbnail sketches.

And this is my complete rough draft sketch.