The word “advertising” is derived from the Latin word “ad vertere” which means, to turn towards. It is a technique that has been used for generations to attract people’s attention. The advertising industry has grown to be a $300 billion business within the past century and is still growing at a rapid rate.
The first advertisements were placed in newspapers and on billboards in the late 19th century. Over time, advertising became more sophisticated by utilizing television programming and radio programming to target an audience base. Nowadays, there are even advertisements on the internet and cell phones. The main purpose of these ads is to create brand recognition through logos, slogans, colors and graphics.
A good example of flat or two dimensional graphic design is the classic Marlboro Man. This advertisement was designed by Tom McBride in 1954.*(1) The Marlboro Man was created to give men a sense of accomplishment while they smoke their Marlboro cigarette. In this ad, the man is rugged, stern-faced and confident; he has a job and he’s good at it. He’s not only a man but also a cowboy who works on his ranch all day long with his horse by his side. These qualities make him seem like he has power (he’s strong
Advertising design is a form of graphic design, but with well defined limitations. It must not have any extraneous elements such as typefaces or pictorial material. The viewer must be able to see if from a distance, so it should be flat in appearance and designed for large areas of colour.
The advertising designer needs to take into account the message and the medium. To get attention the advertisement must be striking in appearance, but it should not distract from the product it is trying to sell.
The client may need advertising of a certain size to fit into a certain place, or they may want something that will be handed out or displayed in an exhibition. If so, there are standard sizes that are used by designers for this purpose.
The designer must also consider the effects of colour on the vision of the reader. Bright colours will attract attention whereas dull colours tend to blend into each other and fade out of view. These effects can help you to express your message through design, just as type and image layout can also help you to do this.”
Since the purpose of design is communication, the designer must be aware of and sensitive to the audience. The audience can be internal, such as company employees or team members, or external audiences, such as customers. Designers need to understand the communication needs of their particular audience or to create a design that produces a desired response in the viewer.
The flat graphic designer uses typography, photography, illustration and other techniques to create visual communication on a two-dimensional surface. The 2D designer uses techniques such as drawing, painting, printmaking, typography, and digital media to produce images on a flat surface. Visual design elements include color, shape, form and line. A combination of text and images creates any number of visual effects.
Designers use software applications to generate designs from images or from scratch. Some programs are specialized for graphic design while others are more general applications that can be used for most graphic design tasks.
The website contains examples of art and design in various media: paintings in acrylics or oils; drawings in charcoal or crayons; sculpture in stone, wood or metal; photographs in black-and-white or full color; prints made with screen printing or engraving; maps with hand-drawn illustrations; and computer graphics with animated curs
A logo is a graphic design that represents a company, organization, or product. Logos are often called “marks” as in coat of arms or trademark.
A logo is typically made up of one or more words, numbers, and/or images. The logo is meant to represent the brand name of the business, product, or organization. A logo is intended to be memorable and striking such that it can easily be recognized even in small sizes or on various media. Around the world, logos are designed by professionals who have studied graphic design.
A logo will often be accompanied by a slogan (attributed tagline). The slogan may state what the company specializes in or what makes it unique; either way it would appear on a tag affixed to an item in the case of specialty items (see boutique) or on its packaging in the case of consumer goods (see cereal box prize).
Logos come in many different shapes and forms: simple text-only marks, silhouettes of objects (like the Nike “swoosh”), abstract symbols (like the Red Cross’ red cross), flags representing nations and corporations (like McDonald’s golden arches), initials (like NBC’s peacock), animated icons (like Apple’s spinning globe), and many more graphical symbols
Advertisers create advertisements that are intended to persuade consumers to purchase the product being advertised. The advertisements are targeted towards consumers’ emotions, and include a call-to-action to entice the consumer to buy the product. Advertising is all around us; on television, in magazines, on billboards, and even on public transportation.
►The first thing that we notice in an advertisement is the image it uses. An image usually consists of a person or object and suggests a certain message about the product. For example, an advertisement for sparkling water could feature a young woman dancing and suggest that this type of water will help you look like her.
►Next, we notice the colors used in the advertisement. Color is used for several reasons. First, it helps attract our attention to the advertisement. Second, color can be used to help make a brand stand out from its competitors. For example, if two similar soda companies both use red in their advertisements, they are trying to associate their brand with positive feelings. Third, color can be used to emphasize specific parts of an image.
►The layout of an advertisement also serves a purpose in advertising products. The design of an advertisement should catch your eye immediately as you walk by it so that you take note of what it’s
There are two basic approaches to visual communication. One is to try to show as much information as possible as clearly as possible. We call this “information design” or “infographics” (not infographics). The other is to use visual design to enhance the message, perhaps by making it more memorable or by conveying an emotion.
The first approach draws on the fields of information design and science and engineering graphics. It is about clarity, accuracy, and completeness. The second approach comes from the world of art and graphic design. It is about style, emotion, and communication.
Art and design are two new words for two old things.
The word art is a recent invention. It came into use around the nineteenth century, as a way to avoid the religious connotations of the old word “art,” which meant something like “magic.” The word design is older; it goes back to the roots of English, where it was used in the same sense as the Latin from which it was derived.
Telling people how to make art or design things is even older than that. As long ago as 1570, Thomas Hobbs published a book on geometry with this title: “The Citizen’s Gemetria: Containing a teaching both briefe and easie, whereby any artificer may be instructed how to levell any peece of work according to his owne measurment.”
In other words, more than four hundred years ago, people were still trying to teach each other how to be better at making stuff.
