Response >> Ad Design

So, to "be able to do everything," I decided to take on some spec ads at my internship about a week ago. WOW, it was challenging. I had to design an ad for a salon/spa, a title company and mc sports. The salon ad I showed was the easiest. I tried to play off the new salon's name (the beach salon) to help with name recognition..so i found the photo of the woman on the beach and came up with the headline get away/getaway... a clever little play on words I must say. I really like this ad. It's pretty and simple.

The MC Sports ad was hard. They just remodeled in the mall and the store is HUGE. I wanted to do something with that so I did an all text ad that made the shape of a roof saying something like everything you need under one huge roof. My boss wasn't crazy about it and I wasn't either. She wanted me to use photos, so I ended up with this. I was going for a dream like layout, with all of these photos overlapped and crowded, like an athletes thoughts about sports. It may be a stretch, I know...but....


Finally, for the title ad (PS I had to call my dad to figure out what a title company was, I just couldn't wrap my head around it), I had a lot of trouble. The company was looking for name recognition and credibility, so I first designed an ad that looked like a dictionary entry of his name, and the definitions were things that set his business apart. It worked in theory, but not on the page..the layout wasn't right at all. So, my boss again encouraged me to look for a photo. The business prides itself on giving clients personal attention, so I ended up with this. (The photo hasn't been downloaded yet). I like it because it's fun, but its one of those things I don't know if other people will get right away. I knew it was for a title company...but I'm not sure others will get that right away...so i'm guessing it still needs tweaking.



Overall these projects reminded me how hard ad design is. What I took from it is that while with mag design you have a few pages to get across a concept or idea, to be complicated and daring, with ads it's best to go the route you do with covers--simple and direct. there is room for concepts, but if you do go that direction you have to be able to get it across immediately.