I am proud to say that the advertisement above was 100% shot and designed by me. In photography class, my teacher presented the grade 12s with the task of having to pick a product of their choice and shooting professional pictures of it using the photography studio. Prior to the assignment, he showed us lighting techniques and how to operate photography equipment (soft boxes, cameras, remote adapters, etc.) to help make our photos turn out looking professional.
The criteria for the assignment were simple and nonrestrictive, allowing everyone freedom in their ad design: there had to be a shot of the product by itself, and a shot of a model interacting with the product, which in my case was a singer. I looked at existing microphone advertisements for the Yeti as well as others, and established in my head an idea of how a good microphone advertisement should look.
In my advertisement, there are certain factors which I made sure to include to make it clean and complete. The first step I took was editing the raw photos. While the pictures I took were good as they were, I gently increased the contrast to get that sleek, metallic shine that is best visible to the naked eye. For the model shot, I increased the contrast on the entire photo, but added vibrancy and brightness to only the microphone, and "feathered" the layer so it bled into its surroundings, making it appear as if the microphone is radiating brilliance. As a small touch, I slightly increased the brightness and contrast of the Blue logo on the microphone to make it stand out more.
The next step was the layout. Since the model shot is the most dynamic and interesting, I made it the main photo to draw in the viewer. To accompany that, I placed the headline headline text next to the microphone. I used a geometric and bold font to convey sleekness and modernity, to show that the microphone is the latest and greatest installment in its market. The choice of colour was carefully picked. For the word "Blue," I used a vibrant, deep blue to mimic the logo, and turquoise for "yeti" because that is the colour that the company uses in their advertisements and packaging for this product. I then used white to create a balance in the weight of the colours for the rest of the text.
The next step was laying out the microphone shots in the bottom right corner. These are the "informational" shots, giving the consumer a full, plain view to give them a good idea of exactly what they are looking at. I made sure the microphone was angled straight up in both shots as well as make them the same size to keep consistency, making them easier to compare.
Every good advertisement will have the logo clearly printed somewhere to inform consumers of who made the product they are looking at, that way they know who to go to when they are interested in purchasing the item on display. I kept it simple by taking Blue's logo and putting it in the bottom right corner.
The final step was the brief blurb on the Yeti, the most informational and hopefully most influential part of the advertisement. I decided to stay true to the company and use the original description of the microphone instead of my own, partly because it is more legitimate, and also because they wrote it well enough that there was no need to come up with something else. I used a simple and clean font for the summary because at that point, the viewer has been dazzled by the glowing shots of the microphone and edgy headline, and the focus should now be solely on the specifications. Although font types seem like a small part of the big picture, when a company is trying to catch and maintain people's interest, every nuance counts. When choosing the font for the blurb, I kept it simple because I personally think that the more elaborate and exciting fonts should be used for titles and headlines to grab attention, while more simple fonts are used for informational text.
I had my doubts in the beginning, but I'm pleased with how everything turned out, and wouldn't change a thing.
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