Analysis of an Advertisement

One thing everyone does, but probably doesn’t realize they are doing it is analysis of advertisements. Whether they see an ad flash across the TV screen or they come across advertisements in a magazine, everyone is always doing a quick analysis. Most people don’t spend a lot of time analyzing, they glance and flip to the next page, or maybe even turn the channel. There are a lot of elements that marketers and graphic designers need to consider when making an ad and I am going to share what I have learned on how to analyze a print advertisement. 

One of my first projects assigned to me when I started the program at the University of Northern Iowa was to do an advertisement analysis. Everyone in the class was given a ad found by the teacher and on a poster had to point out the elements the advertisement had to make it visually appealing as well as write some copy about it.

This is the first time I had ever seriously analyzed an advertisement and I learned there is a lot more to the ad the more I visualized and thought about it.

The elements that can quickly be picked out from the ad are color, the use of space, and direction. Shown is a visual way I was able to pull out the color and ad lines to show the strong direction used in the golf advertisement. What people don’t realize, just like I didn’t when I was doing this project is the underlying questions marketers need to ask themselves when having the designer make the ad. The three important questions I’ve learned to ask when analyzing a ad are:  

1. What does the text say? 

2. Who is the ad targeting?

3. What does the image say?

These questions can be thought of more deeply as well; what is the relationship between the copy and the image? Is there a theme? What is the use of the space saying? After asking the questions people will have a better understanding of why the ad made the decisions it did. Not everyone needs to analyze an ad, but learning how to is interesting because you can look at an ad a quickly learn the message the marketers were trying to get across, which sometimes isn’t what people think at first glance.

While researching a bit of this topic I came across the website http://www.frankwbaker.com/checklist.htm. I found this checklist helpful if there was ever a time someone needed to analyze an ad, it has all the important things that are needed to be thought about when doing the analysis.

 

These two Nike ads ran together, but are separate. Like every ad there is a message that isn’t clearly seen on the surface, only people who analyze the ad will be able to understand what the marketers are saying. Clearly put the explicit messages; “Ladies First, Men Second” or “One More Thing for Men to Rule”  on each ad is shown with large, white text, which is prominent. These ads are dealing with what some people see as gender issues, but both messages are empowering. What underlying message do you analyze? To know more visit http://www.reed.edu/anthro/adprojects/2011/gould_ramey_butcher/ to understand what the ads were trying to portray and what the messages were.

Creative Bloq: A Great Resource

While doing research for blog posts and research for my own projects in graphic design and advertising I always end up looking at the website creativebloq.com. So today I am going to tell you why you should consider using this website in your future. 

The first time I came across Creative Bloq was when I was working on one of my first projects for graphic design when I started at the University of Northern Iowa. I was looking for fonts to use,  but didn’t want to pay for them. I typed in “the best free fonts for graphic designers” and Creative Bloq popped up. This page had 100 of the best  free fonts and not only did you get to view them, there was a link you were able to click to go straight to download the font onto your computer. 

This is one of many attributes Creative Bloq has. The site is easy to figure out and straight to the point, you aren’t searching for what you're looking for, it’s there. You could spend hours looking through all the information they place on their website. Creative Bloq has everything from articles and trends, broken down sections of their website, and tutorials. Although I find this website to be mainly about design they have sections for topics such as advertising, branding, and photography. 

I have placed this website in my sources and am on at a couple times a week finding new sources for my graphic design and advertising products. If you are ever stuck on an idea browse their website, I can promise you whatever you come across will spark your brain and get ideas flowing. You can find other resources straight from Creative Bloq which is a great tool. I highly recommend looking into the site and adding to your list of resources, it won’t let you down.

Below I have placed the link to take you to their website! Check it out:

\Creative Bloq

Important Graphic Elements in Magazine Advertisements

The basic elements of design are line, color, balance, harmony, shape, texture, scale, dominance and emphasis, typography and space. When you match these ten elements with the seven elements of print advertising some match up. The elements of print advertising include layout, size and shape, placement, paper and ink, graphic elements, color vs. black and white, and copy elements. 

As shown above both print advertising and the design elements go hand in hand. One print advertising element is “graphic elements”, in this post I will lay out which graphic elements are most important to print advertising for magazine ads. 

Magazines are media where people see a lot of print advertisements so today I will be exploring some of the important elements graphic designers need to consider when designing an advertisement that is placed in a magazine. 

1. Typography: Typography is used for different parts of the magazine advertisement, viewers can see it in the headline and the copy of the ad. The typography doesn’t have to be similar but it needs to be readable and eye catching, especially the headline, to grab attention. 
2. Harmony: Not only does the design need to look good it has to have harmony with both the visual elements and the advertising elements. People need to see that the copy and the imagery match, they need to make a connection to understand. 
3. Dominance and Emphasis: The advertiser needs to understand what elements need to dominate in the ad or have an emphasis. This depends on what the ad is trying to sell, sometimes the image or illustration will need to be emphasized, sometimes the copy will take the dominate roll. 
4. Balance: Balance in design is how all the elements are arranged. Balance is important when making an ad, all the elements need to have a good balance in order to draw viewers eyes to the ad and move it throughout so viewers see everything the advertisement is trying to say. 

Above are two successful print ads that use the elements of design to draw in readers and sell their product.

All the design elements can be incorporated in some sense in a magazine advertisement, I chose these four as the most important because they are seen in almost every print ad seen in a magazine. 

These design elements are considered in other print ads as well, but are probably considered more in magazine ads than considered in print ads such as billboards. The ads in magazines are a little more complicated and since they are seen for more than five seconds they need to grab attention. Design elements are what bring the viewer in and keep their attention until the ad gets the point across. The complication of these elements is often not present to the viewer, they don’t consider the thought that designers do, but the elements are needed for a good design. 

Research for this post found from: 

http://smallbusiness.chron.com/7-elements-print-advertising-15325.html

https://creativemarket.com/blog/2013/12/02/10-basic-elements-of-design