Full Page Print Ad for a Real Estate Company
This is a less-is-more branding image.
Jennette Realtors asked me to illustrate all they do without relying on words. Even a call-to-action was not desired by the client.
As we have all witnessed, real estate ads can get pretty darn boxy, wordy and cluttered. Sometimes they are even a little ominous looking as they try to use too much black to look sophisticated. In this case, I took a white blank page and attempted to brand the company in a fashion commensurate with the depth and breadth of their real estate services. Hopefully you will agree that the ad is warm and welcoming - a little bit casual and neighborly, while at the same time it communicates Jennette’s significant reach and expertise in greater Nashville. My selection of images, textures and a limited color palette was carefully planned. The curved shapes, organic background texture, and tilted photos are intended to soften the traditional ad. And yes, along with work on improving the skies and clouds in the photos, I also made the apartment building roof just a little blue-er to match the other photos.
Website For A Burgeoning Real Estate Company
Website Tech Work & Design - CMS, Database & Plugin Installation - Photoshop Graphics, Photo Editing, & Copywriting.
This is a serious company with a friendly and lighthearted concept for their branding. They are just getting started. (YouCanSellAndStay)
Nashville SCENE Magazine
Artists, Songwriters and Teachers
Double-Page Center Spread - Print Ad - "Nashville SCENE" magazine
The printed ad is more rich and detailed than the web jpeg above, but this image lets you see the completed jig-saw puzzle. The printed ad is also huge, so the text is nicely readable and the headshots clear.
MY ASSIGNMENT: Fit the photos, teaching disciplines, and education details of a few "Dozen" people into an advertisement - PLUS - advertise the business!
A few DOZEN!, egads! Well, I started with a big white blank space, and nothing but the head shots of the "people", plus some raw text from their bios. The ad looks simple now that it is all worked out as you see it in front of you. But believe me, it takes much more effort and experience to make it all work than you might imagine. You have to visualize me in my office contemplating the brief verbal instructions and sitting there with nothing but a pile of head shots and pages of black and white bio text sitting on my desk.
So how was I going to figure this out?
First I go searching for other key photos to represent the business. I need more content - photos, graphic elements and advertising text. I assemble a selection of "good feeling" photos that I will later audition with the color scheme of the ad. Actually, half the headshots are my photography and photoshop work too. Next comes copywriting. Naturally I know about the business, but someone has to compose the actual words that are informative enough for the message, but short enough to fit on the page and "be balanced" in a design.
Now the challenge begins. Everyone and everything on the page is jockeying for position. All that bio info for each person is a dilemma. In the completed ad you see all the elements on the page in their relative size. Yet they did not start out that way. All the images where massively larger at first. Something as simple as size and placement is, no pun intended, a Sizeable decision. The possibilities are vast. As an example, the head shots could have been placed as a grid all to the right of the ad, with the main text and photos flowing down the left side of the page. My instructions did not include using additional photos. The add could have been nothing more than a set of headshots if I did not push to do more!
Now to compose the page. I drag most of the elements into a graphic document and begin to play around with different layouts and colors. How do I separate or combine the elements for the most bang for the buck? Do I fan them out in a curve, put them in boxes, overlap them, one-column, two-colums, three-columns, put some across the top and some across the bottom? I create a variety of multilayerd textures and blending modes to create the background. I play around with a few color scheme variations. There are a few I like, but the one I chose provided a good degree of richness and color, yet was neutral enough to allow the photos to dominate.
I could go on about all the tweaks I did from here, but that could turn this little explanation into pages of info. I'll simply end with this. If you saw the starting point of the elements I used to create this ad, you would be very surprised by how they do not resemble the finished product. Very!
Jumbo Oversize Postcard
Put A Stamp on It, and In The Mail It Goes
For Musicians At All Levels
World Music Nashville was Nashville's largest privately owned music lesson center. Student lessons were historically from 500 to 600 per week. Add in our full scale music store and the impressive live performance venue on the premises, and you have everything a hobbyist or serious musician could want. This Jumbo Oversize Postcard was mailed to our extended local community. It's message was simple. World Music would help you select the right instrument for you, teach you how to play it well, put you in a band if you so desired, and get you on a theatre stage to perform for a live audience with all the professional lights and sound you could want.
Mags
Cramming Retail Items, Services and Events in One Ad
Graphic Design, Copywriting, Product and Premises Photography.
If you are tasked with advertising 3 businesses in one, and you need to market a plethora of retail items along with physical services and live events, you end up with a visual mouthful on one page!
Pretty As a Picture
Printed Concert Poster - 18 x 24.
Graphic Design & Photoshop Photo Editing. There is little I can say about this design that is not self-evident!
Click the following link to view a great number of additional Live Event Poster Designs.
How Can You Improve Your Images?
Would you like your raw ideas and less than stellar images turned into something you would be proud to distribute everywhere. Then the answer is to give us a call here in West Nashville. In person consultations are completely free.