Visual Response- Evaluation

I have much preferred doing this practical brief than the essay, my essay was based on the Jeremy Bullmore Advertising quote ‘Advertising does not sell things; all advertising does is change the way people think or feel’ I personally completely agree with this and in my essay I researched into how advertising works and came to the conclusion that they statement is true. 

There was so much to research into with this brief as I regrettably looked into so many adverts in my essay, I wish now that I looked into less. Never the less there was a lot to look at and I came up with various ideas for this brief, including:

- a propaganda book. this would of been a picture book taking you through the history of propaganda. I didn't do this as I feel that it would of been a bit pointless and would of had no purpose. 

- a cigarette advertising concertina. this would of been a fold out book as a time line with the history of advertising cigarettes, and how its changed, I also would of mentioned how it has changed between men and women, that in the 50's it was fashionable for women to smoke and then in the 80's it was fashionable for men to smoke. I also would of talked about how the UK never advertise cigarettes anymore due to health risks because of things like lung cancer ect. however fast food chains such as mcdonalds are still allowed to advertise even tho there is a massive health risk with obesity, and how I think it should be consumers choice.   

- a channel point of sale. this would of been a high end shiny Chanel point of sale to put on their makeup stands ect to show the history of channel and their advertising, I would of done this to show just how much the brand has developed and how much money they actually spend on their adverts, I much prefer their vintage adverts.
 
- sex sells. a small zine to show all of the brands that use the 'sex sells' technique and why. I also would of put in here many adverts that have been banned in the UK and why. 

The idea that I did go  for was the American Apparel controversy one, I chose to go with this idea as I could of created my own adverts in the style of American Apparel to show how well they do advertise, so I could actually do something rather than just pilling together a load of research. Also I feel it links in best with my essay and the opinions raised. I also chose this as I am interested in the brand and I found a great archive of all there adverts from the past which I found great interest in. 

I really enjoyed doing my own photo shoots, I did some before and after easter it was a lot more fun than I expected, in total I took just over 200 photographs. I used photoshop to add the American Apparel text, and to alter the brightness and contrast. It surprised me just how good they looked once I started to add the type. While researching for this I found some good articles that I enjoyed reading, finding out things I didn't previously know about the brand. 

What I wanted the publication to do is to show people just how well American Apparel advertise, a lot of there adverts get banned but this is all done for a reason to get bigger in the media, my aim with this publication was to showcase just that.  

I got all of my content together along with the adverts I made and made the publication on inDesign, each one of my adverts that I had created used a full page as I wanted them to be of high impact. I chose to use Helvetica all through my publication as American Apparel are famous for it, it is their logo font choice, it looks clean and simple. Once I was happy with my page layouts I then went to print. 

I knew I wanted the publication to be in a newspaper style as now it seems to be popular for high street brands to have newspapers for the consumer to take home, I have seen brands such as office, topshop and river island do this. I also chose the format of a newspaper for my adverts to be on a large scale for the consumer to notice the difference. 

I occurred many problems with printing and it has been a huge learning curve for me. The problems that occurred are:

- zine. when printing copies as a zine I found that the type was too small and it was slightly difficult to read. I wanted to fix this by making it bigger however it would of ruined the layout of each page. 

- cropping. cropping the newspaper proved a huge problem, I think the problem was that some of my text was over the bleed, it printed fine but cropping each page and getting it inline was very difficult.

- CMYK & RGB. on some of my images it was either the printer or I didn't turn the images into CMYK before printing them and they may still have been in RGB, in the future I will remember to check. 

Overall I have really enjoyed this project, it has been interesting and I have learnt a lot about advertising as a whole. I am happy with the final newspaper and have learnt a lot of lessons along the way. If I was to do this again I think I would of branded American Apparels adverts as something else, such as primark, I think this would of been quite amusing and would of made people realise how well American Apparel advertise. I decided to have American Apparel adverts throughout to keep it consistant, and if it was to be in a American Apparel shop I don't think they would be able to mention/ advertise other high street brands. Making the adverts has been the best part of this brief, I also think this brief has improved my layout skills and the use of white space. 

Visual Response- Final Outcome

Here are a the test prints, I wanted to show my publication as a small zine as well as a newspaper, I think this works well and I think it would work well in content I could see it at the side of an American Apparel till in store so people can take one home and have a browse. 

The only issue with having the zine at a small size is that the type is a bit too small, I was going to make it larger however I think this would ruin the layout of the page spreads. 

Final news paper print 

Here is the final newspaper print, I am really happy with the way it has turned out, I printed it double sided on newspaper print, it has turned out as expected I think it works well on a large scale, it gives the adverts justice.  

Visual Response- Final Page Layouts

Unfortunately ISSU won't let me upload my pdf as the file is too big, so here are just some print screens of my final layouts of the publication. I am happy with the way it looks, I have kept it minimal to match American Apparel, I have also used there fonts Helvetica Neu heavy for the titles as that is what they use for their logo and Helvetica Neu Light for the body copy to keep it consistant and relevant. 

Visual Response- Designing Development

When starting my publication I found it difficult to decide what to put on each page, finding the content was easy I just needed to put the appropriate content together. 

The main things I want to mention in my publication:

-Who made American Apparel

-What is American Apparel?

-American Apparel photographer

-Dog Range

-The Eldest Model

-Controversy in young girls and porn stars

-Why do they use helvetica?

I started to make small thumb nails, organising where to put what content, I want the adverts that I have made to reflect the information on the other page well.  

The whole document will be set in two columns to keep it simple and clean like American Apparel. 

For the front cover I was inspired by the American Apparel carrier bag. I was originally going to use image, but I couldnt find an image that I liked enough to put on the cover and I was worried that it might not be of a high quality, so I just stuck to the type. 

There is so much imagery that I could use in this newspaper, however I want to keep it minimal like American Apparel, less is more. 

Every page I stuck with the two columns to keep the publication consistant. I also tried to make the headlines with impact so people would actually read my content. 

The adverts that I have created, each one will be put on a full page to draw attention to them and try and get people to notice the image change, I have done this for a higher impact. 

Visual response- Page Layout

Here are some page layout sketches I have done for my content before designing on indesign, making sketches before hand makes it easier when doing it on the computer.  

Visual Response- My Final Adverts

Here is the inspiration of all of the adverts I have made using my own photos, I really enjoyed this process, I used photoshop to make all of the adverts. I was really inspired by the American Apparel advertising archive the brand has changed quite a bit advertising wise in the past few years. 

I find this advert quite funny, it took me a while to work out whether it was a real dog or a fluffy animal, this advert was made to promote American Apparels dog range as they sell a range of hoodies for dogs and other clothes. 

I replicated this advert in easter using my dog, a scuffy bichon frise, the original advert is quite clean cut where as my dog is a bit of a scruff bag and hates being brushed. 

These two adverts are of the founders of American Apparels Dad. I like them how different they are but they still advertise the brand well, I partially like the vintage feel of them. 

I replicated this advert with my dad, this is just a quick portrait I took of him, I have have added in the details of the advert the same. 

I found this advert partially strange, I just don't see the point in it, they are definitely going down the route of 'sex sells' with this advert. 

I took the mik a bit with this advert, I used my flat mate pulling stupid faces with lipstick on here teeth, instead of sexual poses. I only replaced a few of the photos in the advert, as I wanted to show the contrast of the before and after. 

I felt that the image in this is particularly poor, I don't think it makes the model look good or promote the clothing well. 

Here is my adaptation of that advert. I used my friend Holly pulling faces, I got her to pull faces as all of American Apparel adverts seem quite sexual and I wanted to contrast that. 

This advert again I don't think that the model looks that attractive in it, American Apparel get put down by the fact that they don't air brush their models, but in this advert I think its just bad photography and angle. 

Here is my adaptation in the style of that advert using my fiend Hollie, the clothes that she's wearing is actually american apparel. I added in the small details of the advert on the side with the captions saying  'meet hollie'.  

Here is a standard American Apparel advert, I think if this advert had no use of Helvetica then this advert would make no sense. 

This is my adaptation of their advert, I used my friend Ryan in this, in non of these photos have I airbrushed just like American Apparel. 

I particularly liked these two adverts as they use backgrounds which are in peoples homes. I like how they haven't used one main photo and they have put a selection in I think that works well. Personally I think the poses in these adverts are a bit overdone and not natural, which is the look that American Apparel thrive on. 

As American Apparel in the above adverts put there models in such strange positions I did this myself with my friend Anne and a sofa. This was really fun to make and I couldn't decide between a lot of the photos that I had taken which ones to put on the advert. 

Many of American Apparel adverts use a girl and a bed as they go down the 'sex sells' route with their advertising. I partially like the captions that they use on their adverts they are quite tongue and cheek. 

This is the advert I have created from gaining inspiration from the other bed ones, this again is my friend Anne, I wanted to make the advert humorous. 

Overall I have really enjoyed making these adverts, it has been fun doing the photo shoots and editing them in, it has made me realise just how well American Apparel advertise even if they do it in a strange way.