A couple of weeks ago, I worked on an assignment. It was given to me to assess my creative and design abilities.
The brief was to design a Print Ad for 'Buckles and Belts Dubai'. This ad was meant to feature in the Christmas edition of a magazine - readers being females aged 20 - 40. The brief was to keep things informal and in the spirit of the holidays.
I was given no material and no images to work with. I could use whatever I found off Google or Facebook. I wasn't given a headline and the tagline was supposed to convey
'personalized gifts'.
So obviously the first thing I did was look at their website for material. Here is a screenshot:
Then came stalking their Facebook page. Here is a screenshot
Hmm ok .. lets see what Google images had to offer. Here is a screenshot:
So after extensive stalking it came across as a brand that is stylish and upmarket. All their previous branding was clean and modern.
But my Ad brief had these specific words - "This is a fun magazine, not necessarily high end though so colorful, bright and playful. Perhaps a Xmas tree and a festive look & feel."
And it absolutely did not help that 50% of the images I found online were lo-res and of a singular belt with a very fancy looking buckle.
Alright then!
Lets get started on my design process.
- What I was taught in college was that planning is probably the most important part of a design process. They said its important to come up with an idea and make a thumbnail of it. A thumbnail helps you decide the composition, the placement and overall feel of the design.
Well you know what? I have NEVER made a thumbnail in my life ! I cheated my way through college by scribbling shapes in a corner after my design was half done.
I'm more of a hands on person. I like to jump in and play around with things till I can form an idea.
- So my first step was to save pictures of some of the belts I liked from their website/FB page
- I removed the backgrounds of each belt and started placing them around a Christmas tree. I had no idea what I was doing at this point. I simply started with the most cliche idea - placing belts under a Christmas tree with a headline saying "Presents for everyone".
- I was obviously not going to turn that in. I was just doing it so that I could build on the idea or that something would click. You know, to get into the mood :)
- And then I was like "why not create a tree shape from the belts itself"? There was an image of a really cool star shaped buckle which I thought would go perfectly on top of the belt tree.
- After playing around some more with the idea, I realized that my 'tree' wasn't really looking like a tree. It just looked like a blob or a mountain.
- I changed the background to green, stacked some red and white belts together, added shadows, created highlights, gave it a snowflake pattern and came up with the headline - Be the best Secret Santa. Here is my first option that I presented.
- I was really satisfied with what I had created. But since this was a test I wanted to excel at, I didn't stop just there. I wanted to show variety in my creative thinking and decided to create an option 2 which had a whole new look and feel to it.
- Since this Ad was to be placed in a fashion magazine, I thought of going with a glamorous option. I came up the headline - Tis the season to be Trendy and photoshopped a bunch of belts on a pretty model.
The belts are, infact, all lifted from their FB page so they're legit. I wanted the belts and buckles to be the focus obviously so I chose ones that would stand out on her pink dress.
- I added a snow-y background, chose a slightly feminine font and lots of shadows and highlights and re-touching later, here is my option 2.
Which option did you guys like? I would love to hear from you :)
