Mock up for trainer poster.

This is going to be the positioning for my poster. I am going to add text in the final design but I am happy with todays outcome.

MindMap of ideas for trainer poster.

This is my mind map of ideas for a trainer poster. It includes many visual elements that are successful in the marketing industry, which will make my trainer more likely to be bought or sold.

The trainers I want to use are the Puma Suede Classic.

I first saw these trainers and was immediately attracted to them. This is because of the colours and positioning of the product on the website, the white background really brought out the product itself and made it look appealing.

My poster is going to be urban and for typical teenage boys, ranging from around 12-19. These are quite nice shoes, nice enough to wear out somewhere but stylish enough to wear to a skatepark. 

My poster background is going to be of a skatepark ramp. I will then edit the shoe onto the ramp and put a few pieces of text around the entire image. I think this will be appealing to most teenage boys.

Analysis of three different adverts.

Advert 1.

The function of this advert is to make the audience feel like the trainers are vital to them. As you can see, the trainers, weights and sports bottles have created what looks like a human heart. This creates the illusion that you NEED this trainers to survive, as if they are a vital organ and without them you will cease to exist. (Maybe not something quite as dramatic, but you can see where I'm coming from.)

The product is a pair of red and white trainers. Most likely for girls, judging by the colour scheme as it doesn't say anything on the poster about the product being sold in a range of different colours. However, the alternating red and blue equipment show that it could be for boys and girls. The sports equipment indicate that they are running shoes rather than everyday trainers, they also make the product look better and higher up in the marketing industry.

On the right hand side of the photograph, there is the photo of the trainers, sports equipment and water bottles that symbolise a heart and its arteries. They have used a mixture of colours and have created a narrative for the photo. The left side shows a red box with a white logo on it, followed by some black and red text. The text consists of 4 words that are definitely foreign and could mean a number of things.

This advert reflects the style of the product as quite a hard working trainer rather than a stylish one. By this I mean these trainers are clearly used for the Gym rather than everyday style such as high tops. 

The target audience are people who are into fitness. This is suggested by the heart recreation made up of different gym equipment. I think this would attract the specific target audience well as it is a good way of promoting health and fitness, and it would definitely attract those who are into that sort of thing. 

The producers of this advertisement have used Photoshop and possibly Illustrator to create the final product. They used Photoshop to make the heart and Illustrator to make the poster.

Mind Map of different Visual Elements of advertisement for trainers.

Different Visual Elements that advertisers use to hook audience..
Word Play- Alliteration, Similes, Repetition, Puns, Metaphors.
Mascot- Frosties 'Tony the Tiger'
Information- Price, USP (Unique Selling Point), target audience, relevant information, not too boring.
Layout- Positions, Sizes, where images/texts should go.
Slogans- Slogans have to be catchy to work so that people remember them, memorable, can sometimes be comical/contain humour, to help the audience remember the product.
Surrealism- Relevant, Unique Images, can look strange.
Unspecified Gender, age and colour- Multi-cultural, bigger target audience, accessibility to everyone, more sales, advertisement, for every target audience.
Positive theme- If it's negative and dark then people will steer clear of it, if it's positive and bubbly people will like it more. Optimism is the way forward in marketing.
Bright colours- helps the audience to remember/recognise the product, eye catching.
Unique- different, individual.
Range- mixture of everything.
Bold text- clear, eye catching, stands out, noticeable.
Fonts- attraction=sales, different fonts are attractive.
Images- funny, sizes, appropriate, clear, relatable, pictures of the products, realistic (no high expectations).

Self assessment and target.

My target.

I think that I need to develop my ideas for my media product and record a variety of different ideas in able to have more to choose from. I also should try to work faster and focus more on the set task as I tend to get panicked if I don't understand what I am doing. 

I'm setting myself a B-A for my final target grade as I think I maybe able to achieve this if I continue working hard. 

Trainer Advertisement (Mindmap, paragraph, photos and sketches.)

This is my mind map on Popplet.  Unfortunately, the quality is not great so I shall write what it says.
The middle box - "Different ideas for a poster advertising trainers."
The pink boxes- 'Memorable text.' 'Use a similie, metaphor, pun.' 'Preferably funny or catchy.'
The blue boxes- 'Mascot.' 'An animal, person or superhero to advertise the product.' 'With a catchphrase and specific colour scheme to attract customers.'
The red boxes- 'Information.' 'Price, sizes, colour, materials.' 'Where from? Ordered or shop?'











My final idea:
I think that for my advertising poster I am going to do quite an eccentric background. I'm going to use either a sketch or photograph of a shoe and have my text really bold and outlined. I'm going to include different colours to make it more eye catching but make sure the colours go together. There will be a few photographs and catchy phrases.

My poster in the Branding Museum.

I have used Photoshop to edit my poster in the Branding Museum. Here it is on the left hand side, the blue Pepsi Timeline poster. This was easy to do and took approximately 4 minutes. This is another composite image.

Illustrator vs Photoshop.

When comparing Illustrator to Photoshop, there is one significant difference.
On illustrator, you place things together, such as a poster or advertising campaign. On Photoshop, you manipulate images- such as composite or surreal ones.
Illustrator uses vector whilst Photoshop uses raster based images. Vector file sizes are smaller and print faster and they are made up of paths connected by anchor points. Raster images are made up of thousands of pixels and generally are larger.

For gossip magazines or the internet, they are more likely to use Photoshop for an image. This is due to the fact that the media usually twist things. An example of this would be accusing a celebrity of doing something they did not. In order to make this seem realistic, they would use Photoshop to edit a photograph of said celebrity and make it look like they were doing something they were not. A bit like my photo of the cat raising its paws to the Big Ben. Of course the cat isn't really at Big Ben, I have just used Photoshop to make it seem like it is. It is easy for the media to do this to a celebrity or someone famous, and that is why they are more likely to use Photoshop.

Advertising companies that sell products (such as Coke, Hollister, etc) would use Illustrator to achieve their desired creation. Advertising companies tend to make posters rather than manipulated images as it is better for advertising. As Illustrator is placing images together and adding text/colour etc, it is easier to use this software to create an advertisement or poster.

When using Illustrator, I had to create a Pepsi Timeline. I needed to upload various pictures of the Pepsi logo (dating back quite far) and add information and my opinion on them. I also had to make sure they were in order. This is what it looked like:

As you can see, there is a fair bit of detail included in this poster. I have added information such as why the logo changed, when and how. Although I managed to finish the poster, it did take quite a bit of time and it was quite hard for me. I managed to figure out how to alter the text to give it alternating colours but placing the text, arrows and headlines was a very hard task. I think this software is good for making a poster or advertising but I don't really like it.



Here is my work on Photoshop:

As you can see, this is a composite image. I found Photoshop a lot easier to use to create an image. This is not just because of one certain thing but it is a factor of contributing reasons. I like the way it is set out and the way it works and it is pretty easy to figure out. I also feel that by using Photoshop I'm reaching my potential and working hard, whereas on Illustrator I feel I could do so much better.




When using Illustrator I needed quite a lot of help. This involved googling various things, watching tutorials on youtube and asking my teacher for guidance. When using Photoshop, it was pretty simple and easy to figure out. I think this might of been partly because of the lay out.
On Illustrator, I enjoyed using the magnetic lasso tool. I also enjoyed the variety of colours there were for my background. On Photoshop, I enjoyed using the vector mask, the brush, and many other tools involved in helping create my image.
Although the layout of both programmes are similar, I prefer Photoshop. This is not due to any software errors or anything, it is my personal opinion. I like the layout and elements of Photoshop much more as it is comfortable and easy to use. I also prefer the image I created to the poster I created on Illustrator.

I would like to learn how to use larger layers on Photoshop. By this I mean I would like to be able to blend two photos together to create either a narrative or illusion photograph. For example, I might put together a picture of the sea and a picture of someones face. This might create a narrative and leave people wondering why the photo is like this. I think this would be interesting.

On Illustrator I would like to learn how to use more of the basic tools. As I found it quite hard to do anything, it would be nice for more of the tools to be accessible to me when using the programme. I would like to be able to change the text font, maybe add a photo to the background instead of colour and a few more things that would dramatically change my final product to make it better.

Composite image using Photoshop.

Here I am editing my photo of a cat reaching towards the Big Ben. I am going around the outside of the cat with my brush to gently blend the background of the cat image in with the background of the Big Ben image. This was the hardest part as it required a lot of focus but the result will be worth it.\

I have nearly finished blending my cat in. Once I remove all the white it should fit nicely with the rest of the image. I have moved it in front of the Big Ben as it is a dark background so I can easily spot where the rest of the white is to edit out. After this I need to flip it around, change the position and crop the rest of the photo.

Here is my final image. As this is my first ever time using Photoshop, I think I have done quite well. Hopefully next time will go better and my blending skills will improve. I find the image quite abstract but funny and maybe even patriotic as I have included one of our countries biggest attraction, the Big Ben. I have cropped the rest of the image as it was too big for the cat to be focused on. I have flipped/rotated the cat so it is reaching towards the left side of the Big Ben rather than the right. I have finished blending it in and rubbing the background out and I am fairly happy with my final image.






Self Assessment.
1. A composite image is the manipulation or modification of a digitalised image. Composite pictures are usually presented as one final image rather than a series of images. There are usually different images included or edited into the final one. The images edited in are sometimes abstract and unusual.

2. I would describe a surreal image as one that is almost make believe. It is usually something extraordinary or even impossible, yet it somehow fits in and works. It is a cultural movement that is best known for its art work. It features the element of surprise and usually does not have a narrative or story line, it is left for you to work out or imagine yourself.

3. As I have never before used Photoshop, I have learnt many new techniques. I have learnt how to upload my images, create layers, remove backgrounds, blend, reduce opacity, flip, crop, zoom, change the size of an image without letting it become pixelated and so much more.

4. I feel my example piece was very successful given the fact I have not used Photoshop before and I had limited time to do it. I feel that with more Photoshop experience I could definitely improve a lot and  hopefully create an even better piece next time.

5. Next time I would zoom in a lot more in order to blend the background of my layered image in with my photo. This would make it look more realistic and although it could take more time than it did with this piece, the final outcome would look significantly better and look remarkably realistic.