When Disciplines Collaborate

As I near the end of my career as an SLCC student, I’ve come to truly appreciate the amazing faculty, adjuncts, and superior quality of work that is being produced by my peers. I’ve noticed how much more I look around these days, noticing logos, checking out color schemes, looking for harmony and contrast and continuity. I’m more aware of images, typography, layout, and design. I reach out to touch things more. I look longer. I explore deeper. I question further. I watch. I listen. I, sometimes, even close my eyes and experience “it” purely without my primary vision interfering.

I’m also noticing that I’m more available for beautiful work to find me. Collaborative efforts that take my breath away. Works of art that I witness in wonder… How did they do that?! How did they create it?! Could *I* do something like that?

This morning, I came across a piece of work that touched me for several reasons. I’m sharing a link to my blog here, where I wrote about it and where I also posted the video. For those of us that are in the Visual Arts field, the video I’m writing about is a smorgasbord of sensory delights! Typography… layout… animation… color… words… design… music… movement… stories… a message in images, sounds, and words all together at once.

May you also find inspiration within these 7 minutes and may you also be touched by the incredible message that comes through it.

“They Called Me Pork Chop.”

Tasty Inspiration

The Oldest Form of Advertising

This is NOT how it’s done

 

Newspaper ads, despite being the oldest form of print advertising, are still an effective way to reach a large audience. However, you need to make sure it is the right audience! Unlike the Internet which has a young demographic, the majority of newspaper readers are usually those aged 45+. Even so, you can get the best results out of your ads by requesting that they run in the sections of the newspaper which most closely relate to your target audience.

Since newspapers are divided into columns, your ads will be sized according to a predetermined formula: a certain number of columns wide and a certain number of inches long. By doing a little bit of research, you can find out the typical ad sizes for your local newspapers based on column width. It is best that you design your ad to fit correctly within the provided parameters in order to avoid any resizing issues during post-production.

Here are some tips you can keep in mind while designing your newspaper ad:

• Use the bottom section of your ad as a coupon to provide an added incentive for readers to visit your location. Use the coupon to track the response rate of your ads–you’ll know how good your ads are by the number of people using the coupon.
• Add a URL to your print ad to drive people to your website. There, you can tell and sell them more and provide a printable coupon.
• Give your sales rep all the information they might need well ahead of deadline so you can get a proof sheet to check all the facts before it goes to print.
• When it comes to proofing, check your phone number, your URL, any percentages off, brand names, and every other detail. Get another pair of eyes to check for mistakes, too.

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