Better, but still no approval!

January 30th, 2012
Today in class my partner Anna and I met with Jimmy to present our new 40 sketches (20 pro and 20 con). He did admit that they were a lot better than the first set but he still didn't give us the feedback we wanted or expected. We were still at point a and at this point we felt we should be at point b if not point c. We realized that maybe we weren't working together as closely as we should have so for the rest of the class we collectively chose a sketch to focus on and further develop. We were able to collaboratively come up with concepts and ideas and by the end of the class we were finally onto something. We both felt a lot more confident about the direction we were moving in. So, tonight we will send emails back and forth until we feel we have reached an adequate solution to our advertisements.

The Sketching Process!

January 25th, 2012
Today every group had to present their 20 sketched ideas (10 con, 10 pro) to Jimmy and ultimately choose a direction. However, most were confused by what kind of sketches were due, seeing that only a couple groups had what he actually wanted. My partner and I had sketches but they were not as clear as they should have been, they were more or less thumbnails of ideas; moreover, the ideas were not fully developed and we failed to include a call to action because up until that day we didn't have one.

This was both of our facial expressions
 at the meeting most of the time!

Moving forward I can say we are NOW on the right track and together in class were able to get focused and come up with concepts that made sense. We now have a call to action and were able to come up with concepts that we feel are successful, but what we think is great Jimmy will might think sucks but we shall see on Monday what the final verdict will be! This day has definitely shown me that collaboration is always better than doing things alone. When we brought our heads together, the ideas began flowing like water! A light switch definitely turned on in both of our heads.

collaboration is key!

Ads, ads and more ads

Monday, January 23rd, 2012
Today's class was more about meeting with your group member and really focusing your topic to be clearer, and to ultimately get it approved by Jimmy. We started the class off by looking at some ads from magazines in which some were good and some were bad. We were able to really break them down and determine the concepts behind them and whether they were successful or not. This exercise helped me because I was able to really get an idea of what makes an ad a good ad. With advertisement it's all about grasping the readers attention. While flipping through a magazine people don't often stop and admire and read an advertisement unless it catches their attention and immediately draws them in. This is definitely harder than it sounds. It's easy to criticize the ads that we saw in Jimmy's examples but it will be very hard to come up with our own original, conceptually and aesthetically successful advertisement.

Attention!!

 When my partner Anna and I pitched our idea to Jimmy to our surprise he actually enjoyed our topic our biggest challenge will be coming up with con's for our topic and of course producing clever advertisement. Even though we have our own opinion of the subject we can not be bias when producing advertisements for  each side of the matter.

Help the World Be a Better Place...MLK

Wednesday, January 18th, 2012
Monday was a holiday in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King so we had the day off from school. That following wednesday when we arrived in class we were asked by our professor Jimmy Moss what we did over the holiday that touches on Dr. King's legacy; moreover, what have we done to help others and our communities. Most of us had done nothing which wasn't that big of a surprise. I mean you don't really realize it until after someone asks you how selfish most of us all are, it's sometimes so easy to get caught up in me me me that we don't consider others. A class mate had brought up SOPA which most of us had heard nothing about. She explained what it was, which is basically an act to stop online piracy. I didn't and still don't understand the whole gist of it or how it will affect our lives but it's something I want to definitely look into.

After the long discussion we were split up into partners of two and given our first project. We were assigned to pick a "hot" topic, something controversial, relevant, local, and that has a pro and con side to it. Immediately my partner came up with Medical Marijuana and The Adult Film industry. We ultimately chose the adult film industry and the recent mandate forcing film companies to force actors to wear condoms in the scenes. This is a controversial topic that has two sides that we will investigate fully this weekend. Ultimately, we will create an ad for and against our ad. Below are some condom ads in which my partner and I have gained inspiration. Enjoy!

My On the Spot Disaster...

Wednesday, January 11th, 2012
All of the images above are print ads used by old spice which I found using a simple google search, no ladies and gents I did not create these masterpieces. You can find these advertisements in various magazines; moreover, men's magazines such as GQ and Maxim. As you may have read in my profile I attend CSULA and study Graphic Design. Well, I am currently taking a class called Art 445: Advertising Art Direction taught by Professor Jimmy Moss. Our first day of class was January 9th, 2012. For homework, we were assigned to find three ads from national magazines that we found to be successful and intriguing then write a brief paragraph explaining why we chose the various ads. I myself, chose a Honda ad, Toothbrush ad, and a Ford ad out of Vogue Magazine. My classmates had a pretty good variety of advertisements that were from various magazines. 


The reason why I chose to include these Old Spice ads is because in class I was put on the spot and instructed by the professor to explain the concepts of the ads as if I was the designer and basically sell him and the entire class on the ideas for the ad campaign. Let's just say it wasn't my best performance but I tried my best to convince my peers. At first I didn't understand what he was asking of me but after feeling like a complete idiot and later realizing the task at hand I pretty much choked.  I admit I am not the best when put on spot and apparently I came off as if I didn't care to my professor when in all actuality I did.  So, now I am going to show you all some ads I found "interesting".  And maybe explain a little better in writing than in words my feelings, and opinions.

 In class we also learned about what exactly an ad campaign is. It's basically a series of concepts. I feel the advertisements above are a great example of this. They are all related to one another, have similar layout, identical font use, and start with the saying "the right". 

(All of these ads were found using google, I repeat I have not created nor am taking the credit for creating any of these ads)