AD Design
In my last blog, I created a logo for a made-up company called Green Thumb Plant Shop. In this blog I'm creating an advertisement design for this plant shop.
Advertising. It's everywhere. Posters, commercials, print, digital, etc. Advertisements grab people's attention and draw them in. Targeted ads have to reach their audience and be distributed to where these people spend their time and where they're willing to engage. If your content isn't relevant, it won't be worth anyone's time (see previous blog post, Content is King, but Context is God).
Purpose of Ads
According to Graphic Design Solutions, effective advertising is about participation, ideas, content, brand building, informing and campaigning. Ads can raise awareness about a issue, or convince you to purchase a product. Amongst all the advertising noise, digital spaces have changes how we get people's attention and engage with them. Three steps for advertising remain here:
Create visual interest
Communicate a clear and relevant message
Motivate people to buy (or get more info, or visit, or donate, etc)
Elements & Audience
With the steps for advertising in mind along with the brand's identity, I was set out to create an ad. What kind of ad would I make, and where would it go?
All ads need specific elements to grab an audience and direct them where you want them to go. The four following components are a headline, body copy, tagline, and sign-off. The headline is the principle message. Body copy is the supplementing text or communication. A tagline is a catchphrase used across campaigns. The sign-off is the call to action; the logo, share button, website, etc.
I ultimately decided that my target audience would be Millennials, people currently at the ages of 25-40. Millennials have taken up caring for houseplants as a hobby (beware there is no basis for that claim, other than I am a Millennial who also loves plants.) In my research, though, I found that Millennials use Facebook and Instagram more than any other social media, so I created an Instagram ad.
The Break-Down
Below is my Instagram ad for Green Thumb Plant Shop. I love the colors and I think it's so cute! I think I'd stop scrolling if I saw this.
Image and Composition
In this exercise I could only use my own images, so I took a photo of a plant I have on a wooden table for the background image. The visual hierarchy in this composition is simple; From top to bottom you have the headline, tagline, call-to-action, and brand.
Color
The green and pink colors are (almost) complimentary. Together, the green of the plant and pinky warmness of the wood help each other visually pop. I stuck to the pure black text color to stay true to the branding.
Text
I only used the brand's fonts, which are Harlem Script and Avenir Next. For the headline, I used a bold italic font in the Avenir Next type family. The headline reads "Need to Purify Your Space?" In these COVID times, everyone is doing what they can to purify the air they breathe. Instead of an air purifier from the store, the ad is showing the audience they can purify their air with a plant! The tagline below reads, "We Can Help!" In this specific ad campaign, Green Thumb and their plants can help you and your everyday problems.
Final Thoughts
I'm used to creating ads for work, but the difference is, I usually create moving images. My ads are generally for fundraising campaigns or social media ads for my place of employment. Since I work with video, I've never actually created a static, digital ad before. I work with a graphic designer who sends me assets to create into a moving ad. This was a good project for me to work with brand and create an ad by myself from start to finish. I think I'd like more practice with this in the future!