Mock-Up Designs

Creating "test" designs

To test the waters, I decided to create multiple mock-up pieces which will visually describe a rough idea of what the final advertisements will entail. I took to Photoshop after finding some stock images of eateries and culinary staff, using them with the intent of confirming ideas for the final designs. Obviously I must disclose the two copyrighted images are owned by Papa Johns (usage of John Schnatter's (Papa John's) likeness), and the other being a well-used stock image from an unknown source (after detailed analysis via searching the web, no results).

During my time using Photoshop, I explored the different ideas and experimented with new techniques and ways to create a good advert which will match what consumers want to see. The first thing was going to be the strapline. Because of the location-based study, I had a variety of Essex-themed straplines, as well as some regular and more professional ones to match what one might see in a real advert. 

Next was about the caption and other areas of the mock advert. Before all of this though, the most important thing to do is create a layout of guidelines which show the border of where anything other than the image should go. This is because of accuracy of printers. During the printing stage, there is always the possibility of minor variations in the parts that a printer might print or miss. This is why there is always a 5mm minimum gap between where any informational parts of an advert go, and the actual edge of the advert. This secures the different describing parts of the design, making sure it looks professional as well as giving any viewers the intended view. You wouldn't want an ad with half of the logo missing, right? As well as this, I used the guidelines to make an area to match the rule of thirds. This is a rule which guides where to put different elements of a photo to make it more appealing to the viewer/s in question. For example, having the man on the X left third and reaching the top of the middle Y third, it is quite good.

Post-guidelines, I added the strapline as well as the caption. Captions should usually be further information from the strapline, or something which entices the audience to have further interest in buying or using a product. Adverts don't always need captions (or straplines for that matter), but the style I'm following will be using both of those elements. For my advertisements, they will have a sort of punctual, short and snappy strapline, with a caption that further describes what is said. This is to attract the audience to read more on something which is suggested through the strapline. For example, if you use a relatable phrase (e.g. Snickers' "you're not you when you're hungry"), with a response that relates to the advert and the product being sold to them. This creates a personal level for the consumer, which in turn raises the likelihood of the consumer buying or using the product in question. This is used a lot in advertising, as people are known to not trust adverts most of the time. However, the weakpoint of emotion is relating to an individual. Put bluntly, it's very easy to manipulate someone by relating to them. Relating to someone for an ulterior motive is used everywhere, albeit it's quite nefarious. Friendships, relationships, advertisements and all the way to interrogations and interviews. Tangent over, and to summarise: manipulation is one of the "best" ways of advertising.

Nearing the end of editing, the trivial pieces of the advert are added. The logo so people can recognise it, and multiple social media icons which show that the company is involved on social media. Social media can be very advantageous as it gives a personal contact between the consumer and provider. Other than that, it's now time to aesthetically improve the photo. Prior to editing, the advert might have clashing colours, lowkey lighting and a dingy feel to it. This is why editing can be very important. So I began by improving the exposure, contrast, clarity and more of both photos, as well as matching the superimposed manager in the second advertisement to the background. After making a brighter and "sunnier" photo, I focused on colouring. For the first advert, I had an issue with the white font and the background. As I was finding, using the red colour used for the company would not work, as it looked too dark for the background in some areas. So instead of that, I experimented with using shadows to create more of a bold presence for the tagline, strapline, etc. As well as this, I changed the strength of the shadows depending on where they are found, like how on the logo and social media logos they have less shadows compared to the strapline at the top of the photo. If need be in the final images, I will use the same technique, as well as using white in areas where red won't match the background. It's all about having colours that compliment with bold lines and strong things to look at which really catch someone's eye.