How i could potentially advertise this product (Design Factory)

There are multiple ways for me to advertise a product like this (a book with a surprise in it) and I’ve came to the conclusion that i would advertise it in a lot of ways.

For example:

I would advertise this product on social media sites like Twitter and Facebook and this is because they are all  well known and visited sites online and i would think that i could have a better chance of getting more sales by promoting the product on these type of sites as well as Facebook has a promoting feature where if i were to promote a product, i can choose the specific audience that i want the advertisement tailored to. Also creating a blog or getting well known blogs that talk about books could do a review on the product which is another way for cheap advertising. Although if i am going to promote this product on social media sites like Facebook, it is known that 83% of people that see the advertisement being shown, actually ignore it which could be a problem but thats why i have to make the advertisement eye-catching and interesting.

I would also use google ads to promote my product as it is a very cheap and a great way to promote any product/website as Google is still the largest search engine worldwide. Although google ads is measurable, flexible and cheap-ish, using this method would imply that i would need to maintain a website in order to use this advertisement technique but as its just a product and not a website, i wouldn’t use this technique.

Another option that i consider was to use billboards as a advertisement tool and the reason for this is because a lot of people could potentially walk, drive and wait by a billboard that would have my product on and if the advertisement is eye-catching, i could potentially get some people that might be interested in the product. depending on the size and placement of the billboard, the price however will be different but on average it would cost £300 a month to maintain this billboard in action. the only problem with billboards is that although people do look at them and even if they like them, eventually they will just forget about it during the day and so therefore, thats why the advertisement has to be appealing in all directions as well as eye-catching to the audience.

Even advertising on television is a option and on book shops website’s as well as on store windows.

Also if i wanted to advertise a little bit more, i could put it on sites like amazon and Ebay and put the product on offer to draw more customers in but other than that, advertising on these websites could help with selling the product to more customers especially as Amazon has this technique where if the user buys something on the site, on their next visit on the site, Amazon would advertise specific products to them that they might be interested in so applying for this advertisement technique may be a good way to get selling more.

Another advertising technique that i could look into is cross promotion and this is pretty much where i could Team up with other companies to sell my product and this is an ideal way to expand my audience. i could Find businesses promoting products or services that is relevant to my product/company’s offerings and initiate cross-promotion deals. As well as the major good point about this technique is that a well-planned cross promotion campaign could save both parties a lot of money dollars.

An example of a advertisement for my product that i could imply could be something like this:

Text in Perspective

I used this effect on the text in my subculture creative review front cover to create a cool and majestic look on the text.

To do this all i did was create the text with a cool font that i thought that would look nice when i put the text into perspective. Then i rasterise the text layer and then i went into free transform by clicking ctrl + T or cmd + T and then right click on the free transform and clicked on perspective. After that i then played around with the corners of the free transform tool to create a cool perspective that would work and suit the image.

Here is another example of me using the perspective tool:

Personally i think this works most of the time depending on what angle you are wanting the text to be in.

My Subculture Creative Review double page spread so far

Here is my design for the double page spread for the creative review magazine. For the first page (right hand side) i used and covered a image to do with steampunk throughout the entire page as well as i used a dark green font that is big and is a serif and i did this because it suited the style of the spread. with the text below it, i highlighted the main text that should be read and the idea of this would to be eye-catching. Also with the image, i filtered the background and everything else in the image except the guy in the clothes to be in black and white and the reason i did this was to create an effect that people would focus mainly on the clothes worn as it is unique. i also wanted to show a contrast that the steam trains was and is old and that the clothes the guy is wearing is bringing in retro-futuristic.

Now moving onto the second page (Left hand side). i used a white background and black text as i thought it would be great in contrast of the first page so it would stand out a bit more than other pages in the creative review magazine. But i used some cogs and gears with a low opacity in the background so that the background doesn’t look that dull and that these cogs and gears also fits the subculture in general. I put all the text into 3 big columns and that i used another text box for a specific quote that someone and most people said about the subculture. i also placed some images around the page to help people notify what the text is taking about and that i involved a bit image at the top to cover some of the white background that was left behind.

Subculture Creative Review Final cover design

Here is my final design piece for the creative review magazine subculture module. The reason i chose to use these dark colours in the background is because it suited the main vector image instead of bright colours as it set the mood off the initial idea of steampunk – To make it look mysterious. Steampunk is a subculture that is mainly based around the victorian times as well as bringing in a bit of retro-futuristic into play, and thats where the text i applied comes in. I used this text as it looks like it was made in the victorian times and it suits the subculture in general. I also skewed and made the text 3d so that it brings more volume and interest into the final design

Also i added in cogs and gears in the background to make it look like the subculture more as people in the subculture are based around customising their own personal items in which other words they use is that they ‘Steampunk’d their personal items. People has “steampunk’d” everything from computers, desks, telephone, watches and guitars to cars, motorcycles, and whole houses. These objects can vary from a grungy look of a forgotten antique to the shiny overwrought newness of a Victorian gentleman’s club. Think brass and copper, glass and polished wood, engraving and etching, and details for the sake of details.

My final Ideas

Here are my Final pieces.

Potential Postcard idea

Here is another potential idea that i have worked on. I think this design is good but i don’t think it would have suited the postcard as this typeface is pretty old and i would prefer to use it in a old fashioned statement so to try to get that outcome i changed the colour to a brownish colour to set the design back in the days. i used the dark and light colours negatives in the design because i got inspired by a designer who created a similar design as well as i felt like it would be ideal for this design. I used these specific lettering because they all have the unique features that this serif has to offer. Furthermore, to make this design look a bit more old fashioned, i used a light grunge on the background colour as it looks like the design has been here for a long time also it adds a cool effect onto it which doesn’t make it look plain and dull.

Experimenting with backgrounds

When trying to create my retro/vintage styled postcard, I tried different background techniques to see what would fit the retro them itself and down below are some examples of trying the different techniques. For the retro/vintage theme, i think bright colours would be ideal as it sets the mood for the main retro design in front and this is because if you have it too dark then the main design doesn’t stand out and it won’t look good but then if you have it too light then it just won’t look as good although it doesn’t make the initial design stand out more. Also i tried different colours for example blue and it didn’t suit the retro theme so i think that light colours like orange, yellow, green and light red would be perfect for this style as most of the designs back in the 1900s were mostly red.

My Retro/Vintage styled postcard

Here is my retro/vintage styled postcard that i have created at the moment. To create this i used a various amounts of circles at different sizes with either thick or thin strokes round the outside of the circles and i used a rectangle in the middle and then skewed it so it goes off at a angle. To get the shadow for the main retro/vintage text, i just duplicated the layer and skewed it so its at a angle that looks right and then i just changed the colour to red to pump out some focus and colour to the main text. I really enjoyed making this retro/vintage design and i would love to create more and come up with more ideas in the future as well as retro/vintage designs have always been my inspiration.

History of Type (Retro/Vintage)

One of my favourite type in the past in is the vintage/retro times between the 1960s-1980s where most of the type itself was starting to develop freely and more openly with creativity and the ability to express yourself on type. Retro/vintage type as been with us for some time now and we still use this style as it brings a great nostalgic feeling to most people as people grew up with this type in their lives but nowadays, this style have been dying down a little due to the fact that people prefer the modern type instead of the good old fashioned vintage type. However, nowadays you get some designers coming up with more and new vintage/retro styled type and using it to advertise their products as well as their company in general and an example of this is the ‘hard rock cafe’ which have been here for a long while and had a great impact of their business as their vintage/retro logo/branding still attracts more and new people.

When looking at the different types of retro/vintage styles in the past, i have gained inspiration over the more colourful and unique retro type. Also when looking at these retro type, i have came to notice that most of them are nearly the same as they all have the same style in using circles and strokes in their design and that most of the designs have custom made ribbons on them to indicate either the date the product/business started or the name as well as i have noticed that most of the text is nearly the same as well (chunky, free and expressive).

Postcard Final Piece idea

Here is one of my final piece ideas that i have came up with. The reason why i lowered the opacity and faded the word ‘Bembo’ in this design is that i want to mainly put the attention to the middle of the postcard where the letter ‘B’. This was inspired by Roman Letter Geometry where they use circles and lines to sum up what the letter is made out of. Also the reason why i chose purple as the main colour is that purple is a colour that is dull as well as eye-catching at the same time and i thought it summed up what the typeface is about. I really like this idea as it is clean and simple and easy to read but to improve this, i might need to change the colour so it looks a bit more old fashioned as well as exciting and eye-catching. From this idea, i will develop more and different ideas to create something that is creative and original.