Design Blitz

It’s estimated that people see about 5,000 advertisements per day.  This number is a dramatic increase from the 1970s where people saw around 500 advertisements per day.  The assignment for today was to venture outside the classroom and take pictures of real life examples of design concepts.  A positive aspect about doing this assignment today and not in the 1970s, is that there are plenty of conceptual design examples hanging around, and most of them are advertisements.

Proportional designs was one of the first design concepts I noticed in these real world examples.  This design concept does not only keep OCD/perfectionists happy, but it helps draw an observer’s eye to a desired spot.  Below the photographs shown on the banner help illustrate the exciting opportunities and numerous options for students considering studying abroad.

Minimalism was used in the next example.  There is text in the center of the flier, with plenty of white space on both sides.  A image of a fist is used at the top of the flier but other than that the design is very minimal.  I feel like this was done to add a more serious tone to the advertisement since this about human trafficking.  This is not a flashy or comedic event, so the design illustrates how less is more.

Two different kinds of typography were used in this next example.  The title and event information were accented with sans-serif font to be more eye-catching, while the text about where to get more details was written with serif font.

Color is essential to this next example because the event being advertised is called “The Pink And Black Ball.”  Different tones and shades of the colors pink and black are used throughout the design, with everything from the buildings and text being accented.  This seems to be effective because you can’t look at the flier without noticing the color scheme, and so the observer will be more likely to remember the event.

And last but not least, a rather comical metaphor is being used to discourage academic dishonesty (yes this was found in the women’s restrooms).  Besides the picture of a toilet the flier further conveys the metaphor with text saying “Don’t flush your academic career down the toilet.”  Your straight As, diploma and even your internships can all be found in the toilet.