I’ve been skipping out on advertisement review for the past little while so I thought that it’d be a good subject for the day. This is an advertisement I designed for the 10/22 publication of The Richfield Reaper.
As most of my readers know I get these full page car ads on such short notice that I don’t have an opportunity to spend a great deal of time on them but, overall I’d have to say that this is one of my best advertisements this year. I do wish that they wouldn’t try to highlight the collision center in their sales ad but, I understand their situation.
I noticed as this was coming off the press that I made the makes of each vehicle green, except for the highlighted car, oversight there. The biggest thing that bugs me about this ad is how busy this gets from just under half the page and down.
I frankly think it’s a half-ass design without being disrespectful: the drawing and lettering is to simple for my taste. I believe you can do better as for the photo it also can use an improve
Thank you.
I respectfully disagree with Cain. People reading ads don’t want museum art. They want eye-catching simple, and they want bright colors! This “Scary” graphic is both eye-catching and colorful. I did retail display ads for a major metropolitan newspaper for years (not the auto ads though), and I must say car ads were generally pretty boring. This one is fun!
I would try moving the “scare us with an offer” over to the white space, or I would play with moving the “Deals so good” over to the left. Clients don’t like white space because they feel like they aren’t getting their money’s worth. One other suggestion: unless the client really wants the photos that large, I would minimize them and increase the car coverage. By the way, love the fonts!
p.s. what i meant by moving the “Deals so good over to the left” is not literally move the graphic to the left. I meant to say stretch it some or add something to it, or whatever you can do to utilize some of that white space (without making it too busy in the process).
Thanks SnoKat! I’m not one to disgree with any suggestions … So with his, ambiguous … at best … statements I’m definitely trying not to take any of it to heart.
As most designers know white space is vital and I tried to use it well with my given timeframe. In retrospect, I might have made the “featured” car, smaller and gone with more space for the other cars. The client however, and my boss were both pleased with this ad so I can’t complain.
Rules of critique:
Tell what’s right with it, tell what’s wrong with it, suggest fixes.
If you think it just sucks then move on.
While Cain is certainly entitled to his opinion … It seems that his work is mostly art … and most of his works probably took ten times as long as what I had to complete this Ford ad.
I do have to say though, he’s a decent artist for what he’s got to show at https://www.facebook.com/Cain1104/photos (some nudity)