Mini Brief Evaluation

My aim was to create an advertising poster in the style of Calvin Klein, using my own photography and logo, as well as layout designs as part of my planning. The specifications included having a model of each gender in order to portray the product as unisex, and also that there would be both location shoots and studio shoots.

Some things that went well include that the photos resembled the layout plan to a decent standard and were of high quality therefore the poster was fairly good. However my models didn’t leave much room for the product therefore I could have directed the composition better. Also I could have experimented more with black and white filters as this is fairly conventional of Calvin Klein and may have impacted my overall poster.

Before I begun my poster, I ensured I researched existing photography and Calvin Klein posters in order to gain some inspiration for my poster. I liked the layout of these posters as I felt it advertised effectively, conveying emotion in the subjects while still showing the product clearly. However I wanted to maintain some colour in my poster so that it would have variety from other existing advertisements.

                                   

First of all I planned my layout by hand, then copied this design into a sketch and also into a more clear powerpoint format. 

For my location shots, I had a vision of the models being apart so that the product could fit in the middle. This way I felt the location would be shown in the background efficiently and enhance the aesthetic of the poster.

On the other hand, for the studio shots I wanted the subjects to stand together on the right-hand side, with the product being presented on the left-hand side. I believed this would emphasise the slogan of the product presented along the bottom on each poster, 'fresh fragrance for all', as the models are standing together in union. 

An evident limitation of my layout design is the fact that I did not specify certain poses for the models - this could have created problems in a real work environment as the photographer and models need to be clear of the vision and therefore be directed into position quickly. Another limitation is I did not consider how the full body wouldn't be in the final poster, and would instead be cropped to a medium long shot. Due to this, the strap line would need to be coloured in order to stand out, which might interfere with the original design for certain designers who wanted a specific colour scheme. 

Secondly, I planned and designed my original logos using photoshop. I had 2 main ideas which I designed and chose the most effective one to advertise my product. My first idea was a standard “cK One” text using Helvetica Neue (thin italic) font, placed in front of a white to black background. In theory I believed this would be effective due to it standing out and being completely different to real Calvin Klein logos, however it stood out too much and wasn’t aesthetically pleasing. My other idea, which was used in the final poster and used the same font, read ‘Calvin Klein One’. However, the letters ‘C’ and ‘K’ were large and bold with smaller grey letters between, making it hard to notice that it is the full words from a distance. The word ‘one’ was presented in a faded red colour underneath so that it was clear but didn’t stand out more than the rest of the poster.

The image I used was photographed in 1/125 shutter speed with the lighting settings of f8. Two models stood in front of a white background to present how universal the product was. I copied my original layout design however I had some issues when it came to editing due to the fact that there was not enough space for the product to be edited beside the models.

I edited the photo using multiple settings - I created a higher brightness and used hue and saturation to create a filter that was somewhere between black and white and colour. The product was edited to have a high contrast with the background so that it was easier to see, and the logo could be seen efficiently. To improve my editing, I could have made the slogan slightly smaller as it was too large. I also could have risen the bleed line so that less of the body was included, creating more space for the product.
My location poster could have been improved greatly as it was not of as high a quality as the studio poster. The background was not aesthetically pleasing therefore I could have used a healing tool to fix it. The logo also isn't as visible as it could've been therefore I should have changed the colour scheme or increased the contrast.