Newspaper Ad

Our third project is a newspaper advertisement for the Collegio, the PSU newspaper. First thing's first, we had to understand how the newspaper was set up and how we would determine what size our ads would be. Using the supplied measurements for column widths and a formula, we were able to determine the different pricing for various sizes of ads. The formula is: (number of columns) x (height in inches) x $4 (per inch). This will give you the total cost for that specific ad size. We also had the width in actual inches for each of the column widths: 1 = 1.83", 2 = 3.79", 3 = 5.75", 4 = 7.71", 5 = 9.67", and 6 = 11.63". With all of this taken care of, we were then assigned our budget for the project, which was to spend as close to $97 without going over. Using both the formula and the column widths in inches, we were able to determine what sizes of ads we could choose from for our own projects.

Since it's a newspaper ad, it is to be in black and white only. Also, there would be no bleeds, but there would need to be margins of at least .125". Pretty basic stuff.

Now, on to the (semi-)interesting stuff...what my ad is for! I decided I would design an advertisement for my father's Automotive Body Repair business in Parsons: The Body Shop. For the past couple of years, I've been helping him create a new logo and sign to use for advertisement in the local paper, on Facebook, on T-shirts, etc. I created the outlines in AutoCad (while I was a senior in high school). I then used our school's vinyl cutter to cut all of the pieces, which I then applied to the sign myself. In case you're a curious creature and would like to see the logo and the sign, just have a peek at them here on the right.

Obviously, my target audience for the piece could be anyone with a vehicle. After I thought about it for a while, I realized that it's very likely that someone with a wrecked vehicle needing repairs may turn to the yellow pages of the phone book before they would check the newspaper. So, I decided I would include information on one of the other services my dad offers besides body work. About a year ago, he did a little experimenting with refinished cloudy, yellowed headlights (experimented he did on my car and several other family members, mind you). Since it was so successful, he began offering it to his customers. I figured there would be a higher number of readers with cloudy headlights than wrecked cars, so advertising this service would be a great way to get people to come in and see the work first-hand. Then, if and when they would need body work, they would already have a (hopefully) positive experience with us.

With the information I knew I needed to include in the ad and the preexisting logo (seen above), I decided to draw thumbnails for two different sizes of ads: 4 column x 6" (7.71" x 6") and 5 column x 4.5" (9.67" x 4.5"). Note that not all of them were designed to include the headlight service. I tried a couple ideas simply including the basic services and contact information of the business. Once I had my thumbs drawn, I decided it best to go with the headlight idea. Anyways, here they are:

I spent some time reviewing my thumbnail designs, and, after a phone call to my mom for some insight, I decided to go with the bottom-most design. The left portion will include information about the headlight restoration service, while the right will include general information about other repair services. Employee names, contact information, and a link to Facebook will be placed running along the bottom of the ad. Here's my rough sketch:

Here is a screen grab of my final image. I only made a couple of changes during the creation of the file. I included a bitmap (the bullet within the text on the right) and a vector image (the truck in the lower left).

                                                                                                                   

Master Image List Elements: Bitmap and Vector images. The vector is also a reverse.

Copyright statement: I created all image elements myself.

Sources:

McCue, Claudia. Real World Print Production with Adobe Creative Suite Applications. Berkeley, CA: Peachpit, 2009. 80-81. Print.