Project # 2: Branding

I read the description for this assignment and inwardly said to myself, "I know NOTHING ABOUT ADVERTISING!!!!!" We were to "develop the optimal graphic strategy for representing the object in a way that highlights its unique qualities, assets, and potential uses." So with K.I.S.S engraved in my brain, I started my brainstorming. I decided I either need to buy an actual stencil or make my own. With the given time constraints, it was best for me to buy a stencil. I went to Michael's and looked at their stencils and picked 2 that I liked. One was a chipboard cut out of a bird and the other was a boarder stencil. 

Bird Stencil

I was drawn to the bird because it reminded me of the Twitter bird. It was cute, fun, and it just spoke to me. My goal was to highlight the most important and unique aspect of a stencil: replication. I wanted to convey this idea without being too overbearing. My target audience is the average Michael's or AC Moore shopper. Since I am one of those people, I started thinking about what would draw me to buy a product if craft items had advertisements. One idea I had was taking a well know thing in pop culture, Twitter, and using that iconography to translate my vision and entice people to buy my product. I came up with this sketch:

My 1st Idea

I was going to highlight the 're' to drive home the idea of repetition, replication, and uniformity. It was a cute idea I thought, but I wanted to push it a little farther and focus on the actual stencil and manipulating that more.  My next idea was to make a graphic using the stencil

My 2nd Idea

Here I also started to think about the name of my product and I came up with idraw. I liked this name because one of the great things about a stencil is anyone can use it and the name personalizes the experience translating that idea that everyone can use it. I knew I wanted use a stencil font when I made my final product. For my next idea I used the boarder stencil to create a wallpaper motif.

My 3rd Idea

I thought it was an elegant take on a stencil but it didn't really say stencil to me. When you first look at it you wouldn't know I used a stencil but you would just thing it was wallpaper. So after my critique I decided to go with my 2nd idea. I was originally going to hand make the ad and take a picture of it and print it out but once I started doing it I didn't like the direction it was taking. It wasn't looking as crisp and clean as I wanted to so I decided to do it all in photoshop. I know a little bit about the program but am no where near an expert. It took about 7 hours playing around with it to produce the final product below.

Final Product

I used different patterned paper to show the variety a stencil can offer.  I added a drop shadow to each stencil to emphasize each individual piece. I used a bulletin board as my background because I wanted it to have a crafty, retro vibe. This was a clean simplified version of my original idea and concept.