As a project for PLP, we were put into groups (Kira, Noah, Emily and myself) and told to find a local business in Deep Cove that we could make an ad for. We first had to interview the owner and then use that information to make a print advertisement. We had 4 drafts to perfect our ads and overall I think I improved a lot over the span of the drafts. My group chose a company called Ahoy which is a fashion store founded by the same owners as Herschel. Ahoy sells items from Herschel bags and clothes to their own branch of clothing.
Our group shared ideas that we had in mind before the interview but they were all trashed as the owner wanted a simple but powerful ad. We started to think more about our ads together and we each had an idea of how we wanted to present.
TeroVesalainen / Pixabay
I first started off by taking a picture of a shoe print online and masking them out of their white background in SuperimposeX. I then added colour to the shoe’s prints and angled them so they would be facing out and to the right. The final things I did were to add the brand logos, Ahoy’s logo and information. I did the same for the other three drafts; find a shoe print, mask it, add colour, angle and then add information.
The first three drafts of my ad needed lots of work and I admit that they were. Just to list things wrong with my ad: there was way too much white space, it looked like Ahoy only sold shoes and the proportions were wonky. I was stubborn and tried to keep my ad idea and really did not improve throughout the 3 drafts.
First Draft
However, on the fourth draft I scrapped my whole idea and started over. I spent all evening on my ad researching professional ad layouts. I settled on an idea and began to work. I decided to use the shapes of mountains with three Herschel bags in the middle. The idea was simple, meaningful and looked more professional in my opinion. I first used keynote to make the mountain shapes, chose an appropriate background colour and then took pictures of Herschel bags from different angles to keep my options open. The third thing I did was masking the bags from their background and I took out any straps as it looked better without them. I added the Ahoy logo, contact information and all of the brands that Ahoy 
Overall, I think my final draft of my ad looked way better than the former ones. Some things that went well was the SuperimposeX masking job, it was a simple ad but had a powerful message and the store information was clear to read. The slogan is a really important part of making someone interested at first glance so I think my slogan was appealing and suited the store. However, I do not think the ad is done and if I had even just one more draft to perfect my ad there would be drastic changes. With this information I passed it on to my next ad project in Oregon.
To help my class make better ads, we went to an advertising agency called Pound & Grain. Our time there was split into three sections: speaking to us about their company and advertising, we then showed them our ads and they gave us some feedback and finally we were able to ask questions. Pound & Grain post
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