Introduction Project

Photographic Storyboard:

Flat Plan, Rationale, Poster and Evaluation:

      

        Out of the skills on my “print skills audit”, the ones that I have used in this project are: Photoshop, text control, layers, opacity control, brightness and contrast control and cropping tool... I also have developed a better understanding of the Photoshop toolbar and all the effects that it has. I think that I have used these skills quite effectively, although my advert is quite basic I definitely have a better understanding of Photoshop and I think I will be able to improve on it in the future, the skills I used for my advert are effective for this particular product because I didn’t have to do anything particularly fancy- but I will have to do much more complex editing for other products/projects.
My work that I am blogging shows my skills development from practically no knowledge of Photoshop apart from getting rid of backgrounds and changing the brightness of a picture- to better use of the effects that it has, as I am able to now work with layers independently, individually change the colour/style/and opacity of text and also work with the photo adjustments such as posterise. I also discovered that you can change the effects of the text, so instead of it just being a solid colour and appearance you can make it look like it’s dissolving and merging into the background in other ways.
          The weaknesses in my work are the fact that my group and myself weren’t very organised because we didn’t plan effectively and didn’t have a clear idea about what we wanted to do, therefore our storyboard has had to be rushed because we also had some technical problems and it isn’t completed to the best it could be. To improve on these things I think that I should make sure that my planning is fully completed before doing any practical work and that I manage my time efficiently so that I don’t have to rush anything.
If I did this project again I would come up with more ideas for the photo for the advert/poster, then I would have more ideas to work with to get the best result possible; I would also fully organise beforehand, get models sorted and briefed and make sure that they knew what I expected of them to make the photo work.
          To move towards the standard achieved in professional working practice I think that I would need to have professional actors/models and also find the perfect setting for the shoot so that the whole picture was appropriate and related to the product and its audience. On top of that I also need to have more advanced Photoshop skills so that I can manipulate and edit the pictures to a much higher standard and do cleverer effects on them to make mine stand out from the rest.

          Before we re-branded our product its target audience was female OAP’s, generally from an Empty Nest background of a lower social grade (E), our new target audience was then female teenagers around the ages of 16-18. This massive age and fashion gap made re-branding very complicated because shaking the “old lady” feel about plastic rain caps was exceedingly difficult.
I think the editing and font of my project work towards engaging the audience’s attention because the colours are solid but in neutral shades which fits in with the current fashion colour scheme, and the fonts quirky... so it stands out from the normal “standard” fonts that are used everywhere (just an outline which is occasionally smudged almost as if it has been spray painted).  These elements work because they are targeted at young girls’ current interests and therefore are more likely to grab their attention because it is what they are specifically on the lookout for.
I don’t think that it has a clear enough message to it, what I really needed was a catchy slogan and better positioning of the “in stores near you” and the price because they don’t flow properly with the picture and draw attention away from the product itself and the product name.
If I could do my project again I would improve my skills and understanding of Photoshop, do a more detailed plan and come up with multiple ideas so that I had a range of poses/settings to choose from, and I would also come up with a good slogan or a memorable quote to go onto my poster.
          I think that my project does meet the demands of the target audience (although not perfectly), the colours of the poster aren’t gaudy and they fit in with the current seasons fashion platter (pastel shades) and also the actresses in the advert look pretty and fashionable, which always catches the eye of teenage girls who are conscious about their appearance, so if the product is portrayed as something that keeps you looking good (protect hair from rain), and you also look good while actually wearing, it, then the target audience will be more inclined to invest. But it’s also not exactly right for the target audience because it is quite a plain advert and there’s nothing exceptional that jumps out screaming “I’m different, I’m cool, you need me!”, so whereas it is relative to the target audience it’s not really an advert that they will be interested in unless the product is something that interests them and is strong within itself- therefore I think I could have done a little bit better and made it more interesting for the audience by really making it stand out from everything else.

          My work demonstrates my understanding of audience segmentation systems by the fact that I have taken into account the interests of teenage girls, such as the colour scheme which used soft feminine pastel colours, the different font of writing (not normal so it stands out), and the stylish models which also appeals to teenagers need to “look good”.  I think that I have taken into account the current demands of teenage girls and applied the relevant factors to my advert in a subtle way, and given that my planning wasn’t done on time I think that I have managed to achieve a pretty decent advert- and I think that it makes the plastic “granny” rain caps just that little bit cooler!