Case #134 - A Mini-Study in Print Ad Design & Development

Step 1. Preliminary Layout & Design. On this assignment, a national trade ad for Borg-Warner Automotive, an attention getting ad was developed with a headline and visual that played off the theme "if you build it, they will come" from the movie, Field of Dreams. When designing a layout for a print ad, as shown at left, I begin by outlining a copy strategy I can create a visual theme around. This ad proved no exception. In fact, the text was so important to this ad concept, I wrote final copy for the layout. For the marker renderings, I chose Harry Borgman. Harry is an acclaimed storyboard artist and author of several books on advertising layout and design techniques. He is one of the best in the business when it comes to visual communication. In the movie, Field of Dreams, the main character pursues his dream to build a baseball field as homage to his favorite players, who have passed on to that great ballpark in the sky. Fading people in and out of scenes was a popular technique used to great effect. In my ad, the main illustration shows a vehicle hoisted on a hydraulic lift fading into a scene of a dream-like field. The headline declares, "if you rebuild it, they will come", while the copy persuades the reader (typically the owner of a family-operated transmission repair shop) to follow his dream of rebuilding the best transmissions by relying on Borg-Warner's "guaranteed to fit" parts. The final layout was presented to the client for approval. Thankfully, all of the preparation paid off. They loved the ad, made no changes, and I was off and running. Step 2. The Photo Shoot. Upon approval, the next step was to photographically re-create the layout illustrations. I chose Steven Benson Photography for his versatility both in the studio and on location. In addition, Steve has a Masters of Fine Art from Cranbrook Academy, and since the product shots would be photographed as if jewelry, he had the necessary aesthetic touch as well. Studio Photography: Steve photographed the three products below in 4x5 format in his studio using a blue seamless background lit by a spotlight covered with a blue gel, a simple key light on the products, and white bounce cards to help define their shapes. After scanning the final images, I used Photoshop to remove oil spots, oxidizing stains and other cosmetic imperfections which are normally present on manufactured products. Location Photography: I secured a Ford Explorer and a garage service bay with hydraulic lifts and Steve shot the scene in 4x5 format. A black velvet drape and white seamless paper were used to isolate as much of the truck as possible to help minimize the time spent on retouching later. (See images below.) Step 3. Digital Retouching. Next, I had the original photograph of the Explorer drum scanned and, using Photoshop, stripped the truck from its background. Unwanted reflections were also removed from the windows, truck body and grille. The paint color was also smoothed out on the side of the truck and hood. However, before I could add final touches to the windows and body, a suitable background image had to be found. [Top of Page] Step 4. Final Composition of Main Illustration. Stock photo libraries were searched and while no single image was available, two luscious shots were found (one each of the sky and field) which closely matched the background on Harry's original layout illustration. Licensing rights were secured and the two images were composited to create a single background for the retouched Explorer. Next, the Explorer was layered on top of the background image and additional layers were created for reflecting clouds in the windows and flowers in the body of the truck. The truck was ghosted at 50% to suggest its "appearance" in the field. All layers were then flattened to reduce file size. Finally, to enhance the ethereal nature of the image, the border was heavily feathered at 28 pixels. (See image below.) Step 5. Final Ad Assembly. All images were checked for proper size and resolution, and, with the company logo and text, re-assembled into the original Quark document created for the layout. The text was given a final spell check before the file was collected for output. In pre-press production, the document was checked one last time for accuracy. At last, the ad was digitally imaged as four color process film prepared to conforming specifications. Matchprint proofs verified the accuracy of the color, and all materials were released to the publications. Click Here to Read Final Ad Copy

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