Publication Ad

My next project is to develop a concept for a full color magazine ad that can be executed for a specific publication, as a full page ad. A Microsoft Tag code is a required element of this ad. I decided to research Writer's Digest magazine to find out more about the audience of readers it attracts and the types of ads it usually runs, along with the publication specifications it requires. My specific ad will aim to attract fiction writers to scan the tag and follow it to the website of the journal to learn more about submissions and contests.

•  Full Page Ad- Live Area: 7" X 10" Bleed Size 8" X 11" Trim Size 7 3/4" X 10 3/4"
•  InDesign, Photoshop, and Illustrator are all acceptable software programs.
•  Files must be composite page layouts ready for output and may be a PDF file format.
• 300 dpi photo scans and 1200 dpi line art and the acceptable file format is EPS or TIFF
• A final PDF must be included along with a package with all supporting elements.
• All images and files should be CMYK, 4 color process or grayscale.

Target Audience

• 76% of Writer's Digest readers are primarily interested in writing fiction. 
• The average household income is $85,000
• 68% of readers are female. 
• 77% of respondents took an advertising-related action in the past year.
• Over 80,000 subscribing readers every month.

Call To Action
I would like the viewer of the publication ad to scan the tag and follow the link to the journal's website. At the website the reader would be able to find out more information about submissions and writing contests.

 
 Below is the first five thumbnail sketches I completed and the final rough draft idea I came up with.

A screen shot of the version that is ready for critique is below:

After my critique session I have made a few changes to the final publication ad to improve the look and effectiveness of the ad.

All vector images were created by Robin Mooney.
All Raster images were obtained as downloads from WeGraphics.com on November 11, 2011 and iStockphoto.com on November 11, 2011. The Microsoft Tag was rendered from http://tag.microsoft.com/my-tags/getting-started.aspx on 11/16/11

Collegio Newspaper Ad

For my next project I am going to create an advertisement for the PSU Collegio Newspaper. I will again be using the Cow Creek Review literary magazine as my topic. All newspaper publications are designed on a column width system and because of this I will be using a specific formula to determine the size of my ad and to make sure my ad size will not exceed my budget size.  I will also be using a bitmap image for this project. The bitmap image will be a hand-drawn image with black ink on white paper. The image will be scanned in at 765 ppi to make sure the resolution is excellent for an 85 line screen newspaper.

Target Audience
This ad is meant to target PSU students who write creatively and students who produce art.  

Call to Action 
This ad is meant to encourage students to pick up a submission form from the English department.

Also discuss in your blog post the element you are using as a bitmap and the process involved in using a bitmap.

Budget: $197

I have been given a budget of $197.00 for the purposes of this project. The Collegio charges $4 per column inch for Newspaper ads, so I will be creating an ad of a certain width and height to accommodate to it. 

 Formula

__4___column width X __11__inches height = column/inch X price per col/inch = __176__total ad cost

4 column width is 7.71 inches wide and I've decided that my ad will be 11 inches tall, so this means I'll be creating an InDesign file that will be 7.71 x 11 for the creation of my ad. 

Thumbnails 
Below are 10 of the thumbnail creations I made when laying out this project. 

Rough
Below is the rough of the design I've decided to use for this project. 

Draft Version
Below is the draft version, without bitmap, that I am taking in for critique.  



All vector images were obtained as free downloads from WeGraphics.com on October 26, 2011. www.wegraphics.com/