Tentacles Take Hold Ad

This ad was created as a part of a campaign for the New England Aquarium in 2016 by the Connelly Partners Agency. It was specifically made to market a new exhibit and I think it worked well so I wanted to try and create a similar design. But first, I’ll go over why I think this design worked so well.

The first thing that catches your attention is the color and contrast.

Although the orange and pink are very bright, the white really jumps out and catches your attention. It also makes the add not be too distracting if they had used another bright color, or if they had used black for the font the other colors would overshadow it. The next thing that this ad does really well is proximity and repetition.

The main font is used in both, so you know you have to read them together and from left to right, but the biggest text is what you will read first.

The alignment also plays a big factor in this, even though the ad is centered aligned, the other text is right aligned so your eye follows that and reads it.

This is my attempt at making an using similar principles:

The thing I really wanted to get right was the use of color and contrast, the squid being red and the background being orange are still bright colors, but the first thing that jump out is the white text.

After that I worked on getting a similar font to the one used, and I wanted to try left aligned text instead of right aligned for a stronger look.

The use of repetition and proximity, just like in the last ad, help the reader to continue and read from left to right.

I personally felt that doing this helped me understand what goes into an ad campaign and how designers focus on making something not only to grab our attention but also to make things easy to understand and convey.

How the BTS “Wings” Album Cover Uses Design

BTS – “Wings” Album Cover

Released October 10, 2016 by Big Hit Entertainment

This iconic album cover is memorable because it uses the principles of contrast, repetition, alignment, proximity and color to tell us something about the album itself before even listening to the songs. The cover not only uses contrasting colors, black and white, but also uses contrasting patterns in each circle. Even though the two black circles look similar at first, the contrast of the two the circles around it makes you pay attention to the negative space and realize that one of the black circles is misshapen. This makes for a very striking image, because it makes us pay attention to what is inside each circle.

Although there are some differences in the circle shapes, the basic circular pattern is the same. But artist not only repeats the circle pattern, but also the white space (empty space) around it. This could also give the impression of “wings” like that of a butterfly.

The cover is all centered aligned, and although this alignment can appear “weak” because it is not as striking as right or left alignment, I think it is a good choice for an album cover. The visual connection between all the circles and the title is clear, and it allows for the focus to be on the circles themselves. Although not obvious in the design alone, fans will know that BTS uses these designs in every music video released from this album, further strengthen the importance on focusing on the circles.

 

The letters and circles are also all very close to each other to reinforce that connection. Notice all the empty space, even though nothing is there, it encapsulates the important information we should get out of the album cover. This makes the circles and words become a visual unit using proximity.

Although the “Wings” album cover is mostly black and white, there are certain deliberate choices to make us pay attention. All the surrounding circles us these same colors to create gradients and different grey tones. Also, with the title of the album being black, it also helps us create that connection. If the words were in a different color, the connection would be broken and the tittle would stand out more than the images.

Finally, this album cover uses the elements of contrast, repetition, alignment, proximity and color to produce a striking image that makes us pay attention. The whole image is a contrast of black and white, but this makes us notice the small details and clues put into album cover, with the help of the contrast. Usually, centered alignment can have a boring look, but because of the use of negative space it makes us pay attention to the different connections of each circle. The proximity and equal spacing of the circles also reinforces these connections. What at first glance looks like a simple design makes for one that makes you wonder what the album is about, and that is exactly what the artist was going for.