Extended Task - Digital Design

As I've mentioned in my previous posts, I really enjoyed making posters and it is something that I want to continue to practice. The extended task what motivated me to look into it more but at the same time, practice what we learned during Week 3. (Part 1, Part 2)

Research

In order to be able to create the design of this poster I had to research: the company that I'm going to be making the poster for, past campaigns but also more ways of making attractive and effective posters. I'm not going to lie that I struggled to find something to apply to what we were trying to achieve with this task, but at the end, I managed to find a couple articles and studies that really helped me to work around the project. 

"A poster is not a wall-mounted essay, more a colourful abstract. The aim of the poster is to grab the attention of your audience which in turn will generate interest in your area of research." (UOL, 2012)

I thought it would be nice to do a poster for Audi since is my favourite brand. Looking through their previous advertisements, they have really successful campaigns. Minimal but stylish and they follow a specific pattern. They either use one or two specific colours in their ads - which are the same shades they use on their models. Their adds are most of the times, black and white and if they are colourful, they most likely placed in the city. Also, I found it essential to check the demographics of the brand to see which campaigns worked better and in which audience. 

Most of their models, which are larger in size such as A4, target men over the age of 35 but the last few years, Audi sales have changed. Since 2008, when they started sponsoring multiple Marvel movies and events, until today, they start to target younger audiences. For example, the SpiderMan: Homecoming commercial in 2017 was a really effective way to address the audience aged eighteen and older. 



Audi is considered a luxury brand but it is an affordable solution. The company provides -the average- customers with vehicles of high performance but still not the fastest in the industry. Some of the models, such as R8, target wealthier groups and mostly men. "They want a car that screams I'm rich. They use it as a toy to have fun and show off." (Perrone, 2013).

Noticed something in common the previous two paragraphs? They target men. It is perfectly normal since the stereotype is that males love cars but it's 2020 and we move past stereotypes and generalizations. As I mentioned in the first paragraph, I went through past campaigns and I found only two that actually addressed women and none that addressed other genders. 

At first, I thought that my research skills were getting a bit rusty but according to the Corporate Equality Research, a study which rates workplaces on lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer equality, Audi does support LGBTQ+ rights but wasn't close to the top.  

So I thought it was time for a change. Inspired by the breast cancer campaign from 2019, Saudi Arabia:

Source here.



I tried to make it as simple as possible but still engaging and a poster that would catch the audience's eye. When I first started making the poster, I wanted to make it white, because it would make it look more minimal but the colours looked much better on a black font and it also came close to their dark background basic design. Also, I added a short tagline at the bottom of the poster, in order to be faithful to their own outlet. 

However, I did try to experiment with the proximity and the centre of attention, so here are the different versions that I made:




From what I noticed, many of their posters have the logo close to the left, upper or lower corner so I thought it would be nice to give it a try. From all the above, I prefer the first one more, because it is simple and elegant in its own unique way. Thus, I find it more attractive but equally engaging as the rest of them. 

While I was looking at different posters, I got an idea and tried making a poster that actually includes a car but also the logo. I tried to change the proximity, which actually made the poster, in my opinion, more effective and also with the figure of the car itself. 





Reflection 

Making posters is always a pleasure but this time I really enjoyed it because I had a lot of content to research and it actually taught me a lot. I wanted to try making a poster for a brand and I felt like this was the perfect opportunity. I feel like I need to work more on my editing skills and most importantly, try and practice more in order to understand the Gestalt theory even better. This task helped me understand how I should do research for a company and where to look in order to find the audience that I'm going for.



References:

 Perrone, D., 2013. Audi Target Market. Available at: <https://prezi.com/gwwpjwbwuvgs/audi-target-market/ >. 
 JIBRELL, A., 2017. 9 Automakers Earn Perfect LGBTQ-Equality Score. Automotive News. Available at: <https://www.autonews.com/article/20171110/OEM/171119945/9-automakers-earn-perfect-lgbtq-equality-score>. 
Campaign, H., 2020. HRC's 2020 Corporate Equality Index | Human Rights Campaign. Human Rights - - Campaign. Available at: <https://www.hrc.org/campaigns/corporate-equality-index>. 
Campaign, H., 2020. Best Places To Work 2020 | Human Rights Campaign. Human Rights Campaign. Available at: <https://www.hrc.org/resources/best-places-to-work-2020>.
Audi, 2020. Basics / Typography. Audi.com. Available at:<https://www.audi.com/ci/en/intro/basics/typography.html>.
Network, C., 2020. Audi.Adsoftheworld.com. Available at: <https://www.adsoftheworld.com/taxonomy/brand/audi>.
Autocenter, G., 2015. Audi Buyer Demographics: 7 Reasons Why Audi Vehicles Are The Choice For Young Professionals -. Germanautocenter.com. Available at: <https://www.germanautocenter.com/blog/audi-buyer-demographics-7-reasons-why-audi-vehicles-are-the-choice-for-young-professionals/>.
Forums, A., 2020. Demographics / Statistics - Audiworld Forums. AudiWorld Forums. Available at: <https://www.audiworld.com/forums/s4-b9-platform-discussion-214/demographics-statistics-2944082/>






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