products and evaluations pro forma (tasks 6, 7, 8 & 9)

Design for AdvertisingProducing and evaluating

Task 6: Advert Development

At first, I thought that it was key to make the overall advert bright and striking. All the adverts that I had viewed and were therefore the adverts I was trying to try and emulate on this task. I tried to contrast this background with a black text. The inner glow was also black to it would make the speed+ font more striking and stand out on the advert, which you want when the purpose of this product is to advertise.

After deciding on the background and the font, I wanted to add a shape that links with the adverts and adds to the effectiveness of the colours within the avert. Due to the name of my product, a lightning bolt would be the obvious choice for this advert. After locating one on Photoshop, I added the shape and dragged it to the desired size that I wanted. After it blocked out the text once it was added, I decided to turn the opacity down on the bolt. This allowed the shape to go almost see through and allowed the font to be seen again.

After researching and analysing even more existing adverts, I found that the stereotypical advert involved a neutral background with striking other elements or a picturesque background. Due to me been unable to capture a picturesque background, I decided to change the colour of my adverts background to a neutral colour, black. If I was trying to invent or open another market of products, I would try and re-invent this product and make it unconventional to other products and would have probably stuck with the orange colouring. Instead, I’m trying to fit into an existing market and therefore had to fit in with the codes and conventions of this market, which I was now adapting my advert to fit in with.

Task 6: Advert DevelopmentAfter changing the colour of the background and the colour of the font to a more restrained colouring option, I wanted to try and ad the lightning bolt shape from the previous page. I think that with the correct opacity and the correct colour, this shape could be a prominent and very effective feature of my advertisement. After selecting a similar colour and opacity to the font, this feature was as effective as I could get it. The only issue with this shape was that at certain angles, the shape wasn’t visible to me. This was a big issue because the opacity couldn’t have been turned up due to the font not been visible if so. However, I believed that this shape was visible enough to be seen by the mass majority of consumers, which is what I want my product to be also.

With my shape, font and colour on this advert complete, I needed to start to add other conventional advert features onto my own advert. The next thing to add was an important feature to this print product, the tag-line. It has the power to hook a consumer into buying a product, this feature must be concise, not too wordy and most of all, memorable. This tag-line was added with the same font and colour as my product name. This looked effective on the Photoshop document, however, it doesn’t look as effective when it’s been translated onto the word document. This is maybe due to the print product been copied and then pasted, or more plausibly, the advert has been shrunk down to be put on this slide, which makes the text look ineffective.

The black font face with the orange inner glow is effective and contrasts well with the lightning bolt shape, but the issue of consumers potentially not seeing it is a major problem. Due to me wanting my product to be for a mass market product, I don't want to cut down the amount of people been enticed by the advert before I’ve even put the advertisement out by a feature that can easily be altered.


After changing colours on my advert for the second time, I wanted to make the font more prominent and effective. Changing the opacity would be an obvious choice but I didn’t want to make it too bold and take away attention from the extra information that I would be adding later. For this reason, I altered the inner glow. Adding some size onto the inner glow allowed the font to be more defined and bold without compromising any effectiveness of the overall advert.

I thought when I changed the advert, the previous problem of the lightning bolt shape not been visible would be non existent and the feature would now be one of the most effective pieces on my print product. However, I didn’t account for the colour of the shape blending in with the font, due to the two been similar colour and opacities. For this reason, had to ensure that the opacity of the lightning bolt was turned up. From the middle image on the right, you can see how much more visible this feature is now, as well as the fact that it’s now more prominent and effective as a technique on my advert.

Like on the previous slide, now the shape and the font are complete, it’s time to add the tag-line. The only thing not to be changed on this advert, the tag line is a short but memorable tag-line, therefore, fulfilling the function of a motto. Learning from my previous mistake, I made the font of the tag-line a little it lighter and turned the opacity on the font up. The dilemma of where to put the font is now an issue. If I put it to the left, there is some ‘white space’ on the right hand side and vice versa. If I increase the size of the font, my extra information won’t be able to fit in, as well ad the fact that some attention will be taken away from my product name if the font on my tag-line was too large. This is why I kept all proportions relevant to the size of the advert frame.


Since this was a development task, I was now just concentrating my attention on the design side, instead of the content. I decided that the best thing was to add a coloured strip at the bottom. This was a way to break up the elements of the advert, reduce ‘white space’ and ensure the adverts corporate colours are now a familiar sight to the consumer. The more about the company the consumer remembers, the better and the more potential income. The small coloured strip was a little darker than the text but it was still in keeping with the house style of the company.

After adding the initial colour/branding strip, I wasn’t convinced tit was fulfilling a purpose apart from reducing ‘white space’. I wanted to try and experiment with other elements before I come back to this idea. This reduction of features on my advert meant that I had to try and reduce the ‘white space’ with the elements that I already had on the canvas. Increasing the size of the lightning bolt so it now fit diagonally across the screen was one thing I did. This reduced the amount of ‘white space’ on the right hand side. This shift around meant that my text was now covered by the bottom of the lightning bolt and it looked ineffective. This meant that I now had to move my text to the left hand side. This therefore meant that the majority of ‘white space’ was now covered and the colouring/branding strip was now obsolete.

From the top image on the right, I didn’t dislike the branding strip and would include it if there was any room. After experimenting with various design options, I have decided that the branding strip has a place on my advert. After moving the tag-line to the far left, the lightning bolt up a bit so it doesn’t stretch the full page on a diagonal. This made space at the bottom of the page for the colouring strip to add a bit of extra colouring to my print product.


After concentrating on design techniques, I wanted to focus on developing those area and adding some content into it, therefore, trying to make a rounded and well balanced advert.

After developing a product that featured a few fonts and a shape, I wanted to actually feature the product, which is the function of this advert: to advertise the product. Showing the consumer the product will give them a visual and an extra understanding on the product that BOLT is and therefore may entice them more into purchasing it.

Making a can of my own would have been time consuming and with a good design not guaranteed, a risk tactic. Instead, I sourced an image of a can and rotoscoped round it using the polygonal lasso tool on Photoshop. After separating the can into three sections (top, main can and bottom) I had created the can that will feature on my advert. Due to the grey colouring of the bottom of the can and the stoke of the can looking similar, I wasn’t sure whether to just cut the bottom of the can and just have a simple can, but decided it was more effective with the bottom of the can. I had to put a stroke on the can to ensure that the back of the can wouldn’t just blend in with the black background.


Developed from my previous design attempt, the lightning bolt had been adapted to full opacity and has been shrunk down to fit between the brand name and the can. This is not just a decorative item on the canvas, it also helps the consumer guide it’s way through the advert using line. From the brand name, the shape/line leads to the main focus of the advert, which is the can. It also helps the consumer get a visual of the brand name, due to people remembering logos rather than brand names so a visual of the name is almost key to a successful advert., especially if the product/brand is new, it’s trying to get a familiarisation with the consumer.

The next stage was to add my tag-line. Since my last design., I have tested different colours and themes but the wording of the tag-line remains the same. This is due to a conventional tag-line been short and memorable, which this slogan is. This part may have to be amended later though because it’s a bit small for the overall space and leaves a lot of white space either side of it. Something else that might need analysing is the inner glow. The brand name that has an inner glow on it looks effective and striking, however, when transferred onto the smaller text, it turns it a white colouring which doesn’t fit in with the rest of my advert.

Due to me focusing on content as well as design on this layout, I wanted to add some features that are stereotypically added to energy drink adverts. After looking at various energy drink print adverts, I listed all the conventions that most commonly appear. Amongst them were: websites, social media links and QR codes. The website address seemed the easies to add to the layout. After deciding that I’ll add something on the right hand side, I wanted to add it to the left hands side. I didn’t add an inner glow to this text, due to it not looking effective on text this small. I decided to make the text this size because I wanted it to be visible to the consumer but it’s probably the least important element in the hierarchical order of this layout so was consigned to the bottom of the screen with the smallest font on the page.


Struggling to find features to put on my advert to cut down the white space, I started to brainstorm ideas about what could be featured on the layout. Due to me wanting a clean and relatively text free design, I didn’t want to add too much text and make the layout ineffective for the consumer. There was already some content at the bottom and top of the page so the obvious place to add something was on the sides. Adapting the lightning bolt at the top of the page, I rotated it and experimented with the positioning of them. After putting them at either side of the can, the layout already looked better and a more finished product. It not only reduced the white space, it also added familiarisation of the product name to the consumer through shape.

The next step was to make the tag-line stand out a bit more. Designed to be a technique that enticed consumers through been memorable, this tag-line was memorable but didn’t really stand out from the advert. Increasing the size would have been an obvious choice, but it would have drawn even more attention to the fact that there's some white space in the bottom corner, as well as the fact that I was unsure on the look of the stroke on the took should it be increased in size.

After looking at existing products and analysing what made them successful, I tried to emulate the social media link aspect. Knowing that the Facebook and twitter logos couldn’t be that big because they weren’t a bit part of the advert and therefore don’t have to be that noticeable. This is when I decided to determine the logos sizes by using the ruler to level them up with the website address on the left hand side of the page. After experimenting with positioning, I decided to put them in the place with most white space, the bottom right hand corner of the canvas.


Even though I had filled the white space on the sides of the layout, I felt there was something missing on the lightning bolts. They help give a visual aid to the name of the drinks brand but don’t look very striking or eye-catching. Putting the stroke effect on the shape only made it turn white, instead of the effective orange colour I had selected. This could not be altered, even when the stroke effect was reduced to a 1PT stroke. After that, I thought making the lightning bolt like the text and putting an inner glow on it would make it look effective. However, this wasn’t the case, due to too many things on the page been inner glowed. I experimented with the lightning bolts been inner glowed and the font been normal, but it didn’t look as effective as before.

At this point, I was wondering whether an effect would be the best thing for my product. Looking through them all, I couldn’t think of an effect that would have made the lightning bolts stand out a bit more. However, when I saw a Red Bull advert with a blurred out font type, I though emulating this effect would solve the issue on my advert. Trying different blur options, I finally managed to select a motion blur that would make the lightning bolt look like it was moving towards the can. Now that this filter had been added, I decided that a gradient level could be added to the shape to make it look like the lighting bolt was charged. A gradient level allowed me to carry this out. By selecting two shades of orange, the filter and effects on the lighting bolt were complete.

Looking out of place on my layout, the social network links were the only elements of my advert that didn't fit in with the colour scheme. I decided that rotoscoping the logos would be the best way to carry out the task of colour alteration. After cutting out the different parts of the logos, I then had to colour overlay them to fit in with my colour scheme (below). Even though it was a small feature of my layout and it was relatively easy to do, it made a huge impact to the final product.

Even though I had added a line underneath the tag-line, I still felt like it wasn’t as effective as it could be. Now I had added something to the bottom right hand corner, increasing the font size on the slogan wouldn’t draw attention to the white space at that particular spot anymore. Also, seen as the tag-line couldn’t have the inner glow added to it because of the discolouring issue, I decided to make all the text the same and take the inner glow of the Bolt text. It now looked more of a complete advert, compared to the advert that looked separated and tow different adverts like before.

From the previous design, I decided that I wanted to do an advert for a range of products from BOLT. I was hoping the colour scheme would be the same and this advert wouldn’t be separate from my previous design but a follow up instead. Even though this wouldn’t be my final idea, it would still give me an idea about my can design for later in the project and it would help me try and find things that I had forgotten on my final image to add in later.

Picking the colours for the various cans in this layout wasn’t just a matter of getting some colours and then just organising the cans in order. On this advert, the different products would have names. Some names fit better with different colours, so this wasn’t as straightforward as first thought. I finally decided on the colouring that would feature on the can, all of which were in-keeping with the restrained background and the bright colour contrast idea.

My previous design featured the motion blurred lightning bolt going from the BOLT text to the can. This idea is one that I took onto this advert and then adapted it to fit with the advert style. Reducing the size of the shape was one thing I changed, as well as the colour. After further experimenting with different shades of orange, I didn’t think the existing colours of the lightning bolt were effective anymore, therefore new colours needed op be selected. Due to me making the lightning bolt with a gradient level and then duplicating them all, In thought it would be easier to create a new lightning bolt and adjust the effects this way.

The can designs featured on the advert are just in place to show how the can would look. However, when I complete the product packaging in the next task, I will add the designs to this layout and the advert will then look more complete and professional.


After adding the lightning bolt to one of the cans, I realised that this can now stood out more than any other on the advert, which I didn’t want. Adding the shape to all of the cans solved this issue, while also reducing the white space on the advert at the same time. After adding the lightning bolts however, I’m not sure if all the can designs look effective. The yellow colouring on the font of the end can makes the white inner glow look invisible and therefore the yellow can doesn’t fit in with the rest of the range. However, I did try experimenting with the colours at the start of this particular advert and they were either ineffective or too similar to my existing colours.

Now the design side of this advert was complete, it was time to add all the content. I have kept the same colouring for my title fonts and the tag-line of my first advert still remains. Inner glow on my font was tested but looked ineffective, due to the tag-line going discoloured when the effect was added. So far, the layout looks concise and clear and doesn’t need that much adding to it. Something that needs altering is the centralisation of the text on the advert. The BOLT brand name looks out of line with the tag-line and because of this, it looks unprofessional. Using a ruler to align them back up will sort this problem out and restore the layout to been effective again.

Due to me creating a product range and having different flavours, I knew that I had to name my products so the consumer could be familiarised with the BOLT product range. I first looked at the planning documentation on task 3, where I had constructed potential names for my various BOLT products. After selecting names that would fit with the colouring on the cans, I had to decide on the positioning of the product names. I though the can would be a good place for it, however, I liked how clean and brief my packaging design looked on Task 5 package development. Due to the lightning bolts been at the top, underneath the can was the only option. The font was now added, however, I turned down the opacity on the text and it doesn’t fit in with any other fonts on the layout. This feature might need to be addressed for my final piece.


After the product names of all of the cans has been added, it’s now clearer that the opacity needs changing. Some of the fonts aren’t visible, which isn’t a good feature for an advert to have, been striking and viewed is the key function of an advert. It also doesn’t fit because all the other fonts on the page have the opacity turned to 100%, therefore the product names don’t fit with the BOLT house style this far.

White space was becoming a problem, especially for the bottom of the advert. Making various elements of the advert bigger would be an option for reducing the white space. I did experiment with this idea, but after increasing the size of the brand name , tag-line and products, it started to look unprofessional, due to the cans now been cramped in the middle of the screen. Another option for reducing white space was to add more content, like I did on my previous design. After trying to find conventional features that were found in energy drinks company adverts, I decided to stick with the same two from my final design. Adding the website address shows that you’re opening your product up to another platform. Advertising your e-media on a print platform shows that you are trying to reach a mass market, and therefore trying to increase you companies profile. The website address is joined at the bottom of the page by social media links. Deciding not to go for the colourings which would link with my corporate colours is a decision that I might have to review before the final idea is created.

The final design features a few changes from the previous development screenshots. Changing the opacity of the product names has made a huge impact by changing very little. The same can be said for the social media link colouring. Rotoscoping them using the magnetic lasso tool was easy to do and I got effective results. Like my final piece, I had to add a stroke effect to the edge of the Facebook and Twitter logos because the shape colouring blended in with my background.


Task 6: Final Advert evaluationTechnical codesThe main technical feature on my advert is the main focus, the can. Using the polygonal lasso tool on three separate bits, I was able to successfully rotoscope the can. The only disadvantage of using the polygonal lasso tool is that it’s easy to go wrong and go over an edge, however, it is very easy to correct this and it takes little time to do. After layering the pieces via copy, I was able to position them how I wanted them. This enabled the can to look so effective, even though I had to further amend the main can. Due to it been coloured black, I had to put a stroke effect on it to make it visible on the advert. Also rotoscoped on my advert were the Facebook and twitter logos. Using the polygonal lasso tool I managed to rotoscope the Facebook logo, due to there not been too many curvy lines on this particular logo. The twitter logo however was somewhat more tricky using the polygonal lasso tool, so I had to change to the magnetic lasso tool. Automatically going round the curves and parts that are of fine margins, the magnetic lasso tools sticks to the twitter logo and cuts out the corporate badge perfectly. As well as a technical code, these two logos are also aesthetical features, which will be mentioned on the next slide.

My other technical code which isn’t as prominent on my print product is the blurred lightning bolt. This started off as a simple lightning bolt that I wanted to stretch from the ‘BOLT’ text to the actual can, a subconscious technique to hook the consumer using line. However, I realised that I needed to add another element to my advert to optimise the effectiveness. I started by adding a motion blur to allow the shape to look like it was moving towards the can. This effect worked well but I couldn’t quite get the correct amount of blur on the shape. A distance per pixel of 75 was too little motion, where as a distance per pixel of 150 was too great. I settled for 110DPP and decided this was the correct and appropriate distortion I could use without it looking ineffective. After I had got the blur correct, it was still missing something. Selecting a number of shades of orange, I added the colours to my gradient layer option and decided to experiment with various shades. After selecting two shades I was happy with, I added the gradient level. At first it didn't quite look right because the lighter shade of orange was at the top, with the darker one at the top. However, I wanted it to look like the bolt was charging, therefore I reversed the colours and got the look that I wanted.

Task 6: Final Advert evaluation

Aesthetic codesThe first aesthetical feature is evident as soon as you glance at the advert. The contrasting colours are the key to making this print product effective. Neutral colours along with bright fontal features make for an eye-catching and striking design piece. Used in a lot of the energy drinks companies adverts, I have tried to emulate it as a feature I will use also. Using a mix of subtle and prominent orange features, I have been able to create an advert for what I believe can be a mass market. This function is one that is very rarely carried out by existing energy drinks (they are usually trying to target a niche or focused market). Another feature that helps to add to the contrasting colours are the Facebook and Twitter logos on the bottom right hand corner of my product. The altered logos to fit in with the house style of the rest of my advert is an effective feature of my print product.

Shapes and object to try and further get across your message or catch someone's attention are commonly used in advertisement. The advert that I have created is no different. Using lightning bolts to point to the can, I wanted to further the consumers understanding of what the product and the product name is. I think if there was just one lightning bolt, there would be too much white space on the canvas to make an effective advert. However, three shapes reduced the white space and ensured that the advert didn’t lose any of that key effectiveness. To make sure I positioned the lightning bolts correctly, I used the ruler tool on Photoshop and made sure that the bolts were equal and in the right positions. Out of place of disproportionate shapes suggests unprofessionalism from the producer and the consumer will therefore lose interest and confidence in the product.

Task 6: Final Advert evaluation

Are there opportunities to further develop my work?Due to my advert been concise and relatively empty, the white space could be developed on. I didn’t want to clutter my advert and have loads of content and text on the page. This, in my opinion, will make the consumer not want to read or glance at my advert, which is not fulfilling the purpose of the print product. Instead, I de-cluttered the page and made sure that text was kept to a minimum. However, especially in the right and left top portions of the screen, there is too much white space. The reason I haven’t filled the space yet is because I am unsure what to put in the space. After adding the social media, digital link, tag-line and decorative item, I had exhausted the things that are relevant on an advert. Everything that is key to an advert, I have got on the advert, so I might have to experiment with different features and techniques to see if I can solve this issue.

The size of the social media/QR code could be a little larger. These were the last elements of my advert to be added and complied with the size of the text on the left hand corner of the screen. Matched up using the ruler tool, the two things at the bottom of the screen are the smallest because as the hierarchical status in layout states, the least important information should be the smallest and the lowest down on the screen, which it is.

Is your final piece fit for purpose?I think my previous versions and developed designs were slightly restrained and wouldn’t have caught the eye of the consumer had they been produced. A few tweaks to the colour, components and layout and I believe I have a print product that is fit for purpose. When I started this task, the purpose of the advert was like any other, to advertise and try and persuade the consumer to buy the product on offer. I think the restrained background colour with the bright and striking contrasting orange fulfils the conventional striking nature of advertisements.

Even though I believe this final layout is fit for purpose, I would still like to experiment with other colours and try and find two bright colours that contrasted and appealed to a mass market. While I realise I won’t appeal to everyone, I want to try and make bolt a product for the mainstream market, instead of a niche one. I think this advert is relatively mass market, but probably appeal to a young male demographic more than any other, due to me emulating some conventions from the monster campaign in terms of colour scheme. Monster mainly appeals to a young audience with males seeming to purchase that particular product more, therefore I thought emulating it and then altering a few details might bring it back towards a neutral demographic and therefore a mass market.

Task 6: Advert Evaluation

What areas of planning and development worked well?I think having extra time on the colour and text theme, as well as effects, compared to other projects. While you did get some time to develop layouts and colour schemes on previous projects, this project allowed us to experiment a lot with layout and technical aspects. This time allowed me to see what doesn’t work before I could amend it and find something that I thought would work and was fit for purpose.

Font choices and colour schemes were thought of in more depth and the wording of the tag-line was planned on paper before been transferred into a digital platform. This was useful because I find planning my ideas in rough more beneficial in the long run of projects. Even though this is the case, I have never planned my ideas on paper before. This area of planning and development has led me to have a reasonably effective product and this method of recording ideas and plans might need to be taken in future projects.

Looking at existing products in this market was very useful and key in the planning of this project. After only seeing a handful of energy drink adverts before, I was relatively uneducated in the energy drink market. Looking at the actual physical product as well as digital copies, I was able to get a better understanding of what features these adverts had and what enticed the consumer to buy products in this particular market. Looking for existing products has been part of most of my past projects, but I think in this project, it was key for me to look at some previously made products before carrying out the tasks of the project.


What areas of planning and development could have done with more work? While the text and the tag-line development was carried out well, I think that the font planning and development could have been carried out better. On my mood board, I had a range of texts which I had specifically sourced the fonts with my particular product in mind. After this stage, I then cut the fonts down and then went into development wit my chosen font, which was done in the space of a day. If I was to have spent more time on the font development, I could have ended up with a more effective print product. The amount of fonts I started with wasn’t the issue, but I could have maybe experimented more with the fonts on different colour schemes, however, the tag-line and the layout got more time spent on them. On the other hand, since creating my final piece, I have looked for more fonts and have experimented with them to try and improve on this piece, but there aren’t any fonts that I have found that are any more effective than the one I currently have.

The shapes and technical elements of my product could have been developed better. The lightning bolts that I now have on my advert look effective, however, they didn’t always look like that. Previous versions of the product had big lightning bolts which had low opacity that looked ineffective. This wouldn’t have been an issue if they would have been analysed and experimented on earlier, but it took me a long time to realise that these elements looked ineffective. If I would have seen this earlier by planning and developing them better, I could have had the product I have now, faster, or an even better product. An extra bit of planning and development could have made this task simpler, however, I completed the task in time and I wasn’t disadvantaged that much by this issue.


What effect did you think your development stages had on the final product? I think I furthered the advert creatively and made my print product a more well rounded and effective product. By developing the font, colour schemes, effects and layouts, I was able to establish what did and didn't work in the energy drink market. The bottom image shows where I started on this task and the top image shows where I finished. At first, I thought if the font filled the whole page, it would be more effective and catch peoples attention, same with the orange background colouring. However, through development, I found that a smaller font type and a cleaner looking layout was the conventional design. As previously mentioned, I wanted to go for a conventional layout, due to me trying to fit into an existing market, not trying to establish a new market, it needs fit into the market not be a very niche product.

I was also concerned with my layout and design at first, I didn’t really address the content side of the product, I just wanted to get the design side sorted first. The development helped me to get the effective look that I ended up with. Starting with just a simple design, I was able to adapt the effects (inner glow, stroke), the colour scheme (bright to restrained with bright elements placed on the page) and the font. Not only this, with every development, I started to experiment with different codes that you see in energy drink advertising (website addresses, social media links, tag-lines). Some of these various techniques worked, while others didn’t, but that’s what experimenting is about: finding what works and what doesn’t. For example, the social media links didn’t look right at the top of the page but look good at the bottom of the page because they balance out the text on the left hand side of the page. I also like the tag-line with a big and bold font because it matches the font at the top, but before it was like that, it had a stroke on that discoloured it. Therefore, the development stage for me has been crucial in making my product and has allowed me to make an effective advert.


Task 7: Product Development

The product packaging development in task 5 showed that cans with little titles and a lot of content were the least effective and the ones that didn’t grab the consumers attention. However, the ones that featured a bold title, not necessarily all the way round, but were bold enough to grab the consumers attention, were the most effective and most successful. This is why I started this task with a bold font choice that filled the whole of the screen.

Adding layer upon layer of the same font, I was able to create a 3D looking brand name on the packaging design. This seemed like a good feature at the time, but it didn’t really fulfil the clean and concise layout that I wanted when I started this project. Perhaps taking off some of the layers would be the best option for the final first design of my packaging. This would allow the font to remain 3D but also look clearer and more readable. Sometimes the design that’s the brightest or the boldest are ineffective because they are trying to hard to be seen by the consumer, the ones that succeed are the ones that feature most neutral colours and have a number of subtle bight coloured elements dotted around the product.

The nutritional information font face, that is in keeping with the corporate colours is then added. When developing the font and layout on Task 5, I finally got to a stage where the font looked effective against the brand name. However, when it was added on this particular design, the orange coloured text blended in with the ‘BOLT’ lettering. This issue can be resolved by either turning the opacity down on the brand name or changing the font colour on the orange font parts. I think the latter will be easier to do, due to the amount of layers I would have to alter to turn down the opacity of the overall brand name would be time consuming, compared to the alteration of the font colour.


Some of the layers have been cut down from the previous layout design and it looks a lot more effective for it. The 3D effect still remains but the crowded font face didn’t pose a problem anymore. However, the problem of the font colouring blending in with the brand name issue is still evident and hasn't been developed since the last version of this design. This feature will soon be altered and the problem will be resolved for the next version of this particular design. The ellipse shapes that hold the nutritional information also overlays and blocks sections of the ‘BOLT’ brand name. This can be amended using a simple change in the opacity on the ellipse shapes.

The text has now been changed on my design, which I believed would make the layout clearer and more effective. However, the black colouration that I selected for the font type also blends in with the brand name, due to the ingredients font spanning into the black spaces between the letters. The problem that I previously had therefore still remains. Changing the font again to the white colouring of the rest of the font would be the best thing to do. Without testing or experimenting with the font colour, I know that this colour won’t blend into the brand name, due to the existing white coloured text on the layout not doing so.

Changing the font to a white colouring has proved to be the correct way to develop this design. Not blending into the brand name anymore, the nutritional information text is now readable and contrasts well with the black and orange colouring on the rest of the design. To develop this design, the brand name could perhaps be moved down so it’s centralised on the layout. This would reduce the white space at the bottom of the screen. A collar design could also be a effective feature to add on this particular design, but may make the can look cramped should the ‘BOLT’ brand name stretch all the way around the collar, like It does on the can.

Task 7: First draft final


Moving back to the more traditional and preferred method of laying out the packaging is an indication that I may decide to use this sort of layout for my final design. Adding the brand name in the middle of the layout and adding a lightning bolt above gives the impression that there will be more content added below the brand name. However, at this stage, I haven’t decided what this section will feature, I just knew that I wanted to experiment with a centralised brand name. The collar design of the can is another feature that has been restored to my layout. I think without this feature, the can has too much white space featured on it.

Sticking to the corporate colours, the ingredients and flavourings information is added to the design. Staying centralised with the text layout, I feel as if because the brand name is centralised, I don’t want to end up with a boringly constructed product that looks professional, but isn’t striking and doesn’t entice the consumer. At this stage, I’m still thinking about what could fill the white space at the bottom of the screen. A design similar to that of my avert could be a good way to make an effective product, while keep the consistency with the design elements, therefore creating a familiarisation with the consumer through corporate colours and the company logo.

Adding the nutritional information next was the feature that I was least sure about on this design. Adapted from the table design., I had to decided to set the information out in a column system. Even though it’s not as effective as the ellipse shapes on the previous design, I wanted to further experiment on this feature and try and get another original idea, just in case my ellipse tool idea goes wrong or doesn’t look how I expected to on my final design.


After adding the barcode and other little pieces of content, including: the recycling logo, the barcode and the website address, my packaging design was now starting to take shape. The only major problem still involved having a large gap of white space at the bottom of the layout. However, I knew that this feature would be amended before the final version of this draft. Making the lightning bolt bigger and moving the brand name to the bottom of the screen was a possible solution to this problem.

Another solution to the white space issue was the one that I decided to take on this design. On my advert, I had added lightning bolts so they were pointing to the brand name at 3 points. Trying to emulate this feature, I added 4 lightning bolts to the layout, which reduced the white space and made the overall design look effective. Even if this was not the direction I wanted to go with my design, it works as a concept and fulfils the purpose of looking striking to the consumer.

After the addition of the 4 lightning bolts, there was still too much white space on the bottom of the layout. With the top of the can having the collar design, the bottom of the can didn’t have anything on it and I feel like the addition of something could help further the cans effectiveness and give the consumer some extra information about the product. Due to the barcode and recycling logo been stereotypically found on the back of the can, I couldn’t transfer them to also be included on the front of the can. However, the website address could be used. As a subtle reminder, I added it on both the front, back and side of the can, which would make the consumer aware of the website, while creating a familiarity of the brand.

Task 7: Second draft final


Like the previous can, I continued with the corporate colours that I had established back in Task 5 and used throughout this development task. However, instead of positioning the brand name in the middle of the design like my previous design, I positioned it at the bottom because I wanted to use all the space available on this particular design. This may lead to it been less clear and concise than I wanted but it would be full of content and striking to the consumer.

Adding the collar design from the previous layout, the design was now framed and just needed the content I wanted to make up the rest of the design, while trying to come up with how my logo can be displayed. In the end, I use the same colouring on the logo, but I just increased the size of the shape. However, when I increased the size of the bolt, the motion blur faded off the shape and it just had the gradient overlay on. Re-applying the motion blur on a 111PT blur helped to restore the lighting bolt to it’s previous blur level. After adding my brand name at the bottom of the screen and having my collar design added, I wanted to make the lightning bolt stretch all the way from the bottom of the collar to the ‘L’ of my brand name, giving it the visual appearance that it’s striking the lettering.

Next, the addition of the nutritional information. Continuing with the preferred style of setting this information out, this was fit onto the design. All the other content was included as normal and all that was missing was the ingredients and flavourings information. Like I have stated throughout the development stage, I could experiment with changing the colouring of the recycling logo to fit in with my corporate colours. My design on the nutritional information has remained consistent throughout the project, but I didn’t want to change it because I believed this was the most effective design I had. Despite trying an experimenting in this task, I haven’t yet found a more effective way of laying out the nutritional information.


This design might be one of the most effective designs I have created in this project so far, but I believe it needs something adding to it to make it look more effective. I decided that altering the colour of the background was he way to experiment with different striking features. Been kept consistent throughout the project, the restrained black colouring might be the reason why this packaging can’t be as enticing as it could be. I therefore decided that flipping the colours of the current design and having the background as orange and other elements as black would be the best way to alter the design.

After changing the colours of the background and the gradient level on the lightning bolt, it was clear to see that this feature wasn't going to work with this particular layout. The lightning bolt shape didn’t look as effective, the brand name blends in with the background, as does the ingredients list. This bold and risky technique hasn’t paid ff on this occasion and restoring the colours to the restrained black with a few subtle bright features might be the way to carry on my design.

Even though this design might not be the most striking or colourful can, it certainly has plenty of features to catch the consumers eye. The contrasting colours, the motion blur lighting bolt and the bold font choice on the brand name are just a few features that make this can a successful and effective packaging design. The white on the stroke of the ellipse tool, which I worried about at the start of the task, now fits in with the rest of my layout colouring, due to the font of the ingredients been of the same colour, as is the website address of the company.

Task 7: Final Packaging

What are the technical qualities of your work?One technical code I have included in my design is the little ellipse shapes on the nutritional information side of my can. This was done using the simple shape tool in Photoshop, and transformed to the desired size. However, I wanted 5 of these shapes and wanted to get them of the same proportions, so duplicated them instead of doing each one individual. After I had completed the ellipse shapes, they were black in colouring, which would evidently blend in with my background of the same colour. I looked at my effects I had to choose from and decided that a stroke would be the best technique to add to the ellipse shapes, It gave them enough definition to stand out on that side of the can but didn’t detract too much attention away from the key content on there either.

Another technical quality I experimented with on my packaging was trying to make the lightning bolt stand out more than it already did. Inner glow, outer glow, stroke and drop shadow were a few of the effects I tried to use on the shape. However, they all gave the lightning bolt the look I didn’t want. What I wanted was to have the lightning bolt look like it was in motion. I then decided that maybe a filter might be the correct effect for me to use. Blur was the most relevant to what I wanted and after experimenting with tilt-shift and Gaussian blur, I knew that motion blur was the correct filter for my product. Giving the correct amount of blur without making it impossible to tell what the shape is, motion blur gives the impression that the lightning bolt is in motion, moving towards the bolt text. After this, a gradient level was added to the shape to make the lightning bolt in motion look like it was charging and about to strike. This was done by selecting different shades of orange and adding it to the gradient level options to choose. However, unlike my advert, I didn’t need to experiment with colours, due to me already getting the correct colours for my adverts lightning bolt.

Task 7: Packaging Evaluation

What are the aesthetic qualities of your work?The Orange and black colouring of my design compliment each other well by contrasting, which makes the packaging design look striking and effective. When first thinking about my can design, I wanted to make it as bright and vibrant as possible, which led to me colouring the design orange. However, on finding that my target audience will be turned from a mass market to a younger demographic, I changed the colouring to a neutral colouring.

Also contrasting on my design is the text on my nutritional information. Picked to match the colours of the font and the fonts inner glow, the text on the nutritional information doesn't stick out and add another colour to the design, but instead, matches the colours already on the layout.

I experimented with the size and colours of the lightning bolt throughout the development process of this task. Making the shape too small led to there been too much white space on the canvas and therefore the overall design was deemed ineffective After this, I decided to see what a full page lighting bolt with the text fitted around would look like. The overall design looked good but the shape took too much away from the product name, which, in can design, can’t be done. Ideally, a producer wants the imagery and logos to link with the product name on the page and try and create some familiarisation with the consumer through house style.


Are there opportunities for further development of your work?Due to me deciding on a clean and clear layout for my packaging design, there are very few pieces of information or design elements featured on my layout. This is an effective way to carry out can design and a conventional drinks company technique. Many consumers of the product buy it because of the advert or the packaging, but very few, if any, buy it for the information on the can. If I were to repeat this task, I would experiment with different content and try positioning it in different areas around the layout to see if I can try and make the most of my space on the can.

The nutritional information angle of my can looks too simple and clean to be striking and enticing to my target demographic. The use of the restrained beige colour for some of the font type doesn’t fit in with the rest of my can design, while this colour choice doesn’t show a continuation of house style throughout my products (advert and packaging). Another colour could be selected for the font type, but I think the same thing can be said for those colours: they don’t feature anywhere else on my design. I think either changing the colouring to white or having it all in the shade of orange are the options that I have, which I would experiment with further should I revisit this task. The same central positioning of the content on the back doesn’t help to make the can more aesthetically pleasing either. On the other hand, most conventional energy drinks cans use this way of display on their nutritional information and as I have stated on other tasks, I am trying to fit in with an existing market, not try and create a new market, so must fit in with product design and existing codes and conventions.


Are your final pieces fit for purpose?A packaging function is to look striking and eye-catching to the potential customer of your product. With the contrasting colour scheme and the bold lightning bolt shape, I believe my product is fit for purpose. Previous versions of this design have been badly constructed and focused more on layout than content, which led to an unprofessional quality to the product.

However, with the addition of formal elements such as shape and line, I was able to make a product that would be marketable, had this project required me to. The back of the can features most of the text ton the overall product and is the side of the can which looks the most professional, due to it looking effective and, surprisingly, not crowded, despite the amount of text. When I add my packaging to my advert in task 6, this will be the real test of whether it is fit for purpose, but as far as just the packaging is concerned, I think it fulfils it’s purpose and is effective at doing so.

If I were to make any changes and make it more fit for purpose, I would make the beige text on the nutritional information, orange like the rest of it. I believe beige is a restrained colour and isn’t striking, which the overall packaging design should be. However, if I changed the font colour, there would be no change in colours on my layout and therefore there would be no contrast through the fontal style. If I were to repeat this task again, I might have to experiment with various colours to contrast the orange colouring.


What areas of planning and development worked well?Like all development tasks, this one helped me decide what works and doesn’t work on my packaging design. The areas of my can design that were developed on throughout the process and how this helped me make a better product:

• The separate lightning bolt shape and brand name was one aspect of the can I wanted to develop. Previously in task 7, I created a design which incorporated the letters of my brand name spanning round the whole of the can. Due to the white space and lack of collar design, I decided that the two should be separate.

• My corporate colours have been experimented with and changed at many pints in this task. Starting as Black and orange as my two primary colours on the design, I developed it to also include white colouring within the layout. This is therefore following on from my advert design and showing continuity on my house style. If this product was to be made, it’s important to get the consumer familiar with your corporate colours, so continuity through different mediums is a good way to do this.

• Layout regarding nutritional values was a big aspect of my development on this task. Starting as a table, I soon developed this design to feature the information in ellipse shapes. This was due to drinks companies not laying out their nutritional information in table in the UK, but instead, list them. However, I wanted to emulate a design from an existing product I had found that is relatively unconventional in the energy drinks market.


What areas of planning and development could have done with more work?

• The centralisation of my text on the nutritional information section is restrained and dull. This feature could have been developed more and experimenting on this aspect may have led to a better final product. However, when I previously addressed this issue on previous versions of this can, it didn’t look any more effective as the current design. As well as this, existing energy drinks companies use this kind of layout and I wanted to try and fit in with the market.

• The ellipse shapes that hold the products nutritional information is an effective way of displaying this information. However, the final design features these shapes with a matte black colouring, compared to the reduced opacity and metallic look of the rest of the product. This makes it stand out, compared to the other elements on the can. Nutritional information is a key feature, but is less important than the brand name or company logo. A simple opacity change will resolve this issue and restore the product to look effective again.

• If I would have left the can design that included the letters spanning round the can back in the packaging development task, instead of developing it on Task 7, I would have had more time to develop good designs like the one I have now. On the other hand, I thought I could develop it and make a good product with the big lettering layout.


What effect did you think your development stages had on the final product?Looking at the last two slides and seeing how my development and planning stages have benefited and disadvantaged me, I would say this stage didn’t help that much. However, I had a set amount of time to develop and plan he product, I had to work on the areas that were top priority and would give the product optimum effectiveness.

If I wouldn’t have had the development stage, certain features wouldn’t have been noticed and amended and my product wouldn’t have been as effective, so I would say, overall, the development stage had a huge impact on the construction of my final product.

If I wouldn’t have had the development stage, these elements of the packaging wouldn’t have been changed:

• The brand name and logo would still be spanning the whole can, with the nutritional font blending in with the brand name text. The development stage enabled me to amend this feature and have a clean and clear looking can design.

• The nutritional information side of the can would still feature a table on. This, of course, would have led to the can been effective in the UK energy drinks market, due to the table been a US design feature instead. By developing the can and planning the design features, I discovered this feature flaw and immediately developed it to the design that is now featured on my final design.

It can therefore be said that my product wouldn’t have been half as effective, had I not had the planning and development stage and the impact of these stages were monumental in the construction of a successful can.


Different flavours

Different flavours

Things I like about the design• The way in which the names of the products fit the colours that I have added. I did this by

selecting which names I wanted out of the list I had compiled in Task 5 and then paired it with the colour I believed would best suit this name.

• I like how every can transfers perfectly well, regardless of the colour. Even though some cans look mores striking and effective than others, as an overall product range, they are all effective.

Things I dislike about the design• Some of the aesthetical features on the design are not centralised and look out of line. This

can easily be changed by selecting the ruler tool and put all the content on the same line. If it’s for textual elements, you can do this by pressing central on the paragraph layout, but design elements will have to be placed manually.

• The inner glow that is evident on the orange ‘BOLT’ text isn’t visible on any other colour in the product range. You can see a slight hint on the red can but not as much as I would like. As for the others, it’s non existent. This is another feature that can be changed easily. By selecting inner glow and increasing the size, the inner glow will then be visible on the designs.

What I would change if I repeated this process• The positioning of the product name may look like it’s on the can, but the black overlay is

hiding the fact that this would be the traditional metal bottom part of the packaging. This would therefore mean that if the product name was placed here it wouldn’t be visible. Finding another place for the can will be an easy task, due to all the white space available on the design layout.

Different flavours

Different flavours

Things I like about the design• The new positioning of my product name is now clearer and more noticeable to the consumer. This

a good feature when starting to promote a new product range, due to the producer wanting to get the consumer familiar with the products, the corporate colours and the company logo, which this design does.

• Even though I liked the lightning bolt shape been incorporated on my products and as my company logo, I wanted to experiment with a sourced image as my packaging background. This therefore ranked my bolt shape obsolete for this particular can design and the lightning on the sourced image was enough to allow the consumer to make the link between the image and the product name to make an instant recognition, even when the original lightning bolt is on the front.

Things I dislike about the design• I don’t like that three cans differ in design, compared to the other three. The sourced image is the

only difference on the cans, however, it has a huge impact, due to one of the images been a lot darker than the other, this leads to the cans looking like they're part of a different collection. On the other hand, these are alternative designs and experimental designs should be the function of these designs.

• The product name on my can design is much improved in the positioning, but the size of the text needs increasing to be more striking on the layout. However, my product name and logo is the primary piece of information, where as the product name is a secondary piece of information and should be smaller than the product name text. Therefore, the size of the font on the product name could be a little bigger, as long as it doesn’t overtake the company name on the hierarchical order of layout.

What I would change if I repeated this process• Due to my product trying to be for the mass market, I might need to change the opacity on the

sourced image. A younger demographic would not struggle to see the sourced image that has the opacity turned down on it, however, an older audience may struggle with the image. Therefore,. I think this feature should be changed so the target audience of this product is restored to a mass market one.

Different flavours

Different flavours

Things I like about the design• I like that the sourced image remains a prominent feature on my design, despite having a lightning

bolt added on top. Despite it looking effective, I may still have to change the opacity of the sourced image because it is been somewhat blocked out by the lightning bolt shape. Another way of resolving this issue would be to turn the opacity of the lightning bolt down to make the sourced image more visible.

• Since I mentioned that I would have improved the inner glow on some of the designs had I repeated the designs, I took that onboard and changed it for this design instead. The inner glow is now evident on all six of the cans and helps the key text on the layout stand out from the less important information.

Things I dislike about the design• The addition of the lightning bolt makes the layout of the can look crowded and busy, one function

that I didn’t want for my design. I think the packaging only requires either the lightning bolt or the sourced image, not both. However, if they are both added together, the opacity of the shape needs turning down to blend into the sourced image.

• The shapes and fonts that are evident on the layout are not aligned, just like on the previous layout. Due to there been the sourced image, which has a line that runs from the top to the bottom of the screen, it can be a lot more easily seen on this particular design.

What I would change if I repeated this process• I would remove the lightning bolt shape and remain with the sourced image. You can only have one of

these aesthetical features on the layout at once or it looks ineffective. However, the sourced image on it’s own would have been a replica of the previous design, so further experimenting on it was the only way to go with it.

• I would pick a darker colour to contrast the lighter one on my gradient layers. Without the motion blur, you wouldn’t be able to tell that these lightning bolts were charging and ready to strike the company name. Selecting a darker colour will show how the bolt goes from dark to light on the gradient layer ad will therefore gives the visual suggestion that the bolt is just about to strike.

Different flavours

Different flavours

Things I like about the design• How I could just take one portion of the sourced image and transfer it onto the can, giving the

distinct impression that this shape ahs now replaced my motion blur lightning bolt as the logo on this particular packaging design. This feature travels from the top to the bottom of the design, and because it’s not as wide as the bolt shape, it doesn’t cut out any of the text at the bottom of the layout.

• This is the clearest layout on any of my designs yet, but because it has a shape flowing down the whole can, it doesn’t look as empty or full of white space as some of my previous versions. The bolt helps to split up the white space and makes it look like there is hardly any white space, when in actuality, there’s plenty.

Things I dislike about the design• While the bolt from the stock image is effective and striking, it needs moving slightly over toward the

left hand side of the can. This doesn’t affect the middle of the can because it’s full of white space, but nearer the top of the can, it blocks a bit of the ‘BOLT’ company name out and makes it a bit more difficult to read. Moving the can over a a few places won’t be time consuming, however, it will make a major impact on the success of this product range.

What I would change if I repeated this process• I move the company and product name up towards the middle of the layout, due to there been a

mass of white space around the middle of the design. However, I don’t want this layout to look like my second draft on my development section when I first started and have a lot of white space at the bottom of the screen and have nothing to fill it with.

Different flavours

Different flavours

Things I like about the design• The addition of a secondary lightning bolt means that there is even less white space than in the

previous layout. However, a lot of white space still exists on the edges of the layout, but I have to choose between having a clean and concise layout or having white space dotted around my design.

• This layout is the most striking design I have constructed so far in this project. The bright colours and the bold shapes help it to look enticing to the consumer. On the other hand, the busy aesthetical look of the product detracts some effectiveness from the design.

Things I dislike about the design• The primary lightning bolt in the design doesn’t look like it has the gradient layer added to it. On

previous designs, it’s been clear to see how the shape goes from dark to light, however, on this set of products, it’s not as clear. Selecting a darker secondary colour might need to be undertaken to restore the lightning bolt to it’s gradient layer colour.

What I would change if I repeated this process• I would remove one of the lightning bolts. Like I said on one of my previous product ranges, only one

of them on the same design works, two doesn’t. However, an alternative to removing one of the shapes is to turn the opacity down on the front lightning bolt so the one at the back is more visible.

Special editions/diet version

Bottle

Task 8: Web Banner Development

I thought due to the e-media platform been more accessible to a younger demographic, I would design my web banner to include features that would most suit a younger target audience. This therefore prompted me to choose a bright colour that would contrast with a darker colour. Unlike my previous colouring of dark background and bright font and content, I flipped the colours to have a bright orange background with black font and other aesthetic features. This was a good idea for this particular design, due to a younger demographic trying to be reached, however, the inner glow on the BOLT brand name could have been changed because it’s barely visible on the orange background behind.

This product was the third in the range so far so I was hoping that if these products were put out to the public, consumers would be familiarised with the brand by now. For this reason, I decided to drop the tag-line for Task 8, but instead, rely on the brand name and brand logo. This was a big risk: if the consumer was familiar with the brand and products, it would pay off, however, if not, the product won’t be a successful one.

The same content on either side was decided on because it fills in white space and makes the advert clear and to the point, while informing and advertising the product. The motion blur lightning bolts stand out on the layout but not as much as when the black background and orange bolt were used on my designs, this may need to be reviewed later in the task but for now I’m just experimenting with different elements of design.

Finally, I added the social media links to my layout, which would hopefully appeal to the younger audience that view this web banner, while potentially prompting the older demographic to discovering the product through a new medium that they may or may not be familiar with.


After I had produced my first design, I did some further research on web banners, as well as the research that I had done before starting Task 8. I found that the web banners that I had viewed and made assumptions about the audience been younger were tailor made to a younger demographic, but more importantly, I found that web banners can be for a wide range of audience types. Deciding that a web banner aimed at younger demographic wouldn’t appeal to my desired mass market target audience, I changed the design and colour for my design.

Going back to the traditional BOLT house style that I have used on all my other products in this project, I knew this layout would target a mass market, compared to my previous design. Adding exactly the same elements as my advert, the BOLT brand name was the most predominant feature on the layout, with the tag-line been absent once again. I wanted to rely on brand familiarity, rather than a memorable tag-line.

Adding the motion blur lightning bolt with the gradient overlay gave the design some bright elements to the layout, which it need s to be effective. Adding the secondary brand name was added because there was some white space at the top of the screen, while the lightning bolt that replaces the ‘L’ lettering furthers the brand logo and hopefully furthers the consumers familiarity with the product, which will therefore prompt them to subconsciously buy it. However, the inner glow has not been increased on the top brand name and doesn’t fit in with the main brand name on the layout. Adjusting this element will be quick to do but will make a huge impact on the success of this particular product.

Lack of room on the design meant that I couldn’t fit the website address on the layout tat fist. Realising that this certain content piece is key to the product, I transformed the font and rotated it 90 degrees to enable it to fit on the left hand side of the screen. The same could be said for my social media links, they wouldn’t fit horizontally on the page like normal. Instead, I had to arrange the logos so that they were vertically arranged and therefore could fit on the design.


Due to this part of the design been the development stage of the task and therefore experimenting with the design and aesthetical qualities was key to the success of the web banner. After establishing that web banners can be made for a range of target audiences, not just a younger demographic, I wasn’t going to change the colour that would appeal more to a mass market. Instead, I decided to change the web banner size so that I would have to change the positioning and the layout of my web banner to fit the change in size.

Going for a more rectangular design, it was important that I stack the fontal features of the design on top of one another, instead of spreading them out across the screen. Centralising both the website address and the brand name, it made the web banner look professional, instead of looking poorly made had I not constructed the layout or formal elements properly. Again, the secondary piece of text on the screen doesn’t have an inner glow added to it, however, if you were to add this effect to the website address, it would discolour and look more ineffective than it does without the inner glow.

After looking through my designs for previous task, I came across the different flavour section of my packaging development. Within this section, I found a feature that would fit perfectly with a web banner. The lightning bolt that I had emulated from a sourced image would further the effectiveness of the web banner should it be added correctly. Putting the shape through the text made the design look striking , while allowing the text to be readable still. The absence of an inner glow on this shape made the website address fit in a bit more with the overall l colour scheme of the layout.

White space in the right hand corner of the screen was my biggest issue on this design. After looking for other content that could fit in that space, I decided to remain consistent and go with the social media links that I had used in my previous designs.


The previous design was good to experiment with and develop but I knew after constructing them that I wasn’t going to take them forward to my final design. For this reason, I went back to t eh full banner size for this design.

Carrying on with a bit of continuation in regards to the colour scheme, I wanted to further experiment with the aesthetic features of the previous layout. The lightning bolt shape worked well on the last design, but because it was a rectangular web banner, it had to be shrunk down, which made it look poorly constructed and ineffective. I wanted to use this feature because it meant that I didn’t have to use the motion blur lightning bolt which has been overused in y previous tasks, while the lightning bolt also ensures that white space is cut down.

In terms of font on this design, I had to reduce the size of it because I knew I would add other elements to the design, which I wouldn’t have been able to accommodate, had I kept the size of the text the same. The reduction in font size meant hat the inner glow added a discoloration to the font. Removing the inner glow was a clear choice because of this reason, but also because it now fitted in with the other non inner glow features on the design.

Like other designs, the web address was then added to the product. After adding the web address, a large portion of white space was evident on the right hand side. Looking through my previous designs, it was clear which feature I would add to this particular design. The social media links were added and increased in size, due to me matching the size of the links with the text on the right using the ruler tool on Photoshop.

Further development on my second and third drafts

Further development on my final design

Task 8: Final Web Banner

What are the technical qualities of your work?For my web banner, I knew that I wanted to try and emulate some content and design features of my advert, some of which can be seen on the web banner. However, a few features that I added to my web banner are features that weren’t included on my final advert or packaging designs, but were on the different flavours section of the packaging development.

The lightning bolts were made by selecting a certain section of a sourced image using the magic wand and then transferring it onto the desired design. After going through this process, I still had to change the colour of the shape. Colour overlay was the obvious choice, but just in case I wanted to add a clipping mask later on, like on a few of my development versions, I needed to add an inner shadow. The inner shadow added the colour I need for now, while leaving the option to add the lightning strike, metallic colour in later.

Another technical feature that is included on my layout are the social media logos. Included on my advert, this is a feature that I wanted to try and transfer onto my web banner. Due to the risk of the logos getting pixelated if you transferred them over Photoshop documents and resized them, so I had to repeat the rotoscoping process that I had to originally undertake in Task 6. Rotoscoping the logos are relatively easy and quick to do, but they can easily go wrong and you have to start the process again. Starting out with the polygonal lasso tool, I managed to rotoscope the Facebook logo, but it missed out a few pieces, due to this sort of tool been designed for straight line rotoscope work. This is when I decide to swap the polygonal lasso tool for the magnetic lasso tool. Going round the edges and doing what it suggests, sticking to shapes, I managed to perfectly rotoscope the logo. Repeating this process on the Twitter logo gave me two effective logos for my web banner. Even though the background is not black anymore, I kept the stroke on the edge of the box to signify the logo even more.

Task 8: Web Banner Evaluation

What are the aesthetic qualities of your work?

Like all of my products I have made this far, the contrast on the web banner is the main feature of this product. Even though the orange doesn’t contrast as effectively as it does with the black on the advert and packaging designs, the white of the lightning bolts, along with the orange text contrasts well with the dark background of the sourced image I have added. If I were to repeat the process though, I would turn the opacity up on the sourced image to allow it to stand out more and further contrast with the more vibrant colours on the design. Doing this would take little time, but would make a huge impact on the effectiveness of the web banner.

The sourced image is a feature that I used on the product packaging development for my different flavours and discovered that it looked effective when teamed with bright colours. Amending the image to fit onto the web banner was my first task. Realising that it would be easy to make the image pixelated by stretching it too much, I made sure that I held down the shift key so the image would transform in equal proportions and wouldn’t pixelate as much as if it was free transformed. Initially, after I realised that the image would have to be stretched, I tried to look for other images. After experimenting with other sourced images, I decided that the best image was the one that I had added initially to the layout. On my previous design, I had relied on my tag-line and my brand name to try and advertise my product. However, due to me picking the full banner, I didn’t have much height on my piece to fit my brand name on top of the tag-line, so had to choose between the two. I decided to use the tag-line, due to my brand name been incorporated into the tag-line and the tag-line been more memorable and relatable than the brand name on it’s own.


Are there opportunities for further development of your work?

After completing the web banner for this task, I looked at a few existing web banners that were trying to advertise and sell their products online. While they had a similar layout to mine, due to them also having issues with the available room that they have to work with to get all the relevant content on, they also had an animation element to their web banners. Whether it was just a change of colours or moving text or products, they had something changing on their web banner that made it stand out more than just a normal, still image banner. If I added an animation to my banner, it would makes sense that I try and add it to the text or the bolt on my page. Making it look like my lightning bolt is striking would be a feature that would be effective and wouldn't take too much attention away from the other content on the web banner.

Throughout this project, white space on my products has been a major problem for me. Even though I have wanted a clear and concise layout on all my designs, there has been a bit too much white space for my liking on the designs. This web banner is no exception this rule, there is too much white space featured on the product. The left and right hand corners on the web banners could feature some form of information that will inform the consumers about the product. However, if it’s too busy on the layout, it’s already been said that a busy layout is ineffective for trying to grab the consumers attention, so this type of layout might be better if the purpose of the products to try and inform or advertise a certain product.

Even though I have chosen this design to be my final one, I think I still need to experiment with the positioning of the lightning bolts. On my previous design, the lightning bolts curved towards toward the right and left corners of the screen at the end, but on this one, the bolts cross and finish in the middle of the screen. This isn’t an effective feature, but the previous design helped to reduce the white space, while ensuring an easier method of animating the bolts should I go forward with this technique (You may struggle to see movement t the ends of the bolts if the shapes are crossed at the ends).


Are your final pieces fit for purpose?

The purpose of a web banner is to advertise and to grab the attention of the consumer. Through features such as the colouration of the shapes and fonts and the sourced image, I believe that my product fulfils the purpose it set out to achieve. If features like the animations and the sourced image opacity increase were amended then this product would be a lot more effective and therefore further the enticing nature it has towards the consumer of this web banner.

A continuation of the house style from previous products is another reason why this final piece is fit for purpose. The dark background with the bright coloured fonts and shapes have been features that I have used throughout my products and tasks. Making this a feature in the web banner mean that consumers would identify the product as a BOLT one without reading whether it is or nor, they will subconsciously know the house style of the company in their products. As well as this, on the web banner I was able to change my background and my bolt shape because the tag-line and the colouration of the product meant that consumers would still identify this product as in the BOLT product range, despite having different design and layout elements featured within it, therefore making this product fit for purpose.


What areas of planning and development worked well?Through development and planning, I was able to find certain design features that worked for this particular product but not for my other products in this project. For example, the lightning bolt that I used on the banner didn’t work on my advert or packaging tasks. Even though the idea of this type of bolt came from the packaging task, it didn’t quite look effective enough to be used as my final feature, but due to the small amount of room I have to work with on the banner, the lightning bolt that I used on the advert didn’t seem to look right on the web banner.

Not specific to this particular task, but relevant to the overall project, development and planning has helped me get a relevant house style that has worked for all my products in this project so far. The dark background, contrasted with the bright and vibrant coloured text and formal elements, such as shapes has been the house style that has seemed to be most effective for me. Development has helped me change the colour, the content and the background.

The colour – At the start of the web banner task, I decided that a younger audience will be viewing this particular product because it’s e-media based. For this reason, I thought a brighter background, instead of the restrained black background would be the way to progress in Task 8. After adding the orange background and amending all the text and shape based features to a black colouring, it was evident that it wasn’t going to work as a final design for the web banner task. Due to it working on other products, I decided to continue with the same house style on this one too, despite me wanting to be more experimental on this product, due to a creative design been more e-media accessible and would fit in to the stereotypical younger audiences values. A majority of young people would view this , due to them using the internet more than an older demographic.

The content – The same type of content has been used throughout the planning and development stages, it’s the positioning that has differed. I started off this task by adding the website address, the lighting bolt shape and the social media links to both sides, which made the layout look busy. I then moved onto centralising everything, but this left mass white spaces on the layout. After going through these stages, I decided to emulate the advert design and put the website in the left corner and the social media links in the right hand corner. This balanced the design and made it look effective an reduced the amount of white space evident on the layout. *All these features add together and have contributed some way in making my final design the most effective it could be.



Due to me concentrating on the font, the colours and content, I didn’t concentrate on the following elements as much in the development stage and they therefore suffered creatively or aesthetically:

Lightning bolt shapesDeveloped from the can design that I constructed for my product range at the end of the last task, I amended the lightning bolt shape to fit horizontally across the page. When I first added the shape, I had a singular bolt stretching across the screen and through the lettering, not two like you see now. After moving all the layers in front of this one so the bolt doesn't block the text, there was still a problem with the amount of white space that was evident on the banner. Adding another shape allowed a reduction in the white space, while giving the consumer visual help with what the brand name is.

The sourced image Added to the design to give the consumer a bit more of a clue on the brand name, the sourced image provides the dark colouring that the bright font contrasts with. However, due to me not experimenting with the sourced image from the start of the task, but at the middle of Task 8 instead, it meant that I didn’t have much time to alter the opacity and the cropping of the sourced image. Having to settle for a low opacity and a quick crop of the image was a feature that I wish I would have planned and developed more because it could have been an effective feature on my web banner, instead, it’s a feature that fades into insignificance on this particular design.


What effect did you think your development stages had on the final product?

I think without the development stages of this task, I would have made a web banner that wasn’t effective or fit for purpose, as well as not enticing the consumer and therefore leading to an unsuccessful overall advertising campaign. At the start of the project, I believed I knew what the consumer wanted from a web banner. After researching existing web banners, it was clear that little content was a clear popular choice, due to too much content leading to disinterest from the audience. Another thing I noticed what the colouring of the web banners: bright colours were a consistent theme throughout the web banners I viewed. For this reason, I decided I was going to try and emulate the colouration of those web banners and put bright colours on my product. After doing so though, it became apparent, through further research, that I had only managed to view the bright colours web banners in my initial research, where as my secondary research showed that there were all kinds of coloured web banners out there on the market. Deciding that I needed a change, I continued with the house style that I had used for the rest of my products in this project, which worked really well, apart from the fact that I wanted to design a more experimental about on this particular task. Adding the sourced image from Task 7 managed to give the experimental addition that I wanted, while maintaining most of my corporate colours (bright text and shapes with a dark/restrained background).


GIF’s

Task 9: Storyboard Development

For this project, we had to use a programme that we had not come across in previous projects, Strip Generator. Using various items and characters, you are able to create different comic strips and storyboards. Due to it having the 3x2 frame option, this was the best site to use, 3x2 is the easiest to work with in terms of storyboards. Getting used to the programme was the first thing I had to do. After discovering all the items and characters, I started to explore the options on the right hand side (duplicate, alter, opacity and blur were just a few). It was now time to se how near to my first initial plans could be translate into a comic strip. I soon found out that I would have to compromise on a few aspects if I was to make my product on Strip Generator. For one, they didn’t have any characters that could depict Usain Bolt and they didn’t have any other sporty looking people either, which would prove a problem for this storyboard. Regardless, I carried on using the programme and had to make do with the tools that I had. After completing my first frame it was easy to see how the rest of the storyboard was going to pan out, and it may look ineffective. Simplistic was the way it looked when I had completed a few more frames. It was now time to add the copy to the bottom portion of frames. This won’t take a lot of time, due to me already writing it in Task 5 as part of the copy development section. Since task 5, it hadn’t changed much and was added to Strip Generator using the text boxes provided.

Due to my product been for a mass market, the copy wasn’t full of formal lexis and it was kept to a clear font, which is easy to read, despite this storyboard been tough to follow if the copy wasn't available. I could have added more copy to each frame but this is something to be worked on and developed later in the task, therefore making my final product a more effective one.


The Strip Generator constructed storyboards didn’t look much better when all of them were complete. However, the only good thing about making all of the storyboards, instead of stopping after making the first one, is that I discovered using Photoshop to partly design the storyboard would be more effective than solely using Strip Generator.

Due to there been no items to depict cans or bottles on strip generator I thought that it would be more straightforward to collate sourced images and add them onto the design on Photoshop. Even though they look out of place, I had to work with what I had and make the best product I possibly could with the resources.

As the frames drew on, I gradually had less and less to talk about on the bottom parts of the frames. At the start of the storyboards, I was filling most of the space available on the frames, where as in the latter stages of the storyboard, there was a lot of white space visible.

Strip Generator has been a good tool to use on this project. Not only have I learnt new skills by using it, I have discovered a new creative programme that I can potentially use in future projects, should the brief be correct to use it on. I may not make my final product on Strip Generator and the programme is simplistic, but it gave me a starting point on this task and it helped to develop the copy and will help to further this design along and make a huge impact in giving me a successful product at the end of the project.


The use of Photoshop at the end of the last storyboard design prompted me to try and construct the product on this particular software. Knowing that using shapes to make characters and items would make the product look just as simplistic as Strip Generator, I knew I had to use another technique to construct my storyboard. After experimenting with opacity adjustment to make the product, I realised that this technique didn’t exhibit any technical quality whatever, but instead used existing products to make a current product. For this reason, I could not use this feature on my final piece or risk making a product that doesn’t look very effective and doesn’t require any skills to carry it out.

Thinking back on projects that have previously undertaken, there is one technique that has been used far more than an other, rotoscoping. I know that this feature is effective and is relatively easy to do. I decided that I would rotoscope round all the items and characters to construct my piece, while adding the same copy and text boxes that were on my first draft. After deciding on this technique, it was time to start rotoscoping some items for the storyboard. Despite you been able to rotoscope individual pieces from a sourced image and then put them together to make a character or item, I decided to cut round the subjects first before rotoscoping individual parts. This would be more time consuming, but you would get a better overall product at the end of it.

After cutting round all my characters and items, before individually rotoscoping the various parts of that object, it was clear to see that this as a more professional product, compared to my first draft. The basic layout of my storyboard was taking shape, but I wanted to try and rotoscope the background into the frames to try and make the product more aesthetically pleasing. However, time constraints on the project meant that this wasn’t possible and I had to restore the white backgrounds. While they aren’t as effective as rotoscoped backgrounds, I worked with the time I had and I believe I have made the best product that I could have done in that time frame.

Task 9: Storyboard final

Task 9: Storyboard final (alternate design)

Are there opportunities for further development of your work?While the majority of my storyboard is effective and looks well made, there are a few features that I would add or amend to make this piece even better. These features are:

Most items on the storyboard are rotoscoped, which was done using the magnetic lasso tool round the whole subject, before rotoscoping individual pieces of the object. On a whole, this was done without any problems, with the exception of a few mistakes that were revisited at the end of the task. However, there are a few things on the product that aren’t rotoscoped, due to them been difficult to carry out this technical feature on. In particular, when experimenting with the rotoscoping, the cans and the speaker were very difficult to look effective. In the end, I kept the speaker because I managed to improve it, but I had to source some images in for the can and bottle. If I were to repeat this task, I think I would experiment with the rotoscoping of the can and bottle that I didn’t do this time around, due to me been conscious about time on this project, I was already starting to eat into the time that I had set aside for evaluation and a bit of my contingency time also. After sourcing the images, this meant that I now have enough time to complete the evaluation in time, the shapes may not have been rotoscoped by in terms of priorities, the evaluation comes higher.

Another element of my storyboard that could be further developed is the background of the frames. Instead of the plain white backgrounds, I wanted to rotoscope the background like I had done with the various people and objects in the storyboard. However, due to time constraints, it would have been improbable that I would have finished the project in time. I did attempt to cover the background in my alternate version by sourcing images and turning down the opacity, but I prefer the white background to the sourced images. Rotoscoping the background would have reduced the white space while allowing the overall product to look more effective. If I were to repeat the process, I would create a test slide to see what it would look like before adding it to the rest of them if it makes a sizeable impact on the storyboard.

Task 9: Storyboard Evaluation

Are your final pieces fit for purpose?The purpose of this task was to give an insight into what it would look like if we were to make a TV advert through a series of storyboards. These storyboards would help tell the narrative, with the bottom panels explaining what each section depicts. I believe that my final storyboard tells the consumer my narrative and allows them to have an overall insight into what my product is about. Due to it been brief and not about the creative, more the idea behind the design, I concentrated equally on the narrative, rather than the design. Even though I expressed that I would change the background o rotoscoped images if I repeated the process, I probably would leave them white, due to it been very easy to follow at the moment, where as it may get a bit confusing should I add the rotoscoped background.

It might be a bit simple, but it helps to the story of the advert and does it effectively and clearly, which is the most key feature of a storyboard. As well as this, it’s more appropriate for the brief, compared to the storyboard that I created on strip generator. The restraints in terms of item sand characters, meant that I was subject to add items to my storyboard that didn't necessarily depict what I wanted. For example, THE character that I thought most looked like Usain Bolt’s character didn’t have any arms, which was key to the advert because it would easily show movement on the slides where he's in motion. In addition, the other characters were less than ideal because they didn’t have any other athletics characters, so I had to settle for random characters for the storyboard. In terms of items, I was forced to ad boxes and duplicate them for the podium and the world record board was just a text box. Despite been restrained to make a creatively poor initial design., it gave me the foundations of the narrative and design, which I was able to transfer to Photoshop and develop it into something more aesthetically and technically effective. The product on strip generator wasn’t fit for purpose because if the text portions explaining the frame would have been taken out, it would have been troublesome to follow, unlike my final product, which is easy to follow.


What areas of planning and development worked well? Even though my strip generator storyboard was ineffective and it wasn’t particularly fir for purpose, it still helped me to make the final product. The strip generator constructed product helped to tell the narrative, more than look aesthetically effective. From there, I was able to convert object and people to a rotoscope format, which was much easy because if you can find a sourced image to use as your template, you can rotoscope it, it’s this simple.

The end part of the task involved experimenting with various background types. I felt that the plain white background was a bit restrained and wouldn’t be striking to the consumer. By further looking at existing storyboards, I was able to get an idea about what is popular and what could be emulated from various designs. Sourced images were a big part of the existing products. By adding a sourced image and then turning the opacity down on it allowed for a reduction in white space, while allowing the product to look more effective. However, when it was added to my design, it didn’t have the same effect, due to most of the images not translating well when reduced down to the size of the frames. For this reason, I ruled out the sourced image background.

After this, I decided to further the use of rotoscoping on the product and attempt to rotoscope the background. While I used the same images that I tried to fill the background, I found t easier to work with the rotoscoped parts because they can be reduced in size without getting pixels, due to them been made up of Photoshop shapes, not photographic pixels. This background type though proved tough and time consuming and eventually had to be abandoned. If I had more time on the project, it would have furthered the effectiveness of my final piece, but because I wanted to have enough time to complete this product and then the evaluation, this would have been impossible to complete.

Restoring my background back to white looked like the most effective option for this product. While it is restrained, it contrasts the rotoscoped images colours, while making the overall layout look clear, instead of crowded like the rotoscoped background may have. While I have gone back to the original background type, the development of the background helped me to see what worked and didn’t work and therefore aided me in making a more effective product in the end.



The rotoscoping of products was extensively experimented on, but a few items weren’t able to be rotoscoped and therefore don’t fit in with the rest of the storyboard. The energy drinks can and bottle on the final storyboard slide haven’t been rotoscoped, but instead, are just sourced images. I did try and rotoscope these objects but couldn’t successfully do it without making it look ineffective. More development in this area could have been potentially beneficial to my final piece and could have made the final product look more effective. However, instead of concentrating time on little aspects, I was trying to develop the background and other features. Prioritising different aspects of development is key or you may risk not getting the important aspects of the storyboard complete.

Despite using text boxes to explain what was happening in each box, I feel that the content could have been developed better, which would then further the understanding of individual frames. Some of the text frames are clear and go into depth, but other are vague and only give you a bit of information and sometimes tends to repeat itself from the last frame. I think that this could have been developed further and a more accessible narrative could have been created using words. The simple outline of a storyboard and TV advert is there and can be understood by all. However, when making a product for a mass market, you have to use simple lexis so it can be understood by the wider audience, not just a select few, I think this is why I reduced the amount of initial formal lexis I added to the frames at first. On the other hand, I believe that I could have added more depth without adding formal lexis to the slide, I think I could have explained slides 7 & 8 better and explained what BOLT does and why it had given Usain Bolt a boost in this race, this would have further enticed the consumer through both star and reward power. A missed opportunity in the copy could have been detrimental, especially if I would have actually been commissioned to make this TV advert.


What effect did you think your development stages had on the final product?Development work on any task is key and helps to determine what works and doesn’t work on a particular layout. This task was no exception, the development work that I had done before and during the task, especially in task 5 of the project was very important and made a huge impact on the final product.

Task 5 was about copy development and involved thinking about the copy and spoken words that would be included in this task. Doing this at that stage helped me think about this task long before I had to do it, therefore I had time to write a few ideas, before going back and developing them from there. This was very important to the success of Task 9. My only criticism is that I had a very definite idea of what I wanted to create and what I wanted to achieve right from the start, so the copy development was very concentrated and not generalised. I could have possibly had some variation in advert copy, instead of having similar copy to the one that would be included when I got to Task 9 (it remained relatively unchanged over that time frame). In retrospect, I wish I would have had a backup plan just in case this whole advert design didn’t work as a concept or the worst case scenario, which is that my product needs to change names and therefore some universal energy drink copy that could be used for any product may have been appropriate to use on task 5.

In terms of technical and aesthetical features, I think I developed them extensively and managed to create the features that worked. Some were emulated from other storyboards I had seen and some were taken from the copy development from task 5. an upside to me having a definite idea about my storyboard early in the task is that you can think about various techniques and ways to tie it to other products you make in the project and try and develop them accordingly. I think all the development, whether it’s aesthetical, copy or technical, made a huge impact on my final product and it wouldn’t have been half the product if I wouldn’t have constantly developed and evolved this product.


products and evaluations pro forma (tasks 6, 7, 8 & 9)

Entertainment & Humor

advert developmentafter

advert complete

stereotypical advert

advert developmentat

effective feature

opacity onthe font

black font face

conventional advert