Final Assignment: Are you sharp enough? Part 3

Here they are, the Final Pieces. An interesting thing people noticed was that all of my ad slogans turn out to be questions, which is funny since most of my writing turns out to be questioning as well. I feel that rhetoric approaches to things that are directed at other people are very effective at turning them towards my way of thinking. What easier kind of person to sell my product to than one who is thinking like I do? 

In all 3 ads, there was a block of type added to give an explanation and sort of a final pitch to the customers, as well as some adjustments to the placement of the slogan blocks, such as around the girls face in the blued ad. Although the difference from the other 2 ads when going from semi final to final is subtle, it is noticeable in the end and made the pieces come out much better. All 3 ads were made to portray the effect of the game itself on the players in some way. One is the transition from normal girl to surgeon, another from pencil/toy box to surgical kit, and the last a surgeons hand with the "ghost" of its former childish self faded into it. All in all the message went across quite well during critique time and the final ads were very effective in their objective: convince the people looking that I was right.

Final Assignment: Are you sharp enough? Part 2

After getting my main idea for the ads onto the table I started to put out roughs. I hadn't settled on Barbara Kruger as a designer this early into the design process so the initial roughs don't resemble the final product very much.

After going through a revision process and deciding on my designer for inspiration, these were the resulting roughs.

From here I moved on to digital roughs, based on ideas from the drafts and careful studying of Kruger's work.

These were coming along well enough, but from peer and instructor critiquing I was shown that there were some things that needed to be changed and added to call them finals. 

Final Assignment: Are you sharp enough? Part 1

 My final assignment is based on the game Operation, but with a focus on the the first surgical tools in history.
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Statement of intent
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My main idea behind it is that of a game which can be fun for kids to play as well as be an educational experience for them. As such, it is to be marketed as a toy/game for kids, and an educational tool for teachers/schools. It will stand as an entertainment platform as well as educating the players regarding the first tools and their uses, with my advertisements reflecting the changes brought upon its players from being ordinary kids to doctors and surgeons.

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Word List
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History - Learn and pay with the first tools.
First - First tools, yet are virtually unchanged through the years, and still used today in modern facilities.
Surgeon - Doctor, operator, specialist, life saver, etc.
Tool
Game - Fun for everyone, engaging in skill and educational value.
Cut
Sharp
Save - Rescue, close call, cut it close.
Operate
Educational
Fun
Original
Old School
Learning
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Slogans
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"Work with history."
"Learnin' like a surgeon!"
"Operation: Old School"
"Cut it close!"
"Make the cut!"
"A cut above the rest!"
"Are you sharp enough?"
"Don't wait, operate!"
"Tools for the trade."
"Be sharp, do your part!"
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Competitors
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Hasbro mainly, along with other educational game manufacturers, but mainly Hasbro due to the fact they are the only company that produces Operation, and as such they have countless spin-offs of the game, ranging from Spongebob, Spider-man, Family Guy, even Dr. Who themed Operation games.

It's finally done, comrade! Part 3

Here it is, the final design. A propaganda poster for the Watts Towers, asking the people of Watts if that old beaten tower is still around after all of the hard times, can't they do the same? Also, before going any further, listen to this as you go.

Looking back you can spot ideas taken from almost all of the roughs prior to this. The colors I decided were very important to something that was supposed to have an air of propaganda about it, so I kept it bold and simple. The large amount of text I used as a framing device for the Tower itself, to draw attention to it, with some key words and little phrases made a little larger than the rest to keep the entirety of the type from just fading into an aura around the tower. The tower itself was done using brush strokes to make it appear weathered and kind of "battle damaged" but it still stands tall, playing on the message from the slogan. I also wanted to keep every piece of the work on a separate plane, that way it all sat on the same page, but didn't blend too much that you couldn't pick them apart. The top and bottom sections slanting off in different directions, while the type around the tower was on a flat plane, with the tower pointing straight up to the skies.

It's finally done, comrade! Part 2

On to the design process
I started with quite a few drafts to get all of my ideas out in the open, starting with MANY hand roughs and eventually narrowing it down to a few digitals, as shown here.

Eventually I would take ideas from just about all of these and end up with the final piece.

It's finally done, comrade! Part 1

Over the course of too much time I care to mention, I've gone through quite a few designs and slogans.
The first step was getting key words out onto the Table, these words were to give me an idea as to where I wanted to go with the direction of the ad, words such as:

Hardship
History
Persistence
Durability
Endure
Inspire
Symbol
Beacon
Respect
Hope

There were more, but these were the most relevant to my final design, from these I did somewhat of a brain pick and pulled slogans out of it:

"Think back but push forward!"
"When it's tough, look to the Towers!"
"Aim high like the Towers!"
"Rise up with the Towers!"
and finally, "It still stands, can YOU?"

I stuck with the final slogan for two reasons, first that it was short and simple, slogans that get too wordy/long breathed can be a problem. Second and probably the main point was that it is a question and not a statement, it calls on the reader to ask themselves the question, makes it interactive in a sense, writing that makes people think is much better than writing that just throws orders in their face.

Watts Tower Photos

2 of them for getting an idea of the structure of the tower, and another 2 for the detail work put into the walls and such.