Evaluation unit 18 Bus Designs

In Unit 18 the class had studied signs and symbiotic visual language to get a good idea about advertising and how it works.

I found out about the nature of advertising in all the different types of media including TV, radios, Magazines, flyers etc from video sites such as YouTube and advertisement sites.

After we understood the way advertising works we were planning on designing our own bus designs. We had made 5 initial designs of bus ads mine being about the X-Box 360 with some ads

being adverts for its games.

As X-box’s brand is all about green I obviously used a lot of greens as well as leaving a lot of white spaces in order to form distinct patterns on the designs.

What I did

Once we had finished off our ideas and uploaded them we looked towards creating our final designs.

We developed our final designs on Photoshop where we used many different types of tools. Some of these I am and others I am not familiar with.

Some tools from Photoshop are very simple to use as well as very effective. For

instance I used a specific pen tool to select and edit certain areas around a shape. There were also tools that just didn't cut it for me including a messy marquee tool

that had clumsy controls and not so pinpoint accuracy.

I chose X-Box and its games for my advertisement because I own a 360 at home and know a lot about it so I used my understanding of its features and brand to my advantage to think up some ideas.

I had borrowed different textures from an X-Box 360 image advertisement and formed them into my very own version of patterns and colours for a 360 brand.

How I did itFor the Visual Language PowerPoint I had researched what visual language, symbiotic, signs and symbols are and how they are used. I found this information from websites and articles online to get a good idea of what to put in the PowerPoint.

I then translated what the articles and websites said about visual language into my own words.

I also used a lot of images from sites such as Google images and body language sites like www.emaki.net/vislang.html to demonstrate what I am talking about through my text.

For my 5 initial designs I basically looked at many bus ads on many websites ranging from www.toxel.com/inspiration/2009/03/07/clever-and-creative-bus-advertising/ and www.smosh.com/smosh-pit/photos/33-amazing-bus-ads-around-world.

Next I tested out my own ideas of X-Box 360 ads on paper throughout the Easter holidays, comparing them to real life bus ads online and planning to make my own designs as good, if not better than them.

I found out that many many buses feature ad designs that take advantage of the shapes and specific details of the vehicle like the slider door and even the whole bus shape. This influenced me to think about what I can do to the 6 designs including my final design.

For my final design I looked at how one bus ad took advantage of the back of the bus, It had a guy that looks 3d and real being pulled by leads belonging to some dogs. He is on the back of the bus and the dogs are pulling him around the edge of the bus running towards the food along the side.

This influenced me to create an idea of a guy from Halo on the back of a bus shooting a laser at another guy on the side of the bus who manages to dodge it. Having the halo image wrapped around the back of the bus could encourage people to walk round the bus to discover the full picture and excite them. I created a slogan named “Halo only on X-Box 360” to show its exclusivity and “enter another world online” to show its realistic dreamlike quality.

I created a montage of colourful plant like substances to fill in the bus design because I believe it is very eye catching, colourful and it proves that the X-Box 360 is environmentally friendly. I used Photoshop for my finale bus ad design in which I used a ton of useful tools including lasso, magic wand, paintbrush, text and magic eraser tools.

I think that the project went really well as I successfully understood different ways to design a reflective piece of art.

I feel that the Visual language PowerPoint was a bit tricky to put together due to the limited research on that subject available on the web, but I managed to use all of the information I could find. There are a ton of images on many different sites to use.

The 5 initial designs were a little different, I was thinking throughout the Easter break how I am going to make each bus ad look different and distinguish themselves from each other.

Project review

As I obliviously chose the colour green as my main colour it helped me to get started on the designs.

In terms of challenge I found that Photoshop was particularly tricky to understand.

I found that the advanced tools were challenging to use because of their complicated nature.

To overcome the challenges in Photoshop I found out about the clone tool used to copy pattern and colours and use them on a paint brush.

The clone tool was the main tool I used for my final design.

I was really pleased with the colours and patterns of the bus ad background it suited the style of the X-box 360 and again its friendly to the environment with its plant pictures and blue moss pallets.

I have an idea to create an x-box 360 advert used to prove the X-Box is environmentally friendly the ad could have a guy/girl climb a windmill until they got to the top they could set up and play X-Box 360.

I would also come up with more clever ideas for multiple designs and as I understand more about Photoshop I would use more advanced tools in possible upcoming projects.

Future work

Instead of using only the internet to get assets I could take pictures with a camera such as wildlife and landscapes, draw neat effective pictures to scan in and use books, newspapers, magazines to scan

points of interest to add to designs.