Type, stock images, layout, the grid system, color, and software are all addressed in chapter thirteen (execution). The Type section was a little redundant seeing as it was one of the first things we went over in vis. Com. I, but it was good to have that refresher.
The stock images section, on the other hand, taught me something I didn’t know. I always thought that for every ad the team had to come up with their own images and whatnot. Of course that would take a lot of time and if you have to crank out a campaign really quick it would be difficult to have to do the photography for it. Not to mention it would be annoying if it was a very basic image that you needed. Stock images fix that problem with hundreds of images that are ready to use. If you are working on a very specific campaign though, you would have to do your own photography to make sure your message is sent to the audience.
I love the author of this book. In the section about the grid system and layout he actually put in the lines for the grid that he used to lay out the text. He even shows an example of how to break the grid with a paragraph of his text. Important rule: you have to understand the grid system in order to break it.
The color section was pretty explanatory; don’t use light text on a light background, use dark text on a light back ground and vice versa. Also, if a color is mentioned in the name of a company, use it in the logo. Something that I hadn’t thought of though was the fact that you have to make sure the color you use is different from the competitors in your market to keep your brand distinguished from theirs.
Finally, the software was kind of a recap because we used a chunk of them in class, but there were a few that I hadn’t heard of before such as Freehand.
Chapter 14 was short but full of important information. Presentation and how people see your idea are of Godlike importance (at least it seems that way to me). The client comes in with an idea of what it should be like and they will be very set in their ways. A portion of the time what you had in mind and what they had in mind are not going to be the same so you have to stand up for your ideas and make sure they understand where you are coming from. What I didn’t realize is that you get to talk up your idea before they see it, which could either be excellent or could take your campaign for a nosedive. I thought it was also interesting that props could be used in the presentation, though it kind of made it sound like you are going to be talking to a bunch of five year olds instead of clients… that might just be me though.
