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Corporate Communications: Ads The ads below show a progression from an "old" ad template, not shown, that was designed in Japan and sent over for us to tweak for our publications. The format was was perfect for Japan and Asia, markets in which the company name is already a "household" term, but not North America, where it's hard to find somebody who can correctly pronounce the name! We negotiated a breakaway from the format... Skip to Gallery 2 |
 AdvancedOperating within a "blank" template of blue header and footer bars, the breakaway begins with large product shots and extra-large product logo. This ad was designed months before my major push to revitalize our ads, and met with resistance from "YHQ", but I gathered a few folks who had been with the company for a long time to back me up on the design. |
 DefinitionPart of the confusion in the aforementioned ad template came from the dual logos featured in the ad. "What's the company? Yokogawa? VigilantPlant? What is VigilantPlant, anyway?" This ad was designed specifically to take advantage of the back cover position: increased visibility for longer time allows for more copy. What was once an obscure, ill-defined concept of "perfection" now has meaning: it's not what you buy, it's what you'll get... and they like this ad so much it's been running since January. |
 Relax...
the Water's FineOkay, so we got the results of an ad reader study from a prominent engineering magazine. Oh, man... the comments were belittling. (The ad was one of the YHQ templates.) So I took it upon myself to design some groundbreaking new ads that would get results. I started by cranking the "volume" up as far as it would go, and this is the result. It's one of the best I've done. This is probably the biggest visual speed bump you could ever see in an engineering magazine. And most of the people really liked it. But its limited use (that is, for this one product) kept it from being used.... |
 Fresh Water....but only because I eventually received a directive to design a new template, into which all of the advertising for North America would flow. Pardon the pun... Still within the "blue bars" template, a new standard takes shape. Key features include: a large product shot on a high-contrast background; all ad copy restricted to a two-column prosaic format set in a serif typeface selected for maximum sight-reading speed. The arrow dividing the page is a VigilantPlant branding element. |
 What Makes...Another product gets ported to the enriched prototype. Unfortunately, designers occasionally have to succumb to their clients' wishes. Here, the cluttered background with too many contrast points detracts from the impact of the ad. The product manager was adamant about keeping the callouts on the right, and they would have worked if the photo didn't have a transmission line tower right there. |
 What Makes... 2See? The callouts do work! On this much simpler background, that is... which, in color theory, is a perfect, harmonious match, yielding a product shot that literally leaps off the page. (The different fitting under the head was done digitally.) Finalizing the prototype: the blue bar at the top is gone forever; the Yokogawa logo is 2x larger and the associated contact information is set into the blue bar; the VigilantPlant logo is 1.5x smaller, and is accompanied just above the blue bar by the ISO14000 seal, as their philosophies go hand-in-hand. |
 StrengthA total departure from every "standardized" template, this is an "Asset Management" campaign ad. Notice how well it works with the trade show graphics shown in the next gallery... |
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Proceed to Gallery 2 |