It is always nice to give a thank you card for anything. From doing business to a compliment. I wanted to design a universal thank you card for any occasion. I just used some vertical striping with the drawing tool, and rearranged layers to create the in between effect.

These are both part of Morgan Burgess business card. The only two things she wanted for her business card was it had to be raspberry and have a 1920's feel to it. I struggled on making it unique and elegant with out it being too cliche. I ended up making her 4 different business cards. The net layout actually folds into a pocket chief for suits, where she can keep her business cards whenever she goes to any business function or when she just wants to look stylin'.

A Company Easy on the Eyes

 I was surprised to see the success of the most unlikely company from the website http://www.fastcompany.com/1739774/how-carrots-became-new-junk-food about carrots. The Carrot company, Crispin, has done an amazing job redirecting the outlook of carrots as a food.

It started with the redesign of how carrots looked. Thanks to farmer, Mike Yurosek, for taking the rough, raw skin and stem of the carrot, the baby carrot was born. The old name bunny balls died quickly. The simple new cut increased sales of carrots until a sharp fall in the 2000's. Then marketing wiz, Jeff Dunn from Coca-Cola, turned baby carrots in a new direction.

    His goal was not to emphasise that baby carrots were a healthy snack. We already know that. He wanted to turn baby carrots into the new junk food. He already knew how successful junk food sales are, so why not turn carrots into the next coach snack. In his time there, he change the ads to a more fun comical feel to them, change the packaging into more like a Doritos bag, and sealed them so they can be eaten on the go. Crispin CEO Andrew Keller commented about the redirecting, "It's about getting baby carrots into a different category." Now Crispin controls more than 80% of the carrot industry in North and South America, and the Bolthouse farm that produces the carrots makes between $600 to $800 million a year. Now that is really easy on the eyes.

The threat of Social Media

      The online article "Brands winning big at London Olympics", by Sophie Woodrooffe, at the link http://www.prdaily.com/marketing/Articles/12219.aspx, talks about the effects of social media on advertising in the 2012 London Olympic Games. Since the games in Atlanta, Nike has developed a brand identity as the product of champions without even being an official sponsor of the games. This happened because of Michael Johnson's broken world record at the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games wearing his golden Nike's. With massive advertisements around Olympic Park, Nike overshadowed the actual sponsor, Reebok, from becoming the dominant brand.

        This gave brand equity, or more money spent on the brand named product because of quality, for Nike and caused an outbreak of Nike runners. Once people began buying Nike running shoes, the halo effect, or buying a product because you liked other products made by the same company, began as Nike extended it's product line.

        In my opinion, the restrictions on social media comments of athletes were a bit overbearing. Yes, the sponsors of the Olympics should be protected, because they paid for the sponsorship, but the athletes should be more focused on their events rather than giving a shout out to a companies product.

Social Media can be used positively by a company, but also must be responsible with methods of advertising.

Entering Interactive Media & Digital Design (IMDD)

 

     This year, I got accepted into this program known as Interactive Media and Digital Design (IMDD). The program consists of learning how to do multimedia advertising, make an effective design, learn the process advertising. To get into the program, I had to send in an application and go through an awkward interview. After being asked, "What sound does a giraffe make?", I was accepted into the program.

      I had always wanted to be a graphic designer, but this class really has taught me the importance of the business communication in advertising. I already had a good backround in adobe programs, but I had a lot to learn about the advertising world.
      From now to the end of the school year, I will be posting my designs and activities I do in this wonderful class on this blog. I will be working with local businesses and do designs of my own to show how much better I hope I will be by the end of the year. Keep posted on new designs and advertisements that will hopefully reach you somewhere else besides this blog.