a year in design school - rupesh tripathi

8/18/2019 A Year in Design School - Rupesh Tripathi

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A YEAR IN DESIGN SCHOOL

Rupesh Tripathi


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Good ideas realized in a mediocre way

are still better than mundane ideas

executed with technical skill

“ “


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Acknowledgements

A year in design school can do much more than just teach you design. It can

change how you look at life and its deep rooted meanings through exploration,

arts and crafts, design education, innovation and much more.

The year I spent in Srishti Institute of Art, Design & Technology has by far been

the best year of my life in terms of educational and personal experiences.

This e-book is my attempt to give back to the temple of education as it has given

to me. These chosen few articles are my critical reflections on subjects that I

studied in the advanced diploma programme with advertising as my major subject.

I offer my thanks to Mr. G. Pandrang Row who always gives me valuable insights

to conduct my profession better with every step I take, I hope you keep shining

like the diamond you are Pandi! And to my mother, who has given me an

opportunity to serve humanity as much as my life would allow me and for

supporting me when I needed her the most.

Rupesh R. Tripathi


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All about legibility

Typographic clarity refers to legibility and readability . While legibility is a function of typeface design, an

informal measure of how easy it is to differentiate between one letter from another in any one particulartypeface, Readability is dependent upon how the typeface is used. It is about typography. How easily can

words, phrases and blocks of copy can be read.

What must be kept in mind is that not all Typefaces are created with legibility as their primary attribute

of design. Many faces are created for typographic statement or to provide a definitive spirit to any form

of graphic communication effort. There are some forms of design which needs to have a distinctive

personality and needs to stand out from the others. However, these typefaces suffer from not being

legible to a more general crowd.

There are three aspects of legibility that are known to exist currently. Therefore, when we ask the

question “what makes a typeface legible?” we come up with the answer that legible typefaces are those

which are “transparent ” to any reader and do not call for any attention that it does not wish to perceive &

attract, most legible typefaces have big features and restrained design features. By big features it wishes to

refer to:-

Large open counters

Ample lower case X – heights

Character shapes that are easy to recognize

Most legible typefaces are restrained, not excessively light or bold. Weight changes within character

strokes are very refined and subtle and do not stand out too often. Counters help give recognition to

characters. The by-product of open counters is a large lower case x-height. As long as the x-height is not

excessively large, this can improve the amount of legibility in a typeface design. Since 95% of the letters

we read are lowercase, any large face can benefit from open counters. Some good examples of this

phenomenon would be Nimrod, Scherzo which are contemporary interpretations of “Old Style” designs

like Monotype bambo & ITC Weldeman.

Individual Shapes also affect Typeface legibility. For example, a two – storey “a” such as found in Stellar is

more legible than a single storey “a” found in Futura. Lowercase “g” based on roman letter shapes is more

legible than the simple “g” found in Helvetica. Old style typefaces like Monotype plantin, Galena & ITC

Barkley Old Style are other good examples; Individual characters have more personality than those in the

traditional legibility typeform.


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An argument continues between designers and folk of similar discourse whether sans-serifs are easier to

read than serif in text copy, sans-serif typefaces have simpler letter shapes and have been proven to be

lightly more legible than their serif cousin typefaces. Following are the drawbacks of Serif typefaces:-

Legibility of individual letters suffers when they have exaggerated shapes

Long serifs are heavy & have unusual shapes to reduce legibility

Ideal serifs though, are short and have light brackets. Light typefaces are more legible than heavier

weight typefaces. Light typefaces have open counters & unmodified character shapes. The best decided

character stroke weight is 18% of the x – height. Typefaces like ITC Officiana Sans book & Cartier book

belong to this broad & general category.

“Transparent Type”

a term coined by Beatrice Warde who was an addition to Monotype Imaging from1930 – 1940. Warde compared a good type to a crystal goblet. It allows content to be more important

than the container. Best types do not get in the way of communication process. It allows words to make

the statement and not the type itself. Though if we do follow this menial process we wouldn’t have the

interesting and engaging typefaces that are known to us.

Though legibility plays a major role in typographic aspects, specific contexts can affect typography and its

use. If copy has many numerical sans-serif is a better option because numerals are simple and have

recognizable shapes than the roman types. So when we have a lot to say, but the layout or space we are

using does not allow room for much, condensed typefaces are best suited for this sort of modus operandi.

Sans serif typefaces are always the better choice because individual typefaces are more legible. Serif

typefaces like ITC Garamond & Galena condensed can be used at 8pt for a more subtle serif based copy

but overall Sans serif would still undeniably be on the forefront.


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A study of colour

Substantial amount of research shows that colour plays a major part in all visual experiences. The Seoul

international colour expo has shown the following relationships between colour & marketing.

• 92.6% say that they put the most amount of importance on visual factors when purchasing any

commodity & goods.

• Only 5.6% believe that physical feel via the sense of touch is important when buying. Hearing

and smell have a meagre percentage of 0.9%

Importance of colour when buying products:-

84.7% believe that colour accounts for more than half among important visual phenomenon when

buying products.

People make subconscious judgements about a person, environment and product within 90 seconds of

initial viewing and 62% to 90% is based on colour. Research by the Henley centre states that 73% of

purchase decisions are made in store. Hence catching shopper’s eye and conveying information

effectively are critical to successful sales.

Colour and brand identity have a symbiotic relationship. A case study shows that Apple Computer

bought colour into the market strategically by introducing colourful iMac computers. First among the

many computer giants to say “does not have to be beige”. With the iMac Apple bought back a brand that

had prior suffered a substantial $1.8 Billion loss in two years.

Colour also helps to increase memory:-

Psychologists have revealed that colour does more than appeal to the senses, it also boosts memory for

scenes in the natural world. It helps to process & store images more efficiently than colourless (Black &

White) scenes, and as a result it helps in remembering them better to.

It (Colour) engages the viewer and permits participation in any activity. Ads in colour are read up to 42%

more often than those in black and white. Colour can also inform about a certain happening. It improves

readability by 40%, learning from 55% to 78% and comprehension by 73%.

Black and white images sustain interest for less than two-thirds of a second, whereas a coloured image

may hold the attention for 2 seconds or more. People cannot process every object within one view of it,

hence colour can be used as a tool to emphasize or deemphasize areas.


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FORM & FUNCTION

According to Paul Rand beauty is “Separation of form & function, of concept & execution in objects not likely

to produce objects of aesthetic value.” Though the efforts of others may contrast this certain belief. A fineexample would be the work done by the students of Cranbrook academy of art. They layered letters on

top of random patterns and shape, to challenge the aspects of form without function. Alas, those who

favoured simplicity & function found Cranbrook’s work relatively ugly compared to the other work

being produced parallel to theirs. The design by Cranbrook academy lacked explanation of the elements

in place which is why it left any reader confused regarding the meaning of their interpretation, it left the

viewer with a conclusion that it was just another design experiment, and it cannot be taken seriously.

Due to the increase in the amount of design schools experimentation with design has to justify the issue

being addressed in the experiment, otherwise it would not do justice to effort involved.

Although, a design experiment should not be measured just in its form of success ratio but also of its

failure since it often leads to new discoveries. Certain graphic design experiments that have emanated

from graduate schools in USA & Europe in the recent years was driven by instinct and made somewhat

incorrigible by theory. Ugly design as opposed to classical design (where references to the golden mean &

a preference for balance between all elements of the composition) is perhaps layering of disharmonious

graphic elements in a way that results in a confusing the viewer. A prime example of design experiment

would not be intended for function in the commercial world.

The output of communication rebels such as the futurists and the psychedelic artists of 1960s also

experimented with communication design. The reasons behind these experiments were the then current

social & cultural conditions. The wave for experimentation of form & function went on to resonate in

the 1970’s Punk scene. This was a raw manifestation of youth frustration through music, art & sense of

clothing. Punk’s naïve sense of art was what drove their graphic language that rejected rational

typography and influenced many designers. Punk’s violent form passed on to the Swiss, American, Dutch

& French design and spread into mainstream as “new wave design”

Experimentation with form & function can be an attempt to create and define alternate standards. It is

meant to encourage new reading and viewing patterns. The work of American designer Art Chantry

incorporates the shock – and – awe education approach. Chantry makes low budget graphics for the

Seattle punk scene. His designs are functional within its own context though unconventional it proves

that experimental ugly design can be good design. Another good example for this scenario would be the

work of Edward Fella. Fella used highly personal art – based imagery and typography in his design for the

public.


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According to Lorraine Wild, Fella’s work was “Vernacular, the impure, the incorrect and all the other

forbidden excesses”. Similar forms of experimentation were used in 1980 as well but in a cleaner prospect

by Phil Gips. Novelty job printers type faces and rules were not used as additions but as proper working

elements with the layouts. Free from conventionally used typefaces these types were somewhat cleaner

and accessible. Hence these weren’t experiments rather solutions to design problems.

Two decades later, Fella re-incorporated these (supposed) ugly typefaces which he edited in multitudes

for displaying in galleries and exhibitions. Unlike Gips’ and Fietler’s work these typefaces were quite

unconventional. According to The Cranbrook Design: The new discourse, it describes Fella’s work as

“Low parody to high seriousness” but the line that separates them is very thin. Hence, Fella’s work is not

without its own shortcomings and acerbity.

So to sum up, experimentation with form & function may or may not pay off depending on a plethora of

reasons. In words of Lorraine Wild “Given the structures of the marketplace it is hard to break meaningful

ground while serving a client’s needs & wants nevertheless the market provides important safeguards”


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ORGANIC GRID

A designer’s sense to create something new comes from his/hers intuition. It is what has driven designers

from prior past to the glorious tomorrow. This sense for design has its roots deep within the rules forart, composition and layout. The design movements that we know of all revolve around these rules and

how they were challenged or bent to modification in order to suit the scenario or time period. One such

outcome was the grid principle borne out of the Swiss design movement.

Layouts and design compositions are still based on the grid system. The grid system is the best

sustainable option to show how designers organize their visualized data to make it functional and

appealing. The grid was also used in the past; the Gutenberg bible of 1455 had a very simple and linear

grid system. Since then it has moved forward to another design theory known as the “Organic grid” .

The word grid originates from the word gradation, a series of gradual successive stages; a systematicprogression of any degree or relative position in a order of series. The combination of a grid based layout

and non-grid based elements or organic based shapes is a culmination of an organic grid. The resulting

design has a tension between chaos and structure that is visually exciting yet orderly.

To understand how the definition of Organic grid works, we must first focus our attention to the

internet and address how the world is constantly evolving and the demands of design along with it. Over

the years the internet has become a source of more visually appealing and pleasing elements for

displaying in formation in the web. Many new technologies have advanced how information can be

displayed upon screen; artists have changed the internet into a user friendly experience which was earlieronly a place for data. The advancement in the ability to present data to the viewer is faster friendlier and

visually pleasing. The basis of internet is data presentation usually data is presented in grid format for

easier reading. Most web navigation is based on a grid system. Grid system is not as visually exciting tit

used to be when it was first implemented by the Swiss design movement. Users and designers want

more; this is where the “Organic Grid” principle comes in.

The presentation of data and imagery can be displayed differently than it used to be. The placement of

visuals and textual information supplies the page with an organic overview. Efficient navigation system

should not be in the way of letting other aspects to rule out the grid. It is out of this that the organic grid

is born. So, to classify it we can say that “The combination of a grid based structure for presentation of data

and layout with free – form or organic shaped objects or imagery”


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There are several benefits from the application of the organic grid principle upon one’s own work. It

creates a design that engages the user while creating a understandable environment to present the

information in. It is due to this principle that people are slowly going to start experimenting with the

organic substances on print or screen, to bring real life aspects to the virtual world. The main objective

of the organic grid lies in bringing life to a monotonous grid system while preserving the original

structure that the design is based upon.

One of the most prominent and well known designers to implement the organic grid is Wolfgang

Weingart. Weingart was known for discarding the Swiss design principles from his work for something

new and appealing. Majority of his work shows the elements of bended lines, getting rid of negative

white space, layering, texture and montage. Rosemarie Tissi followed similar principles as Weingart

though she was renown more for her typography. Today’s magazines, advertisements and other graphic

communication have taken on a new avatar. Major ground in this was broken by David Carson, who

revolutionized how design was used and relatively how the organic grid was bought to the forefront.

The future of design is based on trends, the then current environment and happenings and sometimes a

design movement. After reaching ground with the Swiss design movement and then later challenging its

rigid rules of grid has caused the implementation of several other aspects such as layering, texture and

montage in compositions. The world is constantly seeing the ever evolving face of design and on its

forefront has always been the work of David Carson. The World Wide Web offers more than many

pathways and challenges to designers. Based upon usability, presentation and use of other elements it has

become the new design movement.

The path ahead of organic grid lies open and the future of design is based upon data presentation and

ease of navigation tools to display information effectively. The need for organic grid will be that of

creating outstanding graphics and positive response from the viewers.


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TYPE OF OUR TIME

The 20th

Century led to type developments that could not be achieved prior the changes in consumerism

& Industrialization. Advertising & different products led to increase in demand for new types. Despitethese changes, movements in type were the on the forefront that led to a true revolution in typography.

One such movement was achieved by William Morris.

The movement was a huge influence on Edward Johnston & Eric Gill. The duo met in 1902, Gill became

apprentice of Johnston to study Calligraphy. Gill’s font’s perpetua and gill sans appeared to be cut from

stone rather than drawn. It came forward in a saturated environment where everyone else relied on the

old style fonts for their need.

Mainland Europe saw the most far reaching development in typography during the 20th

Century. The

Italian futurist movement initiated by Fillipo Marinetti in 1909 was a platform for typefaces to break free

of its old bonds and leap into an unknown environment. The movement set it’s thinking towards the

future and how it would arrive sooner than expected. Set in a world driven by machinery and electricity,

it would lead to a new way of thinking. The principles of the movement were such that it encouraged the

destruction of archival data preserved in Libraries and museums. Marinetti believed that “Except in

struggle there is no more beauty, nothing can be a masterpiece without aggression.”

The Dadaism movement challenged the existing, the previous or current state of affairs as well.

Traditionally, letters were set in grids/blocks of text. Dadaists mixed up these traditional forms and made

the contradictory. It was a massive influence on designers, followed by the 1917 Russian revolution gave

birth to constructivism. On its vanguard was Alexander Rodchenko & El Lizzidzky.

Their work wasn’t self-expression but about the revolution. It was designed to change the viewer’s

perception with a mere glance of their work and to get them to join the revolution. It incorporated

various art forms such as typography & photography. The constructivist movement reverberated

through the century and inspired the Bauhaus movement of 1920 and the work of Neville Brody in the

1980’s.

Bauhaus sought the perfection of form without the flourish. They believed that “ Typography is an

instrument of communication. It must present precise information in a suggestive form. Legibility must not

suffer from aesthetics”

Herbert Bayer designed the “Universal” font based on these principles which is a curved sans serif font

with no upper case. Later on, Josef Albers experimented with the universal typeface which had no upper

case and bought forward a refined version which had perfect harmony of circles, squares and rectangles.

Though much could still be put into work by the Bauhaus movement, sadly their school was shut down

in 1933 by Nazi Germany, which declared it to be “ Too Jewish”


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Typography evolved during and after the War eras and boiled down to a period where USA was a

leading nation in terms of Economy as well as Typography assessments and experimentation. Paul Rand

USA based designer said in his essay that “USA no longer needs to look at Europe for inspiration, because the

Capitalist state of America will provide the fuel required to further the typographic movement”

Typography was used in various movies such as “The man with the golden arm”, “Vertigo” and Anatomy ofa murder. These movies stated that type wasn’t there to just give the viewer information about who’s in

the movie; cleverly animated designs gave the viewer a chance to engage with the cinema which was

designed by Saul Bass.

Rand & Bass designed some of the leading and enduring corporate identities. Including UPS,

Westinghouse, United Airlines & Minolta.

Although USA was now on the forefront of various graphic Design phenomenons, Europe still had a

large role to play. And it provided a substantial amount of typography related work post world war.

Herman Zapf designed Optima in 1948 and Palatino in 1950. Europe was all about sans serif now,

Akzidenz – Gothic & Franklin gothic were the most known and most used fonts at that point of time.

In 1956 – Haas Type foundry commissioned Max Meidinger to redesign Akzidenz – Grotesk, to make it

more legible to modern applications. The outcome was Neue Grotesk which was recoined to Helvetica in

1960 by the foundry. Helvetica became the most in demand font for nearly two decades following its

redesign.

Technology has advanced typography in all of its aspects. From the printing press to the linotype &

Monotype processes, the world has seen many such dealings that led to type evolution. This

advancement was furthered by Apple computers who announced the launch of the Macintosh computer

and declared that “Type will never be the same ever again.”

This technological evolution was completed (or nearly completed) by Adobe. In 1984, Adobe revealed

the post-script which is a software language for printers that enabled a printer to draw letters as precise

vector shapes and accurately rendering every font, including classics such as Garamond and Bodoni.

The invention of the Macintosh & Fontographer democratised font design industry for better or worse.

Seeing these advancements, typographers throughout have come to believe that Open type is the future

of typography. It is one of the most significant and recent changes in Typography. It allows advanced

typesetting the limited postscript & true type font formats. Open type enables designers to create

thousands of glyphs per font which is a substantial amount to achieve looking at the history that it comes

from. Open type will bring about unlimited characteristics per font, types that reflect hand writing and so

on. Typography will evolve co-currently with the world and Open type will be its path to tread upon.


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Nextvertising

When you ask the question, "what does advertising mean to you?" you get a lot of varied responses of

which the prominent ones include words like 'disgusting, boring, unnecessary, wastage of money, noise,medium of manipulation, creation of vile social representations' etc.

But while its subjective meaning remains largely at question, none can question its objective meaning.

Advertising, by large, is essentially a paid media transaction in the process of creating, publishing and

reviewing advertisements on media platforms that allow businesses to communicate with existing or

potential customers by highlighting either a product feature, a working philosophy of the brand, special

discounts and offers, features and sponsorships in big events and luckily at times also discuss about the

massive changes the product is bringing to a human being's life.

Although, advertising is not limited to products and services but also extends itself to various otherforms of businesses and craftsmanship's including political propaganda.

If I were to connote my own subjective meaning I would have to rely on something what Ada Lovelace,

the prodigious countess and first ever programmer once said -

"The more I study, the more insatiable do I feel my genius for it to be."

My first formal encounter with an advertising agency was when I was working in a studio where I had to

provide my expertise as a 3D & VFX artist for a project undertaken by a renowned agency. I'll give you a

hint, it's one of the largest ones.

My studio was hired for making a virtual reality jungle for a client whose name I cannot disclose in this

paper due to mutual professional understanding of the phenomenon that took place which resulted in

the project being shelved.

Although I am prohibited from leaking information related to the contents of the produced experience I

can tell you, the reader, more about what caused the shelving - money and production time. Some of the

biggest (not in all cases but relatively the biggest) factors that affect how effective an ad can be and

whether it can lead to actual conversions for a brand.

When the project got shelved I had mixed feelings regarding how it turned out because it was my first

ever professional project and my first ever work experience with an agency.

In my state of not knowing that the agency had to do this because the client the agency was working for

would not procure the required funds to make sure the project saw the light of the day, I cursed the

agency and thought wrong of advertising as whole when the prototype couldn't make it.

"Never again will I work with Admen," I told myself as I continued to serve the studio for the time being

until finally I was selected for the ADP programme here at Srishti Institute of Art, Design & Technology.


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The path for me at Srishti was clearly cut out for me in the beginning but soon I realised that there's

more to what meets the eye. I wasn't living in a void where I could just create art and people would start

linking my work to their lives without forming connections via communication, which is essentially

what advertising does.

What really caught my attention though and has stayed on as one of the best ad's I have seen till date is

the one I saw that converted me to a practitioner of advertising. Quite the magical prowess one poster

could accumulate, yes?

It was produced and published by my mentor and strongest critic of my work, Mr. Pandrang Row, an ex

- creative director who has served the hotshot's of the industry.

The A4 poster was stuck on the 'important news & updates' notice board at the N2 campus of Srishti. It

flaunted a dog, a baby, and a few lines of copy inquiring whether the reader of the ad

could keep up with a man who taught at a laboratory known as 'Pandimonium'.

The very name of the class was a pun which was represented with odd blips and symbols that made up

the letters of the logo. I was both puzzled and amused, the writer and agent of brand awareness

had struck the right chord in my mind which led to an enquiry at the administration's office at Srishti.

Prior to joining Pandimonium, I was working on a different project that revolved around making a book

for audiences in Andaman & Nicobar islands. Call me two minded, perplexed or just selfish but I took the

decision of not continuing this project and jumped boats instead.

At this point, you're probably wondering that what does that even have to do with the title of this paper

and what does it want to accomplish.

Quite simple, if you haven't caught it already.

Advertising has the innate ability to let people find meaning and relate to a piece of information that

enhances or disillusions the experiences of life for the consumer of the ad's content.

For me, it was gaining clarity about what should be the most apt direction for my career, for other

brands and consumers there's a different if not completely similar use case of a product or service that

surrounds our daily life.

But for purpose of explanation let's hold on to the story that Pandimonium had to say. And through

Pandimonium, I.


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This article highlights the following points:

1. Is advertising really necessary?

2. Science in advertising

3.

Art in advertising4.

Content marketing - what one needs to know

5.

Advertising & User Experience

6. Nextvertising - Thinking beyond the marketing mix

7. The art of servicing


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Is advertising really necessary?

Advertising is a benefit rich field of work that employs some of the greatest creative minds by giving

them a playground to make our world and interpretation of media, rich with content that has multiplelayers of contextual information and dictions about the modern society.

Although the landscape of media is largely fractured, it is necessary to understand that advertising as a

school of thought does not constrain itself to any medium whatsoever. The most successful media

theorists and explorers have used their passion of exploring media platforms to fulfil the needs of

repeated and sustained exposure for the brands they work for.

It is an intrinsic human tendency of wanting to feel connected and appreciated (at times, shunned) for

your professional conduct. The tone of voice on the other hand in which anyone communicates the

expression is what makes a successful ad.

For example, let's take LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter or any other online platform that allows anyone to

"make an impression" on the internet without being charged a single penny for it. We are all advertising

on the go today.

We use Facebook to feel akin to the local communities we are a part of. We use Twitter to spread ideas

immediately. We use LinkedIn to build a personal brand for ourselves that we can utilize in the process

of generating a greater professional success ratio by publishing research papers, whiteboards, getting

recommended for the skills one possess, ex work projects put up for display etc.

Today almost every professional wants to make it big in their field and wants to flaunt off the work they

accomplish in their discourse. Advertising helps them to find space in the ever-growing digital economy

by allotting profiles to them where they can create content and publish it to grow their network and start

collecting & interpreting much larger chunks of information via their connections.

Apart from generating employment opportunities for those who work in the field and allowing web

presence for individuals, advertising is necessary in our society to let audiences know about products and

services that have ability to boost their lifestyle.

To say that 'advertising's purpose is only this, and this alone' would be to undermine the authoritativepower it has in today's modern society. It feeds us on a daily basis with ideas that can change how we

think. (When executed well. And that is a condition put to question at all times by agencies who want to

improve the quality of their work.)

Advertising works differently for different people and hence has different purposes. For a creative

person advertising is an opportunity to produce art and design that reflects the thoughts of viewers of the

produced artwork. For a communication strategist, advertising allows him or her to reach out to newer

audiences that may be for a brand the strategist is working for or for their own personal purposes. For

businesses, advertising is an opportunity to improve their bottom lines by introducing new products to

the market. On the digital front, publishers can help advertisers and make revenue by displaying theirad's on the content inventory they own.


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There are many people who are sceptical about advertising's presence in their lives and often term it as

nuisance and say things like 'advertising costs a fortune and at its best is just a joust to manipulate the

crowd into buying products just to look 'hip' and has no real place in the economy of the future.'

Although some of the con's pointed out are valid it cannot be argued that advertising is necessary.

Advertising is persuasion incarnate with manifestations that surround us daily. It is necessary for any

business to make an impact and survive the ever-changing market. One may call it the 'necessary evil' in

case they feel that advertising holds no real importance in their lives but they need it to help their

business.

Advertising is essential for businesses young and new in order to ensure that they are stimulating growth

& innovation and embracing the challenge of competition from rival brands by providing their brand

the positioning it deserves and help channel their desire for sales which is attuned to a user's wants and

needs. But all of this applies only when advertising as an element is produced legally, honestly and speaks

truthfully about a product.

Lies, deception and false promises in advertising will only make a product fail faster. Hence honesty must

always be embraced while producing ad's to prevent undermining a consumer's trust in the brand.

Situations where a brand has failed to deliver upon the promises is an ugly situation that does not end

well for brands who overpromise and under deliver.

This brings up the question 'If force as strong as advertising can change how we think, how can we

regulate advertising and ensure that brands do not fall out-of-place by showcasing false ideas and

perceptions?' There are in fact two ways of doing so. One is detailed legislation and the other is self-

regulation.

Advertising regulation refers to the laws and rules that define which products can be advertised in a

particular region. Advertising regulation standards must be revised in regular periods to ensure that the

production of advertisements is in line with the society's perception of advertising as whole.

Some of the advertising regulation entities in the world include Advertising Standards Council of India

(ASCI), Federal Trade Commission For United States, Advertising Standards Authority (ASA).

These regulation entities ensure that no falsehood is spread amongst the masses and provide strict

guidelines to both account management and creative professionals who need to embrace the fact that noteverything they produce meets the quality standards set by the industry. Hence they must rise up to the

challenge and start empathizing deeply with both Individuals and organizations if they are to make a

strong foundation in their careers and produce ad's that truly set them and their clients apart from the

rest.

J Walter Thompson, founder and namesake of JWT once said "Advertising is a non-moral force, like

electricity, which not only illuminates but also electrocutes. It's worth to civilization depends on how it

is used." Hence, advertising is necessary, but it needs to be regulated at the same time.


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Science in advertising

"The time has come when advertising in some hands has reached the status of a science."

-Claude C. Hopkins

Advertising is synonymous to capitalism in a way it is hard to put a foot on. But if one is to explain the

science of advertising, one has to look at the development of the phenomenon over time and how

practitioners of the field have set up branches of practice and study who help cater advertising as socially

accepted business practice that does not intimidate people from approaching it.

Advertising is a part of the marketing efforts put in by an organization to ensure that they follow a

pattern of focusing on customer needs and wants with assorted creative communication. The key players

involved in the production and publication of advertisements include advertisers, advertising agencies,

mass media, vendors and the target audience for whom the advertisement in produced that caters to the

development of a brand image and generating brand equity over time.

Hence it is safe to reinforce that advertising is a paid persuasive communication that uses non-personal

mass media and forms of interactive communication to reach broad audiences to connect an identified

sponsor with a target audience.

World-renowned creative director and founding father of the advertising agency Ogilvy & Mather once

said that "I do not regard advertising as entertainment or an art form. But as a medium of information. When I

write an advertisement, I don't want you to tell me that you find it 'creative'. I want you to find it so interesting that

you buy the product."

But that is not the only role advertising fulfils. Advertising also plays the role of a communicator and an

agent of innovation in a world that functions largely on visual appearances and an audience that is

constantly asking the question, "okay, what's next?"

Knowledge allocation

We are living in a time where we technology is being constantly challenged to procure benefits for

mankind and its disposal of nature via services and products. Advertising evolves as time passes on andfills in the treasure troves of 5 forms of knowledge according to John Philip Jones. These forms of

knowledge are expanded by gaining empirical evidence of advertising working in favour of the

advertiser.

For remembering them easily, they are divided in the form of Knowledge types A, B, C, D, E

• Knowledge Type A states the things we know about advertising with a reasonable degree of

certainty. Knowledge Type A expands itself as Type A -1 that includes all things we know parts

of. For example, one does not know how an ad is going to interpreted by the viewer but it will

lead to an impression which may just be negative and not in favour of the advertised brand.


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While Type A -2 deals with things that we do know. For example we know that using white

backgrounds with black type works in the favour of making one's ad decipherable.

• Knowledge Type B does not steer far away from Type A -2. It states the things we know in an

incomplete impressionistic way and which we ought to be anxious to know more about. For

example, the click-through rate of a display ad on the internet. Unlike Type A -2, Type B deals

with larger pieces of knowledge which are partly understood and occasionally also large complex

matters some parts of which we can understand better than others. For example, we know that

nobody pays attention to ad's, people pay interest to what they find interesting, sometimes it's an

ad.

• Knowledge Type C refers to lack of knowledge in general. i.e. Terra Incognita. i.e. advertising in

environments with little or no background research of the target audience or how an individual

outside of the chosen target audience reacts to the ad.

• Knowledge Type D deals with things we think we know, which are probably wrong. This

category encompasses marketing myths, instinctive beliefs and wisdom that surpasses the entire

body of knowledge that fills up the codex of advertising. For example, religious beliefs that areunique to every individual and how they choose to practice it.

• Knowledge Type E deals with things which many people know, but which many (not necessarily

the same) people commonly ignore. For example, advertising is largely a commercial entity

practiced for profit. People already know this, yet choose to ignore it largely because of the

repeated exposures by multiple brands who've already made an impression on the viewer of the

ad and has become a part of the person's cultural background.

Relationship between marketing and advertising

The world of marketing is large and has a symbiotic relationship with markets who have either a local orglobal outreach. Players in the market are on the move to expand their foothold with daily ad

expenditures that will make you question capitalism.

Jokes apart, understanding under what pretence advertising fits in the marketing strategy is important

for any advertiser or advertising professional. The success of marketing depends on whether a business

can create a competitive advantage that results in a monetary exchange and advertising showcases those

advantages with a streamlined process brand managers provide as reports of week over week or month

over month progress of the process of brand building. Reports vary from agency to agency who take up

the client's cause and are generally not shared with audiences apart from the client and the account

management team along with the finance team of an agency.

There are six steps involved in the marketing process which include -

• Researching the consumer market and the competition and developing a situation analysis

• Setting the objectives of the marketing procedures which are expressed in the terms of sales and

market share, assessing consumer needs and wants and using that information to segment the

market into groups who are likely to purchase the product or service and then targeting specific

markets that are most likely to be profitable

• Differentiating and positioning the product taking the current or future competition into

consideration


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• Developing the marketing mix strategy in terms of product design and performance, pricing,

distribution, and promotion

• Evaluating the effectiveness of the marketing strategy.

Once the marketer has decided on his positioning statement, the marketing mix and persona designs of

the audience he or she wants to target, the individual then contacts the agency in charge for production

of the communication material to decide on timelines, production and media budgets and the agency's

fee. The agency fee structure since old times had been based on a commission rate. Traditionally,

advertisers helped businesses by pulling in their media contacts and selling spaces to businessmen and

charging a 15% commission for doing so.

Soon, this fee structure was put under evaluation because of agencies abusing this industry standard by

manipulating an advertiser to opt for expensive media slots thereby increasing the revenue an agency

made. This was replaced by service to fee structures and monthly retainers.

Although, newer digital marketing models have replaced the traditional structures and payment options

have extended themselves to include PPC (Pay Per Click), CPL (Cost Per Lead) etc.

Advertising Research

Advertising research focuses on all the elements of advertising including message development research,media planning research and evaluation as well information about competitor's media strategy in order

to develop a countering campaign.

The research methodologies include -

1. Secondary Research

Typically when once the marketer has decided on his integrated marketing communication

(IMC) plan, the agency takes hold of the research available from the marketer in the form of

secondary research that sheds more light on the product to be advertised, the company

producing the product to be sold, its media history, the industry it functions in and the mostrecent developments. An agency is looking for facts and to highlight key insights. It is called

secondary research because the published data is not attained by the agency and usually gotten

from secondary research suppliers which can include entities such as the Dialog Information

Services, Inc. and the Market Analysis Information Database.

2.

Primary Research

Information collected for the first time by an agency while pursuiting a campaign is called

primary research. Many companies do their own tracking and monitoring of their customers'

behaviour and they also hire research firms to provide them the required data points

.


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3.

Qualitative Research

Qualitative research provides insight into the underlying reasons for how consumers behave and

why. Common qualitative research methods include continued observation, ethnography, one-

on-one interviews and reviewing case studies to gain insight and probing information.

4. Quantitative Research

Quantitative research offers numerical evidence such as the number of impressions and

exposures made by the brand in general, number of users and purchase history, their attitudes

and bodies of knowledge, their exposure to ads, and other market related information. It also

provides information on reactions to advertising and motivation to purchase known as the

purchase intent.

Amongst the many in the arsenal of research tools an ad agency or a specialized research provider puts in

to exercise, the above are a crucial few that help in analyzing the market and developing tangible insights.

The ones stated above are used more or less by every agency to a degree that can help them unearthmysteries revolving around a brand.

Advertising Strategy & Planning

Writing a well-articulated strategy for advertising operates with the same concern for objectives,

strategies and tactics that has been outlined for business and marketing plans. An agency may operate

with an annual advertising plan or develop a campaign plan which will focus on the messages to be

produced and displayed in the campaign. A typical IMC plan looks like -

1.

Situation Analysis

• Background Research

• SWOT Analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats)

• Key advertising problems to be solved

2.

Key Strategic Decisions

•

Advertising / IMC Objectives and Strategies

• Target audience (or stakeholder targets in an IMC plan)

• Brand position: Product features and competitive advantage

• Brand image and personality

• Budget

3.

Media strategy

• Media Objectives

• Vehicle selection and budget allocation

• Scheduling


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4.

Message Strategy

• Key consumer insight

• Selling Premise

• Big idea

• Execution schedule

5. Other tools

• Sales Promotion

• Public Relations

• Direct Marketing

• Personal Selling

• Sponsorships, merchandising, packaging, point-of-purchase

• Integration Strategy

• Digital Marketing

6.

Evaluation of effectiveness

When advertising took off as a mainstream practice in India, strategy was written rather loosely due to

lack of expertise. But over a period of time and developing our own repositories of advertising

knowledge, India has embarked on a journey to evolve the science in advertising.

When one talks of advertising strategy it is important to distinguish it from the word objectives which

some believe is the advertising strategy in its entirety. An objective is a goal to be accomplished while a

strategy is the means, the design, the plan by which the objective is accomplished. An effective strategy

helps fight the number one issue today in the world of advertising i.e. wastage of advertising. A good

strategy also helps spares the misuse of expensive and very scarce creative resources. J. Walter

Thompson, one of the largest advertising firms added in a statistical and investigation department and

two planning departments for both male and female markets. It mirrored the structure of the

corporations such that agencies helped build the image of advertising as a science.

Perhaps the easiest and way to study how ad campaigns are developed is to the planning cycle conceived

by Stephen King of JWT, London. The planning tool is world-renowned for establishing ground

realities when initiating the process of writing a sound strategy.

The 5 questions in the planning cycle 1. Where are we. 2. Why are we there? 3. Where could we be? 4.

How could we get there? 5. Are we getting there?

A strategy should be written with knowledge of a brand's competitive position. The brand's situation

within its market substantially governs its target group and proposition, as well as the role of its

advertising. For manufacturers who have a number of sub-brands, a strategic differentiation is vital to

avoid brand cannibalization.

Once the strategist has filled off the planning cycle he or she should refer to the pre-campaign researchprovided by the client or by the agency's research team which includes documentation of product


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development process, samples or prototypes of products, pre-launch focus group discussion insights,

market analysis, target user personas, surveys & questionnaires, competition strategy documentation etc.

It is agreed by many strategists in the field that an advertising strategy does need to be aggressive in order

to make sure the advertised brand gains maximum benefits when the campaign goes live.

An impressive ad strategy is a positive addition to the brand personality of the advertised company or

organization and helps to build positive communication channels with prospective users of the product.

The work of the strategist does not stop there. The strategist has to then analyse pre-campaign and post-

campaign research to find insights that can help to reduce advertising wastage and precious budgets of ad

production.

Digital advertising strategies are written taking the brand's online ad expenditure budget into

consideration and this varies by large amongst brands who have adopted the community management

model or those which are still persistent on older models of their approach to digital marketing. When

the internet was first taken as a serious medium to advertise products, the then devised marketing tool,

the inbound marketing funnel was thought of the only approach towards web-based transactions. But

overtime this has been challenged and newer patterns have emerged amongst communities who have

challenged how the funnel works and approach products of their choice at any point of time. According

to a study by Google, 87% of web content consumers now travel a less non-linear pattern and have taken

a complex pathway towards final purchase.

This can be broken down into the following -

1.

Openness -

Consumers experience receptiveness to new or better experiences which resultsfrom pre-existing interest or curiosity about a category or topic area. At this stage it can be an

unconscious desire for a brand that the user has not yet put his final thumb on.

2.

Realised Want Or Need - A piece of information or a news story, an article or a friend's

recommendation acts as a catalyst giving the consumer a reason to start looking into things the

he or she needs / wants. I write more on the subject of content marketing later in this article.

3. Learning & Education - At this stage, the consumer moves from initial interest to a research

mentality to gain an understanding of the broad fundamentals in order to make a purchase the

consumer can feel good about.

4.

Seeking Ideas & Inspiration - Here, the consumer seeks a solid reason to look for, notice, and

keep a track of examples, thought-starters and motivators surrounding the product in question

in order to take the next step.

5.

Research & Vetting - Here the consumer gathers information to support his core feelings of the

purchase intent. Options are compared, ideas and discounts are sought, prices are compared and

review are read to determine personal associations and product usage emulation of the brand.

As a digital marketing strategist, one needs to understand every stage of the buyer cycle very well and

strategize with either the chief experience officer or the creative director in order to plan the website &


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app interactions with user. It is recommended that the digital marketing strategist starts gaining interest

in developing a strong content strategy that treats content as an engine and craft compelling messages

that can result in good fulfilment rates for the brand.

Startups are advised to keep their marketing manager well-informed with fundamentals of user

experience & information architecture.

In this heavily competitive environment, we are going to see new products & services line up every day

to make a mark in their respective markets and in order to survive, advertising strategists will need to

evolve to accommodate these changes and continue building innovative ways of communicating with

consumers.

Brand Building

A brand is not the product, a brand is not the hard aspects of the product such as its special features, its

price or its logo and customer care executives. A brand is the entire personality of the business and is

constantly put to question by new or existing customers who are agreeing to include the brand into their

lives. As the world population scales and products compete to take the crown of the ruler in counties

worldwide, the importance of having brands help recall the necessity of products of daily usage only

grows larger every day.

Brand building is a process which is both fun and challenging for those have taken up the cause and can

build perceptions and large levels of trust between users and the brand which is a very fulfilling feelingfor all brand managers.

Whenever anyone needs to look at where their brand is and how they can help themselves to accomplish

brand building targets and fight the brand graveyard, I point them towards the managing brand equity

model by David A. Aaker.

To have a successful brand, one needs to break out of the brand image traps by practicing strict brand

positioning guidelines and think of extended brand relationships with a customer. These include

emotional and self - expressive benefits, organizational attributes, brand personalities and brand symbols.

For large corporations who have multiple operations set across several business categories a brand

system consisting of intertwined and overlapping brands and sub-brands can create clarity and synergies

or it can generate confusion and inconsistency. Hence developing brand guidelines and unique tone of

voices for every sub brand is important. For example one can take the case of Toyota and it's sub brands

Lexus and Scion. While Toyota is positioned as the affordable quality sedan, it's child brands Lexus and

Scion are positioned against high quality sports cars such as Ferrari, Maserati etc. Hence by extending

itself as a brand horizontally and vertically , Toyota is creating a range of products that vary according to

usage.

Any brand who is looking to sustain itself in the long run is looking to generate brand equity. Brandequity is a set of assets (and liabilities) linked to a brand's name and symbol that adds to (or subtracts


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from) the value provided by a product or service to a firm and / or that firm's customers. The asset

categories include the following -

• Brand Name Awareness - How many consumers are aware of the name of the brand

• Brand Loyalty - A brand's most sought repeat purchase customers who have developed a bond

and usage history with the brand

• Perceived Quality - How a brand is perceived on the surface by everyone

• Brand Associations - Factorships & Sponsorships a brand extends to organizations and

committees that are functioning on the same brand philosophy.

Brand equity asset creates value for both customers and brand managers in a variety of unique ways. In

order to regulate & manage brand equity effectively and to make informed decisions about brand

building activities, it is important to be sensitive to the ways in which a strong brand creates value for the

customer.

For assets or liabilities to underlie brand equity they must be linked to the name and the symbol of the

brand. If the brand's name or symbols should change, some or all of the assets or liabilities could be

affected and even lost. Although some might be shifted to the name and symbol.

Perceived quality is often the single most important determinant of the strategic thrust of a business.

Perceived quality is linked to and often drives other aspects of how a brand is perceived. It is a

phenomenon located at the heart of what customers are buying and in that sense can be regarded as a

bottom line tool to measure the impact of the brand identity.

A brand manager needs to think that consumers rarely have all the information necessary to make a

rational purchasing decision when it comes to quality and even if they do posses that information, then

in most cases they do not have the time or motivation to process and reflect on it. And as a result they

rely on visual cues and other one or two cues to come to decision about the quality of the product.

The key to influencing a product's perceived quality is to take these cues into consideration and plan for

communication that persuades the user about the quality of the brand. It is important to understand that

it is virtually impossible to do so unless the claim of quality is actually supported by substance. Procuring

high-quality and representing the same requires an understanding of what high quality means to

different user segments and it supported by a culture that reflects these values.

Having a higher level of perceived quality enables a clear brand identity. Therefore, one should

remember that it is one thing to be remembered and quite another to be remembered for the right

reasons. So avoid being making claims that cannot be supported through mass media.

The future of branding is very bright. The modern dynamics of marketing changes to accommodate

technology as its driver and has led to the development of the integrated marketing communication,

which is the practice of unifying all marketing communication tools so they send a consistent, persuasive

message to audiences. Smartphone's being one of the latest developments in content delivery technology,

advertising has established its foothold strongly on the digital landscape and with globalization one can

soon expect robot UPS delivery boys still carrying the renowned golden and black proudly and delivergoods to people as they click selfies as memoirs for UPS's digital social presence.


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ART & COPY IN ADVERTISING

Copywriting

The fundamental requirement that copywriting fulfils in advertising is that is built to be persuasive. Not

too long ago, brands relied on a strategy known as interruption marketing where the user of a television

was interrupted from viewing the T.V programme and bombarded with commercials.

Viewers today have shut themselves off from viewing commercials on the television and are no longer

interested in knowing whether a brand of packaged water "refreshes them" or in a condom brand that

can make them go "the extra mile".

As creative directors scurry to find meaningful creative solutions for the clients of agencies and clients

losing patience faster every day, it becomes difficult for those working in the creative department tosolve issues related to both quality and frequency.

A common mistake that brands are committing is latching on to trends and basing off all communication

on it and leave out the core message and value proposition that brand represents. In her book What

Great Brands Do Denise Lee Yohn iterates the above by saying that great brands don't follow trends but

create them.

I would highly suggest copywriters to start thinking bigger than the T.V and start thinking of campaigns

that can extend themselves to not just offline but online as well, where audiences are ready to consume

content unless and until it fulfils their primary requirement of content to be engaging.

For copywriters both new and old, it is necessary to keep embracing challenges and develop a progressive

ideology to understand consumer markets deeply by using products that they are chosen to write

advertisements for. Apart from being a loyal customer of the brand a copywriter is selling, the

copywriter needs to develop strong bonds of empathy with users of products to find a common

connection between the users and the brand to know how a story can represent it in order to sell.

Writing for different mediums of approach can be a task that is both time-consuming and a serious

challenge to produce for copywriters and hence should practicing in their off-time by developing their

own brand and finding patterns in what the people liked about their style of writing.

Copywriters used to bend down to interruption marketing as a process laid down in front of them. But

since the dawn of permission marketing as Seth Godin puts it in his book Permission Marketing has

taken its roots, copywriters are now evolving from a non-creative state of writing commercials that

followed a monotonous pattern, to a more active state of interaction with consumers.

Permission marketing is a more effective marketing technique where consumers volunteer their

attention. As active members in the process, consumers are more likely to pay attention to the marketing

message than uninteresting and lack lustre television commercials that lack the incentive that one needs

on their marketing investments. Since consumers are not commit to a product or service; they are simply

asked to give some of their attention to learn more about it.


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For example: When a user has subscribed to your newsletter and hasn't made a purchase yet, perhaps

that user needs to make up his mind about the product and needs to be convinced with a piece of content

that highlights his usage of the product and how it can help him accomplish a goal.

By inviting a person to view that certain piece of content, the copywriter is being successful in telling the

viewer of the content that it's alright to be in the position he is and provides additional information that

might lead to the user believing that the brand cares for his interest in the product and the brand gets to

play the role of being a problem solver rather than intrusive entity that is forcing a user to buy a product.

Easier said than done, but it helps to remember if you're a copywriter that you are not writing for 100%

of the people who are going to viewing that piece of content but instead for the 30% - 45% of people who

are looking forward to making a purchase and are stuck between choices.

Our shortcuts in judgements may be used against us. Hence a copywriter needs to constantly read up on

the business he is writing content for.

Copywriters working for start-ups need to understand this especially. As a business startup, the brand of

the business holds little or no importance in the lives of the people who are trying out your product for

the first time so copywriters better get off on their best act and write content that converts by helping a

customer to make a choice and not make click baits for your marketing manager. Perhaps Joanna from

Copyhackers explains it better -

"You’re not selling a product.

You’re not selling a service.

You’re not selling a solution. An app. A pair of shoes. A device. A SaaS plan. An upgrade.

Here’s the only thing you’re selling, no matter what business you’re in and what you ship:

you’re selling your prospects a better version of themselves.

When you do that effectively, you sell better. Your conversion rate increases. People share

stories about you and their experiences with your solution. Life gets easier. For everyone."

Writing persuasive copy can be a challenge better left to writers who have taken the art of

communication as a serious matter and want to help improve communicative environments by

producing messages that are relevant to the ones who read and want to make meaning from it. If the

viewer of this document is looking for more inspiration and tips, he or she may find the same on many

copywriting related web portals and commercial entities like the following. I would also recommend all

copywriters to read "Writing That Works" by Kenneth Roman & Joel Raphaelson to continue their

education in copywriting.


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Design

The requirement and use of design to produce interactive and convincing marketing messages has always

been a dominating requirement of the advertising industry that needs to be fulfilled by designers old andnew. Even though my own practice of graphic design has been rugged and uneven in its development, I hope

that the following write-up can help a designer working in both digital and offline spaces make the best

decisions on their projects.

Good design solves problems and this is a universal law that applies in the design universe and outside

for a common person who is engaging with human produce every single day. But when the same design

starts creating a organizational havoc and disintegrate the ideology a brand stands for, you know you are

in trouble.

During the boom of the advertising trade, designers experimented with typefaces and layouts that varied

according the product category. Design flourished and designers took a piece of this cake home to usher

in the era of structuralism and renowned names such as Jacques Derrida and Roland Barthes who

deconstructed the meaning and representations in the works of famous designers both in and out of the

advertising world.

Although from a business perspective this does not matter much to say someone like a media manager or

a client who was willing to vet his money on the kind of work that was being produced in the agency he

hired, it mattered to those who wished to make meaning and decipher the multiple layers of informationin every graphic reproduction displayed in the then society of United States and countries in Europe.

Often judged as someone who ''dances to the will of money and fame'' famous designers like Saul Bass,

Neville Brody and Paul Rand received mixed feedback for their work and negative publicity for their

graphical representations.

But their work did not stop there and soon we received industry classics like the IBM, UPS and ABC

logo's by Paul Rand which are still being used by these brands who have been largely successful in

retaining audience retention for their product.

Historically, the commercial design community has attempted to define illustration as a legitimate formof "art" that happens to be in the service of commerce. Since a very long time, illustrators have looked to

fine art as a stylistic source of inspiration, particularly for market categories such as luxury products,

fashion design, travel & lifestyle etc.

Design as a discourse has evolved at each interval advertising demanded better and superior ways of

expressing information. While Cubism and Purism influenced the advertising and poster art of 1920s,

Expressionism and Surrealism replaced a geometric machine aesthetic with organic, gestural, "naive" and

playful styles n the 1940s and 1950s.

Ever since, design has played a crucial role in development of ad's that have been truly iconic and help setbrands set attune their approach to very crucial issues in the brand development process.


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The evolution of design in advertising can be explained better when one reflects on the development of

the phenomenon post world war era. Designers such as Bradbury Thompson, Paul Rand, Alvin Lustig

and Ladislav Sutnar bought a new form of expression and sensibility of the then modern artist to

advertising and graphic design. In his book Thoughts on Design (1947 ), Paul Rand defined the designer as a

professional who tempers the instinct of the artist with the functional requirements of advertising. The

designer's role is to "restate his problem in terms of ideas, pictures, forms and shapes. He unifies,

simplifies, eliminates superfluities. He... abstracts from his material by association and analogy."

Art direction as a subsequent field grew in the 1920's to become the figure of influence it is in advertising

today. The Art Directors Club was founded as an annual exhibition that catalogued advertising art and

was exhibited to garner publicity for the club. The artistic status of advertising art and

professionalization of the art director were part of a larger expansion of advertising in the 1920's and as

market grew so did the need for researching these markets for newer openings for brands to advertise

efficiently.

In 1959, a writer for the publication house Advertising Age wrote that business is subject to

psychoanalysis just like any other person. "A business is just as subject to neuroses and inner searching

and optimism and depression just as any single person is."

He wrote this to reflect the development of corporate identities as the next big step towards establishing

brands as a lifelong presence in any person's life. The CBS "eye" is one such prominent development in a

company's design program and since its conception has appeared almost everywhere CBS has picked a

medium to advertise itself such as television screens, print ads, matchbooks, wallpapers and even paper

napkins.

In recent times, flat design & material design principles have taken to the market and graphical assets

produced for brands everywhere are resolving to minimalism as the primary language as the methods for

depiction. The rapid reproduction of factory made assets for audiences everywhere is constricting

graphics as a language to evolve and recreate newer patterns of being a problem solver.

Clients are repeatedly asking for flat design reproductions for their projects and this creates a rift

between users who are used to flat design as a language and those who find it difficult to comprehend.

There's that and the fact that all reproductions of flat design look the same with long shadows

overflowing out of the object highlighted in the final layout.

In an argument on Quora I once read the following -

"I'm of the opinion that when we talk about skeuomorphic vs. flat we are talking about a superficial

spectrum. The real spectrum is relevance."

So if you are an art director or a creative director who has a client that cannot stop going about on "how

great flat design graphics look " make sure the client is aware of the kind of damage that flat design can

do to the brand as flat design & material design are forms of design largely meant for the screen not print.


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Regarding Creativity & Big Ideas

Creativity is a trait that everyone possess but not everyone is able to harness it to its full potential.

Campaign managers argue that it is usually the timelines of the project that prohibits free movement andexperimentation. Is that really the case or just what it appears on the surface? Let's look at creativity

from a very zoomed out perspective. Creativity is a link between two or more old ideas connected,

mixed, amalgamated, edited or intertwined to create a new entity or idea. This brings the question, how

can one be creative at all times? Is it possible to have creative ideas all the time or does it need to follow a

pattern?

Perhaps this is better explained by Pareto's principle who stated that there are two kinds of people, the

speculator or the speculative person who is constantly looking at the possibilities of new combinations he

or she can try out to meet their objectives. Then there is the rentier, which means "stockholder" when

translated to English. The rentier is a routine, unimaginative, steady going naturally conservative personwhom the speculator manipulates with his ideas to achieve his or her goals. But does this mean that we

are naturally distinguishable in only two classes? Not necessarily, the speculator and the rentier are roles

that an individual plays actively or passively. For example, you are playing the role of the speculator

when you are at your workplace trying to tackle a problem that is prohibiting you from having your

success. At the same time, you play the role of a rentier, who is part of a much larger society, who is

being manipulated on the go.

Thus, if a man is fascinated by advertising, it is possibly because the person has tapped into his or her

creative powers to find that it needs to be nourished by making a deliberate attempt to do so. Just like

any other form of art, generating ideas is an art that takes time to master. What's more important toknow is how one can train the mind in a method by which by which all ideas are produced and how you

can grasp these principles to make it the source of all ideas that stem out of one person. The second most

important principle involved is the capacity of a person to bring old elements into new combination

which is largely dependent on the ability of being able to see relationships. Some consider each fact as a

separate bit of knowledge while others link to think of it as a link between two or more subjects.

When psychiatrists studied and discovered the profound influence words have in the lives of their

patients, words were treated as symbols to represent emotional experiences and a person who is able to

quickly scan relationships and experiences, several ideas will come to him or her. When you look at it,

it's not fiction that advertising can perform up to 50% percent better just by changing the headline orshifting a graphic element on the layout. Point being that when relationships of this kind are seen they

lead to form new ideas and the mind follows a method for how ideas are produced.

This method of the mind follows a few steps that are stated below. It is essential for every creative

individual to grasp on this and the process does not follow a definite order necessarily and anyone can

start including it as a habit in their lives.

The first step of creating something is to gather raw material. A simple truth that has situated itself right

beneath our noses but not everyone wishes to practice due the high input it takes. But then again, as

David Ogilvy puts it, "What distinguishes a great surgeon is that he knows more than other surgeons.The same is true for advertising agents. The good ones know more." So start studying and don't look


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back. Information can be of 2 types when it falls under this umbrella. It can be general information or

specific information. In terms of advertising, specific information can be everything about the product

and how it appeases to the 6 senses of the target market. Be specific about everything. If your product is a

fruit flavoured cold drink, what kind of flavour is it? what does the flavour represent? What are its

cultural associations? Is it a readily accepted phenomenon? Are there any negative influences around the

associations and so on. On the other hand, gathering general information about everything that makes

up our world is needed to fit into this piece as well. Amongst the greatest creative minds in history, the

ones that are truly remembered are the ones who were greatly moved by the world and had the

everlasting hunger to keep exploring the unknown to form newer patterns of thinking which has made

up the world as it is today.

Assembling information both specific and general is a mandate to affirm the previously stated principle

that an idea is a new combination of old elements. In advertising, a new combination results from

specific tomes of knowledge about the product combined with general knowledge about life and events.

The process is something similar to that of a kaleidoscope where a new pattern emerges each time youuse it. The mathematical possibilities of forming new possibilities grow each time the pieces of glass

become greater. So is the same with production of ideas for advertising or anything else. You can gather

information from now till the end of your existence and still not come up with a big idea until you cross -

examine every piece of information that you have gathered and put it up together to assess its links.

What someone does at this point is that you look for a relationship, a synthesis where the left oriented

thinking of evaluating a brand in terms of numbers vs. right oriented thinking of more abstract

connections with the brand and bring them both to the centre form a marketing message befit your

strategy. If you are to compare it something, then you can find many references both manmade and

natural such a jigsaw puzzle or a line of domino's aligned perfectly against each other. The constructionof an advertisement is the construction of a new pattern in this kaleidoscopic world of ours.


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Content Marketing - What one needs to know

Content authority and expert Content Marketing Institute defines content marketing as

"A strategic marketing approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistentcontent to attract and retain a clearly defined audience — and, ultimately, to drive profitable customer

action."

Simply put, it is the art and science of communicating with customers and prospects without resolving to

hard selling. It takes its roots in permission and non-interruption marketing. Instead of pitching a

product or service, content marketing delivers meaningful experiences for communities globally.

Marketing thought leaders and seasoned veterans believe content marketing to be the future of all

marketing. Its practice is being highly encouraged in both B2C and B2B organizations.

Content marketing is not dependent on the internet, unlike what the usual belief that surrounds theidea. Content marketing is being practiced by brands globally. For example, Lego the giant that builds

interactive building blocks for kids used content marketing as early as 1997 where they utilised their

publication to issue magazines for children who had subscribed to Lego for updates and ideas on how

they can build newer things using their Lego pieces.

Although content marketing isn't confined to a single medium, it is largely practiced on the internet by

brands who function according to a content strategy. A content strategy is the guiding principle that

fulfils one of the two requirements of creating a digital experience for customers. In an article written in

the year 2007 called Content Strategy: The Philosophy Of Data, Content strategy expert Rachel Lovinger

said this of content strategy - Content Strategy is to copywriting as information architecture is to design.Any organization who wishes to make a mark on the digital landscape first has to decide on the content

strategy before they start their journey. A content strategy gives published content its purpose and helps

brands to associate themselves with a user's needs and wants. The strategy is devised in ways that befits

the brand and helps in building bridges for open communication throughout a customer's buying

journey. A well framed content strategy helps to bring together content, context and users and form a

complex relationship that can be analysed for insights upon deployment. A 6 step process is applied to

procure the documentation required by a content strategist. These 5 steps include -

Step1: Define your story

Step2: Keyword researchStep3: Find patterns and categories

Step4: Information architecture

Step5: Write targeted content

Step6: Measure and analyze

Content created and nested under a resourceful strategy is useful, findable, valuable, credible, accessible

and desirable. A content strategy helps to revoke many emotions by framing the content with words that

help push 6 buttons that are placed within our conscience, namely taboo, unusuality, outrageousness,

hilariousness, remarkability and secret exposal that evoke emotions such as awe, anger, surprise, anxiety,

fear, hunger or even lust.


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A content strategist has to work on components of content modelling and content management

procedures such as Business requirements matrix, Content inventory, Governance Plan, Metadata

Strategy, Content Audit, Gap Analysis, Localization planning, Search Engine Optimization, Lead

Creation & Nurturing, Content Planning, Content Matrix, Process models, Custom personal

interviews, Content models, User research, Personas, Scenarios, Flow Diagrams, Content migration,

Industry Standards & Guidelines, Wireframing, Template creation & management, delivery design and

publication. A content matrix helps a content strategist or content marketer to assign work to creative

resources of the organization based on the kind of content being produced. A content matrix is divided

into 4 equal parts where the intensity of content is measured in terms of it being emotional or rational

and its extension as a part of awareness programs or purchase persuasion programs. The 4 parts of the

matrix are -

Entertain - Viral campaigns, Quizzes, video games, puzzles, competitions and videos.

Educate - Guides, Trends, reports & whitepapers, press releases, infographics, demo videos, enews,ebooks, articles etc.

Inspire - Widgets for a dedicated purpose, celebrity endorsements, community forums, productreviews, customer feedback.

Convince - price lists, calculations, checklists, interactive product demos, product features, product

engineering, case studies, event, product ratings on the internet.

Although on the surface publishing content on digital channels is relatively easy and anyone can do it.For example a person with a is creating content for his Facebook profile by hosting pictures with relative

tags. Similarly, brands are working in the favour of documenting their storytelling process by

introducing stellar messages that is worthwhile viewing for audiences.

Content marketing efforts are calculated differently for different brands and organizations. For example,

a celebrity needs to measure his engagement index regularly to see that people who are following the

celebrity receive correct information regarding his or her lifestyle and their position in the market as an

authority on a subject, such as Daler Mehndi for music, Barack Obama for being the president of the

united states. While a more specific conte

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