Sketching: Initial ideas and designs

Popular Ad specifications for digital designs

  • w728 x h90
  • w300 x h250
These two specifications are the two most common ones that appear across all platforms I've researched. In such case, I will produce one of each, separated by the category of theme. on my last post I addressed three themes. That has now been reduced to two as that got the least votes and peer assessment states it felt like the weakest. I would improve upon it, but i felt like that was as much as i could do with that theme. so moving forward i will be comparing and assessing the effectiveness of:
  • NEO-TOKYO
  • CLASSICAL
To keep assessments fair and concise, with these ad specifications i will be creating adverts for the Arctis 5 headset. Keeping this the same, rather than having the products vary, will help me focus on the criticism regarding the theme and color schemes more than the placement of the product itself. With the information i plan to gather here i hope to move forward with one theme, so then i can produce a full body of products judging by what people think is the best theme assessed within these experiments.

Note: I will be up-scaling the dimensions of these adverts by 3. This is so that visual clarity can be assessed well. It also makes it easier in the editing process.

CLASSIC

1) Steelseries Arctis 5 728 x 90 (2178 x 270). "SUITED FOR GODS"


2) Steelseries Arctis 5 300 x 90 (900 x 750).


NEO-TOKYO

1) Steelseries Arctis 5 728 x 90 (2178 x 270). "Neon Future"


2) Steelseries Arctis 5 300 x 250 (900 x 750). "Glitch"


Pros (Classic)
- Sleek and clean design, echoing what the steelseries product line is all about
- The hardest edits (the Headset statue edits) are done, and they look amazing. Assets can be Reused from these images but i can always make a new one if i see fit.
- Clean design and color scheme, very distinguishable to the branding of Steelseries.
- Theme has been used before by steelseries, but just once. This can create a simultaneous body of work between the adverts and the website. (Not on the website anymore, however. 17th June 2019.)
-Larger adverts (such as physical billboards) can have larger statues. Grabs attention easily whilst looking sleek.
- Suited for Gods: Consistently applicable, makes the buyer feel empowered
- Marble stock imagery and statue stock imagery is easy to come by.
- The white light keeps the modernistic aspect and reflects this
- Compositionally, i found it easier to insert the Steelseries modern looking triangle pattern design
- More closely appeals to the market outlined by the curse website of 20 - 30 Year old Male gaming hobbyists / fanatics.
- Products interact with the advert itself, making it feel like an entire product (For example, headset on statues).

Cons (Classic)
- Very inconsistent editing times. One advert may take 2 hours whilst another may take 20 minutes. Time consumption will need to be monitored to ensure i get these adverts completed.
- Doesn't typically appeal to a younger audience like Neon does. (However take in to consideration the target market is the typical viewer of the curse website. Due to them being 2nd on the leader board in website traffic in the category "Gaming" it's fair to assume these adverts will be appealing to these users. Male - 20 / 30 YoA.)
- Editing needs to be perfect to ensure the statues interacting with the products looks believable and not tacky, a lot of knowledge is required to do this (Lighting, material of product and how it would react to the material of the statue, how it would look from specific angles, rendering the product to specific angles.)

Pros (Neon)
- Colorful, bound to capture the attention of the users / passers by / readers.
- Futurism, Cyberpunk, "Vaporwave" blue and vivid pink neon lights are in style at the moment with a younger gaming audience - also bare in mind the release of upcoming game "CyberPunk 2077": Hype, colorful, futuristic. people will want to be looking for products that echo that aesthetic for immersion.
- A little less editing for the same amount of impact in an advert, time management will be a little easier when creating adverts with this theme
- The blue lights used in the photo shoot for these products in really vibrant and striking. On top of this it only means the vivid pinks and yellows, and a little bit of red may need to be edited in (Excluding the Steelseries modern corner design)
- Glitchy effects are really easy to insert, just requires knowledge of layer styles and their impact on certain colors and backgrounds, as well as the tools at hand.
- Stock images of Neon related scenes are easy to find
- Able to list specifications within the design of the advert, albeit this is more flavor text for design rather than being able to read it.
- Takes inspiration from theme of upcoming game Cyberpunk:2077. Relates back to my research on how Steelseries implement actual game imagery within their promotions through brand deals with games in the market.

Cons (Neon)
- Stock images are easy to find, but finding ones that fit specifically within my compositions seemed to be quite difficult.
- The glitchy effects may cause problems for visual clarity, however its my job as the designer for these adverts that this is spotted and not the case in the final products.
- Work can be tedious, especially with the text, unlike with the Classic theme where everything just seemed to flow in working order.
- This theme will generally take up a much larger file size than the classical theme, just because of the amount of assets and imagery that is used to create one advert
- Fitting quite a lot of text in with this theme might make it hard to read, especially with all of the effects. HUGE problem for magazine advert.

Voting set up for what idea is better. Asking peers in art class, as well as some friends online, as well as tutors
Voting results: 21 people took part. Classic = 13. Neon = 9

Peer review
The second (Neon) is more snazzy and i guess appealing given the product - The first is also really cool but maybe a little too washed and professional given the target audience and use of headphones. Its all about making them look funky and hip and to me the Neon one does that better.

Response: The professional look is actually what i was going for with the Classical look. Cleanliness, sleekness and professional design is the entire appealing aesthetic of steel series and i think the use of the statues takes it to a new height. I do agree that the Neon one appeals to a YOUNGER audience, and you'd think that the target audience which a pair of headphones such as these for the avid gamer would appeal to the youth, teenagers and young adults, age range somewhere between 14 - 24, its actually the age range of 20 - 35 that we're trying to appeal to judging by website analytics and research for popular domains within the genre of gaming. Taking this in to consideration, perhaps neon isn't the way to go if it appeals generally to the minority audience of teenagers rather than the majority audience.

To conclude this post, i will be moving forward with the Classic theme, as not only is that the theme which i am more interested in creating, but its also what the majority think would be the most appealing to them as well. Moving forward, these are the things i really need to consider.

  • The Target Market (in reference to my research in to ad specifications where i also address this)




  • 86% Male
  • 30 Average age
  • 58% of them are parents
  • 44% Game for 20+ Hours a weeks
Addressing these statistics
  • Those above the age of 30 (adults) usually prefer formality and information to be easily read and seen. How its delivered, (sleek, stylistic and graceful to the eye) is on me. The information should stick to the Steelseries branding fonts and colors, AS WELL as accents. The slogan suited for gods needs to be in the Centaur font. and easily readable. The name of the product AND brand needs to be easily readable. Flavor text about the product can be read on the website, the advert and imagery is to draw the user in.
  • 58% are parents. Maturity, style, and professionalism will be what they look for. They are not looking for something that looks like a children's toy. Classic theme does this well
  • 44% Gaming for 20+ hours a week means that the users of this site will almost definitely have an expensive gaming setup, and if they don't already, they would be wanting to look to upgrade what they have. Steelseries products are Top-end producers of professional gaming gear, and have even sponsored professional games tournaments. These factors taken in to account will mean that people will be seeking these sorts of products to buy.
| JOE FISHER | UNIT 9 GRAPHICS PORTFOLIO |