Promotional Material Draft

That's pretty impressive, was that from scratch or did you use an existing style sheet or anything?

Overall, this looks good. The functionality seems appropriate to the genre, and you've incorporated imagery from the CD package. For the most part, this seems like a solid draft. Nevertheless, there are a few things to think about while you are revising.

One issue is how your audience would encounter this website. It looks good, but how would the audience ever find it? I expect that your design plan will address this crucial issue. Demonstrate that you have throughly considered how to get your materials before the eyes of your audience.

Formally, there are a few things in the website itself to think about. The "Contact" link goes to the "News" page, which seems confusing. Additionally, the "Home" link seems unnecessary, as it also points to the "News" page. The arrangement (the way the site is structured) also could use some clarification, because there are overlaps between the "Downloads" and "Videos" sections. Also, the link icons would benefit from rethinking. The "News" icon is an RSS icon, but it doesn't connect to an RSS feed. The purchase icon doesn't seem to match its subject well (it looks like a modification of the iTunes icon). Finally, you should do something about the browser incompatibility that you mention to get maximum credit. Many people still use IE 6 (notice that it is still in many labs at Purdue), so you'll want your site to work with it if possible.

Overall, this is strong, but it could be improved, and make sure that this work's design plan addresses how the audience will find it.

You have a start here, but I'm a little confused. Are you actually going to produce the website that you have mocked-up? If not, I'm not sure how these elements work. If you are producing the banners, it might be more effective to stick with them and have them point to the CD on Amazon or iTunes or something. Of course they won't actually link there, because your CD isn't listed with those services. You would explicate in your design plan where the banners would link, and also explain where the banners would appear and why.

I mention this because the mocked-up website doesn't seem appropriate if it is just for your CD. Why, for example, would there be "Advanced Search" and "Online Customer Service" links on a website that is devoted to promoting just this one short album? My advice would be to jettison the website and stick to the banners, unless you are actually planning to develop a complete promotional website like this student example:

http://web.ics.purdue.edu/~darinm/proj2/

I think you've got a good start here. These materials are clear and communicative. With items like this, the big thing will be to explicate in your design plan how your audience will encounter them. Your CD seems aimed at gamers. It will be up to you to explain in your design plan how you could get these materials before the eyes of your audience. Where would they appear? Be as specific as you can be.

Also, your CD package draft was in an early state, so it is difficult to tell if these materials use visual themes similar to those found in your packaging. Keep in mind that in general you want to create unity between the packaging and the promotional materials, and a main way of doing this is through shared visual themes and textual phrases (such as tag lines).

I like that you have clearly positioned your CD in both its packaging and its promotional material. It is apparent that this CD is intended to alleviate stress. Your challenge with your promotional material will be to give it as much professional polish as you can. Ultimately, you want this promotional material to be appropriate for commercial deployment; you don't want it to look like it has been made in MS Word, even if it has been. You might look at some of your classmates' drafts, and those of previous students (linked on the Project 2 page), to see how they have approached their designs.

Also, remember that the design plan for this document should explicate how this promotional material would reach your audience. Your audience seems pretty broad, which is fine, but you will need to show that you have considered how you could get this flyer seen by audience members.

I like what you have done here. The promotional material seems well-suited to your situation. One thing I noticed is that the shirt doesn't seem to have a strong advertisement component. That is to say, it is clear that the shirt is connected with the breakfast club, but it isn't clear that it is advertising your CD.

Also, you'll want to cover in this material's design plan how this shirt would be disseminated. One possibility would be simply to hand them out during breakfast club. Whatever you decide, you'll want the design plan to demonstrate that you have thoroughly considered how to get your promotional material into your audience members' hands.

Finally, are you planning to print up one of these shirts to turn in? Unless this isn't possible (because of cost or other reasons), it would be a good idea, because then we could see how the design actually looks in its intended medium.

The imagery here seems solid. I noticed a few things that you might think about while you revise. The first is that the CD title and the related information are getting buried at the bottom of the page. The imagery is striking, but the product itself is lost. You mentioned that you are modeling this ad on certain food advertisements. See how they are putting focus on the product.

The second thing is that it would be a good idea to create unity by sharing visual themes and textual phrases (tag lines, etc.) across packaging and promotional materials. This helps your target audience connect what they see in ads with what they see in stores. You might want to revise both your packaging and your promotional material to make sure that they connect.

The last thing is that this material's design plan should explicate how the target audience would encounter this poster. I don't know if you are targeting a local audience or not, but regardless, the design plan should demonstrate that you have thoroughly considered how to get this item in front of your audience members' eyes.

You have a start here. You mention that this material should "[get] to the point in a very concise way," but I'm not sure it does that. The obvious question would be, what is the point? I'm not quite sure that it is completely clear. Indeed, it's not obvious what this is advertising (or even that it is an advertisement).

Formally, the text in this material is a little difficult to read, mostly because of the background and the pixilation. The drop shadow on the large text seems to help clarify it, but it seems to muddle the smaller text.

In its final state, you will want your promotional material to be as appropriate for commercial deployment as you can make it. This means trying to give it professional polish. You might look at some of your classmates' drafts, and those of previous students (linked on the Project 2 page), to see how they have approached their designs. Also, remember that the design plan for your promotional material should explicate how it would get in front of the appropriate audience. Make sure to think about issues of dissemination.

Visually, this has an appealing look, and it seems to tie in with the corresponding packaging (which is a good move). I think it could be improved by hitting the product harder. It isn't immediately clear what this work is advertising (or even that it is an advertisement). Given the explicitly commercial thrust of this communication, you don't want to bury the product. It might be a good idea to look at the venues that you are considering for this magazine ad and see if you can find some ads to use as models.

Also, you do state that this is a magazine advertisement, and I think this is a good choice of medium, considering the theme of your CD. Just make sure that the design plan that accompanies this promotional material explicates what venues you think would be appropriate, and how the ad has been crafted to suit them.

I think you have a solid start here. I did notice a few things that made me curious. The first was the size of this banner. It seems pretty large, so you'll want to make sure that its proportions are appropriate for its venue (your design plan should of course discuss the planned venue for this ad and demonstrate how it has been designed to suit its conventions). The second thing I noticed was that the ad doesn't seem to share visual themes with your CD package (although you may have revised your CD package). It's usually a good idea to create unity between the CD package and its corresponding promotional material by sharing visual themes and textual phrases (tag lines and such).

Overall, this seems like a good start with room for improvement.

This is certainly a start. It shares visual themes with the corresponding CD package, which is a good move. Appropriately, the main issue with this promotional material is similar to that of the packaging: it is somewhat generic. What does your CD offer that others do not? How does it distinguish itself so that it doesn't become just background noise? How does this CD target a college audience (its title implies that it is for college students)?

Another key issue is dissemination. If this poster is for college students, how would they encounter it? Your design plan should demonstrate that you have thoroughly considered how your promotional material will get in front of the eyes of your audience.

This is a good start. There are clear visual connections between the promotional material and the corresponding packaging. The main issue with this material is professional polish. You want to make your material as appropriate for commercial deployment as possible. I would encourage you to find some existing examples of billboards (probably online) to use as models.

A related issue is information weight. Text that is more important should be more prominent than text that is less important. Again, I think that looking at professional examples may give you an idea of how other works have handled this.

Finally, I think your choice of medium is appropriate, given the theme of your CD. Just make sure that your design plan explicates where this billboard would appear. Is the plan for just one, or would there be a number of them? Where would be a logical placement for this material (presumably around popular parcour spots)? These are issues to consider.

I think this is a more appropriate theme than your earlier one, and this is a solid step in your revision process. I noticed a few things that you might think about while you continue working.

The first issue is global. The listed songs aren't from the Guitar Hero games, so the connection is a little unclear. It may be more effective to invoke GH or air guitar without making an explicit connection, or otherwise clarify how this CD is connected with GH.

The second issue is professional polish. You want to make your material as appropriate for commercial deployment as possible, so you don't want it to look as though it has been produced in Word (even if it has been). You might look at some of your classmates' drafts, and those of previous students (linked on the Project 2 page), to see how they have approached their designs.

The last issue is context. Make sure that your design plan covers specifically where this ad would appear, and how it has been crafted to suit the conventions of that venue.

Because this appears to be an early draft, there's not too much that I can comment upon right now. When this draft is a little more developed, there will be more to discuss. Until then, keep the basic guidelines in mind. You want to connect the promotional material and the packaging through shared visual themes and textual phrases (tag lines and such). You want your promotional material to be as appropriate for commercial deployment as it can be. You want to make sure that your design plan explicates how the target audience would get their hands on this flyer.

This promotional material does connect with its corresponding package visually, which is good; however, this means that it has the same issues as the CD package. The overall theme seems ambiguous. "Mega Mixtape 2007" isn't very descriptive, and it isn't clear how the Simpsonesque characters and the gangster-ish font relate. Who is this CD for, and what does it offer them?

Other than this, dissemination is something you will need to address in your design plan. How would this work get in front of the correct audience, particularly if it is broad?

I think this promotional material helps tie together the various elements of your theme (college life, music, pizza). In fact, you might want to think about revising your packaging to incorporate these things better. Moreover, you'll want to make sure things like your title/logo are shared across the two works so that the audience can connect what they see in advertising with what they see in stores.

I like the choice of medium, and the modification of the pizza flyer genre. It's hard to tell from the online version, but you might be able to use a more amateur look to your advantage, because this work is a modification of a mass-produced pizza place flyer. That would be a case where the conventions of the genre would suggest a more rough, rather than a more polished, look.

Right now this material is pretty bare bones, so extensive commentary may not be helpful. There are a few things to keep in mind when doing a promotional website for this project. Perhaps the most important issue is how your audience will encounter this material. You design plan should explicate how audience members could find it. (In this situation, an answer such as "they could Google for it" isn't very strong, because how would they know to do that?)

There are other issues that you will want to think about: things like the use of "Songs" on the site when it appears that you mean "Lyrics." These will shake out more as you revise further.