So in the effort to eliminate some of the confusion as to just what it is we do I decided a while back to split off our stair and railing sales fabrication and installation operation into it’s own dedicated brand and business unit and we’re in the process of getting that done. With this plan in mind it turned out I was by chance approached by a salesperson for a regional home & garden type magazine called NY Spaces about advertising in their publication. Since I had no time available myself to develop any ad work I was told their art department could put together something from the photos and graphics we already had so I took them up on the offer and thought I post the proof of the 1/2 page ad here to see what you all think.
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Jerrald. I like the ad very much except for the transition of the pic to the drawing. It just doesn't do the rest justice.
A great place for Information, Comraderie, and a sucker punch.
Remodeling Contractor just outside the Glass City.
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Calvin "Jerrald. I like the ad very much except for the transition of the pic to the drawing. It just doesn't do the rest justice."
Calvin are you talking about the photo to the monotone (pic to the drawing) not doing the rest of the ad justice? I like that and I'll explain my reasoning in a bit. It's the rest of the ad I have some problems with.
On the whole I think the ad is "okaaaay...". It'll do the job (which is to get the marketing program rolling) but I think it lacks some professional polish.
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Jerrald, I find it a little confusing that the ad features Stairscapes and Paradigm almost equally. I would probably move any mention of Paradigm to the bottom (i.e. the part that says 'a Paradigm Projects company') and make all of the type in that area smaller. What you want people to remember, I assume, is 'Stairscapes', so I would make that the big element.
To my way of thinking the photo is a good one but not the best. Some people will think you're doing floors. That's a great stair to show, but I would get a better angle on it and feature the woodwork. You could improve the photo you already have by cropping top, right, and bottom... more stair, less floor. That floor is so busy... it draws the eye away from your spectacular rail.
davidmeiland - "Jerrald, I find it a little confusing that the ad features Stairscapes and Paradigm almost equally."
That's what I said too and I requested that they change the relative sizes but I guess they didn't quite get what I was talking about. I said this is supposed to be a StairScapes ad not a ParadigmProjects ad and while I do want viewers to know that StairScapes is a ParadigmProjects company I think there is way too much ParadigmProjects in the ad.
"To my way of thinking the photo is a good one but not the best. Some people will think you're doing floors. That's a great stair to show, but I would get a better angle on it and feature the woodwork. You could improve the photo you already have by cropping top, right, and bottom... more stair, less floor. That floor is so busy... it draws the eye away from your spectacular rail. "
But that's okay in our book and actually part of the message we want to project. We're not stair builders in that we don't just build the stairs (like all the stair companies around us). We design and build "StairScapes". We provide a complete solution from the stairs to the finishing of the stairs and balustrades we install and all the other surfaces in the stair's environment (walls, floors etc.), so in a sense yes we do floors and we want people to think we will take care of that for them too.
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Jerrald - The combination of the photo and drawn stair are awkward and distracting to me.
For me, a single photo of your work would "announce" what you do and how well you do it.
I like the rest of the ad. It's clear, with enough info for a new customer.
That'll be 2 cents please...Buic
BUIC - "Jerrald - The combination of the photo and drawn stair are awkward and distracting to me."
Interesting reaction. The photo and the monotone image are actually what I really liked about the ad when I first saw it and that was 100% their idea.
"For me, a single photo of your work would "announce" what you do and how well you do it."
While they didn't quite get the color the way I wanted it on the monotone image I think the two together do convey what it is we do. We don't just build the stairs and build them well we also design the stair and the environment. The monotone image (which was supposed to be darker and therefore more blueprint like) supposedly represents or connotes the "idea" of what the stair will look like and the photo represents how it actually turns out.
"I like the rest of the ad. It's clear, with enough info for a new customer."
Interesting reaction again in that it's the "rest of the ad" that I think needed work.
So far no one has yet hit on what I think is a "problem" with the ad.
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"So far no one has yet hit on what I think is a "problem" with the ad."
They didn't use a photo of you?!
LOL
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I did get the blueprint idea, but I was thinking that instead of having the two seperate pics / drawings, you could show the upper half of the stair as a drawing and the lower half as finished.....lined up as one piece. The mental suggestion would be that we design/build, the design progresses into the finished product.
From: txlandlord - "
I did get the blueprint idea, but I was thinking that instead of having the two seperate pics / drawings, you could show the upper half of the stair as a drawing and the lower half as finished.....lined up as one piece. The mental suggestion would be that we design/build, the design progresses into the finished product."
I think for the "blueprint" feel to come off a little bit better than it does all it really needed was for the monotone image to be more indigo than light sky blue. More the color of the icons.
That image you just described is a very good idea but is actually a lot of work and while they certainly didn't have the time to do that even if they did I am not so sure they would have gone through that kind of trouble.
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And by the way Tx I should also mention that a lot of people have mentioned or complimented me on thinking up such a good domain name. Unfortunately however I can't take any credit at all for it. I stole the idea from a new book I picked up off the shelves in the bookstore.
Stairscaping : A Guide to Buying, Remodeling, and Decorating Interior and Exterior Staircases
by Andrew Karre
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You'll of course notice the cover illustration to Kare's book is almost exactly the illustration you were describing. Perhaps you should really be in publishing?
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You'll of course notice the cover illustration to Kare's book is almost exactly the illustration you were describing. Perhaps you should really be in publishing?
Some people are logic slanted in their mind, and others art brained.
I have been art brained all my life....fortunately I have a creative outlet in homebuilding.
Well, of course a problem is that "destinctive" is misspelled. Hope that was caught on the proof.
All media sources--periodicals, radio, tv--have departments that will produce the ads for you. The issue is the quality of the creative talent. Most people that think of themselves as top notch creative will aim for an ad agency, rather than the in-house group within a media company. That results in the especially lame radio and tv spots we sometimes hear.
On your ad, I'm not fond of the multitude of fonts and sizes. I also think you'd benefit from a line like "custom staircases designed, constructed, installed" to tell exactly what it is that you do. The icons hint at that, as does "designers builders artisans", except that I, as the reader, don't know what an artisan is and I don't know if you provide full service for the stairs or just handle pieces of it.
>The monotone image (which was supposed to be darker and therefore more blueprint like) supposedly represents or connotes the "idea" of what the stair will look like and the photo represents how it actually turns out.
Superimpose a line drawing, such as from a blueprint, on the monotone image so that the connection is more obvious. I missed the intent, and though you were just trying to be artsy. With a line drawing superimposed, the intent would be clear.
Edited 6/8/2006 9:33 pm ET by CloudHidden
CloudHidden - "Well, of course a problem is that "destinctive" is misspelled. Hope that was caught on the proof."
"Distinctive" is spelled correctly. Ya really scared me for a second here.
"All media sources--periodicals, radio, tv--have departments that will produce the ads for you. The issue is the quality of the creative talent. Most people that think of themselves as top notch creative will aim for an ad agency, rather than the in-house group within a media company...."
Yup the quality and/or experience of the creative talent is the question. I think the "creative talent" there is young (probaly in their early twenties) and while maybe having some talent they are still missing the maturity and polish of a more experienced artist.
"On your ad, I'm not fond of the multitude of fonts and sizes."
That IS the issue that really has me bothered. Too many different fonts make it appear disorganized and it then seems to lack "flow".
"I also think you'd benefit from a line like "custom staircases designed, constructed, installed" to tell exactly what it is that you do. The icons hint at that, as does "designers builders artisans", except that I, as the reader, don't know what an artisan is and I don't know if you provide full service for the stairs or just handle pieces of it."
That wasn't the line I asked for but I didn't get one anyway, so c'est la vie. While it does say what ParadigmProjects does (Distinctive & Artistic Building & Remodeling
Projects in New York and New England) it doesn't say what StairScapes does and as I mentioned earlier it is supposed to be a StairScapes ad not a ParadigmProjects ad.
"Superimpose a line drawing, such as from a blueprint, on the monotone image so that the connection is more obvious. I missed the intent, and though you were just trying to be artsy. With a line drawing superimposed, the intent would be clear."
I actually do think they came up with the monotone idea just to be "artsy" but I think they lucked out and it does work okay in that regard. I don't necessarily think it's important to club people over the head with the idea that hey this is a blueprint and this is the way the finished product looks. In showing the ad to several people I know locally but who aren't close friends I found a few of them picked up on that so I think it does work to some degree.
But the foont clutter and disorganization is what really bothers me and I will personally rework all that for the next ad.
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CloudHidden - "Well, of course a problem is that "destinctive" is misspelled. Hope that was caught on the proof.""Distinctive" is spelled correctly. Ya really scared me for a second here.***Jerrald, on the image that *I* see in your original post, it is spelled incorrectly as "Destinctive". :(Rebeccah
####! You and Cloud are right. I just checked the copy that I sent them and I had it spelled correctly and they must have tinkered with it.
I just emailed them to advise them and I'll just hope they can still fix it.
A while back here I told the story of how when I first set up my Paradigm-360 website that had spelled Paradigm incorrectly as Paradimg in the graphics in the header that appeared on each page and it was a week or so before anyone I knew who I had invited to preview my site ever noticed. In fact no one noticed, I was the one who ended up spotting my mistake. (msg 36864.39) Well this time it was their fault not mine so I guess I will be entitled to complain about it.
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CloudHidden - "Well, of course a problem is that "destinctive" is misspelled. Hope that was caught on the proof."
Well I advised them about the error and they fixed it. It might have been some young designer "helping me out" by fixing what they he or she thought was my spelling error. I know that they were working in Adobe Illustrator and being I'm a Macromedia Freehand guy I'm wondering doesn't Illustrator have a spell checking utility built into to it?
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Jerrald
I like it!
Sometimes I think I'm to stupid to pick up on the subtleties of advertisement so after reading your reason for the mono pic following the top one it became more clear.
I know that you say that your straped for time so you let them do the work but if your mono pic was actually a drawing maybe that would help. Just a suggestion.
Someone else mentioned that they were a bit confused by the amount of floor showing, I dont think thats a concern but then again.......like I said in the first paragraph.
Doug
>but if your mono pic was actually a drawing maybe that would helpGreat minds think alike!
DougU - "
I know that you say that your straped for time so you let them do the work but if your mono pic was actually a drawing maybe that would help. Just a suggestion."
Yeah I didn't really do anything to the ad other than tell them change this color to that after I saw the first draft and since they we pressed for time I only got one shot at looking at it and they didn't quite do what I asked for but like I said I think the ad is okaaaay but could have been done a lot better.
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First, I tried to play it backwards, but I didn't hear any demonic messages. Next, I tried to syncronize it with the with the Wizard of Oz, again, nothing happened.
I'm disappointed, but when I held it up to my ear, I did hear the ocean.
Trying to catch me riding dirty.
OK, here is my "professional" two cents.
Find another project photo you can use, similar to the one you have but more vertical in aspect ratio. Ask the art department to create a "working" line drawing of the same image with dimensions, etc., something that should be pretty easy to pull off.
Then have them composite the two images using Photoshop so that the top half of the image is the photo and the bottom half is a line drawing. Using a mask, the image will appear to transform from top to bottom, concept to completion, vision to reality.
If you drop the Paradigm Projects info at the very bottom you'll have room to add some text supporting Stairscapes. Just keep it minimal.
Other than that, the layout is clean, simple and conveys a very professional image.