Midterm: Karel Rasovsky

Concept/Intention

The banner is a concept for a contemplated business that will focus on digital marketing, web design and creative work. The first objective is to capture the attention. Related to that is the next step – how to make someone to take action. Some elements how to accomplish that:

· Distinct, pleasing color scheme with tones of green/yellow.

· A visual that projects the identity of the firm. Background of spider webbing (=design and web) and clover leaf (for “clover studios”).

· Follow the “left to right” sweep of the reader’s eyes. Start with “who” on the left, move to “take action” on the right.

· Avoid coming across as “screaming” thus equated with “repulsive”. Rather, project a balanced, clean and engaging design.

· Simple, easy to read font (no caps); white text projected on dark background to stand out

· Express the core competencies in sound bites - no more than three words (web, creative, marketing)

· Offer the tools to reach us (800 number on the left, click for online info on the right)

Process/Tools

The banner is a composition of two images (spider web, clover leaf), bottom info stripe, shapes (arrows) and text. Manipulating the images in Photoshop has become easy by now J I started with a square-shaped spider web photo. Just stretching it into the new banner dimensions (780px x 150px) followed by a horizontal flip created the desired effect – less defined background, with the web strands becoming thicker and more pronounced. On to selecting the clover leaf! How about showing only half of it to add a bit of a mystery? The glow behind was created with a white smudge on the background, blurred with Gaussian noise. (I tried a clear gradient, but did not seem to work as well.)

The blending options offered many impressive results. But for my simple theme, the combination I liked best was Bevel/Emboss combo, giving the leaf a solid, 3D feel. Turning on Outer/Inner glow enhanced the effect even more. Staying with the green theme, I mixed a green tone for the bottom info banner to match it with the top background.

The role of the text was then to project clean lines, simplicity, and be on point. That is reflected in my choices: minimalist font, no caps, little or no enhancements.

Experimenting with “shapes” available in Photoshop was a learning experience. For practice sake, I used one of the shapes to create my “click here” prompt.

End Results

It was a good first try. The banner modestly meets the objectives outlined initially. No doubt, with some practice, it can be made much better. I see many areas for improvement: the background could use a different blending technique as it seems too busy (I just don’t know what technique at this point), the leaf (as good of a visual as it is) can be made more distinct, and a special font type would make it more elegant. There is always next time. In the end, what counts most is that I am thoroughly enjoying the creative side of it!