DESIGN: Virtual Reality Culture Jam Ads

As you heard from my previous post, I have been creating a series of culture jammed advertisements based upon the remediation of stereoscopic technology from the late 1800's, to the mid 1950's, to present day 2015. For my project I took each of these advertising styles and culture jammed the technology presented in each one.

The first step was creating photoshoots and post-production editing that mirrored the style of each era, which can be read about here.

Once the initial images were edited, I moved from working in Adobe Photoshop to Adobe Illustrator to create the advertisements. I was very particular in finding the balance of creating an advertisment appropriate of the times, but also having the same message obviously repeated in each scenario.

1800's

Most advertising was featured in newspapers that were very text heavy as photographs were still quite rare and often illustrations or decorations were used to make the ad eye-catching. The use of bold and elaborate typefaces that broke away from a newspaper's endless column's of text would easily draw attention.

I looked at old advertisements from the late 19th century to try and find common themes and trends from the time. Typewriter Slab-serif typefaces were used for the nitty-gritty details on the specifics of products. Painstakingly laid out, the technical design information would be available so that consumers knew exactly what they were purchasing. The product title and a catch-phrase would be presented in an elaborate large, bold, typeface so that it could not be missed. There were often imperfections in spacing or how text lined up as these advertisements were pasted together by hand before going to the printing press.

Recreating this 'hand-made' look in a digital format was harder than I may have originally thought. Digital art editors want to help you make the cleanest project possible, whereas I was looking to make a weathered and imperfect poster. This meant adding colours and textures to the final product to give it that stained and worn look of newsprint of the time.

1950's

For this set of advertisements, the industry of the mid-20th century was moving into the revolutionary use of coloured images and inks in advertising. While photos may still have been taken with black and white film, they could be coloured afterwards for use in print advertisements. These colours were somewhat limited and never quite true to reality, but definitely made ads pop in bold new ways. Typefaces were also becoming bolder and edgier as they moved closer to the 1960's and san-serif typefaces became popular. In advertising, less text was used to sell products than previously, instead with flashy (now somewhat 'cheesy') catch-phrases. Often toys and entertainment products were targetted towards the housewife or the entire family, promising to make life easier and the family happier.

2015

It is difficult to pinpoint one advertising style in today's ever expanding digital industry, but I chose to create my present day advertisements with inspiration from the clean minimalist advertisements for Apple and Google products. Across the board, advertising today is all about the mystery, suspense, and anticipation that can be attached to a new piece of technology. Companies are not about laying technical jargin on the consumer of what the newest gadget is made out of, but rather only presents the atmosphere of an idea for what the product should be. These types of advertisements are muted in tones, almost to the point of appearing cold, but also desirable. Images are symmetrical and negative space is present as much as positive space. I still kept in the message that connects all three series ("See the world like never before") but even simplified it to a shorter and more mysterious message. Simple sans-serif fonts keep with this clean, structured look.

Overall, I'm incredibly happy with how these six advertisements turned out and was excited about the challenge this project presented me in developing my design skills and researching work from the past. The topic is fascinating in and of itself and I may have a new addiction to Google Cardboard.