Advertising –MCM501 VU

LESSON 17
THE CREATIVE PROCESS AND MEANING OF LAYOUT
CREATIVITY
• Creativity is generally defined in aesthetic terms as “the ability to produce useful ideas, originality,
imagination or the capacity of joining two or more elements to form a new unity or purpose.”

• There is an unending argument about the domain of creativity.

• One school of copywriters feel that creativity is a serious affair that comes from inspiration and a
lengthy individual thought process, hence, it had better be left to the copywriters.

• There are others who feel that creativity is the result of team-work, especially till the ideation stage.

ATTRIBUTES IN A CREATIVE PERSON

• Skilled in the art of brain picking

• Possesses a sense of humor

• Not boring

• Ambitious

• Passionate

• Hardworking

• Knows all there is to be known about the product

• Copy writers need a database to work on. The following checklist of ‘Product Marketing Facts’ could
prove very useful to them.

Product Marketing Facts

Identity: Trademarks, Trade names, product symbols and other copyrighted or patented information.
• Packaging: Size/sizes offered, shape of package, design package, styling, color, special protection for
product, package label.

• Research: What research the company has about the product and its availability to the creative team?

• Performance: What does the product do? What is it expected to do that it does not?

• How does it work?

• How is it made or produced?

• What is in it in terms of raw material, preservatives, chemicals, special ingredients and nutrients, etc. ?

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Advertising –MCM501 VU
Physical characteristics
• What are its physical characteristics, in terms of color, appearance, smell, taste, texture, etc.

Effectiveness
• The proof of its quality and performance, are there any government stipulations or regulations that
need to be mentioned or followed?

Product image
• How do people view the product?

• What do they like or dislike about the product?

• Is it a luxury, a necessity, a habit or self-indulgence, or is it that people have to have it but wished
they did not have it?

Life span
• What is the life span of the product?

Competitive information
• Who are the competitors, does the product have any advantage over them, Does it have any
disadvantages, do rival products present problems that this one solves?

Manufacturing
• How is it made, how long it take, how many steps are needed in the process, the people involved in
making it Are there any special process or machines used to manufacture the product and where is it
made?

History
• When was it created or invented, who introduce it, has it had any other names, have there been any
product changes, Is there any emotion or romance attached to it?

• What is the total market or share of this product?

Consumer need
• How is the product used? Are there many possible uses, how frequently is it purchased, what kind of
person buys the product, why is bought? Personal use, gift, work. What kind of person uses the
product most?

Distribution
• How widely is the product distributed? Are there exclusive sellers.

Is there a ready supply or limited amount or is it available for a short time or is it seasonal.
MEANING OF DESIGN AND LAYOUT

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• Design and layout almost carry the same meaning as consisting of the overall structure of the
advertisement copy.

• Layout is the arrangement of various elements of advertisement copy i.e. headlines, illustrations,
slogans, text closing idea and

• the identification mark in regard to one another.

• As an advertising colloquialism layout is a condensed way of saying “ laying out the elements of an
advertisement within specific space limitations”

• A radio does not utilize illustrations except those that the medium can create with a description.

Functions of an advertising layout

• An advertisement layout is a blue print .

• The main functions of the layout are:

• Assembling different parts: The main function of layout is to assemble and arrange the different
elements or parts of an advertisement into unified presentation of the sales message.

• Opportunity of modification: The layout offers an opportunity to the creative teams, agency
management and the advertiser to suggest modification before its final approval.

• Specification for costs: The layout provides specification for estimating costs, and it is a guide for
engravers, typographers & other craft workers to follow in producing the ad.

Uses of layouts
• A layout is an overall orderly arrangement of all the format elements of an ad: headline, subheads,
visuals, copy, captions, trademarks, slogans & signature.

• The layout serves several purposes:

• It helps both the agency and client develop and evaluate the ads final look & feel.

• It gives the client (usually not an artist)a tangible item to correct , change , comment on and approve.

• The layout helps the creative team develop the ads’ psychological elements – the nonverbal and
symbolic components.

• The look of the ad should elicit an image or mood that reflects and enhances the advertiser and the
product.

• Once the best design is chosen , the layout serves as a blueprint.

• It shows the size and placement of each element in the ad.

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Advertising –MCM501 VU

• Once the production manager knows the dimension of the ad, the number of photos, the amount of
typesetting, and the use of art elements such as color and illustrations, he or she can determine the
cost of producing the ad.

Principles of the layout

• The various steps in the layout are the progression from visualization to the final artwork, when it is
ready for sending for production.

• The art director or the visualizer starts with the thumb nail sketches, also know as idea generation
miniatures.

• There are simple drawings that contain ads basic elements.

• A good layout should have the following basic elements:

BASIC ELEMENTS OF LAYOUT

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• Balance is a fundamental law of nature and life. Odd things stand out.

• In layout, it is related to the optical center of an advertisement.

• The optical center is the point which the eye designates as the center of an area.

2) Proportion
• Proportion is related to balance but is concerned primarily with the division of the space and the
emphasis needed to be accorded to each element.

• Proportion also involves the tone of the ad., i.e., the amount of the light area in relation to the dark
one and the amount of color required and the decision to avoid color.

3) Movement
• Eyes follow a particular movement. This is the result of reading a particular kind of script early from
life.

• Readers of western and Devanagari script are habitual of looking at the reading material from left to
right and then from top to bottom.

• The Arabic script in which Persian and Urdu are written goes from right to left.

4) Unity
• Unification oft the layout is what is meant by term unity. All the elements in the ad must be united to
a composite whole.

• This is achieved when the element tie into one another by making use of the same basic shapes.

• Unity can be achieved by grouping the elements, by encasing the ad in a border, by aligning one
element with another or by overlapping of the elements.
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5) Mood
• Sizes, textures, colors, illustrations and the type also contribute to create a mood for the ad.

• It is always ideal to choose type from one family to create the right harmony and the mood.

• Similarly, use of white space also creates the appropriate mood.

• The two basic devices for illustrating an ad are:

• Photography and

• Drawing

Photography:
• Pictures in advertisement create a feeling of immediacy, live action, speed, empathy, association and
flexibility.

• The pictures encompass a variety of subjects, viz, people, animals, flowers, monuments, birds, object
etc.

• These are selected on the basis of the aim of the ad.

• The selection of right characters is very important.

• Professional photography is a specialized area and agencies generally have on their panel
photographers from various fields of specialization, like fashion, nature, profiles, table top, industry ,
children, etc.

Drawings:
• Illustration is used in an ad when visualizer feels that its impact will be more than that of a
photograph. A number of techniques are used in producing drawings. Some of these include the
following:

• Line drawings

• Wash drawings

• Line drawings:

• In this everything is sharp, precise and in black and white without any grey tones. Cartoons are
generally done as line drawings.

• Wash Drawings:

• A wash drawing can be defined as an illustration using tones and shades and can be in one or more
colors.

• It can be in both realist or impressionist style.

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Advertising –MCM501 VU

• Fashion and furniture ads at times use this technique as these look very attractive and distinct. Other
styles include scratch board, acrylic, tempera and water color techniques.

6) Color psychology
• No reference to advertising can be complete unless one speaks about color or rather the role of
color.

• Color adds realism, besides beauty and distinctiveness. The right blend of colors adds a dash of
magic to the ad.

• Colors have a psychology of their own and various colors depict various moods.

7) Typography
• Typography is the art of selecting typefaces, of which there are hundreds of designs; blending
different typefaces, casting off the number of words to fit spaces, and marking up copy for
typesetting, using different sizes and weights.

• Good typography leads to legibility and attractiveness and certain designs of type can create style and
character or be characteristics of the advertised subject.

• Typography is yet another area that needs to be considered carefully, especially in print advertising
material.

• Type styles are chosen keeping in view the objectives and strategy of the campaign.

• There are two classes of type:

• Display type

• Text type

• The former is used in headlines, sub-heads, logos, addresses and when there is need to emphasize
any matter.

• For body copy, the smaller text type is made use of.

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