Design 1: Re-draft

After creating my initial designs I took them to a selection of my target audience to gain their opinions. This provided me with a number of improvements that I could make:

• The general feedback that the colours needed re-thinking. The previous sky was too bright and blue. I decided to go for something more dramatic with more contrast than saturation.
• Secondly the title has been improved. I shrunk it down and pulled the font in thinner. It has also been moved so that the statue's head doesn't cover it up as much.
• I then opted for the "The Taste of Brazil" tagline. My feedback told me that this was more popular and that it sold a better image of the beer.
• The beer in the hand has been re-scaled so it matches the size of the statue better. It has also been moved down so that the logo on the bottle is clearly visible.
• Finally I have also added a drink aware website link at the bottom as I noticed other alcohol company's had done this on their posters.

Designs 2 & 3

After doing some research online I found this advert that Skol created. Although in a foreign language it clearly emphasises the point that lager is a light beer. This inspired my next poster.

These are the two new concepts I have created both based on the same design. The one on the left is in real image, whereas I have applied a cut-out filter to the right one. This was to emphasise the colours and to also make it look better edited in terms of lighting and shadows that should be on the bottle.

I searched for a font that was appropriate for my ad. I wanted something that would symbolise a feeling of lightness and innocence without even really needing to read it. I decided upon this one called Blackjack which I got from dafont.com. It's style looks calm and relaxed and so fits in with our product's image. I also decided that I would not capital letters on the posters. This was because it looked to harsh on the page and dragged unnecessary attention away from the product.

Design 1

I have started to begin Photoshopping my hand drawn designs onto the computer. Below is the first concept I have created.

As you can see this is my Christ the Redeemer poster. I have done two different versions, the only difference being the tagline. I have edited the photograph by adding in the Skol lager into the statue's hand and curling his finger's around the bottle. I have also given him a smile to create a more positive message.

I may further develop these and include extra information. I am also still unsure of the colours of whether or not the red and vibrant blue are too striking. I am going to show the posters to some test users to get extra opinions.

Design Idea 4

My final idea is perhaps the most controversial. However my research showed me that shock advertising can be the most powerful. I have tried to create a shock factor without stepping too far over the line. By challenging the taboo it will hopefully get people talking about the ad, therefore increasing the awareness of our product.

The poster is of the famous Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio De Janerio. I have also compared the beer to wine. This was for two reasons, firstly: it obviously relates to Christ and the last supper but also its a light drink similar to wine. This is designed to change people's mind sets about light beer. Instead of seeing it as "sissy" lager, people will view it as more of a casual drink. The slogan suggests that the lager is saviour from wine and simply gives them another choice of a light, social alcoholic drink.

My inspiration for creating a controversial ad comes from the reasonably recent Foster's poster. This was criticised for being sexist as it was originally a man holding the beer. However after complaints Foster's changed the model to a female.

Design idea 3

This poster focuses on the beer's popularity in Brazil. I have tried to create an action packed and colourful poster in order to attract attention.

The poster is basically an ordinary English street, decorated in the style of a Rio De Janerio carnival. It will have carnival flags draping the street, eccentrically dressed Brazilian dancers and musicians as well as little trademarks related to the country, e.g. the Christ the Redeemer statue placed subtly in the background.

At the top I have also done some bottle designs. The original bottle is already brown but in the interest of design I had an attempt at recolouring it in green. I showed this to my group but together we decided the brown sums up the beer better. Brown evokes a feeling of heat and summertime. Perhaps suggesting a tan too. According to my research as well, brown bottles don't filter in as much light meaning that the beers stay fresher and hold flavour better, particularly in hot countries (i.e. Brazil.)

Design idea 2

My research told me that Skol never really advertised the fact that it was a light beer. With the current drinking problem and people exceeding their recommended weekly alcohol limits my group and I decided that we could exploit this fact into our favour.

The poster I have created has been designed to portray the fact that its light by having the bottle resting in the clouds. It also symbolises innocence to highlight to people its not as bad for you (in terms of units) compared to other lagers on the market.

First design idea

My first drawing is a copy of Skol's iconic mascot: Hager the Horrible.

He was used mainly in the 80's but hasn't been associated with the brand for some time. My idea was to maybe bring him back but in a more up to date way.

Today his image out of date. An overweight, stumpy character may imply the wrong message about drinking beer and may instead incur negative connotations in a world when men are much more conscious about their image than they were 30 years ago.

Being a light beer its also hard to take seriously when a big, manly viking is advertised as drinking it. It almost looks sarcastic and a bit of a joke.

My ideas would be to slim down the viking and make him more muscly so that he's got some qualities the 21st century man aspires to.

My idea of bringing back the old mascot takes inspiration from an ad campaign ran by Tetley's Tea. Recently they brought back their old mascots which appeared in their ads in the 90s. Hopefully people will remember them and they will perhaps bring back old customers.

Mon 7th Nov

After our previous meeting it was decided that I would be in charge in creating the posters for our ad campaign. I have produced some rough paper based sketches that I plan on re-creating on the computer.

To make it clearer I will explain each design in separate posts.