Coke and D&G Advertisements

Coca Cola have got a reputation for producing brilliant advertising campaigns - from billboards to television commercials. Below are a couple of my personal favorites. On the right is the ad which uses illustrated characters - characters are a good safe way to gain customers and recognition - and although these are simple and minimal they communicate a fun tone of voice with an open audience.

The example on the right is very clever and eye catching. It is all pulled together with a great layout design. I love the idea behind an operating machine to make a bottle of coke. This is a nice concept - however it would not suite the style or tone of voice or Bacardi.

Dolce & Gabbana always have very sexually based advertisements. The examples above are no exception. In these examples you could argue some of them illustrate rape and abuse ... this is a tone of voice and style me and Andy do not really wish to replicate .. due to Bacardi's breif asking for a 'flirty' tone of voice .. not rape.

Brand Advertisments 2

Jack Daniels is a well known whisky brand with its own unique identity when it comes to advertisements. I will be later posting up some of the tv commercials JD have produced, however at the minute, i want to look at their billboard and poster ads. Straight away it is obvious that JD wish to solely advertise the drink, how its meausured and what it looks like. The ads always tend to be dark, the only mix of colour coming from the whisky in the bottle and the drop shadow in the picture.

While doing my research, i found other brands of whisky had the same idea when it came to advertising campaigns. Dark background with the only colour coming from the type and image. Very eye catching ad, but could become tedious to the viewer once its been seen more than 3 times.

Brand Advertisments

Smirnoff do some very inspirational ads. I love the piece below because of its use of type, image and layout. Its very eye catching and sticks in the viewers memory. Both me and Andy had several concepts which developed from viewing this piece however - we feel a more illustrated label would represent Bacardi better.

The above billboard/poster advertisements for Smirnoff are very affective. The tone of voice is flirty, mysterious and some what dark. My personal favorite is the top left example. It is simple and affective. And it is such a simple image ... fantastic.

Bottle Labels 2

Label designs are fundamental to any brand - be drink, food, washing-up powder etc. Below i have gathered several examples of illustrated bottle labels. Below left is a very unique design. Reminds me somewhat of the 'Lydia' album cover. The colours are very soft and beautiful, its affective and gives a sense of u unique tasting, expensive wine. The bottle itself has been coloured black, to top the eye from wandering away from its stunning label. Not the type of style me and Andy are looking at using, but another great example none the less.

Above right - this label is again, unique. Using a limited colour pallet (two tone) and using the space well, its again very affective. Although this is not one of my favorite examples i have selected. The illustrations although beautiful, make me think - am i going to trip out drinking this wine and imagine i'm being chased by zombies? Myself and Andy will be doing our illustrations with a softer tone of voice and a more lighthearted colour pallet (and illustrations wont trip you out)

The above illustrated labels are what me and Andy will be using for inspiration. The designs are very simple yet affective. The colour pallet is mixed and very strong - the tones of colour we can relate to exotic island, beaches, palm tree's etc. The left hand example will be looked at for it illustrated pal trees and beach huts. The layout is a bit too all-over the place, not set out in a professional enough standard for what we feel Bacardi would like. The right hand examples are again very nice - good use of colour and type. However once again the layout is too crammed together. This type of illustration with more positive space would be a beautiful example.

Bottle Labels

So since our last crit we decided not to design and manufacture a type of packaging. We instead decided to re-label the Bacardi bottles. To get inspiration for this, we looked at all types of label. From full colour to two tone. From type to illustration etc ... we looked at it all.

Below are a couple of the better examples we found using type.

The 'Cider' tins are very clever with their use of type. Using the given space wisely and minimal colour they produced a very affective and eye catching design.

The wine bottle on the right again is a very affective design. Using strong eye catching colours and allowing a lot of space around detailed areas is a winning combination. I love the '404' typeface and feel this is a very strong design to use as inspiration. However i dont feel the Bacardi bottle will need so much space. We are also unsure about colours, black and white, or full colour. View design practice to see what were doing.

Carlsberg Ads

After our latest crit, we were told to look into current and past tv commercials for drinks companies which include: Carlseberg, Fosters, Carling etc.

So below are some embedded Carlsberg ads along with my evaluation of each below.

Haha, it has to make you laugh. Carlsberg's well known tag-line (Probably be the best ? in the world) However i looked into this commercial mainly for the camera shots, colours, time etc. I like this ad, however it is different to our concept due to the target audience and the tone of voice. In this ad Carlsberg seem to advertise towards both sex's, however in my other examples the ads are targeted to the male audience. We want our ad to be targeted to a more civilized social group - not piss-heads dying for a shag.

Brilliant - oneof my favorite tv ads. This example is targetted to the male audience, our tastes, luxuries etc. And what every bloke wants in their home. A cook, tv changer, massive bedroom and a balcony over a football stadium. This ad - communicates affectively with its audience and sticks in the mind of the viewer because of its originality.

As the above example explains. This ad is once again just targeted towards the male audience. However this ad is less catchy than previous stronger concepts of Carlsbergs.

All in all the Carlebergs ads have been a huge help - and allowed me to view exactly how to approach your target audience is several different ways. Back to the storyboards.

Bacardi - Bottle research

With concepts flowing once again between Me and Andy - the label/bottle print came into mind instead of packaging. We took influence from Malibu - their bottles are printed to a high standard and have a unique, individual design. They tend to use a limited colour pallet which works well and the design stands out amongst its rival rums - including our very own Bacardi.

Above - The Malibu bottles include beautiful illustrations. A limited colour pallet and use of white space. This is definitely a great influence for what we wish to achieve. (Possibly the use of monotone colour in photoshop?)

Above - Some of the more exotic rums produced by Malibu use the colour of the beverage instead of bottle print - still works well, but i do prefer the illustrations.

Above - Well ... this is my kind of design. Again great inspiration for what we wish to achieve, lovely style and colour. Our advertising campaign will be based upon this concept.

Bacardi - Bottles

After the crit we decided the packaging of the bottle was no longer important and that the way we produce and label the bottle is now a fundamental factor for our project. Bacardi has a long hisory of advertising campaigns - each as good as the last. We plan on taking influence from Lynx and Malibu rum on their bottle and can labels. Colours, layouts, typefaces and scale are fundamental factors and need to be professional to the finish.

Nice to see Bacardi have already dipped a toe into the advertising area we are about to enter. Some of their previous bottle and label designs are beautiful. Historic advertising campaigns are eye catching, colourful and upbeat.

Bacardi - Beach bars

Throughout the initial research and development - Me and Andy always had a thought about the beach bars you see in exotic countries including Cuba. This could potentially be another area which we could target and base our designs upon. Our new design direction is to be more full on in the flirty tone of voice and relate our advertising campaign towards the history of Bacardi and Cuba itself.

Things to consider from here: Colour (bright, smooth and aesthetically pleasing). Layout and style - simple looking yet a piece of art with a distinct style.

Bacardi (Havana)

While creating new concepts and design directions. We stumbled on a problem - what our rum identities would be based on. So after some head scratching we though of the Havana building in Cuba (owned by Bacardi) Taking the outline to this building and others could make a nice piece of design. The bulilding itself is proper art-deco and each photograph of it is beautiful. Time to get designing ...