Marketing Design and

Advertising
Lecture 1 - Introduction

Dr. Ann Laenen

The study-unit provides guidance on how marketing
executives can make the most of digital media to meet
m a rke t i ng g o a l s . M a rke t i ng d e s i g n t o o l s a nd
techniques are introduced to help students understand
the methods for implementing effective marketing
communications in the real world.
What is your background and what do
you expect from the course?
 What is the course about?

• Objectives

• Learn key design tools and techniques for developing

effective marketing content

• Build visual content

• Focus on visual design, advertising and design

management

• Be able to constructively criticize design

Two men handing over a paper outside
But what you see is not always what you get
http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20170629-the-hidden-signs-that-can-reveal-if-
a-photo-is-fake
 We will look at

• Images and Image making

• Typography

• Colour

• Composition

• Brand Identity

• Campaigns
 How?

• Combination of Lecturing and Hands-on Practice and introduction to

demo’s

• Tasks
• Discussing the tasks in class
• Assignment
• You are free to choose the tools you like to use both in the tasks and in
the assignment

• Highly qualitative work is expected

• BE CREATIVE
 Assessment
Criteria

Process Outcome

Aesthe2cs

Impact
>>>> this course is an opportunity to learn and show your
marketing skills in practice. So participate actively in class.
Take notes but most of all think critically during this 2hr
course.
 Use of Online material and tools

• This is encouraged as long as you have permission to use the

material (e.g. creative commons content)

• If used for assessed work, ensure that any content used

which is not your own IS APPROPRIATELY REFERENCED
and you clearly state which part is the outcome of your
work and which part is not.
 Software

• The main software used for demos is GIMP/Photoshop and

Inkscape/Illustrator
• You may use any other software
 Resources Tools

• Adobe Creative Team (Ed.). (2012). Adobe Illustrator CS6

Classroom in a Book. Peachpit Press.

• Hiitola, B. (2012). Inkscape Beginner's Guide. Packt

Publishing Ltd.

• Smith, J., Joost, R., & Prokoudine, A. (2012). GIMP for

Absolute Beginners. Apress.

• Tutorial, (2014). W3Schools. W3Schools. com [online].

• GIMP online tutorial: https://www.gimp.org/tutorials/ [online]

Unit Overview
The design in the process of production
What is design?
One important group of definitions is based on the idea that
everything we do is design

“All men are designers. All that we do, almost all the time, is
design, for design is basic to all human activity." (Victor
Papnek, 1972, Design for the Real World)

>>> too problematic, because too broad.

>>> Design connected to a specific type of action

“Design causes ambiguities because it has more than one

common meaning: it can refer to a process (the act or practice
of designing); or to the result of that process (a design, sketch,
plan or model); or to the products manufactured with the aid
of a design (designed goods); or to the look or overall pattern
of a product (‘I like the design of that dress’).” (John Walker
(1989), defining the object of study)
What is bad/good design?
 Thinking in images
Images have the ability to convey an idea
or a lot of information very quickly, which
is why images are such a prominent part
of graphic design. As we all know, a
picture paints a thousand words, so it is
worth spending adequate time on image
selection and presentation.
Images can be used to communicate in many different ways as they are very
versatile and their reading can be conditioned by other factors at play during
their presentation. Images can have different cultural and social interpretations
and these can be shaped by the contexts within which they are used.
The cultural groups they are directed towards, the inclusion or exclusion of
particular signs and symbols shared by a cultural group, the use or absence
of conditioning agents such as wit and humour and appropriation of historical
meaning, are all factors that might influence the meaning drawn from an image.
The way an image or design is rendered also has an impact; a black-and-white
sketch conveys a different feel from a glossy print, for example.
Design Thinking Refinement

Receiving and interpreting images

What this means in practice is that one cannot just show a picture of a house. The designer must think
about other design aspects that will condition how the viewer receives or interprets the image of the house.
Ambrose & Harris, Design Thinking, p. 83
Does the house represent an Englishman’s castle, a home, an architectural work, a source of joy or sorrow?
Design is influenced by technological
evolution
Design is influenced by age, culture and
context
"Good designers never start by trying to solve the problem
given to them: they start by trying to understand what the
real issues are. As a result, rather than converge upon a
solution, they diverge, studying people and what they are
trying to accomplish, generating idea after idea after
idea." (Don Norman)
Don Norman: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G7MeRkDkRN4
Don Norman, Design of Everyday Things, p. 50
An Overview of the Schwartz theory of Basic Values
So think about what you design, for
whom, why and how
 for user-group and stakeholder review, prior to being presented to the client.

Selection sees the proposed solutions reviewed against the design brief
objective. Some solutions might be practical but may not be the best ones.

Implementation sees design development and its final delivery to the client.

Learning helps designers improve their performance and, for this reason,
designers should seek client and target audience feedback and determine if
the solution met the goals of the brief. This may identify improvements that
can be made in the future.

While the design process is often linear, as shown below, it frequently involves
revisiting earlier segments for reworking as it evolves.
Design Thinking Stages of thinking

The seven stages of design

Define Research Ideate Prototype Select Implement Learn

Brief Background Solutions Resolve Rationale Delivery Feedback

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Stage 1 – Define
Establishing what the problem is.
This is the first stage in any design process and almost always involves
generating or receiving a design brief.

The brief
A design brief presents the client’s requirements for a job. These may be verbal
or written, simple or complex. A brief contains a specific goal that is to be met by
the design but it may also be couched in terms that have varying interpretations.

A brief may be as basic as ‘we need a brochure that makes us appeal to

20–30-year-olds’ or ‘we need a brochure that makes us appear cool and stylish’.
As a working relationship develops between a designer and a client over several
jobs, a greater understanding of what key terms mean is obtained. A designer
needs to interpret the brief and define what words such as ‘stylish’ and ‘cool’
mean. This ensures that both parties have shared expectations. This may involve
questioning the validity of the brief’s elements. For example, a brochure might
not be the best way to reach out and appeal to 20–30-year-olds, and perhaps
an online campaign would be more effective?

Writing and re-writing a brief

Clients have varying experiences of design services. For this reason, the quality
of the briefs that they provide will also vary. A brief needs to include anything
that will allow the design team to initiate the design process. However, if it is
not robust enough, it may need to be rewritten and reworked with the client.

Checklist:
Do you understand what the client is asking for?
Does the client understand what they are asking for?
Do you agree on the definition of terms?
Does the brief have any flaws?
Can you manage client expectations?
Design for Visual Communication
 Designing for print

• Type of print: magazine, flyer, advert, publication

• Image selection
• Lighting
• Picture Composition
• Colour vs. B&W
• Infographics
• Design for large format vs small format
 Designing for Online content

• Basics of Human Computer Interaction (HCI)

• Interaction design
• User Experience (UX)
• Responsive Design
• Wireframeing and Prototyping
https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/article/skeuomorphism-is-dead-long-live-
skeuomorphism
• Skeuomorphism is a term most often used in graphical user
interface design to describe interface objects that mimic their
real-world counterparts in how they appear and/or how the
user can interact with them. A well-known example is the
recycle bin icon used for discarding files. Skeuomorphism
makes interface objects familiar to users by using concepts
they recognize.

• It has been widely debated, however, whether users have

become so accustomed to interacting with graphical user
interfaces that skeuomorphism is no longer necessary.
Opponents of skeuomorphism argue that natural-looking
objects can make an interface look cluttered and that some of
the objects mimicked in skeuomorphism have become obsolete
and meaningless to users (e.g., the floppy disk for the “Save”
action). Proponents, on the other hand, argue that
humans can never become as accustomed to the digital world
as we are to the physical world—so, simple skeuomorphism
will continue to be helpful.
https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/topics/skeuomorphism
http://www.creativebloq.com/graphic-design/what-flat-design-3132112
• Flat design reverts back to the most basic principles of design to
move a user’s eye around the page

• Flat design forces a designer to really take notice of typography

and layout (an area where web-design has lagged behind
traditional design)

• Flat is better for responsive design (easier to reconfigure in

different devices and sizes then images and textured elements)
Design guidelines for both print and online
• Hierarchy

• Alignment

• Contrast

• Proximity

• Empty spaces

• Visual Design psychology

Visual Design Skills
• Selecting Colour

• Contrast

• Typography

• Perspective

• Composition and Photography

• Brand Identity

• Campaigns
 Task for next week

• Design an advert for an BBQ event that [name a

company/NGO] is organising on the 14th of October
as part of its fundraising activities.
• Upload the advert on the VLE by Sunday 8pm.
• The adverts may be displayed and discussed in class.

Note: This task is not assessed. Its objectives will be made clear in the coming weeks. Do not
worry if you feel that you do not have the right skills to do an aesthetically pleasing ad. You
are not expected to know design techniques at this stage. In this unit you will learn the tips
and trick that will improve your designing’ skills.