Project #4 - Full Page Publication Ad

The next project in Digital File Prep is a magazine ad that will be full page. The guidelines for this project are set by the magazine we each chose to advertise in and we were told to submit our files as we would if we were actually submitting it to the magazine publisher. Our only real requirement for this project is to do a full page ad and include a Microsoft Tag. Microsoft Tag's are very similar to the QR codes that we had used in our notepad project but they are proprietary to Microsoft an require their special reader on your smart phone. One key difference with the tags is that they aren't near as ugly looking as the QR code. They can either be in black and white, 4-color CMYK or actually have an image embedded in them. In addition to this, If you are the creator of the tag, you are able to log into your account and check how many times the tag has been scanned and checked out. Very cool stuff!

Now, onto the project. I chose to advertise bikes in Men's Health. According to the specifications given by the magazine, my document size will need to be 11.22x8.46 with a bleed of .12 all the way around. My ad will contain a 4-sided bleed image that encompasses the entire page with minimal text and content to take away from the image. The content of the ad will be the image, a logo of the company, the Microsoft Tag and a tagline of "Conquer the Trails". My target audience will be men from ages 25-40 that enjoy biking in tough terrains. My call to action will be to get them to check out the bike, as well as scan in the Microsoft Tag and get more information about the product.

 

The final product

The background image I used is a Duotone image. One thing that I found challenging about this project is that the magazine I had chosen gave me their measurements in millimeters so I needed to convert them over to inches and then they didn't state exactly what the bleed, trim size and live area were. This required me to do a little math (Which I'm absolutely terrible at). Overall, I'm pleased with the final product and how it turned out in the end. 

Image of man on bike licensed under Creative Commons. Microsoft Tag is copyright Microsoft. All other images created by Jordan Frederick