Experiment 1.
Title. #LeftyLegacy
Inspiration. I was looking to create something that would push my boundaries of creativity. Creating a print ad was the one thing that would challenge me to do something new while allowing me to dabble in a genre of communication that I plan on pursuing.
Read Time. 3 minutes
Genre Research.
Sample Sketch.
Introduction
For my first experiment, I created a print advertisement for the pen I currently use: The Uni-ball JETSTREAM 0.5 mm. As an aspiring advertiser, I wanted to challenge myself in creating an ad, start to finish. In my "Why I Write" essay, I use a pen and its smear to metaphorically showcase my understanding of my identity and the struggles and lessons that came along with it. In this print ad, I focus on the unique struggles of being left-handed while trying to show how those struggles do not define someone's legacy or identity. The latter objective was done by showing a variety of extremely successful left-handed individuals. It was important to highlight these names because looking at multiple different people - people who must have experienced many different lives from one another - allows someone to be more comfortable with their own identity while being able to grow too.
While more light-hearted than my AofO, I managed to create an ad that still plays a significance in my life. Not only did I target the left-handed demographic that I belong to, I included an aspect of identity that will help people think, share, or read about others, a goal that I will aim for in each of my experiments.
Reflection
In all honesty, this was extremely difficult. I wish I could’ve devoted more time to it, but a due date right in the heat of midterm season was unfortunate timing. As someone who only knows the basics of photoshop, I found myself spending more time creating the digital ad itself than brainstorming, planning, researching, etc. The most frustrating part was when I would have a really great idea, only to realize that my photoshop skills were insufficient to actually materialize my great idea. Nevertheless, I really enjoyed the process of creating the ad. From thinking about who to target, to thinking about what larger meaning I would create the ad with, I found myself constantly trying to improve my previous idea. I think this is why I want to go into advertising. There are so many ways to tell or sell a product, idea, story, etc. Though it gets frustrating switching from idea to idea, it is always great to look back and see the stages something has gone through. Retrospection on previous drafts always reminds me of my thought processes, what went wrong, what felt right, but ended up not working, etc. I believe this to be the same with writing, so it was interesting to see the similarities, but I guess it makes sense.