Billboard Design

Purplegurl

Senior Member
The brief for my latest Uni assignment was to design a billboard poster for Guinness sponsoring the olympic games in 2012. This is only to be a concept idea and does not need to be a polished, finished design. We designed alternative logos for the 2012 Olympics in a previous assignment which had to be included on the billboard design as well as the 'drink aware' logo. I would appreciate any thought you may have on my design.
Thanks in advance Kate :D

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Love the copy!

As this is more about the idea than the execution, there's not a great deal else to say.
 
Perhaps the image is too small to see here ... but its a reference to ALL the gold medals we won in swimming at the last olympics ... those poor Ozzies didnt stand a chance :) ... The image is basically a guy swimming through liquid gold / Guinness
 
But it doesn't just have to be about the swimming events. The gold can refer to being the best at any and every event. The 'liquid gold' is the reference and link to the drink (precious, perfect Guinness etc. etc.).

In fact, this may benefit from not eluding to a specific event, just the overall reach for perfection both on the field and in the pub... blah, blah...
 
Nice attempt but... concept doesn't fly within the Guinness brand structure. An outdoor poster has @4 seconds mental recognition as outdoor 48/96 sheet is aimed primarly at moving motorists. Guinness brand is based on simplicity and 'black and white' the two brand colours. Secondary brand propositions are patience and worth. This is a hard project as you have to fully understand the brand culture to make the idea float. The Olympics is a bit of a red herring as it leads the idea. make the Olympics fit into the Guinness brand rather than the other way round. I was taught and tell students to add the 'So what' theory to the end of your concept. If you can say so what? after seeing your idea then it hasn't worked. You must use the idiot test. Simple, simple, simple, K.I.S.S
 
Well I was originally going to go with a more traditional Black n White concept as you can see below. I just felt this has been done to death! The idea of using gold/yellow actually came from the retro tocun guinness ads where the tocuns beak was a yellow colour so its not completely outside of the guinness brand structure. The use of colourful sports scenes is also fairly well used within recent guinness ad campaigns eg. Guinness Premireship Rugby, so this style of poster does have precedence.

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Surely, as this is a first year college project, the idea and concept for a hypothetical ad comes way before conforming to whatever real-life creative their agency has set.

College, especially the first year, is the one time where you don't have to worry about real brand guidelines for hypothetical ads—such freedom should be encouraged at this stage.
 
matt said:
Surely, as this is a first year college project, the idea and concept for a hypothetical ad comes way before conforming to whatever real-life creative their agency has set.

College, especially the first year, is the one time where you don't have to worry about real brand guidelines for hypothetical ads—such freedom should be encouraged at this stage.


And that is why 6% of college graduates only ever get a full time job in this business. And 94% end up being bar staff, 'freelancers' or on the tills at Tesco's
 
Do you honestly think that first year design students should adhere to specific brand guidelines when learning to develop fresh ideas on hypothetical briefs‽
 
Hi Katie,

Like the idea of liquid gold, and the copy/slogan as mentioned earlier in the thread and the reasoning behind that, I think if you had a black and white image/photo of an athlete then just had a slight touch of gold it could really stand out, but the image would need to be quite dark I think.

Other than that have you thought about the Guinness connection with the World Records book series, seems like too much of a good connection to ignore with something like this? I know the Guinness brewery company no longer owns the book/brand, but there's potential for linking the fact that the brewery were the ones who created the book, something like 'We have a history in World Records'? (Just as an idea, although your brief may be against some connection like this?)

HTH
Greg
 
Thank you Matt ... my thoughts exactly... and Greg yes I did think about the records route ... problem is so does every other student .... I thank you all for your feedback again, but I'm sticking to my guns on this ... I like my design and I stand by it
 
Guiness with a gold medal around it...

Black, white & now gold.

(edit i dont like your typography)
 
Thank you for your suggestion br3n, I did explore a similar design idea, I just felt it to be a little predictable and un-imaginative. The assignment has now been submitted and marked anyway, and for those that it may interest, I achieved a grade of 72/A. I am pleased with the result. :)

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Hey Purplegurl,

How are you? not seen you on the forums for a while, been busy with Uni assignments?
Nice result on that project - well done! would be good to see what you went with in the end :)

Greg
 
Hiya Greg, yes been very busy with also moving house (what a nightmare). my final design is very similar to the last one I posted here, I just went a little more subtle with the gold reflection.

My next assignment is 'Type as Image' so will be asking for plenty of advise if that is ok?

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