Friday 20 January 2012

Poster analysis

Before I create my poster, I need some inspiration from existing newspaper posters. I have chosen three rather different ones to analyse and observe conventions.

Guardian
This Guardian poster is a brilliant example of an advertising poster, as it is so simplistic yet colourful and informative and yet concise. The colours that are used match the colours that they use on their website; red, green, blue, pink, purple etc for the font colour in their tabs. This is indicative of The Guardian specialising in all areas of news, incorporating these into their website, which is also noted.
 The analogy of ‘opinion’ and ‘fact’ being similar entities but eventually going their own ways in a much clearer direction is naturally symptomatic of the newspaper knowing their facts from their opinions, but at the same time not disregarding opinions as rubbish, but valuing them, something The Guardian likes to pride itself on.
The way the two sets of words break away from each other brings to mind a shirt collar, or more so a zip with the guardian inside it. This may connote The Guardian unzipping information, or in particular opinions and facts.
 The short paragraph on the right hand side really backs this up; The Guardian is playing with the idea of separating opinions and facts, perhaps indicating it is not a tabloid newspaper, reports objectively but has a lot of time for opinion.
 I like the style of this poster because it is simplistic but does its job. It is also eye grabbing because of its colours and design. I would look to imitate something like this, and use its colours as inspiration for my own poster.
The SunThe Sun uses a unique idea for its poster, running with the idea of value for money. Its design, like that of The Guardian’s, is a very simplistic design, almost reminiscent of The Beatles’ White Album, albeit with an image.The receipt, which is a familiar object to most people, features all the bits of their newspaper they believe are selling points and value for 30p, though despite this, non-tabloid readers will look down the list and not be remotely interested in buying the newspaper. This suggests The Sun’s poster is being aimed at tabloid readers, almost trying to prise readers away from other tabloids like The Star and The Mirror, using their price which has traditionally always been lower. The red logo at the bottom almost brings memories of The Sun itself, where the logo stands out in a fairly white newspaper stand.The advert connotes that for what you get; the total is a meagre 30p, as explained at the bottom just in case anybody didn’t actually get it. I like this style, much like The Guardian’s, as again it is very simplistic, on a white background, using the colour of the red-top logo to capture passers-by’s attention. It almost says “need we say any more?” leaving the viewer with the impression the newspaper is perfect and they are missing out on a cheap, quality experience by not buying The Sun.The Sunday TimesThis poster, which was created when The Sunday Times got a makeover, is again astonishingly simple. Despite having a bit more content than the other two posters, this is imagination-capturingly brilliant.Regarding the cheesy ‘For all you are’ slogan, it entices and brings in interest by giving some indication of what ‘you’ are; something people often strive for years to find out. The use of the personal pronoun ‘you’ involves the reader and connects them with the newspaper without even reading it. Its use of colours to code each section of the newspaper is a running theme throughout newspapers, as was seen on The Guardian’s poster. The black background is an eye-catcher, especially as this poster was no doubt supposed to be a billboard poster, given its shape and size. Once again, this simplistic design is attractive in terms of ideas for my own poster, but I do prefer the other two posters to this one. This seems to suggest I should go with a portrait poster with a white background. I will take this into consideration along with some market research when creating my own poster.

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