Reverse Engineer: Ad Campaign

Original Shutterfly ad

This ad is one that was run by Shutterfly through the Target website. Similar ads can be found at this link: https://www.target.com/b/shutterfly/-/N-ar56a . This design is relatively simple but quite effective. It shows the product in a pleasing way will little distraction, and text is clear and simple. You can look at the ad for 5 seconds and know what it’s intent is, which in some situations is quite valuable.

Original ad

Original ad: Design

The design for this ad isn’t super complete, the general layout adhering to the rule of thirds principle. There is nice contrast, mostly between the intense saturation of the logo and the more muted tones of the background. The text is white and set against a darker background which makes for a lighter ad and nice contrast as well. The text from the logo and the description is all in close proximity in the bottom corner to suggest its connection. It is also right aligned, which gives a clean professional look.

Original ad: Color

There are some contrasting color elements in this ad, with the blue tones offsetting the orange and creating a nice contrast. As a whole though the ad follows a generally analogous color theme, with warm muted towns being used throughout that complement the orange logo nicely.

Original ad: typography

The only font used in this add is different variations of a sans serif, which comes across as clean but could have used a little more variety and contrast.

New Ad

This version of the ad attempts to mimic the original in its general layout and stylization, with some variance in content, namely the use of a calendar and photo book instead of a photo book and mug. Similar colors and visual elements were used throughout to give the image a cohesive look.

New ad: Design

This design closely follows the original ad, with the same general layout and element arrangement. It attempts to mimic the contrasting elements (a transparent box was added to enhance the effect). The text has a similar alignment and the logo and body text are placed in approximately the same proximity.

New ad: Color

Similar color elements were used in this as well, with orange and blue being set as contrasting colors with the overall appearance having an analogous color theme, based around the orange logo.

New ad: Typography

This ad also follows the trend of only including sans serif fonts. While not ideal, this is effective in mimicking the original ad.

Conclusion

Overall this was an effective attempt to create an ad that would look at home in the original Shutterfly ad campaign. It made good use of design, color, and typography to create a similar effect. This was good learning expereince in being analytical and breaking down the core elements of a project to are it replicable.