The Beginning Is Truly The End

Note: If you are just beginning to read this, please scroll down and proceed to my first post, entitled: The End Is Only The Beginning. Thank you, and enjoy!


"I'm on the plane home now, and I'm going to try and get some shut eye before I touch down in the US. This trip has made me realize that perhaps my true calling is not what I thought it was. In advertising, you get to be an artist, a consumer, a vendor, and an architect all as part of the same job. I might have to reconsider my plans for the future. It's probably time for me to doze off, but I have one more thing to say. Today as I was about to head through security and as I said goodbye to my cousin, he told me: "The best advertisements are the ones that sell a product without drawing attention to themself." And I almost have to disagree. Of course you want the product to be center stage, but first you have to get the attention of the consumer. Then you can get them hook, line, and sinker. He reminded me that I have been equipped with everything I need to know to advertise successfully. Then he told me I'd also been equipped with one more thing: a global experience. And I think he was right. If I do decide to go in the way of advertising, maybe I will have to make tourism posters. Or something interactive like the couches in Paris! Maybe rent-able shoes that change from tennis shoes to hiking shoes automatically. If you like them, buy them! Or maybe not. Either way, I've learned a lot. I guess there's only one thing left to say. Goodbye Europe, Hello America!"

Now that my journey has ended, it's important that I discuss a few things. First of all, why did I decide to showcase my trip as a blog?

I decided on a blog for two reasons. One reason is that I wanted to incorporate technology and be able to post high quality photos. Since my entire project is about graphic advertising, why not advertise my story by using a blog, and thereby, technology? Secondly, I wanted my final product to be interactive, and to keep the reader interested. In my case, instead of using bright colors and local art, I created a fictional storyline that paralleled my own experiences in Europe. Then I explained the context and importance of each fictional journal entry. By showcasing this all in blog format, I hope to keep the reader entertained while at the same time teaching them something.

Also, just to review my three included content areas:

1. Art - As I talked about in the Wengen section, local art can really enhance the power of an advertisement, and I had a great time learning about Purism in Switzerland!

2. Science - The more subtle subject area I covered. I talked about Science a lot, but specifically referenced it when I was discussing Paris and the interactive IKEA ad. On a basic level, what do people like? What about an ad stimulates our brain and creates the necessary interest?

3. Math - The entire Chamonix section focused on how to calculate the success of an advertisement, whether it be through the number of skiers in Chamonix, or the number of teenagers who eat ice cream at their local ice cream parlor. Either way, there is a calculation to be made.

All in all, creating this project ended up being a really fun process for me. I got to be extremely creative using the blog format, and I am glad that I decided to make a fictional story to go along with it. I think that story really helps to make it seem more personable, like the experiences I write about here could've really happened. Which in some capacity, they did. The three goals I set at the beginning of this process were: 1)educate the viewer about what I learned in Europe, 2) present that information in a fun, digital format, and 3) successfully convey what I was feeling in Europe into my journal in note form and then onto the blog in a polished, organized manner. I think that in hindsight, this blog accomplished all of those goals. I think my work here is high quality, and I'm proud of the time and effort I put into it. I covered all the content areas, but didn't learn just things about art, math, and science. I also learned a lot about the world outside of Boise, Idaho and about myself. How could I not be proud of that?

I hope you have enjoyed the final version of my Transcending Borders Project, and hopefully someday you will get to see the same beauty I saw just across the pond. Thanks for checking it out!

Measures Of Achievement

" Final Stop: Chamonix, France! Chamonix is a small mountain town which makes most of its money from attracting tourists. It has the quaint, peaceful feeling of a small village. I'm here in the summer, but anyone could tell you that this is a winter town. Situated beneath the glaciers and massive peaks of the Alps, this is a skier/snowboarder/snowshoer/winter sports enthusiast's dream town. And hiking, mountain biking, and climbing are all popular sports in the sunshine. I couldn't ask for a better place to end my European adventure. For my cousin, this is one of the most important legs of his review tour. The ads here have had only a few seasons to promote the area, but it's time to do the math. Since the ads all prominently feature winter sports (see the featured photo), it is easy to evaluate them. By looking at the number of winter sports participants Chamonix has seen this year, and looking at things like where they actually skied or did their respective sport, we can make a guess as to the success of the ads. Of course, higher numbers don't necessarily mean that his ad inspired those people to ski, but we can assume they had some effect. For example, in downtown Chamonix, there are hundreds of posters designed by my cousin advocating a particular ski hill, which is reached by taking an express train. The number of people admitted onto the train this year? 4 million! Of these people, half had come with a specific ski tour in mind. That leaves 2 million who came to Chamonix for another reason but were drawn to the train and ski hill. The hotel admission numbers in Chamonix are just under 2 million, so this further purports the idea that tourists may have seen the prominently displayed posters. By doing just this simple mathematical comparison, one can assume that the posters did their job. All it took to calculate their success was a little research and some time."

.

The final lesson of the review tour was surprisingly simple: It's all in the equation. By considering your target audience, you also consider where they might stay and what their interests might be. How can you act on these interests? If your target audience is staying in countryside hotels, place advertisements in the countryside. Paint it on the road if you have to, or cut it into the grass on the hills. Find a way to reach them. Then, command their attention. Use local art, bright colors, and famous symbols to draw them in. Make them look. Once you have their attention, then appeal to their interests. Market your product in a way that plays on their interests. If they are staying at a ski resort, incorporate winter scenery into the advertisement, so it seems like the winter experience is not complete without the product. And finally, gauge the success of your work. Plug the variables into the equation by gathering information from the consumer themself, and from other interactions in your area. Hiking boots and poles + rainy season - protection for a backpack = raincovers for their backpacks. Darkshade sunglasses + an equally indoor/outdoor resort - another pair = removable lenses for inside and outside, respectively. By following these five simple steps, anyone can create a successful advertisement, and this is what Europe taught me. Remember, its not about the ad, its about the consumer.

.

Step 1: Identify your target audience. Who are they? Where are they from? What ages? Step 2: How can you reach them? Where should your ad be located? Where are they located? Step 3: How can you capture their attention? What can you, the designer, do to ensure that you catch their eye? Step 4: How can you best market "it"? Is it a stand alone product? Does it need accessories? In what environment is it best presented? Step 5: Gauge your success. How you can you measure the profit of your advertisement? Mathematically? Visually? Contextually (In the context of your other ads)?

"It"

" Bonjour Paris! Finally, my cousin and I have returned to his hometown! I am so excited to be here, because Paris is one of those cities I feel like I could live in. It's so unbelievably big, I'd never run out of things to do. Unfortunately, I speak zero French, and seeing as how this is France, that could be a problem. Anyway, today my cousin and I arrived here by train early in the morning, and immediately we headed off to catch the metro back into town. My cousin's loft is in downtown Paris, so we will be headed right past the Eiffel Tower and the Arc de Triomphe! Unfortunately, to get to the metro station that he has a pass for, we had to do quite a bit of walking. Cobblestones are not very forgiving. Finally, as we walked down the steps into "Opera," the metro station that he uses everyday to get from his loft to work, he gave this really goofy grin. "What?" I said. "Nothing. I just think you are going to like today's advertisements the best. It's a little different from your typical poster." As the stairs ended and we walked onto the platform, I thought my legs were going to give out. Then I saw couches. Couches and blown up images of bookcases, kitchens, and sitting rooms. They were plastered on the walls and the couches and chairs sat just below them. I noticed that the top of one of the image said IKEA. Then it clicked. I turned to my cousin and just laughed. Then I ran over and jumped right on top of his innovative, new advertisement. He, in a partnership with IKEA, the international home store, had placed their new line of furniture in the metro. He used his own photos to create a homey feeling, and there something hilarious about the whole thing. Large price tags hung from the furniture, and as a metro car rolled in and people exited, I saw a hundred eyes widen. Just when I thought the ads had gotten as crazy and creative as possible, my cousin pulled another trick out of the hat. And a good one at that."

The Paris Metro showcase is truly a brilliant idea. By placing an interactive ad in the middle of the most frequented part of the city, the Metro, my cousin guaranteed that IKEA would get huge exposure. The perfect ad to market "It." "It" is whatever product an advertisement features, and that's the end goal right? To market your product. So instead of waiting around on tired feet, like I would have had to, Parisians and tourists alike can sit down and relax. It gives them a comfortable place to read the news, drink some coffee, or eat a breakfast pastry. All the while, they are testing a product, and since the couches are guaranteed to be comfortable, IKEA is bound to have a whole new batch of customers. It is the perfect way to market their product: by allowing potential customers to give it a test run. In fact, the idea was so genius, it made me have a couple epiphanies of my own. I wondered how successful the ad was and what ties it had to the public transportation system. So I did a little research. Here's what I learned:


These Metro ads - are they more or less effective than street advertisements? Why is this type of advertising effective? Is it only effective because of the high usage rates of public transportation?


Honestly it depends on where you are. In a city like the one I live in at home, where there is no train or subway system, this type of advertising wouldn't be as successful. But in a gigantic city like Paris, where without public transportation society would not be able to function, these advertisements are perfect. In my hometown, street ads like billboards are going to be more effective, because the roads are where the largest groups of people congregate (kind of sad, huh?). But in the urban sprawl that is Paris, Metro ads guarantee that you will reach a huge audience.


The fact that the ad is interactive and made to appeal to people who might be weary for a number of reasons is a surefire way to reach your target audience. The fact that the furniture is in such an odd place will definitely draw attention. Then, considering that the alternative is to stand on hard concrete, the lure of comfort will bring people to sit down. Once they sit down, enjoy the comfortable furniture, and see the posters of a homey environment, they are hooked. "It" has been successfully marketed, and the only thing left for them to do is check the pricetag.

This is the science of advertising. Find out what people like, what they are attracted to. By making use of things like bright colors, contrast (the clean furniture in the grungy metro), and by appealing to the human desire to be comfortable, advertising in the metro is a calculated endeavor. In the brain, we are wired to be drawn to certain things, and if advertisers can pounce on those things and exploit our weaknesses as consumers, they've got us. That's not to say that advertising is bad, however. Who wouldn't want a brand new, lime green, sink-into-the-seat comfortable couch? By using things that stimulate our brain, advertisers guarantee that we will be drawn to their product, and in the end, that's what its all about. Get the people to the product. If you can do that, your mission as an advertiser is accomplished.

To Be The Center Of Attention

" Today I am riding on my first cog rail. In case those reading this don't know, a cog rail is basically a train that runs across gears, which help pull it up steep slopes. Today we flew into Geneva, Switzerland, and now we are headed to a resort town that my cousin has done a lot of advertising for. The town we are visiting is only home to 1300 people, and is situated right under the Jungfrau. Crazy, huh? The town is called Wengen, and even though it is spelled with a "w", you pronounce it as if the "w" was a "v." I'll write more once we arrive, but I can't pass up an opportunity to get some pictures of the beautiful scenery......."

" I feel like I spent today walking across the front of a postcard. Wengen is gorgeous. Now I can see why people would pay so much money to stay at the resort here. It's no wonder that the people here are doing well. My first thought was that the resort here must make enough money to support everyone here a few times over. However, when I commented on this, I was quickly corrected by my cousin. "There's a reason the people here do so well, and while the resort factors into it, the people can't directly profit from the resort. That's not how it works. The true goldmine in this town is the local art. That's why I like advertising here so much. I bring in a modern, updated kind of art and combine it with the art that has flourished here for so long. Here's an example (see photo above). I used the local art, which is part of an art movement inspired by cubism called "purism." I combine "purism" with a simple color pallette and the beautiful scenery here, and magic is made." And I understand exactly what he is saying. I think that the advertisements here might be my favorite so far."


In actuality, Wengen taught me yet another important lesson about what makes advertising powerful. Like my cousin told me, he combined the local purist art with a modern pallette and stylings. Purism itself was actually a branch of the cubist movement, initiated by Amedee Ozenfant in the late 1800's. Purism advocated a return to purer, less jagged shapes, like the ones in the photo above. While the style was still similar to Cubism, Amedee wanted this style to reflect the changes going on in America at the time. He began to draw humans and places with a more machine like quality, which made them appear smooth and very shapely.

I got to see this style firsthand in the posters of Wengen. The poster above obviously advocates Wengen in the winter season, which is when the town receives its highest influx of tourists, many of whom are looking to ski in the infamous Swiss Alps. By using local art and presenting the main tourist attraction front and center, this ad is designed to draw the attention of anyone who walks by. Even if it is not winter, summer tourists seeing this image might be enticed to return in the winter. For an ad to be successful, you must draw in your target audience by prominently placing it in a public place, like a train station. Then, you must do something to capture their attention. In this case, the use of local art enhances the appreciation of art as a community, and also makes incoming tourists feel more at home the minute they step off the train. It draws them in, and then they are hooked. It benefits the town and the people equally, by marketing the recreation opportunities and promoting the local art at the same time. Perhaps there is an art to art itself, and I think I learned that firsthand in the mountains of Wengen.

Picking A Platform

" After about about 4 days in Lausanne, it was time to move on. The next stop: Amsterdam. After a considerably long train ride through the rain, we arrived at the train station. First impression: Ok, Dutch people have a thing for architecture. The train station alone was beautiful, adorned with bright colored spires and hanging ribbons. I could tell immediately I was going to like this city. We wasted no time and headed straight to lunch. We were famished, and a little homecooked Dutch food went a long way. I had some dish that looked like orange mashed potatoes with thinly sliced meat on top, and it might be the best thing I've ever tasted. Anyway, after a quick meal we headed to see my cousin's biggest advertisement in Amsterdam. He told me it was a billboard, but unlike the ones in the US. I was excited to see more of the city, and luckily for me, his ad was right in the middle of the city. "We're here," he told me. I looked around, seeing only another canal. But then I looked up, and I saw a very innovative billboard indeed. Suspended over the water was a horizontal billboard, illustrating teenagers participating in something called "urbanography." (See photo above). My cousin told me it was new craze in Europe where people leapt, jumped, and basically did gymnastics all throughout the city. He had recruited several teenagers to act as models, and photographed them performing urbanography. He used the resulting photos to market a clothing company. I thought it was awesome, and couldn't stop imagining myself trying the same crazy things in those clothes. With the photos hanging over the water, and smack dab in the middle of downtown, it couldn't be more perfect. I wondered for a minute though, why all the trouble with placement and crazy photos just to model some clothes? I guess it registered on my face that I was about to question this, because my cousin turned to me and said: "If you want to know why and how it works, think about yourself. Your face lit up when you saw it, and you practically ooh-ed and ah-ed out loud. You were drawn to the ad immediately, and you are proof that it works."

Even though it was only my first day in Amsterdam, I'd already learned another important lesson about the power of advertising. To create a successful advertisement, you must first determine how best to reach your potential customers. What platform will give you the best chance of getting the greatest audience? In this case, my cousin did such a great job of presenting the advertisement to me, I forgot it was even an advertisement and just jumped right into the product. By utilizing the natural features of the city (the canals) and placing the advertisement directly in the center of downtown Amsterdam, my cousin guaranteed that hundreds of people would see his ad each day. He found a perfect way to reach people just like me, people who would see the ad and be intrigued. This spark of interest would lead people to investigate the product, and eventually, profit the company behind the product itself. A brilliant idea that reaches the target audience without imposing on them. Who could resist that?

Selecting A Target

" Yesterday at 10:00 am I left America for a month. Now, at 6:00 am an entire day later, I have landed in Lausanne, Switzerland. It is here that my cousin and I will begin the first leg of our review tour. From what I've seen so far, Lausanne seems a lot larger than it actually is. It is the town that is smack dab in the middle of everything. Just train rides away are the better known towns of Zurich, Bern, and Geneva. It almost seems like a port, and all the people you see here, speaking in so many different languages, only seem to be here for the day. I asked my cousin about all this, considering that trains aren't really a big thing in America, and we don't travel from place to place with the ease and comfort that these people seem to. He told me this: "In a strange way, you are sort of right. Lausanne is somewhat of a port town. Many people come here only as a means to reach another place. It's even here in the advertising if you look around." He proceeds to point out a simple poster (one he designed, as I later found out) on the window of a coffee shop we are walking past (see featured image). The poster is actually advertising another town! Here in downtown Lausanne, we find an image encouraging people to leave. How strange! In America, the usual goal is to market something you can profit from. Even more strange, the words on the poster are in English. Always inquisitive, I asked about this as well. Since English is definitely not a common language here, I wonder what his motive is for using English. He responded: "In advertising, it's all about determining who you are marketing to. Who do you want to buy your product? Who is likely to? You see, in a port town like this, the advertising has the greatest chance of success if it features other places. Places with more to offer. Considering that the people who pass through here are often not from these parts, and may not be familiar with the opportunities in areas near here, the designer must change the usual strategy." And suddenly it clicks. I think I've managed to grasp the first important concept of advertising. More on this later."

Basically, the lesson I learned in Lausanne is really simple: Always know your target audience. Who are you marketing to? In Lausanne's case, being a town with no real marvel of its own, it makes money by advertising the spectacles of other nearby cities and towns. Zurich, the town featured in the advertisement above, is well known for its scenic beauty, and this is illustrated in the photo itself. By marketing Zurich's best asset, its scenery, the poster draws the many travelers in Lausanne to consider seeing it for themselves. But the big question still remains: Why English? The answer is simpler than you think. Being a kind of tourist hub, Lausanne hosts people from all over the world. And what language is becoming a kind of global standard? English. That's one idea, to use a language that everyone may not speak fluently, but everyone knows a little of. The second idea is that many of the tourists in Lausanne speak English themselves, because they come from somewhere where English is the native language. It can be assumed that these people also have the money to travel to Lausanne, which if you are coming from the US, can be a spendy trip. By using English to market Zurich, the financially stable tourists of Lausanne are drawn to a place that they might not have heard of otherwise. They are the target audience, and this advertisement hits them straight through the heart.

The End Is Only The Beginning

Hello everyone. First things first, let me catch you up. For the past month, I have been living in Europe and traveling from country to country, city to city with a cousin of mine. My cousin, who is 25, is a graphic designer. His work garnered a lot of attention when he moved to Paris in December of last year. Since then, he's been working nonstop on advertisements for companies all over Western Europe. The reason he's so sought after is obvious once you see his work. It incorporates art, design, and the local culture all into simple advertisements, hopefully enticing one of the hundreds of people walking by everyday. It might market a product, maybe a restaurant, or even a place.

So for quite some time now, I've had the privilege to stay with my cousin and see him in action. He took me with him as he travelled Western Europe on something called a review tour. What this means is that after he sends his advertisements to all the different places that he advertises from, he waits for a while, and then travels to those places to gauge the success of his work and brainstorm new ideas. This year, I got to experience what it means to be a designer firsthand, and I've learned a lot. Consider my cousin the artist, life as his muse, and Europe as the beautiful backdrop. You couldn't ask for a better combination.

Even though my trip is over, and I'm back home in the states, the journey is just beginning for you. I didn't just sit around while I travelled with my cousin, no. I journalled furiously, taking pictures and recording as much as I could about his work, about Western Europe, and about my adventures there. This blog is designed to tell you about what I learned, and I have the perfect way of doing just that. Each of my posts will begin with a paragraph or so of italicized writing. That italicized writing is a snippet from my journal entries, and it will talk about what I did in a particular city. Each post on this blog will be dedicated to a city, with five cities in all. As I said above, the post will open with a section from my journal, and below that I will talk about the meaning of what I wrote, and why it should matter at all in the first place. Basically, I will give you the story in italics, then the context in normal font. And all posts will include at least one photo so you can not only hear, but also see what I am talking about.

So sit down, buckle up, and enjoy the ride. The past three weeks have been a whirlwind for me, and you are about to head into that whirlwind head on. Good luck!