After half term I plan to begin working on my website, so I have been studying newspaper websites in more detail. I have taken screen shots of websites I like.
I like the use of colours in this website, and the font and blocks of colour are coherent with the newspaper and the advertising posters. My only criticism would be that there is a lot of text on the page, but the Guardian is aimed towards a different market to my publication, so I think this is appropriate for their market.
I like the way this website has the masthead at the top of the page as it appears on the newspaper because it is instantly recognisable. I think this website has a better balance of text and images, and this is something I will consider when designing my own. I do think, however, that the menu down the side of the page looks a bit out of place; I prefer the menu along the top of the page like on the Guardian website.
I actually have many criticisms of this website, but I am pleased because it means I also understand what I DON'T want my website to include. I think the page is too plain, and I don't like the colours.. the red title stands out well but the grey/blue colour is dull. The menu is confusing, there are too many links and two bars which I don't like. I do like the idea of having a search engine on the page though, to make navigation simpler, and I like the interactive video and weather widget. As web 2.0 is so popular and up and coming, I think including interactive things will be effective.
I have found a website that enable you to visualise a custom advert in a variety of places: http://www.cbsoutdoor.co.uk/Our-Media/Visualiser/Bus-Rear/Bus-Rear/ As my advert is local to Portsmouth, the most likely place it would be displayed is on buses. This video gives an overview of how my poster would look.
I have spent this lesson enhancing my poster. I have chosen a very simplistic finish, as I think it is eye catching and direct, and by doing this it fulfills its purpose successfully. I didn't want to use too many colours on the poster itself, so that the blocks of colour in the newspaper stood out. However, I found that the poster looked quite plain, so decided to add some newspaper shapes to make it look more interesting.
I stuck together scraps of newspaper by hand and scanned them into the computer. I took the image into Photoshop and cut the rough shape of the crest using the pen tool. I then used the 'Refine edges' tool to create a ripped effect like so.
I cut out the coat of arms with the pen tool and saved as a PNG file before uploading to InDesign, to ensure the background was transparent. I can feel how my creative skills have developed as cutting around something on Photoshop used to take me hours, and now it took little more than ten minutes!
I cut out another rough rectangle shape to position behind the logo. Here is my finished poster, I am happy with how it looks.
My initial ideas for my newspaper poster are to play on my slogan of 'Newspaper of the South' and use an outline of the Spinnaker Tower filled with newspaper print. This is my flatplan:
In order for any publication to be successful, posters and other types of advertising must be used to attract the audience. Marketing should look professional and appealing in order to 'sell' the product to the audience.
I think this is probably the most challenging task as there are not many conventions for creating a newspaper poster, but I have been researching examples and these are ones that I like:
The Guardian have used bright, block colours in their posters, and I think they look really eye catching and are therefore effective in attracting attention. I like the minimalism of the adverts, they are very modern and contemporary which is appropriate to attract their target market of young professionals.
This style is in keeping with the style of the newspaper and website, where different sections are different colours. For example the sports section is green, and the TV section is pink: http://www.guardian.co.uk/
The posters advertising The Sun are also modern and minimalist, but feature colloquial language such as 'opinions with balls' and an old, ripped till receipt to create a more urban feel.
The posters are emphasise the cheap price of the newspaper and state the type of content, which reflects the fact that the target audience is generally working class adults.
The use of a white, read and black colour scheme in the posters is in keeping with the style of the newspaper and website: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/
This is my banner in its finished form. I included two other features 'Robber jailed' and 'Spring clean' that could be common local news. I cut around the image of the church using the same technique as for the first image.
