My first ad layout.

I've always designed for web, but last week I did my first print ad layout that will be appearing in a national paint magazine in July. I was pretty pleased with it considering I don't consider myself a graphic artist.

http://www.alaron-nuclear.com/coatings/firstad.jpg

The background is computer generated and the motors are cutouts from real photos from our motorshop. The logo image was designed by UNFLUX.

Comments and feedback welcome.

It just doesn't do it for me.. I mean the motors and the background don't go well together, i think it just kills it.

The text (three paragraphs) can be improved by:

Changing the anti-aliasing level to Strong Anti-alias

and

Kerning the text alittle, the letters are too close together.


The logo is fab!

Indeed, Congrats on the ad ATNO

Thanks for the tips Rémon. Actually, the text looks much better and prints just fine at the 300dpi / CMYK I submitted to the print company. The link above is significantly reduced quality for web.

I didn't know about the Anti-alias thing. Like I said, I'm not much of a graphics guru, so that will be worth remembering for next time (I already have two more I'm supposed to do next month).

And thanks for the congrats guys.

I think the background and motors looks good , but the text ( not the Main text) doesnt suit. I mean to say ads must be a bit reaader friendly with empty spaces and less text. In that way its more eye catching as well as easy to read. Congrats on the ad though.

The layout is nice, and so is the background. Hoever I would change the font in the body of text and the motors look out of place. I think they are to sharp of an image, and maybe some grain would help to blend with the rest of the image.

keep it up

Just got the chance to read the last few comments. The font is plain and simple Arial. I tried several - Tahoma, Verdana, Times New Roman and most of the standard web fonts. Recommendations for good fonts for print would be appreciated. I really didn't want to overlap the text over the motor, but I did that layout in about 6 hours and didn't have any time left to rework it so that it didn't overlap. (Also keep in mind the final product was 300 dpi and when printed out, there were no spacing issues with the text - the image is just a low res version of the actual layout).

What I think might have made the motors over the water background work a little better was some kind of shadow effect. I did try dropshadow on those layers, but it looked like crap. Remember those are cutouts from photos and I had no shadows to work with, but I know it could probably be done. Links to tutes on adding shadows to cutouts like that would be appreciated.

Actually, the ad looks perfectly fine.

You have to remember target market here, guys.
This is obviously going in an industrial publication, not GQ or Vanity Fair.

Though the basic object of advertising is the same in either case, the methods are different. Readers of industrial/trechnical publications tend to be well educated and generally more intelligent. Their needs focus around information. You can cut the flashiness, give them enough info to get them interested and some minor graphics just to catch their attention.
In the more pedestrian publications, your reader education level is much lower, as is their attention span. In those types of pubs, you want to give them LESS info and hook them with really flashy graphics, or pictures of models or fancy cars. Trying to do that in an industrial pub is actually more likely to insult the intelligence of the reader, not draw them in.

I think the ad is spot on.

Well, I think the logo should stand alone and not be crowded, at all. The web address is too big and not in a good location. The copy is too verbose and lacks a central imperative or theme. The copy should have a title, I think. The columnar alignment of the logo, the web address and the copy should be shored up. They're kind of floating off. The contact information get's lost in the bottom left corner. I'd lose the background or create some means of boxing the copy so it stands out more. Lastly, I'd generate new photos of those machines. You've done a great job compositing them into the picture, however.

In my view the information should be presented as such:

******************

*Imperative Statement/Copy Title (Imperative: Why you want Alaron)

*Copy (Support the imperative in short simple ideas)

*LOGO

*Contact (physical, phone, web)

*Copyright, Disclaim, Specify


******************

Even the smartest people on the planet only have an attention span of a few fleeting moments.

// I think you should have the info in the last paragraph as it's own block of info (compliance and so on)

$0.02

Thanks for the tips and feedback guys. dM could you expound on why you said this

If you have access to those machines, I'd find/borrow/buy/steal a camera of decent quality, a tripod and maybe some work-lights and try to create some more provocative images. Machinery like that can be very interesting and dramatic.

There's nothing wrong with the photos you have, and I'm not being critical of those, I just think you're overlooking what could be a really strong asset in your layout.

OK - I follow you. Unfortunately, we took the pictures with the best camera available. An Olympus 1.5 megapixel (or close) . The lighting is halogen and no way to improve on it. This is one of the two original photos the motors were cut from:

http://www.alaron-nuclear.com/photos/motors005.jpg

Great job on cutting them out. Very clean.

Thanks It was my first time *lol I remembered what UNFLUX said once about enlarging the image and then erase around the edges with the eraser tool a couple pixels at a time. It took a couple hours, but it worked like a charm!