In class we looked through the magazines in question, and Newsweek had an ad for the Ford Fusion. I believe Tony suggested I go with that particular car and I ended up doing so, because I don't really know much about cars (okay, in the last paragraph I said "knew about," not "knew about"...). They make a hybrid version of the vehicle which I felt was a nice jumping-off point.
So then, I did sketches! First, I had to make my rad "0 to 60" idea come to life...
The lights on the Ford Fusion have this neat little honeycomb thing going on, so I considered integrating that into the design. (As you can see, I also can't draw cars, which is another reason why I chose this subject: to challenge myself a bit.) So that was my first Rolling Stone ad.
Then, I thought about something else that would appeal to that audience. Customization!
I thought I could cut the car up into pieces and that would be pretty cool.
Next came the Newsweek readers. What would appeal to them? Well, the environmental and socially responsible aspect of the hybrid probably would.
So here I have vines coming out of the gas tank, hilighting some of the more positive aspects of the vehicle and the company that makes it.
Then I thought about the most important things to Newsweek readers: Money and family. So then the (incredibly unoriginal) tagline "Do the Math" came to mind.
As you can probably see, I was taking a bit more of an illustrative, "kiddy" angle in my original sketches.
I don't know what this was going to be. I think I was going for a hippie vibe at some point but I discarded it.
I started on my final images before the next class, because I planned to perhaps make live traces of the cars and slap lineart over them, as I did in another class for another project.
During the critique it was decided that my text for 0 to 60 was just to cute and kiddy for Rolling Stone... and my "Do the Math" concept was just... altogether not working. So I came up with some grittier text and started working on 0 to 60...
In the second critique we decided that the live trace thing wasn't working out in the slightest. Sooo I had to find some good photos of the cars and do lots and lots of pen tool work. Most of the cars I used were from Ford's own promotional/storefront sites. Apologies for lack of credit if I slipped up and didn't include something I should have, though.
I actually attempted some of this one before everyone was all, "Giant adding machine? Jennifer please."
Ah, there we go. I also got rid of the honeycombs because they just weren't necessary at all.
I did not draw the vines by hand because those just would not work for my audience. Instead I made selections in Photoshop and applied gradients. If I had Illustrator at the time I would have probably attempted gradient meshes to make them look a little more 3D...
The parts I used in this were taken from various searches on Google... So I do not have photo credits :( The cars themselves are from Ford, though. It was determined after the fact that this one would've been better suited for Newsweek... I should've made it look edgier, darn it.
DO THE MATH. Nothing I tried to put together for this worked out. I finally copped out and made it look like a chalkboard. Original as hell, I know. but it gets the point across, doesn't it? Yes, it does. It is so bright because it was originally configured for print.
Now leave me alone. It's past my bedtime. Three minutes past, to be exact.
