Advertising for Programmers: How I created my first ad
I am a software programmer by trade. As the owner of my own company, however, I wear other hats as necessary. Recently, I found myself playing the role of marketing guru and graphic artist when I placed an ad in a local niche phone directory. I don’t pretend to be an expert in this area, but here is the inspiration and thought process I went through to design the advertisement (and subsequently a logo) for my business. I hope this post will help other programmers see the process from a non-designer perspective. I have probably broken every rule in the advertising handbook, but I still say promotions was my favorite marketing class in college.
Preproduction
I placed an ad in my local Christian Business Directory, a niche, advertising-based directory. After hearing an spot on the local radio station, I called up the sales rep and signed up for an a 1/6 page ad. The ad I purchased is 2-3/8 inches by 4-5/8 inches. The rep told me the artwork deadline was two weeks away. Plenty of time.
About a week later, I fired up my copy of Inkscape. I was ready to Van Gogh the daylights out of this ad.
I stared at the blank screen.
I stared for ten more minutes. I moved toolbars around, then sat for ten more minutes. Not a single idea popped in my head. Flipping through the previous directory, I looked for inspiration. Nothing.
The only thought I could come up with was “I need a logo”. In the true spirit of bootstrapping, I haven’t invested in anything until I’m sure I need it; a logo was one of those things, even after The Dan offered to make one for me. It wasn’t something I was ready to invest time (or money) in. Part of me told me to try the ad without one. After all, my business cards looked fine without a logo.
I stared at the screen for a while longer.
I decided I needed to get away from the computer and sketch some ideas on paper. With my HipsterPDA in hand, I headed to the kitchen where my eldest son was having a snack. We chatted while I doodled. Not too long after that I was surrounded by a pile of bad ideas. I was about to give up and started looking anywhere for ideas. It was the box of Apple Cinnamon Cheerios that triggered some inspiration.
I liked the text with the large icons next to them, and started to sketch on a new card. The sketch I came up with looked like this:
The ad would end up nothing like this, but it was a start.
As I thought about circle icons and the text to accompany them, my thoughts evolved into using a circle as a logo. It might work, I though, but there were a few criteria I wanted to follow. I wanted the logo to be:
- Memorable
- Good logos can stand on their own, without the name of the company accompanying. The Nike swoosh, for example, is recognized by everyone. I wanted a logo that could stand on its own. After all, the company won’t be just me forever. Gotta think about world domination, baby!
- Scalable
- A lot of logos look great at large sizes but lose their appeal when shrunk. I wanted a logo that was proportional (circles are great for that) and would shrink to a 16×16 icon without losing detail.
- “Tweak-able”
- One thing I really love about the Chase llogo is how it is used in advertising. A logo that can be animated opens up all sort of possibilities.
- Michelle Uhri said:
- ^Lestat said:
- rid00z said:
- The Dan said:
- John said:
As I continued to think about a logo design, two of my favorite circle logos kept coming to mind: The BMWlogo and the symbol for radiation.
With the guidelines and inspiration in place, I set to work.
As I created, I looked for color sources for inspiration as well. I believe that good software separates functionality into separate layers that build on one another. This is not unlike my favorite childhood toy, Lego bricks. I built a color palette based on those plastic bricks.
(image courtesy of colorcombos.com)
I set to work in a lighting storm with my hunchbacked minion and created! Or something.
My final result looks like this:
And as a favicon it’ll look like this:
Unfortunately, after all of the work to create a beautiful color logo, I needed an ad in black and white. I started by modifying the colors of the logo to use their grey-scale equivalents. For the services provided, I created a smaller bullet. Faded in the background I added a copy of the logo that adds to the visual interest. I heard that was a good idea somewhere. My phone and the url are on the bottom right – I think they would have been stronger on the left, but it’s too late now. Lastly, I added a scripture I felt embodies my goals in business and connects with the target audience.
Here’s a snapshot of the page on which my ad appears:
I think it turned out very well; definitely better than the one above it.
Now I just need the phone to ring ;-)