The Text
The image on the left inspired the text, “Are you a real man?”
I found it from this blog post online, and even though it wasn't part of a campaign marketing sodas, the bold question as the focus of the message struck me as an appropriate way to make use of dramatization as the executional framework of my own design. A direct question such as "Are you a real man?" connects with the consumer emotionally and provides the impression that this product will, in fact, make you a “real man.”
The original advertisement said that the product was “not for women,” and referred to the low number of calories as “manly,” which inadvertently calls for the consumer to associate himself with the word “manly” and decide to buy the product based on that conviction. The word “real” is different from the others in the sentence in my design to recreate that emotion in a much more explicit manner.
I started with a basic bevel effect, and I appreciated its simplicity, but recognized that I should attempt to make the text more unique. I explored several typography tutorials to try and do something more creative with the look of the text, but after several attempts at making the text have more dimensionality or layered effects, I found that the simplicity was most effective for what I wanted this ad to be. In my opinion, the simplistic style of the text works better than any of the overpowering typographic effects I tried to use.
Icon + Text + Can = Design
This advertisement triggered the idea of having the content of my design be solely an icon next to the soda can. Here, there is the motorcycle (that we only see half of) and the biker suit on the soda can. In my design, the color scheme is my attempt to hold the piece together and connect two elements (the bodybuilder’s shading was matched to a part of the can), like the biker suit does.
This advertisement also made me feel more confident in my simplistic text, as "The Hardest Soft Drink" also has a simliar simplicity about it (as opposed to many coke ads that have circles - suggesting bubbles - blending in and out of the letters, for example)
The text in my design, like this one, has a rigid, informative authority about it and matches the digitally designed quality of the bodybuilding silhouette. This was not a mimicked method like most of the other attributes of my image, but rather a first independent design decision. I liked the feel of the text, how the iconic ambiguously-gendered body builder has a solid background to her left and a patterned overlay to her right, I felt it had a ripple effect that implied the strength of her muscles. In retrospect, that creative intent of the background probably doesn’t read as well as it could, and in a sense bears too much resemblance to the original ad.
A Break Down of The Design
The Can
When I explored digital images of sodas to look into different design techniques, I found many of reflected cans (see right). Clearly, reflection was an effective method of promoting canned sodas like Coke, Fanta, and therefore Dr. Pepper. This revelation was a result of my dissatisfaction with the floating soda can that had nothing grounding it. The reflection was perfect to remove the “copied-and-pasted-layer” Photoshop feel. Such was the intended effect with the reflection of the can.
The can stands out a bit from the digital-quality of the text and bodybuilder. I messed with the feather effect in Photoshop to attempt to blend it in better with the background, and instead worked with the background gradient to make the can land right where the gradient goes to white. I also changed the natural curve levels of the can to make it look shinier and more realistic, and slightly darker to work with the bold silhouette on the left of the image.
The Bodybuilder
Pictured on the left is the original body builder image I used to make the silhouette. With the pen tool I isolated the bodybuilder from the background, and then with a simple color overlay made her an icon rather than keep her as a photograph. Everything I tried in incorporating the photograph of her looked too fake, and when I was trying different effects to make her a more balanced part of the image, I accidentally did the color overlay but liked the effect of a silhouette rather than a photographic image. I decided to use the silhouetted abstraction of the bodybuilder rather than the image itself. There is an interesting “guess who” element provided by the silhouette juxtaposed with the text, the silhouette metaphorically replacing the phrase “23 MANLY CALORIES.” I appreciated the suggestiveness of the silhouette rather than an explicit message saying, “here is a very muscular woman, obviously she is not a real man.”
In considering Saussure's semiotics, the dumbbells in the silhouette's arms act as signifiers, the signified being ideas of strength, power, and manliness. I specifically searched for female bodybuilders holding dumbbells for this reason. The hair signifies femininity, and the body is muscular and lean without being blatantly female (which it could have been were it an image that stressed the figure's chest).
Similarity To The Original Ad
Inadvertently, my final image has some of the same qualities as the original advertisement, like the color scheme for example, while it is completely distinct in many ways. As far as the color scheme, my intent was to match the colors on the can rather than copy the original advertisement's color scheme.I wanted to emulate the Dr. Pepper can's colors and have a “chill” or “cool” kind of layout on a simple gradient with billboard like dimensions.
Because of my familiarity with the advertisement, I found the similar color scheme and “bold” manner of delivering a message to contrast perfectly with the female body-builder silhouette.
With knowledge of the subject (ie. marketing low calorie sodas to men), and of the original advertisement, my final image packs a much stronger punch, so it didn't bother me too much that there were parallel qualities between my design and the original advertisement.
All images link back to their original sources. The only image I produced was the one at the top of the page.