don't try this at home!
making your print ads work for you
by julie parker

The first time a man sees an advertisement, he takes no notice of it; the second time he looks at the name; the third time he looks at the price; the fourth time he reads it; the fifth time he speaks of it to his wife; the sixth time he buys.
STANDARD [CLARKSVILLE, TX], February 4, 1860, p. 1, c. 7

Start with a clear message. Your business name, address, etc. are NOT the most important thing you want to convey. How clear can you be about what you offer? One advertiser sent us an ad where you have no idea what they are offering. Is it a book? A workshop? A technique? If people have no idea what you are talking about, how can you entice them to take some action? They may assume that if your ad is so unfocused and unclear, what you have to offer may be too!

Make your ad easy to read. This is not the time to experiment with fonts (typefaces). Select something that is clear and easy to read. Don't randomly mix and match fonts. Pick up a few slick national magazines: look at their ads and see how clear and simple their fonts are.

A few before and afters:

Look at the original house doctor ad above: it had no focus. Really the first thing you see is "diagnosis available". The "House Doctor" is actually made harder to read with the heavy shadow (it is best to have a very light hand with shadows if you use them) so it is really the second thing you see.

The three images are not stylistically related...nor are they the same scale, and they are just randomly placed about the ad.

Diagnosis Available, Treatment Guaranteed, and House Pains Cured are three different sizes when in reality they are of equal importance.

The contact information is scattered about the bottom of the ad...and yet not in close enough proximity to seem to fit together.

What we did in the makeover is to find ONE image that represents "house doctor". Admittedly it was a stroke of luck....we just looked long and hard at clip art, searching for things related to doctors (I believe we found this under stethoscope) and voila! We found an actual HOUSE DOCTOR!

In our ad, those two words are placed right next to the most critical part of the image, where the hand and stethoscope touch the house. We invented the line "Who says doctors don't still make house calls?" just for fun, and we hoped to intrigue the reader.

We knew this was a larger ad than our advertiser wanted or needed, but we were having fun! We made another version for him (see page 3) that was a closer fit for his budget. We think it works well, too. [ The BEFORE is also 72 dpi which is appropriate for the web but not print: we need 200 dpi resolution for print. ]

This is the first in a series of articles on looking good in print. Stay tuned! Any of you skilled ad designers who want to submit a "before and after", we'd love to consider it for future publication. With the inclusion of your bio, your sample ads will be great advertising for you and your services.

SOME MORE BEFORE AND AFTER EXAMPLES:

JANE WARE created the ClarityWorks ad, left. She had to fit a lot of text in a small space, and she did it here very nicely. She starts with the most important information: what the ad is "selling" (writer's workshop)—and follows with Peggy Millin's name. As Peggy is well known and respected, readers in-the-know will be clued in immediately that this is a workshop to look into. Note the name of the business is at the very bottom...really the least important information. Jane's ads for Peggy have a consistent look from month to month: all have the same dark background and grey sun and the "open book" white space.

Jane Ware is JB Graphics,
jbware@bellsouth.net; 299-1402.

ABOVE: The Textures ad mirrors its text: "sophisticated fun". It relies on the insider's recognition of the sophistication of Soho and the Hamptons and playfully adds Waynesville to that list. This is also an excellent example of good use of white (blank) space. Compare this ad with their ad on page 13. They want to run the distinct downtown sensibility ad first for some months to introduce themselves (Suzanne and John Gernandt) and their store, as well as the concept of a working studio, before they start their series of ads focusing on individual artists.