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Advertising Techniques
MAKING OF THE COPY LAYOUT
The copywriter creates the advertisement by writing a copy, he prepares the THUMBNAIL SKETCH –
this is a rough hand drawn sketch which he presents to the artist, who will develop a ROUGH LAYOUT
of the sketch, showing relative arrangement of the elements of the advertisement with semi-finished
illustrations of the product.
The rough layout will show all illustrations, the headline and logo well lettered, and the body copy
arranged. The artist will follow the principles of making a good layout which are:
- GRAPHIC BALANCE: this gives stability to the advertisement so that it does not seem to
“lean” one way or the other. Balance are of two types, formal and informal.
i. Formal Balance: places elements such as weight, size, colour, density on each side of an
imaginary line going through the exact middle of the advertisement from top to bottom.
This makes the advertisement appear formal and dignified.
ii. Informal Balance: which is widely used consists of placing elements of different
sizes, shapes, colours or density at different distances from the optical centre of the
advertisement in order to create the illusion of balance. The optical center of an
advertisement is a point slightly above the intersection of two lines drawn from upper
left to lower right hand corner and from upper right to lower left hand corner. - CONTRAST: this element makes the most important parts of the advertisement stand out.
Variation in size, shape, colour or density provides the contrast to make the advertisement
interesting. - PROPORTION: this is the relationship of the elements of the advertisement to one another
and to the background in which they appear. A good proportion avoids sameness and
monotony. - UNITY: makes the advertisement appear to be a unified whole. Unity is achieved by the
placement of advertisement elements, background tints or colours and other artistic means. - GAZE MOTION: this element leads the reader through the advertisement in a predetermined
sequence. The advertisement elements could be positioned to suggest a certain viewing
sequence. Objects in the advertisement should not carry the reader’s attention off the page.
The sketch and layout are submitted to the advertiser for approval or an amendment before a
comprehensive layout is made so that the advertiser can visualize the advertisement.