Introduction

For Independent Study at UVU, 2009:

As a preface to this project, I want to briefly explain my Senior Studio project from last semester. For that semester, I looked at album covers from the 1950's until the 1990's, and picked apart the graphic design styles for each decade. I picked the most prominent design styles, or the most easily recognizable, and created my own album covers for an imaginary band, "The Quick Brown Foxes." Each Album cover reflected the design styles of each decade from the 1950's until the 1990's. The purpose of the project was to see how design styles changed over time, including layout, typography and photography.

Building on last semesters work, the purpose of this project will be to take one company or product from the current time we are in, identify how the graphic style of the advertising for the product changes, based on who it is marketed to.
After my research is complete, I will create 5 magazine ads for a product of my choice. Each magazine ad will be marketed to a different group. The 5 different groups I would like to market toward are : Teenagers, College Students, Businessmen/businesswomen, Families, and Seniors.

I think each category is distinct enough, as far as who I would be marketing to, that I will easily be able to differentiate between the designs for each group.
In my preliminary research, I have visited different computer websites that market computers to different groups of people. Each site has a very different look and feel. For example, Alienware exclusively targets video gamers. Although gamers could be any age, most are probably teenagers. Their site is very sleek and black. Their animations and graphics have a very futuristic, technology based design. They are also usually pictured with headphones or a backpack, which a businessman or family probably wouldn't find as appealing.
On the Dell hompage, it even gives you the option to browse through two different categories of computers. You can look at either their home computers or their business computers. Depending on which direction you to, the site has a slightly different feel. The business computer page is much more grid based, while the family computers page has a little more hierarchy, and looks a little more hip/sleek.

Tomorrow I will be doing more research. Since my project is going to involve magazine ads, I will be purchasing a couple of PC magazines. Gamer PC obviously markets towards teenagers, while PC Magazine and Computer Shopper have a slightly different audience. The next step for me is to see what is generally included in a full page magazine ad. How much photography is used? How much typography is used? What is the basic layout? Are there any ads or sponsors on the page? Is there any fine print, about computer specifications or anything? What color schemes are used for each audience?