The assignment was to create a full-page print ad, advertising the services of Baruch College’s in-house marketing agency—“Park Bench Marketing Group”.
All art and copy are original, fully my own creation.
_
Work Type: Undergrad Assignment
PROJECT BACKGROUND
During my last semester at Baruch College, I was a part of the Park Bench Marketing Group—an in-house student agency that offered a number of different marketing solutions, on a pro-bono basis. The professor for the course established the client-base, pitching it as 1) Free work for any company willing to take on students, and 2) Real-world industry experience for the students.
One of our final projects was to advertise for Park Bench group itself. The request was a simple, straightforward, classic print ad. It was just ideas and raw talent on paper, with nothing else to it. After a number of strange requests and projects from our clients all semester, this was a very welcome assignment.
When I began this project, I initially just grabbed my camera, walked around, and took photos of park benches that might come in handy. It worked as a way to get my own stock images, and it served as a bit of a brainstorming session.
Pictured: Park Benches
The idea behind this was to incorporate the name of the Park Bench group into the visual that I was going to use, (real clever, huh?) but then I realized…this was probably what everyone else was going to do. By the time I considered this, I had already completed my print ad.
Originality at its finest.
DIGITAL ILLUSTRATION: OFFICE ENVIRONMENT
So I scrapped this completely, went back to the drawing board, and began to think outside of the box.
From the get-go, I wanted my ad to focus on selling ideas. Students often bring a level of passion and creativity that dwindles with their youth, and not taking advantage of it is truly a missed opportunity.
As I was trying to play off of the “think outside the box” expression, I remembered something our professor said earlier in the semester. Part of the reason that students are great at being creative is because they aren’t limited by what other people have done. They don’t try to adhere to the norm. They do crazy things because they’re not afraid to get shot down.
And so I shifted my plan from having ideas outside of the box, to having them trapped within.
I painstakingly started to design an office environment, drawing and rendering little details by hand. I probably spent way longer on this than I should have, but I am a sucker for detail. I eventually ended up with a cubicle, which I duplicated to create an endless, sterile office environment.
From there, it was a matter of cropping and writing the copy, to end up at the final product below. In the end, I’d done two solid print works from a technical/visual standpoint—but the first one just did not deliver on creativity. I am grateful that I got to that point, though, because great ideas seldom come on the first round.
