PSA Ad Poster Campaign
Create a series of three professional PSA posters for a print ad campaign
BYU-Idaho | ART 235 Graphic Design
PSA Ad Poster Campaign | Photoshop Mock-up of PSA Posters for the National Wildlife Foundation
Purpose
Design a series of three print ad posters. Each poster series should be of professional quality. The intended use of these posters is for a Public Service Announcement (PSA) print campaign.
Project Background
A nonprofit organization (of your choice or creation)—in conjunction with The Ad Council—has hired you to develop a three-piece print campaign to clearly communicate a core message and convince the target audience to reconsider and understand more deeply the topic at hand; and motivate your audience to act.
About the Ad Council
The Ad Council is an American nonprofit organization that produces, distributes, and promotes public service announcements on behalf of various sponsors, including nonprofit organizations, non-governmental organizations, and agencies of the US government. It partners with advertising agencies that work pro bono to create public service advertisements on behalf of campaigns. The organization accepts requests from sponsor institutions for advertising campaigns that focus on particular social issues. To qualify, an issue must be non-partisan (though not necessarily unbiased) and have national relevance.
Design Brief Specifications
This is a self-directed print ad campaign. The charitable organization and message are the choice of the designer.
All three print ad posters must be designed within the following specifications:
• Your print ad poster must be 11 inches x 17 inches (portrait orientation).
• Choose one interesting and important topic.
• Choose one interesting and important topic.
• Create strong visual experiments.
• This is a campaign or series of three.
• This is a campaign or series of three.
• Each poster should be distinct from the other, yet similar enough to be an obvious set when side by side.
• Include the Ad Council Vector Logo (provided).
• Posters must have a headline, tagline and/or secondary headline, logo, and URL as part of a call to action.
• Include the Ad Council Vector Logo (provided).
• Posters must have a headline, tagline and/or secondary headline, logo, and URL as part of a call to action.
Selected Organization
National Wildlife Foundation
Topic or Issue Selected
Reducing the overuse of pesticides, especially synthetic pesticides. Encouraging the reduction of pesticides through education and raising awareness.
The Final PSA Poster Selections
The goal was to create three unique but unified posters for a printed ad campaign. These are to be part of a public service announcement (PSA) campaign for a selected charitable organization. Each poster should stand on its own. All posters should look like they are in a set or series of posters if viewed side by side.
Poster Mockups | Selected PSA Ad Poster series designed for the National Wildlife Foundation in conjunction with the Ad Council
Final selections were made based primarily on the visual balance and flow of the design. Focus was given to message simplicity and they typography used to help deliver the the messages about pesticide usage. Color and contrast are used for added impact.
Yellow draws attention, typically to take pause or slow down. The subtle background texture adds depth without distraction on the high visibility poster.
White offers strong contrast to the background and the darker colors of the featured imagery (hummingbird, garden spider, and ladybug). It is a balancing color for the heavier weighted colors. The thinner nature of the sans serif font reduces the visual weight and allows the eye to move over it quickly.
Red has strong visual weight and is high contrast to the background and draws attention from other items. It is an active color and is effectively used for call-to-action items. The important messages are featured in red to give them added importance. Reducing the weight of the font and increasing the line height reduces the visual weight of this text.
This PSA Poster was intended largely to educate thus a short clip about why the statements and imagery are important is included on each poster.
Poster 1:
Poster #1 | PSA Poster Campaign – Save the hummingbirds
Photoshop Mockups | PSA Posters - Save the Hummingbirds
Poster 2:
Poster #2 | PSA Poster Campaign – Save the garden spiders
Image Credits
Adobe Stock FILE #: 239903196 Spider on a spider web- Stock Image By blackdiamond67
Photoshop Mockups | PSA Posters - Save the Garden Spiders
Poster 3:
Poster #3 | PSA Poster Campaign – Save the ladybugs
Image Credits
Adobe Stock FILE #: 345504544 Seven spot ladybird in a white background. Macro photography.
Coccinella septempunctata. By Macronatura.es
Photoshop Mockups | PSA Posters - Save the Ladybugs
Alternative design uses
Photoshop Mockups | PSA Posters
Previous version of final poster series
Final revisions were made for final submission resulting in the above posters. It is worth showing how minor changes can make a pretty powerful difference, especially in the focal point for message delivery.
Some of the final changes made were previously auditioned on other versions of the posters. Sometimes we need to set ideas aside. They may not be "right" on the version we are working on, but may be "right" after other changes have been made. Little changes can make a difference for other things and retrying things such as changing the color may end up working better.
Poster 1: Previous Version
Poster 2: Previous Version
Poster 3: Previous Version
Alternative Poster Designs
These posters did not make cut in the final selection process, but they are still solid designs and worthy of sharing. It is sometimes hard to make the final decision, but it is a necessary step in completing a project. Some are previous versions of the selected posters.
Please note, this is a hypothetical project design only. No contract or affiliation exists between the National Wildlife Foundation or the Ad Council.
