Photomanipulation in Advertising
Advertising in the digital age has opened the possibility for clients and designers to explore unfathomable amounts of creative avenues pertaining to projects.
From type-heavy print layouts in Adobe InDesign to crafts of beauty in Adobe Illustrator – each passing day it becomes easier to evolve your vision into production.
One prime example of today’s innovational brilliance stands out in the form of photomanipulation, or photo-illustration: the concept of taking multiple images and blending them all into a new single and seamless form.
This form of photographical doctoring has been around since before the digital age; famous examples include the photo of Joseph Stalin with his water commissar, Nikolai Yezhov1, as seen below.
After Yezhov had fallen from his position, censors akin to Winston Smith, George Orwell’s editor protagonist in the novel 1984, erased him from both life and history. Before computers, this type of alteration was achieved through forms ink, paint, and piecing together negatives.
Now we have Adobe Photoshop, which provides us the tools to make the modifications we desire with ease. This feeds creative designers, and respective clients, with a plethora of opportunities to sell the perfect message with the perfect key art.
Steiner Creative, a Los Angeles agency couple, designed this appealing image for the auto company, Volkswagen. It drove home their advertising message with a single, inventive image that almost all can relate to.
This is a prime example of what photomanipulation can do for promotional purposes. It can capture, mold, and deliver a clever scene fit to the message at hand.
Discovery Networks CEEMEA hired the Polish advertising agency, Ars Thanea, to ,” create a campaign to promote spring programming in one of their top portfolio brands - Discovery Channel. In the TV show roster the highlight was put on 'Dynamo The Magician', 'Bearing Sea Gold Rush' and new season of 'Storm Chasers'.”
In doing so, Ars Thanea crafted a magical piece of key art by combining the three highlight shows into a single illustration that evokes visual excitement and intrigue.
In addition to its advert function, this technique can also be used to simply create alluring artwork; fun, quirky, breathtaking, interesting pieces.
Photomanipulation can breathe life into a sales initiative and push the messaging directive into the minds of viewers through its provocative display of imaging mastery. I highly suggest considering this venture for your next campaign.
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