Unlike magazines, posters use predominantly images rather than text to advertise and so I have ensured that text would be minimal on my poster designs. Information on the poster designs includes the soap opera name, tagline, time and day it can be watched with the channel logo.
To help layout my designs, this is the basic plan I have created for our poster:
I have chosen to use a border around the main image to make the poster look modern and stylish, reaching our young target audience as seen in the following design:
Contrasting the classic picture frame with a modern image in the middle connotes that this is an older styled soap opera with modern characters and story lines. It also connotes the character of Rachel and how she will be changing the lives of the traditional families in Mill Lane, as well as showing the other relationships between the characters and introducing the new soap to the audience. The classic font to show the title and day/time is modern but also classic reaching our target audiences and in white so that it will be easily visible against the background image. The logo is in the corner and is clearly visible, informing the audience well.
For my second design, I decided to take a more simple and modern approach by using a plain background allowing the text and images to stand out. I have also included a tagline which is important in grabbing the audience's attention:
By pulling the focus onto Rachel Manning's character, with the slogan it connotes that she is causing trouble encouraging the audience to watch and find out more. It also demonstrates her character and allows the relationships between the other characters and Rachel to be shown through how they are looking. again, I have used the whole cast as Mill Lane will be a new soap opera and so this will introduce all the characters to the audience. I have placed the channel logo smaller and at the bottom of the poster in order for the main tag line and soap opera name to grab the audience's attention first. The green surrounding 'MILL LANE' connotes farmland and jealousy, which are important elements in our soap opera. I have also chosen the same, classic font in capital letters to grab the audience's attention and create a modern look for the poster, capturing a younger target audience.
I have created both designs using Microsoft Word which isn't a very effective programme to use for professional poster design. I will suggest to my group that we find alternative methods of producing a poster so that the final product we produce is finished to a high standard.
