Advertising Design: Week 4, Assignment 2
Journaling Assignment: Internet Search
For this journaling assignment, I had to find a name of an existing advertising or design studio and follow any connected URL’s in the back of my textbook. From there, I would do some research on that company and report my findings.
My Summary
I have chosen to examine Designory, a “full-service” design firm. From the websites listed in the Name/Brand/Company Index section of our textbook, I found a URL for Agency.com. It turns out that that company joined with Designory and assumed the name of the latter. Designory was founded in the early 1970’s by Dave Almquist and Steve Fuller. They started out designing in the automotive business and crafted a “brand bible” that elicited calls from Nissan and Mazda. Today, Designory is not only works on automotive brands, but designs for pharmaceuticals, healthcare, business to business, luxury, financial services, technology, and utilities. Services include web design and traditional advertising — including magazine spots —collateral, point of purchase, photography, social media, applications, etc. An examples of this the firm’s work is the design for the Subaru LAAS microsite, which accentuates the lines and features of the car. Another example is the campaign for Bosch’s home appliances, noted for the simplicity of the ads. Designory’s employees create designs with each client in mind and a focus on honesty, integrity, authenticity, and harmony.
The Designory website has a very modern look with interactive elements on one page. There is an ability to scroll down the page, but links on the top ribbon — itself a fixture — will take a visitor to specific sections on the page, each with their own features. The visitor is first greeted by a slideshow teasing the agency’s work. Below that is a preview of the company’s Work for some companies, including HP, Subaru, and Audi. Next is the section about the Company, which has links to windows, including that with background information of the firm. The People section features a slideshow with information on the firm’s leaders. Then, there is a section for Careers, with link images to offices and a list of available positions below each image. Finally, there is a Contact section, which consists of an e-form. Many of the sections have information placed on panoramic JPEGs, and they can be viewed by sidescrolling with the mouse, as indicated by the hand icon. While there is much thought put into the design of the website, the look is of easiness, with solid colors — mostly with grays and low tones — and the use of one sans-serif font family, most likely Helvetica. The text is highly readable and the use of color and photography engaging.
Works Cited
“Agency.com is now designory.” Designory. Web. 19 Dec 2013. <http://agency.com/index.php>.
Allen, Chris T., Thomas C. O’Guinn, and Richard J Semenik. Advertising & Integrated Brand Promotion. 5th Ed. Mason, OH: South-Western (Cengage Learning), 2009. p 703. eBook. 19 Dec. 2013.
Designory. Web. 19 Dec 2013. <http://designory.com/>.
