Creating Beautiful Minimalist Ads (Step-by-Step Guide)

1. Intro: Hi, this is Arnold. Today I want to show you how to make these minimal ads. Now in this course, I'm going to go through other step-by-step techniques that we go through as we're picking upon finding the right font size and using the creative elements to make this ad lib clean and professional and most of all minimal. Sometimes having the most minimal ads don't come out very easy or cohesive like they're supposed to be. So I'm going to go through the whole thought process behind how to make an ad lib Dean and minimal, most of off professionals that whenever you're working with the client or working for your own brand and comes out looking like a very good looking at. Anyways, if you're ready to begin in the next videos. 2. Basic Tools: Okay, let's start off with what you need. Here are some basic tools that will essentially be all you need to make a minimal ad that looks good. So the first thing is a photo editor, whether it's Photoshop, which I'll be using in this tutorial or even the preview App in the Mac OSX. So basically all you really need is something that can edit a photo where you can bring a photo on, something where you can create a shape, ideally just a rectangle, and something where you can add text to. You'll also be needing some imagery. So if you're working with a brand to has a lot of photographs and their database ready, you can use that. Or if you're just making a general ad and you don't have any photographs, it's okay to go to stock images, websites and find the right vote. So some of the websites I would recommend are Shutterstock, Adobe Stock, and finally, UNSW slash, which is one of my favorites because it's free and you can do whatever you want with the images. And with that, that's basically all you need to create an ad. So what we'll be doing next is we're going to look at how we're going to use these tools. And how are we going to put all these pieces together so that your ad looks like a good ad. 3. Control the Feel of the Ad: So this lesson we're gonna talk about controlling the feel of the ad and how we can make it look professional. That looks like the brand is a legitimate brand, not just some backyard brand or some brand that's some put together. Professional makes it look well put together so that it has and create a sense of authority to somebody that is watching or viewing this ad. So we're going to start off by talking about colors. Using colors to represent your brand. Make it so that whenever somebody sees your colors, they recognize that color for your brand. Say for example, McDonald's with their red and yellow, or target with their red and white. These colors are distinctive because they're allowed, they're bored, and they represent what this brand is about. Now it doesn't have to be loud and bold or red. But what you want to keep in mind is what kind of colors represent the feeling of your brand name. Say for example, you're making a very niche startup kind of San Francisco type brand where white and minimal colors and maybe pastels are very chic. Those are the colors that you want to use. It's important to know what your demographic is and what type of colors appeal to that demographic. Say you're starting a heavy metal band, you're obviously not going to use light blue or green or yellow because those are the colors that heavy metal rockers associate themselves with. Maybe if you're a heavy metal rock or you'll associate more with black or red or colors that are like dark and evil. Kind of not saying that heavy metal is evil, but that these are the imagery that is very consistent and is very popular within that type of scene. Okay, the next thing that's important is the composition of the imagery that is used. So composition is essentially how your graphics are composed, how the photos are taken. Say for example, if you're doing a very minimal brand, you don't want to have photos that are all over the place. You want something that's very minimal and very easy to associate with. So for today's ad, I created a brand cod craft, an archer, which is essentially a very minimal brand where what imagery we're going to use is going to be something that's very minimal. Just something on self-contained or a notebook on a table, things that aren't very distracting and it's just various focus and centred on the object that we're trying to promote. And finally, we're gonna talk about design elements, where design elements are the shapes and the fonts that you use when you're designing your ad. So having the right fonts and having the right shapes really change the feel of an ad. Say for example, there is no shapes and add, and it's just words. Sometimes it gets boring because there's not too many things that are attracting the viewer's attention. Now, many times, when you go to a website, you might notice that there's a buy button and around the buy button is a rectangle or it's voted out, or there's something special that draws your attention to that buy button. Now, using those different elements really create a sense of importance to what your brand ad is communicating. So having shapes and fonts that are chosen correctly and properly, really bringing the whole thing together to make your brand look professional. 4. Creating the 1st ad: So we're gonna create our first add here. We're going to load up a square image. I'm going to make it 1000 by 1000 pixels. And here we go. Great. So earlier I downloaded some images that we can use as our stock photos to have for this brand. So That's fine them. Okay. Here it is. And when drag one in. Okay, so what I'd like to do is I like to bring it up to fill out the whole image. Okay, great. Now, if you notice, you'll see that the main in-focus part is right here, bottom thirds. And we have all this real estate up on top right here. So the slogan up this brand crossed an archer, is right for a good day. So I click here and type in right for a good day. Now of course, once you see it, it's obviously too big. So let's make it smaller. 72 seems about right. Basically what you wanna do is have even spacing on both sides of the words. So left and right, but right now it's really white, so it's hard to see. So let's make it black. Okay, great. Now it's black and it is kind of contrast the, from all the other colors here. So I'm gonna do a different creative element where I highlight the whole thing and go into the color. And then I use the tool, the dropper tool to pick out this blue that I'm seeing here, or perhaps this other blue, but other blue worth so and pick this first blue. And now our font is blue. And by having our font be blue, a corresponds with the notebook that we're working with, an editing on the photo. Okay, Now to finish off this ad, we're going to add the logo. So pull this one and okay, it looks like this one is the wife logo instance. Our other one is actually darker. I think this works because the slogan is highlighted in bold, but the logo is there, but not super prominent. So it doesn't distract the viewer from the slogan. Actually, what I would do though, is make the logo slight bit smaller. And there you go. Now you have this logo that isn't too obtrusive to the image. It's still conveys the message of the brand, which is to write for a good day and you have everything in it to make it a good engaging add. Now you can also go into right for a good day and make it bigger. Sometimes when you look at these ads, you can make changes just to see how it feels. I see what it makes more of an impact. So right here, I have changed it to 8585, does seem pretty good. It's big, it's bone. Now let's maybe go really big so we can see what it feels like to have our font at a 100 crabs. So a 100 still fits in here, but there is not too much spacing on both sides. So I think I prefer 85 a bit more. So let's go back to 85, since a 100 is too big. And there you go. 85 is perfect for this five. Great, cool. So here's her ad, right, for a good day. 5. Creating the 2nd ad: I can add an a half the Photoshop template opened up. It's simply a thousand pixel wide by thousand pixel high image. So let's drag an image in there so that we can edit and makes them than out of it. So here's our second image, which is a notebook with another notebook and some pencils on top. So like I said earlier, I like to fill out our image so that there's no random whitespaces, although it could be a creative element. For today, we're just going to stick with something minimal. And I want to bring in the journal wording so that it shows the journal on the right side prominently. And there, yeah. Okay, so we have this nice image right here. And the first thing I'm gonna do with this one is I'm just going to bring in the logo and then I'll make it a lot smaller. Just so you know, it's there. But not two prominent. Because people who are, who are seeing these ads are ready, for the most part, shouldn't know the brand because the brand is outlined very boldly on the ad or at least should. So we're going to have this little template set up. Now the next thing that you can do is simply go to text again and create a, another big bold slogan. So another font that I like to use is din Condensed Bold, something for you to make a bold statement out. Another font that is similar to this is futuro, Which is also getting very, very popular these days. But today I'm going to use didn't condense. So with this, I'm gonna go back to this slogan, which is right for a good day or a good day. And I'm going to type it up. Now. What's I put it in and preview it. It does look really small, right? So with the beauty of this style of add, basically the whole concept of it is to have drew words big and bold and loud. So we're going to go and make this 50 and see what that looks like. Ok, cool. 150 is pretty nice. Now, since the sentence is pretty long, you know, we could experiment with making it spaced out. Okay, so here we have ripe for a good day. Spaced out in it are leaning towards left. So we're going to change this to be centered. Okay, great, so we'll drag it to the center. And here we have write for a good day in the center, bolt and white. Now I like this, this is loud, This makes a statement and it communicates what it needs to communicate. Although I will say, I think the text needs to be centered. There you go. Okay, great. You go, there's the ad. 6. Creating the 3rd ad: So for this last one, it's going to be super simple. All we're doing is adding one creative element to the add. So let's start off with a photo. Okay, great. Okay. And C says book block on there, right? Well, you know what? Since we have a logo that isn't our logo. Since all these images I've gotten from from an splashed. Let's get rid of this. So let's get rid of that. You go in rasterize this layer. Okay? Okay. Okay, so we've gotten rid of the logo there. And the next thing to do is simply either put a text here of the slogans such as, right for a good day. And of course we're going to use a different fonts as we've been using this the whole time. Ready? Let's change it back to a real vet phase. Okay? Now that you have this here, what I'm gonna do is fear simple. You're just gonna get a rectangle tool and make a box around it. And then make sure the stroke is the one we're using and have the fill as blank. Okay, so the strokes really think I'm making it lower. There you go. Okay, so here we go. You have this very chic and minimal ad. And to really topped this off, I would add the logo in there. So it's fine of Logo, craft and Archer. And there you go. Beautiful, nice, minimal logo. And all you really had to do was add text and v square. 7. Minimalist Ads Case Studies: All right, For this section we're going to do case studies on minimal ads. I'm going to show you some ads. I'm going to break them down. Highlight why they're good, highlight what I like about them, and then showcase them to you so that you can draw elements from them and use them as inspiration for your minimal ads as well. Okay, For this rain. And first off, looking at it, there's a couple of elements, the logo, that text, and a smaller subtexts under that. And this is very well space because what it does is has the glasses in the bottom half and the top half, which is the empty space to have the text. And another element that they're using to that's very important is that the bold out the main statement, which is a gift their eyes will love. And with that follows the subtexts, which is something that fills the viewer with extra additional information, such as available in polarized and free shipping plus returns. And lastly, the logo is on top just to state that it is there. Now this next one is also very similar to that last one. It has the logo on top, a bolded text, and get their eyes will love the subtexts available in polarize, except this time they added a little extra thing on the bottom, free shipping plus returns. And that part on the bottom is very important because it is a split from the rest of it. Because what this does is it makes it less of a distraction if you have too much texts and A-U-R-A-L, it could be more distracting. Now what they decided to do was put free shipping on the bottom so that it's split out from the rest of the text. This way it draws the attention of the consumer to the free shipping, which is also a very enticing offer. Next up we have onwards, which is a popular brand amongst Silicon Valley and a lot of the startup world. And this one is very, very minimal. All it does is it has offered Slovak on top and two bold text, the fluffier, the merrier. Basically it just says All it needs in forwards. And what it also does is it's centered the shoe, which is the main thing they're selling right in the center. Very straightforward and powerful. Now this one too was a very similar concept to the other onwards video. Where does was it centered a subject dead center, and it had the logo on top just to be there. And finally, one main powerful word in the middle or statement. So this one has lowerbound and It's set amongst someone who's is lounging with their lounge where in Jilin. And it is bold right in your face and gets the point across. Now this next one another are birds I had is a very well-made When I love this one a lot. So it's very long. And one thing you'll notice is that the top two-thirds or the majority of the top of the image is the shoe in subject itself. And on the bottom you'll see the bold text, just like they had in the other ads. Big, fluffy, little fluff and, you know, kinda goes with this family kinda theme. And finally on the bottom and it has the orange logo. Now, I really like this because of the way that they used the colors and the way that is composed, if you notice, the big, fluffy little fluff is the same color of the background except it is darker. So once it does that, it kind of ties all of these colors together. And you also noticed that the souls and the shoes are also on a very similar color palette that all of these colors are on together. So here you notice four colors, the souls, the bolded letters, the word logo, and the background. And they all were complimentary to each other. Okay. Every lane I loved their ads, avid watching them for years. So for this one, there photo is, does so well captured. If you look at it, you'll notice that the center subject is about two-thirds of the whole width along the hallway. If you notice, it, is the center of attention. And it has all of the text right there in the dead center as well. And the thing that makes us so powerful is that since it is dead set on the ascender, all you have to do now, since this is a video, just have to subject, move around a little bit, add some life to it, and you have this beautiful ad. Now, the font choice as well, if you notice, is very on-brand. It shows a kind of classe brand. The way style and the flowers all work together so well to showcase this beautiful Everlane add. Okay, Here we have another beautiful Everlane add. And first thing that comes to mind is the use of color. There's this bold background color, which is also on theme with your brand, is very much in the same color palette as all the other colors that they're using. And the next thing to look at is that the image is cut into halves. So the leggings are on the left half and the text is on the right half. Now, the leggings urges so well placed that it's very symmetrical, looking in a way that's aesthetically pleasing. And for the text, the text is lined up in a way that is, if you imagine it down from the top to bottom, it is centered. And when the text is centered like that, it draws the attention of the viewer slash consumer right towards it. And if you notice the also do another very interesting thing with the text, which is they outlined the word cozy by making it italicized. Okay, Here we have another beautiful Everlane add. First thing to notice is the colors, again, very much similar color palette to all your other ads. And also with their shirt that is there. You will also notice that the branches in the photo kind of match with the color of one of the sweatshirt. And you could also see the other sweaters on the left having a color that could be the color of branches. Now, the next thing to notice is their use of text. So the text on the top is dead center in the center. And it has about equidistant distances from both the border on the left and the border on the right. That way is very aesthetically pleasing. And if you notice two from the top to the bottom, that from the top of the ad to the first of this sweatshirt that the, give her the gift of cosy is dead center. In the center. That way it draws complete attention to the words that they want to say. And finally, it is finished off by having the brand logo Everlane on the bottom, subtle but yet powerful. Okay, Another awesome brain is Warby Parker. They have some very well-known ads and came onto the scene really powerfully about 10 years ago. Now, to look at this one, we first see that the subject, which is the contact lenses here, dead set in the center. And on top of that we have the words, say 15 percent on top brand contacts. And that is bolted out because that is the main text that they want to draw attention to. And another very subtle detail is the shadowing of it. So if you look in the text, the shadow is on the bottom right. And if you look at the contact mints, the product photo, it is also on the bottom right. And finally, the words on the bottom as well. It has the shadow on the bottom right. This way creates a uniform effect so that whenever you look at this whole thing, it just seems like the words are there belonging with the product. Now what you should notice here about the text is that the strong bolded text, say 15 percent on top brand context is a lot bigger than the subtexts, which is free shipping on every order. And this makes a lot of sense because what they want to draw attention to is that you can save 15% on your contact lenses. And another added sweet. And this to the deal is that there's free shipping on every order, which is the subtext, which is not as important, so they make it a little smaller. Okay, now this one is a bit more complicated than the other minimal ads, but it also has a very similar element. So first of all, the texts, the bold text on top, the Kimball frame is popular for a reason. And right after that you'll notice that there's a hand holding the glasses up, which is drawing attention to the glasses. And finally EC little subtext. It overflows with character and fits a lot of faces. And that one is the subtext because it's not as important as the top one which is talking about the Kimball frame and is kinda like the opening or the header for this whole ad. Now if you look closely too, you can notice that this add is separated out into three sections. The first third is the top part, which is the Kimball frame. And the second third is the glasses, which the hand holds up in showcases. And finally, the bottom third is it overflows with character and fits lots of faces. All right, now we have a rook. Add this one, super minimal, super simple. It has a close up shot of the brand product, which is this flannel shirt with a logo there, which in a way is a good replacement for having an image of the logo. And finally, it just says heavyweight on the bottom. Clear, simple and straight to the point. All right, here we have this Quicksilver add. And what it shows is a model holding one of their backpacks or some defiled bag. And the word fleece is highlighted in bolded in the center, which is drawing attention to the fleece. So I guess the important thing of this ad is that it is focused on the fleece that the guy is wearing. And the other texts is to show you that you can buy online for only $30. So maybe they have a promotion or something going on. And this is the draw attention to that. So if you notice to the use of the font sizes is very important. So fleece is biggest in bold. And then the next most important thing is only $30, which is the second most important thing because price draws a lot of attention to consumers. And then finally, the smallest font, which is online and online exclusive part. It shows that, you know, that is something that you can buy online only. And it's not as important as the other ones because it's not as big of a selling point, so they made it as small as possible. All right, in here is a Uniqlo add and this one, bold, powerful. It uses their signature color, which is red. And it has their logo tiny, but shows that it's there. And the main thing that it wants you to pay attention to is the limited time promotions. So this is a powerful, straightforward ad. Just wants to grab your eye so that you can know that they have limited time promotions. Alright, so this is a very, very minimal ad. And you know, generally this is something that someone might just look past. But since is a big brand, big Bed Bath and Beyond, I think it deserves some attention to be looked at. So the first thing you'll notice is that it has the team dollars and that is the biggest board as part of this whole ad. So when someone sees it, they're definitely going to look at the $15 and then they're going to be curious, Okay, what's next? What's next is automatically looking at the next biggest fun, which is get $50 off $50 or more. So that is what they're going to look at. So they can see 15 there, you can see get and they're going to see $50 or more. And then since the main job of this ad is for the $15 to capture someone's attention. They're automatically going to look at the other parts and then you're going to start to notice the other things like when you shop at our newly redesigned store, and then finally be in stores only texts and the date. Now this is a very textbook kind of staircase add, where it takes you through different steps of the way. So like I mentioned, first it was the money and then the instructions to get that money off. And then little descriptions about the discount that you're going to get. And finally, it is set to the backdrop of a color that matches their logo. Another brand that's really popular here is pack sun. And you see packs on, in a lot of moss. And their ads are very, very minimal because they just need to remind you that they exist. So looking at this ad, first thing you notice is that the main subject is this person wearing their clothes. And this is kind of just shown what the brand is like. And on the bottom you'll notice top rated check-ins. That is like the texts that they're trying to highlight and tell you that, Hey, there's this product that they're trying to sell. And then you'll notice that right next to that is this little tag that says free shipping in a kind of Christmas see, beamed tag. That tag is probably just used for this season because it is the holiday seasons, or at least when I recorded this video. And finally, you'll see Paxton in texts are tiny on top. Just to remind you that it is Paxton Brandon. And I love these tiny little text effects because it adds a whole professional official field to the Add. Now, this one's placement of everything too is very much just highlighted on the subject of this ad, which is that person. And the, all the other elements are there to support and bring attention to that person in a way is like framing it. Now once again, packs on, doesn't have to do a very hard push because their brand is already pretty well-recognized. They just have to remind you that they're there and they have a bit of a push by saying that it's up to 50 percent off, but it's not as aggressive as a lot of the other brains that are smaller. Okay, here we have gap, which is also another huge household brand. And this one, you'll notice that there's three words are three different spaces with texts. The Gift Shop. And it's spaced out from the top, top, center, center and bottom, bottom. This way it kind of fills up the whole image. I mean, you can do it like this or you can have it altogether dead center. Like a lot of our ads have. This is just a very simple minimal and I don't think it's particularly that powerful. And also GAP is one of those brands that are household names or AD. So what it really has to do is just remind you that they exist and to remind you that they are there so that you know where you're at them. I can go, Oh, I remember that gap at 0, 0, take them out. And just like how I mentioned, you can have all your thoughts dead set in the center. Here's another Gap, ad, and this one they have other words, that's it in the center. This one they have a product photo of their flannel and, you know, it's it's a very up-close photo of their flannel and they have the words gap, flannel season right underneath it, just to show you that they're still around and that they're selling flannel and that it's flannel season. And interesting element to note is that they spelled season as Zn, which is probably to appeal to a younger demographic because, you know, like these days, having vowels taken out of words is trendy. So that's probably why they did this. And yeah, I mean, it's kinda cheesy because gap is an older brand, but a while to appeal to the youth. So that's what they're doing. Yeah, very minimal simple ad gets straight to the point. Their main job is to remind you that they exist and that they carry flames. Are right, Abercrombie and Fitch. Now, I like this one a lot because it has two type of framing going for it. First, the image of the model with their fleece or sweatshirt. And this is a shot in itself. It's this line up and placed in the center. And then finally you have the shot in the back which is of trees, makes it have that festive feeling. And that tree kind of photo is used to frame the photo of the model in the center. And then now you can notice the text which has up to 40% off select Styles. That is the biggest boldest hex because that's what it wants to draw your attention to. And then the subtexts after that, it says, plus an extra 15 percent off, which is there to sweeten up the deal even more. And then finally you have the tiny text on the bottom which says select Styles, see site. And that is just meet so small that if you're really, really interested, you'll read it. We'll start with target. Okay, a huge household brand, target. I'm sure everyone that's watching this, if you're from American knows target. And this one is just a bold, powerful ad. So first thing you notice is completely red. That is going to capture your attention as you're scrolling down the News Feed. Red is a power color. Red is a color that snags attention. That's why stop signs are red. Now, you look at this and you'll notice the next thing too, is that there's a target right there, like the Target logo, which is also a kind of a universal logo for target like bulls-eye. And you'll see that right there. And next to it is deals. So this whole effect is very interesting because there's two things going on for it. One is that it's a logo and two, it acts of kind of like a bullet point that leads you to looking at deals. Now, what it really is trying to show you is that if you look at this ad, you stop and pause. There's something to be offered. And you're automatically going to look at the description which says Shop new deals on top, gifts. And then, you know, you might go and click on through their brand. Now the thing that Target has going for it that's very different from the other brains that we look at is that Target is a household brand and their technique for marketing isn't like the other brands. Target religious has to remind you that there, there, while the other brands main priority is to get you to click through to their website and buy their product. Target just needs you to be aware that they're there and to remind you that they exist. So that way they stay on top of your head. All right, so that should give you a good amount of case studies and different apps to draw inspiration and to learn from. Now let's go on to the next lesson. 8. End of Class : Thanks a lot for finishing the class. Congratulations on making it all the way here. Now if you found this helpful, I would love in appreciated so much if you left me a review, letting me know what you thought about the class. And if you're interested in this subject, I do have a range of other classes on Skillshare as well, and I'm looking forward to seeing you there.