Analysis and Redesigning of Outdoor Advertisements on Public Transportation with Gestalt Laws and Golden Section Method

Rosa Karnita (*), Della Meiralarasari (**)

Lecturer of Visual Communication Design Department Faculty of Art & Design, National Institute of Technology Bandung 40124 Indonesia Email : oca@itenas.ac.id, r.karnita@yahoo.com (**) Student of Visual Communication Design Department Faculty of Art & Design, National Institute of Technology Bandung 40124 Indonesia Email : dellameira@hotmail.com
(*)

ABSTRACT
As a part of the everyday life, advertising is a bridge to convey any information required by public, depends on their needs. In the midst of mobile activity, information has to be conveyed in various channels. Outdoor advertisements that we often saw in city buses is a communication media intended for specific consumers. Most buses adorned with a company brand are reminder advertisements, where the consumer might have seen the ads in a different media such as television, print-ads or any other media. Reminder ads were made to repeat the previous message to the consumers; and somehow, for that motive the ad was barely designed carefully (consider the ad as a hard-sell ads). Furthermore, unattractive visual creates another problem; the message intended for the consumer will not be conveyed. This research is proposed to analyze the advertisements published in city buses to determine problem statements. The new designs will be able to communicate more efficiently, aesthetically pleasing, and more importantly; capable to persuade the consumers with a more elegant behavior as an alternative of a hard-sell advertisements. The communication problem in city bus advertisements consists of two matters; what to say, and how to say it. As well the visualization techniques (layout, illustration, typography) and other visual communication design elements to maintain every message of the advertisements. The observation from visual communication approaches has resulted in a hypothesis; that the entire visual and verbal messages from the advertisements requires further improvements, judging from the quality of every visual elements and messages. A further analysis with Gestalt theory is required for the existing condition, in order to provide evidence that the advertisement design is not sufficient for creative and persuasive advertisements. Data collection methods in this research are done through observation to the research object, which are city buses with outdoor advertisements. Interview and questionnaire also inquired to the target audience of these outdoor advertisements. Every data we gathered will be analyzed with Gestalt Laws, consists of the Closure, Similarity, Proximity, Symmetry, Continuity, and Common Fate. Verbal messages will be analyzed with theories of writing copies, body copy and typography. Following a thorough analysis of the existing condition, the advertisements will be redesigned with Golden Section methods; a method to divide proportions which will result in a perfect, aesthetically pleasant layout (divine proportion) to effectively convey visual or verbal messages. Golden Section method will solve the recurring problem in visual communication design, particularly in managing spaces and layout of the design. The result we look forward to from this research is to give solution according to Visual Communication Design point of view, to a more creative and communicative design for an advertisement while considering the goals of making an advertising from the company (to build an awareness, interest, desire or action to buy the product). The aesthetic part is also important in designing advertisements, therefore the ads will not be a nuisance to the eye, but instead become something that can be aesthetically pleasing to every audience. Keywords : Gestalt, Golden Section, Outdoor Advertisements.