Angel Larson Design

Tag: social-media

  • Self Promo Video – Brainstorming

    -Angel Larson

    Instructions:

    As part of my portfolio for school, I am required to conceptualize, produce, edit & deliver a self-promotional video. The first stage is the pre-production. This includes research, brainstorming, storyboarding & script writing.

    Video Requirements:

    • 2-3 minutes in length
    • Must include composite video or kinetic type using After Effects as well as footage captured with a video camera.
    • Must have professional lighting & sound quality.
    • HD 1080p formatted for Vimeo/Youtube & mobile
    • Begin with rough sketches, then refine the storyboard using more detailed drawings or photos.

    Video Objectives

    1.  Promote my employable skills through video:
      • Photoshop
      • Illustrator
      • InDesign
      • Dreamweaver
      • After Effects
      • Premiere Pro
      • Bridge
      • Digital Photography
      • Photo Editing
      • Video Storyboarding, Filming, & Editing
      • Organization, Planning, & Coordinating
      • Teamwork
      • Management
    2.  Communicate my ideas visually through detailed sketches and planning.
    3.  Capture and edit a sequence of video clips to create a mood and message to the viewers.
    4.  Composite text, images & video in a visually appealing and professional way, using Adobe After Effects.

    Brainstorming Ideas

    • The main idea I have for my video is to do a timeline, showing my college/job experience from when I graduated college in 2020 to finishing the Media Design Technology Program in May 2025.
    • I will be using my transcript as a reference for the classes I have taken and which year and semester they where in.
    • I think that a timeline, “Progression Over-Time,” would be a good way to show the things I have learned over the years and how I have ended up in my current position.
    • This video will be very visual, with moving text and the backgrounds being the focus. I do want to get some royalty free background music as well to help with the feeling and mood of my video. I do not think there is a need for any talking in the video.
    • I will be using my transcript of my classes as a guide for the type that will be in my video. I will also be going through old pictures of me to get a feel for what I looked like during each year so I can try and re-create the feeling of going back in time.
    • I plan to film at Garretson High School, the USD Community College for Sioux Falls, Southeast Technical College, and North Central International to show the places I have gotten my education and experience so far.
    Storyboard Sketch Image 1
    Storyboard Sketch Image 2
    Storyboard Sketch Image 3
    Storyboard Sketch Image 4
    Storyboard Sketch Image 5

  • The Elements of Copywriting – The Essentials to Creating Copy

    Copy is the text that you use in an advertisement. No matter what kind of advertisement it is, there are fundamentals to follow in order to make more interesting writing. There are lots of elements that go into writing body copy but I will only be discussing the elements that I find the most important.

    1. Gets attention

    (Photo screenshotted from my Instagram. I do not own this material and am using it for informational purposes only.)

    This Scooters ad gets attention by featuring an offer. Immediately, the line “$1 COFFEE” is the first thing that many people will notice about the ad. As someone who enjoys coffee, this offer is very attractive, as a typical cup of brewed coffee from Scooters would be around $3-$4.

    2. Focuses on the customer

    (Photo screenshotted from my Instagram. I do not own this material and am using it for informational purposes only.)

    This advertisement is doing a good job of being customer centric. This advertisement promises that the consumer will gain a sense of “Belonging, Purpose, and Hope” by participating in their events for young adults. It also makes sure to say, “You’re invited,” as if speaking directly to the consumer.

    3. Stresses benefits

    (Photo screenshotted from my Instagram. I do not own this material and am using it for informational purposes only.)

    This advertisement from Audible stresses the features and benefits of this particular book. The proclaimed feature of the book is to learn “Effective Co-Parenting or Parallel Parenting with a Narcissist,” while the benefits of learning this are to “Set Boundaries, Eliminate Conflict, Protect Yourself, and Raise Emotionally Secure Children.” The feature helps you to understand what the book can mean to you and why its worth listening to. 

    4. Differentiates your product from the competition

    (Photo screenshotted from my Instagram. I do not own this material and am using it for informational purposes only.)

    This advertisement stresses that it is different from the competition because you don’t have to brush your retainer. It does not specifically mention the names of the competitors but alludes to the fact that this product is very different than what else is out there. It stresses the benefit that you will never have to brush your aligner again like you have to for many other brands that also offer a retainer.

    5. Proves its case

    (Photo screenshotted from my Instagram. I do not own this material and am using it for informational purposes only.)

    This advertisement proves its case that you should listen to this book because it is the “#1 New York Times Bestseller.” This shows that many people already enjoy the book and have listened to it already, so you should too. People can be skeptical to try a product if no one else has tried it, because they don’t know if it’s worth their time or money, and they want someone else to take the risk if it ends up not being worth it. This ad also has a quoted review about the book from Buzzfeed, so if you like Buzzfeed and respect them, you would probably trust their opinion about the book. 

    6. Establishes credibility

    (Photo screenshotted from my Instagram. I do not own this material and am using it for informational purposes only.)

    This advertisement establishes it’s credibility by stating that “MyTrueAncestry compares your DNA to real arcaeological DNA samples: our database includes 140+ ancient civilizations and 10,000+ years of history!” This helps to prove that your results will be accurate and worth using this service to look into your ancestry.

    7. Builds value

    (Photo screenshotted from my Instagram. I do not own this material and am using it for informational purposes only.)

    This advertisement builds value by stating that after using their laser hair removal services, you will never have to shave again. The treatments may be expensive, but the extra value is that they would save you money in the long run from not having to buy shaving razors, razor blades, or shaving cream anymore. It would also save you value in terms of time in the long run.

    8. Closes with a call to action

    (Photo screenshotted from my Instagram. I do not own this material and am using it for informational purposes only.)

    This advertisement closes with a call to action by encouraging you, “Don’t delay again! Try it Now.” There is also a “Learn more” bar at the bottom that you can click. This encourages you to act on the ad while you are interested and requires minimal effort to learn more about the service being offered. This is essential in ads so that the consumer knows what to do easily to pursue the product or service.

  • What’s Involved in Marketing?

    Marketing is a term used to define how businesses go about pricing, promoting, placing, and producing their products and services to consumers.

    Marketing encompasses every aspect of a business, including brand identity, organizational culture, internal processes, financing, strategy, etc. With this in mind, it is a very vast field, and everyone working within a business or managing their business deals with one or more aspects of marketing. If you are a cashier at a store, you are on the front line of customer service. You are promoting the business with your interpersonal skills and affecting the customers’ experience buying a product. If you are a hair stylist, you are affecting the customers’ experience by the level of service you give to the customer. If you are an accountant, you are directly helping to track the expenses and incomes of the business. This guides decisions in how many products to produce, how many people to hire, and if the business can expand. 

    I am very interested in the creative aspect of marketing—how businesses can communicate a message to their target market through text, images, colors, videos, feelings, and sounds. It all comes down to communication. We are receiving hundreds of messages daily from businesses. “This product will help you do X.” “Try this product and you will feel like Y.” These messages are attempting to offer a solution to a perceived problem. No one wants a useless product that won’t do anything. We want something that will fulfill a need, help us do something better, make us feel a certain way, and solve our specific problem/problems. I think it is essential to understand the functions of marketing and how every single job in a business is a crucial piece of the whole. Especially if you want to have your own business, you may want to think about how effectively you manage these various aspects and if you need to start outsourcing jobs to other people. 

    I hope that this gave you a better insight into the marketing field and how it encompasses all areas of the business. As well as how marketing is broken down into specialties and specific functions.

  • Designing an App with Adobe XD-Part 4

    Once you have gathered and analyzed your data for your app or website, you can create user personas based on this data. User personas help you to better understand the needs / desires of your target audience. With this real world knowledge you can better design your app or website to fit their needs / desires better. This will make your app or website more appealing to those people.

    1. You will want to create 1 – 3 different personas to characterize your target audience. Your app or website may be targeted to more than one specific type of person.
    2. Use fake names for the personas.
    3. Use pictures from online, or illustrate, what you think the persona would look like. For example if your target audience is mainly 4-50 year old females, you will want to use a picture of a middle aged female for your persona.
    4. Describe the demographics of each persona.
    5. Describe the wants of each persona.
    6. Describe the needs of each persona.
    7. Describe the functions each persona would like to see.

    Creating these user personas of your target audience, based on the research you conducted will help you to back up your design ideas for your app or website. This will be a good guide for you to look back on when you are wondering what specific details of your app should be like. With personas you can base your ideas with facts and either back up your decisions you already made, or subvert your expectations. Your target audience may react in a way you didn’t expect to a certain want or need you thought that they had.

    These are personas I made for an app idea for a personal finance organizer app. I conducted an online survey with google forms and sent it out on SnapChat and Facebook. I gained 67 responses and analyzed them in excel to help me form the user personas.

    The next step after creating your user personas is to create sketches for your app or website.