Go there with Beats

 I thought it would be a fun challenge to broaden Beats by Dr. Dre headphone’s target marketing audience. Instead of just selling headphones to “cool kids”, I thought it would be fun to market beats headphones as such a high quality product that the sound quality can, metaphorically, transport you into the music – as if you are actually on stage with the original artist. And that incredible out-of-body experience can happen for anyone. Anytime you want. You just need the headphones,

Now, I’m no Photoshop expert, but here’s what I went for: I wanted to create a billboard campaign that conveys that idea. That the sound of Beats is so good that you’ll be transported ­into the music you listen to.

One billboard is a student listening to U2 while hitting the books, but also feeling the rush of being on stage with U2, because the sound coming from his Beats is just that good.

Another is a girl doing yoga and listening to yoga-type music with soft, Zen-like drums and other ancient oriental instruments, but the quality of the sound brings her there in the streets and Zen gardens of Asia where it is being performed.

Another is a runner doing some post-run stretching and enjoying a Celine Dion tune in her headphones, but, once again, the beats take her there.

As can be seen, the billboards are very similar to each other and I used many pf the same elements in all three pieces. I focused on composition, typography and Gestalt.

For composition, I cropped the imaged so that the faces of the bad members/performers are not completely visible. That was the performers and the music are not the focal point – they are the background. The real focal point is the listener and the experience. I also utilized the rule of thirds to make the image more interesting. I also paid attention to the lighting and made sure that there was some contrast between the scene and the person with headphones, to show that this is an out-of-body experience. I also used some bilateral symmetry in the stretching-runner billboard. This brings down Celine Dion to the same level as the runner, emphasizing anyone can have this surreal experience.

For typography and Gestalt, I wanted to use Gestalt theory to make it more effective. The text at the bottom of each billboard is made up of two short phrases, separated by a space. Above or in that space in each billboard is the subject of the piece. It uses the principle of continuation to lead the viewer’s eye through the first phrase, up to the subject, and back down to the second phrase. I had to do some tracking to make sure that happened correctly.

 I chose to use a sans serif font. I thought it would give it more of a simple, organic feel.

~Aaron Butler