Banner campaign - Konstniekka hockey players

The basic set of banners I've been working with at my job recently consists of three vastly differently shaped templates all within each created campaign. This in most normal cases requires the same material to perfectly fit all three of the bases, regardless of the original materials' orientation.

Top-most: the first proposed banner with the fighting hockey-players. Right: the final used image. Above: separate banner for the same campaign's 300 x 250 px slot.

This was a fun one to work on

Here I had to think about the motives of the action in the image I chose based on the campaign text, and how to emphasize the interraction between the characters in the available spaces. The original photo of the fighting hockey players, which I chose based on the provided text, presented the yellow shirted 'Swedish' player to be slightly less 'dominant' of the two, with the 'Finnish' guy beating on him, but the message on the banner was to be a rather provoking "do we let Swedes to beat us (on this given field)".

To get the message across within the image, I decided firstly crop it tightly to zoom in on the action and only show the most necessary bits as largely as possible. Then, in both cases I had to go in and change the arrangement of the elements in the image as well (especially radically in the case of the upright banner): turn the image so the yellow shirted fellow would loom over the other guy and even add a more clinched fist for him.

Quite cruesome task to work on in an imaginationary level in fact, but with visually striking results... actully too much so: in the end the campaign was changed to a bit less violent one and concentrated on the teamwork aspect of the game instead, with the two players equally displayed engaging in a fair match of hockey. Wise decision and a much more tasteful option, imho. And even if the work then went to 'waste', this was an inspiring practice in 'character manipulation' never the less.

Below are quick animated samples of the construction of each image / banner.

Welcome summer - photo edit

Composite image made in 2013 for Salon Seudun Sanomat summer subscription offer, combining photos of the foreground rocks, background view, group of cows, sunny sky and a flower field (got little sloppy with the last mentioned, as they were to be mostly covered with the subscription form anyway). Rediscovering this made me realize the image could well have been for a dairy advert of some sort.

SSS adverts

Selection of various ads for the newspaper Salon Seudun Sanomat, 2006-2014.

The Huiskula rose bouquet photo on the Mothers' Day campaign ad above left was an unfortunately late addition (layout considered). Below right: the most time consuming part of this otherwise fairly simple looking ad was the photo collage on the background, linking Salo landmarks and familiar scenery into one image.

Rautia winter scenery

Used to regularly make ads for the hardware store Rautia for Salon Seudun Sanomat newspaper, from small front page pieces to more cumbersome whole spread 'collages'. However, this is the only one that stuck with me (no doubt because it required some more creativity than usual) and which I personally most care for: made this wintery mood image for their Christmas greeting by 'painting' some snow and ice on a summery stock photo from Kotitalo (one of their affiliate ready-made house manufacturers). It must have been running in their front page Christmas ad annually for at least 7 years now, iirc, maybe more. Most recently few days ago, this very Christmas.

Beauty as advertised

Study in photomanipulation. Including basic level-adjustments, some more drastic alterations, incorporated elements from outside the image and background renderings.

Photo and modeling Erika Malkki.