Art and Advertising- Exploring the Connection

Are art and advertising different?  Are they connected?  If so how?

One way of looking at advertising is the art of communication and persuasion, a means of using words, pictures, music and drama to get your message across to customers.  Art in advertising is sometimes glaringly obvious, at other times subtle. 

Let us look at how art is used in advertising:

Color: Color and psychology, color and marketing, color and brand identity, color and its connotations all have a role to play in marketing and advertising.  Color impacts people, advertising impacts people and that is the biggest connection between color and advertising.

Color and its connotations are well known: yellow stands for happiness and all things bright and sunny, blue stands for peace and calm, green for health, nature and the environment, red for excitement, boldness, danger, power, love, sacrifice, revolution, purple stands for luxury and royalty. 

Now make the connection between color and brand identity.  Brands have distinct color associations: Red-Levis, Cocoa Cola, Red, Blue and White-Colors of Pepsi, Green- Tropicana, Animal Planet, Blue-HP/Dell, etc.  In a way the colors they choose have a strong reason why, they bank on the power of color to communicate their core values.  Of course brand identity is much more than just color but color has a definite role to play. 

Illustrations: An illustration is much more than just a drawing.  It is a decoration or visual interpretation of text, concept or process.  It finds its place in, magazines, books, posters, flyers, animations, video games and films. Illustrations are significant in advertising for the print media because they add to the visual appeal of print advertisements.  Illustrations are used to create logos. 

Hand Lettering: is a form of illustration in which one draws letters.  In times when all signs are hoardings and posters used to be hand painted, illustrations and lettering was done by hand and had wide scope.  Even today artistic, neat lettering is used to paint signage and wall paintings for advertising.  Graffiti is an art form that comprises lettering and illustration. 

Typography: Typography is the art and technique of arranging type to make the written word look appealing, legible and readable.  The arrangement of type involves choosing typefaces, determining spacing between words and lines.  Typography is practised by typesetters while typefaces are created by type designers.  Lettering and typography may be used in brand names and brand marks. 

Music- Music is an intrinsic part of radio, TV and film advertising.  Played in the background or in the form of a jingle, it makes the advertisement appealing and entertaining.  Jingles are a form of sound advertising.  They are short songs or tunes used in advertising.  

Drama- the element of drama in advertising is introduced through actors, music nad suspense in film and TV advertising.