How to Create an Ad for Sneakers

Creating an Ad has to do with a product to advertise, a market to reach and to communicate with, an idea and some pictures. This post will deal with the treatment of images for advertising and we use as an example Ads created for Custom Made Sneakers by Global Sports.

Custom Made Sneakers need custom made ads. The sneaker in question is a Nike Air Max 97 which has been artistically decorated with Swarovski Crystals to become a unique product in a Limited Edition.

While Nike supplies advertising materials and pictures of the Air Max, Custom Made Limited Editions require their own original images. The Quality of the image is or paramount importance.

Global Sports sent us some images from which we selected one to serve as a base for the project. The problem is: the lousier the picture, the more work for the designer. If you count designer hours at only $100, then it becomes obvious that paying a professional photographer to take good shots is worth while.

Most Photographers use some sort of photo editing software such as PhotoShop, Illustrator and similar.

Ideally we therefore get a picture of the product on a transparent background to be able to use it in multiple ways and for multiple purposes. Photographers should deliver the largest possible file size and the highest dpi or ppi rate.

Unfortunately we started out from a non professional image, taken with a normal digital camera. The background of the picture was not in sharp contrast with the Sneaker and the image was not top notch sharp and crisp.

Air Max 97 Bling

After some basic improvement of the image, Bianca and I started each on his side to get rid of the background. It took just over an hour to clean up the picture to end up with a sneaker on a transparent background. Every designer knows, that there is always some more that could be done -  but that’s a matter of time. We finally ended up with a clean picture we could start to work with.

Once you have a clean picture with a transparent background, things get easier and you can compose the Ad, by adding a background and other graphic elements, text, effects and so on.

Select a background and glue the sneaker to it:

Air Max 97 Custom Made

Custom Made Air Max 97 Bling

Air Max Custom Made

Playing with the background

Nike Air Max 97 Custom Made

Air Max Custom Made Swarovski Kicks

Playing with Details

Nike Custom Made

Conclusion

A good image at the base will save many designer hours. The above result is the fruit of over 2 hours of work and that’s just the beginning. From here the image needs to be beefed up to communicate and create immediate empathy with prospect targets.

Ycademy calls and YORGOO Webmaster trainings will show you how to tweak images with simple but efficient means.