Just about anyone will tell you that carving a career as an artist can be pretty difficult, but they’re forgetting a vital fact. Every day, we are confronted with a kaleidoscope of images, colors and designs in the form of advertising. An incredible amount of creativity, ingenuity and man-hours goes into creating striking images and artworks that will grab the public’s attention and make them notice the associated products. Here’s how artists are making it big through advertising art:

Multimedia Art and Animation

The artists of yesteryear would be overwhelmed by the variety of media that can be applied to artworks in today’s world. Gone are the days when all you needed to be an artist was an easel, paints and brushes. Today, artists are using every kind of media from the traditional to the technological to produce fantastic advertising images, animations for company advertisements and websites, graphics for video games and more.

This requires a pretty comprehensive knowledge of how to use color, photography and technological tools, so most of these artists are qualified graphic designers who understand just how to get a message across using the visual arts. They generally work as part of a team that includes creative directors, marketing experts and client representatives.

But is it really art?

Some critics question whether advertising art really is ‘art’ in the truest sense of the word. It would be interesting to hear how they feel about Andy Warhol’s classic Campbell’s Soup tin. Is it art when the company in question doesn’t pay for advertising and does it stop being art if the work is paid for by a company? The distinction doesn’t seem realistic.

Commercial art isn’t as new as you might think. Great artists like Leonardo da Vinci often performed commissions for aristocratic clients. In these paintings, it was their task to make the client look as good as possible, and backgrounds, poses and colors were carefully chosen in order to demonstrate wealth, power or military prowess. In other words, the art was intended to create a specific, positive impression. It would not be too great a stretch of the imagination to equate this with advertising art.

What is art and how is it applied to advertising?

The oxford dictionary defines art as: “The expression or application of human creative skill and imagination, typically in a visual form such as painting or sculpture, producing works to be appreciated primarily for their beauty or emotional power”

Looking at our definition, we have several concepts:

The application of human creative skill and imagination: Never before has such a wide range of skills been applied to creative endeavors. Getting the ‘wow’ factor that makes the difference between a run-of-the-mill ad and great advertising art requires lots of imagination. Our audience is exposed to so many advertising artworks that only the most imaginative will be remembered.

In a visual form such as painting or sculpture: To this we can add a whole list of new visual formats, but it all comes down to ‘eye candy’.

To be appreciated primarily for their beauty or emotional power: Powerful advertising can’t just appeal to the intellect. It needs to appeal to the senses by being beautiful or striking. It has to appeal to our feelings and emotions in order to encourage us to engage with the message. Advertising art isn’t just visual, it carries an emotional message. Creating great advertising art is truly a challenge that only the most creative artists can aspire to.

Please share!
0000