1) A Description of the brand identity of the headphones you will be using and a summary of NYC public Service Campaign on Hearing Loss. Define your target audience. 

Beats by Dr. Dre is a line of high-performance headphones designed specifically to support high-quality playback of popular rock and hip-hop music, and to be worn as iconic body art. They use a lot of colors to show emotion, style and mood. They have simple typography on their ads. The NYC public service campaign on Hearing Loss is advising people to lower the volume when listening with headphones and to take breaks. This will prevent hearing loss in the future. The campaign’s tagline, “Turn down your music before you can’t hear it anymore,” is a clear call to action.

2) What do you intend to convey for each of these two different images? 

For the Beats photos, person enjoying to music with the headphones and for the hearing loss it will show hearing loss is no joke and you need to prevent it when young.

3) Images ideas- Consider lighting as well as wardrobe, pose and expression. 

Beats, will be bright with happy and excited expression. Headphone will be on persons ears and maybe hands on the two sides. The wardrobe will casual for both, for the Beats one the clothing may match the color of the Beats. Lighting for hearing loss will be dark and sad. Using sign language, hands behind the ears to show problem with hearing.

3) Results.

I love how my Beat’s shot came out because of how my model is in white and it contrast well with the rose gold headphones and pink background. I think the typography fit well in the spaces of the photo. The hearing loss photo is ok, it’s one of my weakest photos. It looks boring to me. It was a difficult concept to do with the little materials that we had.

 1. Summary

Brand identity
Our group is using a pair of WESC headphones for our photos. WESC is short for We Are the Superlative Conspiracy and is a Stockholm-based company mainly focusing on clothes. They get inspiration from snowboard and skateboard culture and are focusing on reaching a younger audience with the style of the headphones being very hip and in bright, vibrant colors. WESC has a NYC store and teamed up with hip hop music producer Dante Ross to make a set of premium headphones, as well as teaming up with NYC skate shop owner Amy Gunther for a special pair of WESC headphones that she was featured in the ads for. (Ad 1, Ad 2.) The copy for these ads read:

WESC – © WeAretheSuperlativeConspiracy
Even a good listener is usually thinking of something else, but this time they won’t. Through the core of science and the biggest bag of love WeSC brings the freshest headphones ever. All designed to fit the individual as much as the lifestyle. Feel at home grooving with us. Your ears have never looked sexier. Weactivists – Ray Barbee, Chris Pastras & Amy Gunther

Public service campaign
The ads were part of a campaign sponsored by the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene in 2013. The ads said “Hear today. Gone tomorrow”, where the first part shows a close-up photo of an ear with earplugs, and the next photo is another close-up showing an ear where the earphones are switched out with a hearing aid. The tagline of the campaign is “Turn down your music before you can’t hear it anymore.” It’s a powerful message, and the target audience for this ad should in my opinion be teenagers and young adults, from 13-23, to establish good listening habits early. The campaign advised people to not listen to music over 85 decibel as it can damage your hearing over the long run. The article gives advice as to what signs to look for that would be an indication that your hearing is getting worse (you have to turn up the sound on the TV, you can’t follow a conversation etc), and says that if you want to keep listening to music in the future, you should turn down the music now.

2. Communication Problem
Headphone ad: Inspired by the copy from their ads, I think the ads should communicate how these headphones are so great, you won’t be thinking about anything else. You’ll zone into the music. It’s also important to communicate how fresh and cool they’ll make you look.

Public service campaign: The ad should clearly communicate that one of the people in the ad is hard of hearing, the sad/frustrating emotions connected to hearing loss, and how the person is now excluded from conversations and from enjoying music the same way as before. It should communicate this in a powerful way that would inspire the target audience to change their headphone habits.

3. Image Ideas
Headphone ad – It should show someone who is completely absorbed in the music, smiling, perhaps dancing. Or it could be someone laying on the ground listening to music with a smile on their face, maybe their eyes closed, totally zoned into the music. The lighting should be bright and cheerful and wardrobe should be young and cool but not too vibrant since the headphones should stand out.

Public service campaign – One idea could be for two people to be talking to each other, where the hard of hearing person has to lean in to hear what the other person is saying. The hard of hearing person could be in the dark while the hearing person is in the light. It could also be a photo of just the person who can’t hear, lighted in a dark way, showing the person as sad and frustrated about the loss of hearing.

4. Results
I think the results for the headphone ad came out pretty successful and in terms with the image ideas I had of a person dancing while getting lost in the music – something that connects to the copy of the WESC headphone ads.

For the hearing loss ad, we could have tried more dramatic lighting and we weren’t successful in putting the person with hearing loss in darker lighting/in the shadow, but I think the idea of the headphones being unplugged works well, although I think the plug should have been more in focus and sharper.

Album with 20+ photos 
Hearing loss ad
Headphones ad

Brand Identity

WeSC is a Swedish clothing brand that is influenced by sports such as skateboarding and snowboarding. There main office is located in Stockholm and their name stands for “We are the Superlative Conspiracy”. This brand brings observation to Swedish underground artist, musicians, skateboarders and has a very mainstream vibe. Looking at their campaign ads, I could tell this company was European. Their design aesthetics are clean, but also recognizable to our current trend in graphic culture. They use line weights with bold text demonstrating that  they are up to date and very stylish. The colors they use in some campaigns are vibrant. I believe the target audience varies from 16-30 years old.

Summary of NYC Public Service Campaign on Hearing Loss

The article states a series of ads that were appeared in NYC subway cars targeting New Yorkers who turn up the volume of their personal listening devices. The tagline of the campaign is “Turn down your music before you can’t hear it anymore” advising us to not listen to above 85 decibels at a regular basis because you put yourself at risk from permanent hearing loss. It tells us that if we want to listen to music in the future, we need to be careful in how we maximize our volume to drown out external noise. There was a survey released in JULY 2013 stating that New Yorkers from ages 18 to 44 admitted to heavy headphone use and have reported to have hearing problems. The article also gives us some pointers to go by using volume-limiting features on your personal listening devices as well as knowing the early signs of hearing loss. For example, if you need to increasingly turn up the volume on a TV or any media or if you experience ringing in your ears. It’s best to go and ask a doctor for a hearing test.

Image Ideas

I would do a lot of different shots from close-up to medium shots. I want to capture a sense of stillness and sophistication. I want to use great lighting for the shots and maybe some darker once to show a sense of allure. The expressions might be serious rather than playful. For the wardrobe, I am thinking of a very liberal and bohemian vibe. For these two different image, I would play around with the lighting so for the hearing loss its going to be super simplistic. I would maybe do profile shots as well as a close up of the ear and do various shots of a person enjoying the blast of the music and then show the emotion of the person who lost their hearing.

1. After researching on health care companies, I noticed a lot of their portraits are with people smiling, looking healthy, shows diversity and family.  The lighting is well light in either taken in studio with a plain background, hospital that is bright or outdoors in nature.
2. The images should should happy healthy people.
3. My photographs with show people being together, smiling in healthiness and proud of being alive and well.
4. The result was great. I captured a natural and not forced smile from my model. Also the lighting was evenly lit.