LAYOUT OF ADVERTISEMENTS 1. Object of layout.—By means of the layout, the ideas in the mind of the person preparing the ad vertisement are given a semblance of form. "Setting them down in the rough" shows the comparative worth of his ideas so that a clearer notion of their probable effect may be gained. In fact, the layout furnishes the first of many tests which an advertisement must undergo.
Layouts vary both in extent and in detail. In some eases, a few rough lines may constitute the "map" for the ideas; in other cases a particular worker may convey, by a detailed sketch, an exact representa tion of his finished advertisement; Such a layout may resemble the specification for a complicated ma chine. In ordinary practice, however, the layout merely covers the leading points of illustration, type dress and stock.
Since the layout is designed to act as a guide for the mechanical preparation of the advertisement, it there fore determines the appearance and, to a great extent, the effectiveness of the finished advertisement.
While the ultimate object of the layout is to pro vide the printer with specifications from which he can work with economy of time and labor, it is also valu able as a means of discovering any faults of concep tion, design or proposed dress. If the advertising writer, the client, the artist and the printer all study the advertisement carefully while it is in the formative stage, there is little probability that any serious mis take will persist after the layout is made.
2. Preparing layout and us assume that a copy writer is preparing a series of advertise ments designed to introduce a new product. Learn ing first what mediums are to be used, he next pro vides himself with the necessary information concern ing both the product to be advertised and the class of persons who are to buy it. If he is thoroly familiar with, his work he may not even find it necessary to "block out" or separate the display or move parts of the advertisement as he writes. Long experience and a sense of "content capacity," that develops with prac tise, enable him to write so that the reading matter will fill the alloted space. He may merely indicate
the display on the original hand-written copy.
Ordinarily,, however, the copy writer blocks out, tentatively, the entire series, first indicating roughly the relative proportions of pictures and text. The il lustrations for each advertisement are then tentatively decided. The headlines may next be considered. Finally, the general plan of the text will be deter mined, as, for example, whether it shall be largely displayed and open, or solid as in the usual mail-order advertisements.
The first layouts are usually submitted for ap proval before the work has proceeded farther than a rough block-out. At that stage changes may easily be made and the writer's work can be continued with the assurance that he is on the right track.
3. Objects of objects of display are (1) to relieve the monotony of uniformity and (2) to attract and hold the reader's attention.
The older printers set page after page solid, with scarcely a break. The reader needed to give close attention in order to grasp the meaning of the crowded pages. The continuous use of "fine print," such as is used today in the body . of a newspaper becomes exceedingly monotonous. The advertiser seeks to relieve this monotony by the use of display.
Advertising display is, however, more than mere relief from monotony. It aids in stimulating the mental processes which the advertisement wishes to induce. It helps to attract initial attention: Atten tion merges into interest, and as the display is neces sarily the most prominent part of the advertisement, both indirect and direct suggestion stimulate the reader to act.
4. The optical of the first principles of book layout has to do with the optical center of the page. Usually, at the beginning of a book the title is displayed in a single line running across the page. This is the first consideration of the layout. For ease in reading, the title is placed slightly above the mathematical center of the page.