Memorandum

To​: Dr. Newmark

From​: Abigail Bromley
Subject​: Analysis of image for “Redesign” project

Overview
The image I chose to analyse for the purpose of this assignment is a billboard featuring an ad
for Keller & Keller. This ad has often been seen along the freeways in Albuquerque and while
the exact date of when it was originally publicized is obscure, it is safe to say that it has been
there for at least a handful of years. Using Google Slides I managed to create a new design that
was more concise and pleasing to the eye as everything from the background to the font, color
scheme, and even the logo was changed to better balance and make relevant each element
featured within the redesign.

Analysis and Redesign Plan

In choosing the specific muse for this assignment, I decided to go with something that has
relevance to my everyday life in a way that I wouldn’t recognize unless faced with it head-on. In
this case, it was a Keller & Keller billboard that I have often seen when commuting to and from
UNM as well as when I am driving around Albuquerque. My interest stemmed from the fact that
while this has become such a familiar aspect of my daily drive, I haven’t actually taken it
seriously in part because I haven’t been seriously injured, but also because, to me, it actually
doesn’t seem like an advertisement to be taken seriously in the first place. Logically speaking, I
found myself coming to the conclusion that perhaps if it changed the actual layout and design of
the advertisement, then it might seem like a legitimate law firm instead of a quick-fix settlement
lawyer that many people have claimed it as, but I digress.

In analysing the aspects that could be improved upon, my first critique was of the headshot
featured within the ad as I felt that it was unnecessary and distracted from the “seriousness” of
what the ad is supposed to deal with, which is serious or fatal injuries from car accidents.
Secondly, I felt that the “Injured?” slogan was overly vague to the point that a little more context
could be spared to eliminate confusion over just what type of injury they deal with. Next, I felt
like the phone number needed to be larger since it wasn’t exactly eye catching and I felt that if a
drivers’ eyes were to be naturally drawn to the biggest text on the billboard, it wouldn’t be the
phone number, but by the time they do get around to reading it, they might have already driven
past. Lastly, I had a thought that changing the color scheme would actually be beneficial as in
its current state, it's a little too dark and flat in color and since the billboard gets wear and tear
from the natural elements like rain, snow, or overexposure to the sun, they become muddled
and harder to distinguish.

Due to technological restrictions, I had to make use of Google Slides to create the new design. I
found that while I could navigate it easily from past experiences, it was limiting in the functions
available to me. For example, there is no tool specifically to make an image overlay transparent,
but I worked around that by downloading an image that was already embedded transparently.
Also, while I could fill text boxes with color and stretch them to the borders, I couldn’t actually
create separate color blocks or borders without directly applying them to the text boxes
themselves. A lot of what I had available to me made it so that the final product had to be simple
and in the case of this project, it worked, but had my redesign been something more complex, I
probably wouldn't have been able to use Slides.

Conclusion
My first plan of action to redesign the ad was to remove the human aspect entirely; in this case
the man featured in the left most portion who I would assume to be Keller himself. While the
human aspect often appeals to people's pathos, I found that the almost exaggerated scowl
detracted from the overall goal, which is to get people to either remember the name “Keller” or
call the number listed. Then I made the phone number the distinguished text of the billboard as
it would make it easier for drivers who actually were looking into legal help to more easily
remember it or have a good portion of it in mind. In relation, since I was unsure of what font was
used, I decided to pick two that had serifs to keep in relative touch with the original typeface. For
the law firm title I used Libre Baskerville and to keep it distinguished enough but still closely
related, I used Crimson Text for all other text.

For the color scheme, I decided to completely abandon the color blue but kept the yellow as it
helped tie into the new theme of neutral grays and dark reds. I chose to use the grey as the
primary background because it would help contrast the text while also adding a level of color
that plain white wouldn’t be able to. Similarly, I chose red instead of black because it helped
create the ambiance of seriousness while also meshing well with the yellow which I kept for the
sake of making the ad relevant to New Mexico as its the same as the flag color.

My last design choice was to have everything center aligned and to add the Zia symbol as the
sole icon. In aligning everything to the center, it would be more pleasing to the eyes as most
billboards already place an emphasis on the central part of them. Also, my goal in using the Zia
symbol was to keep with the original design that features it but instead of having it so close to
the title, I made it its own entity so that it brings balance to the white space and also further adds
to the aspect of locality.
Bmreditr. “Better Not Call? A Curated Tour of Albuquerque's Attorney Billboards.” ​Blue Mesa
Review​, The University of New Mexico, 17 Jan. 2018,
http://bmr.unm.edu/2018/01/17/better-not-call-a-curated-tour-of-albuquerques-attorney-billboard
s/.