SAlberiniProject1

Sebastian Alberini

Assignment 1 Essay

This is a spoof ad for the video game Battlefield 3. The project was created entirely in Photoshop, with heavy use of the mixing brush and layer adjustments. EA Games originally created the background (I adjusted the image slightly) in coordination with the original Battlefield 3 print ad. The title of the piece is “Battlewagon 3”.

The project was made in Photoshop and is intended as a print ad. The combination of a darkened background and cartoonish character design is intended to highlight upon the notion of this ad being a spoof; that is, because the ad is poking fun at certain gamers, the soldier is designed non photo-realistically, and his color scheme is at stark contrast with the greyed out background. I tried to create an even composition, with enough elements on the right side of the piece to counter-balance the heavily designed soldier.

I’m an avid gamer and love to keep up with the social media aspects of all games. On popular gaming websites and Facebook, it is quite apparent that there are countless gamers who hate the Call of Duty franchise, so much so that they began to love Battlefield 3, the game’s main competitor. More and more “haters” jumped on this bandwagon with no real reason; I believe in our society today, many are compelled to love certain things, or act like they do, simply out of hatred for something else. This ad is trying to convey this occurrence.

The designers of the original ad are incredibly skilled. The use of greyscale in coordination with a lightly colored background really creates an invigorating image for me. I tried to emulate this use of greyscale, but the use of an altered photo in the original as opposed to my hand-drawn approach shows its differences. Also, the use of color as a theme is incredibly effective in the original. The white text pops right off the page because of the muddy background, yet there is still interesting detail to be found in the tanks and other “war” objects in the background.

The sudden uprising of these Call of Duty “haters” sparked my interest in the subject and led me to create the vulgar, indifferent looking soldier. I feel that the pose and demeanor of the soldier accurately reflects that of the modern gamer, as online games create an environment that is crude, hateful, and hyper-aggressive. The overall design of the ad is aimed at appealing to the modern gamer, despite this being a spoof ad.

I think the ad can be viewed in a few ways. Certain gamers might actually look at the ad and agree, as if to say, “Yeah that’s exactly how I feel. Fuck Call of Duty.” Others, like me, who have noticed the ridiculous nature of a group of people loving a game solely out of dislike for another, might find the ad humorous and revealing.

I think the ad is mildly successful. The design could definitely use polish in terms of integrating the soldier more into the background, and I feel that the “ad” elements, like the console logos and the “3” at the end of the logo could definitely use some work. Still, I’m content with the result of the project.