Lee+Poy,+Matt+A2

For this assignment I choose to design an ad campaign for a fictional company called “Synth Mods,” a Canadian company that specializes in repairing and customizing synthesizer keyboards and electronic instruments at an efficient and affordable rate. This company is targeted for musicians of any level, from home music producers to professional music producers, live performers and touring performers. For many electronic musicians, vintage synthesizers from the 70’s and 80’s are rare and expensive instruments that require care and special consideration in the maintenance of the instrument. Vintage synthesizers are an outdated technology; using analog hardware in a digital age of music making is an expensive effort. Outdated voice chips burn out, keyboards damaged through use and the cosmetics of the instruments completely worn out. Synth Mods aim to repair and make musicians beloved synthesizers new again.

The need for such a company is vital in the electronic musicians community, many of the keyboards that these musicians buy are usually second or third hand purchases that in most case already require repair. Many of the repairs that need to be done are internal and require replacement parts that are most usually only available in either Europe or Japan and cost easily at a minimum of 200 dollars Canadian. Synth Mods, will be a company that will make acquisition of these parts and repairs affordable to costumers.

For this assignment I have designed three different ads, a banner, a vertical rectangle banner and a Facebook ad. The first two are designed to be on web pages like harmonycentral.com, musicradar.com and vintagesynth.com, online communities that provide musicians with information and knowledge about music making and musical gear. These ads will also be on web pages like futurmusic.com as well, music making magazines that specialize in synthesizer ads and services as well. For the third ad, the Facebook ad, would be targeted to musicians who “like” certain tags, like electronic musician pages, artists, different musical genre’s, brands and products related to music and music making.

For the design of these ads—with the exception of the Facebook ad—I have designed them using a background of a modular synthesizer, an image of a Korg MS-20 and text that with a digital likeness in font. In the electronic musician community, the Korg MS-20 is a very rare and highly sought keyboard. Produced in the late 70’s the Korg MS-20 is the pinnacle of vintage synthesizers, I wanted to ad that image as a signifier to the company’s image. The modular synthesizer in the background is used to the same effect as the Korg MS-20, modular synthesizers are just as rare and even more valuable that most vintage synthesizers. With these images I wanted to portray a company that knows what they are doing, what musicians want and to mark it is valuable to musicians.