Hewlett Packard ad

I came across this ad for Hewlett Packard on the Hillman Curtis website. It is a very simple ad because it only uses text, photos and one clip of animation. It starts off with an animated 3d version of an old garage which rotates 360 degrees. The narrator starts explaining how the garage was where Hewlett and Packard started their ideas. The animation fades to a photograph of the old garage. It's centered which brings the focus to it even though it is small.

After that, light blue text appears on a dark blue background. Only one word comes up at a time and most of them are incredibly fast, too fast to read on your own. However, the viewer knows what it said because those words are spoken through the narrator moments before. The words stop on garage and another old picture of the garage fades in the background.

A black and white picture fades up and then soon after another piece to the picture (a man working in the front) fades in to complete the photo. This kind of gives the picture a 2d feel using layers.

The animation continues and talks about the inventors. They do this by continuing the quick moving words in the center of the screen. This time it stops on inventors. Two pictures of men sit right above this word. Underneath is a white box, which after a few moments, reveals the phrase: " The most complete Radicals." The pictures fade out and into another picture of the men as the words hang around for a while. This transition is effective because of the overlapping information. It's a continuous flow between pieces. It keeps the eye busy and keeps the animation constantly moving. This word fade over picture technique continues as the animation moves along.

Next is a picture of two people carrying something toward the camera. The animator tried to get the effect of movement using the flat picture. He or she did this by making a cut out of the two people and placing it on top of the picture. They made this cut out larger in size so that it appears that they were moving toward the camera.

They use another technique of movement with a still image in the next scene. A picture of a man (taken from the waist down) holding a brief case is being used. It's a side angle and as they fade the picture using 3 stops across the screen, it gives the illusion of the man walking across the screen.

The rotating model of the garage comes up again and is used as a background for some more text that follows the narration. As the narrator continues, a black and white picture of people working comes up with pieces missing. These pieces are filled in completing the whole picture. This draws the audience to pay attention to the detail and what the picture is. The most important people in the picture are at 100% opacity while the background people aren't as strong.

It ends with a colored picture of the garage and the words "inventing the new HP" then "want to come along?" This gives some interaction for the viewer because it asks the viewer a question. It's a question that only the viewer answers. It's a decision. The last thing that appears is the HP logo on a white background. This is important to place at the end because the viewer will remember it.

Throughout the animation, the color scheme was black and white (for most of the pictures) and different shades of a bluish purple. By keeping the colors coordinating and consistent, the viewer is able to focus without having an array of colors keeping them distracted. This bluish color is also the color that is found in the HP logo.