Erin McHardy » dc

We’ll make you laugh

admin — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 16:11:31 +0000

When it comes to issue advocacy, no other PR firm in Washington, DC is quite as funny as Berman and Company. With thousands of voices competing for attention, standing out takes more than just buying ads and hoping for the best. To demonstrate how Berman and Company can make people laugh, and think, all at the same time, I designed a brochure that highlights the funniest campaigns the PR firm has done over the past few years. I combined quotes from big Washington names—Marion Nestle, Morley Safer, and Tucker Carlson—with clever, award winning print ads.

Because the ads featured in the brochure were created over a long time span, I wanted to have a design element that could bring all the pieces together and create a cohesive product. To solve this problem, I decided to focus on using the typography of the quotes as the uniting element. By combining different fonts and sizes within each quote, I could emphasize particular words or phrases that would grab the viewer’s attention.

I was lucky enough to have a larger budget than usual with this project. I decided to try a new (to me) printing technique and printed with a spot UV gloss on the advertisements throughout the brochure. Contrasting with the matte paper, the shiny ads really pop off the page, making them look even sharper. You can see the gloss of the ad reflecting the text from the right side of the spread in the picture below.

Defeat the Debt in DC’s Metro Station

admin — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 01:19:22 +0000

Defeat the Debt has launched an advertising campaign in the Capital South Metro Station in Washington, DC. Continuing Defeat the Debt’s campaign, the focus was to inform commuters and tourists how much America is in debt.

Defeat the Debt in DC

admin — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 05:03:02 +0000

For the website launch of DefeatTheDebt.com, 17 destitute Uncle Sams were stationed around Washington, DC to ask commuters and tourists for help repaying the $12 trillion national debt. Here are some of the photos I took of the stunt:

Real Faces

admin — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 00:44:24 +0000

I finally saw the bus advertisements I designed for a campaign with Union Facts campaign. The ads intended to expose the other side of the Employment Free Choice Act. The campaign will be running on Metro buses throughout the Washington, DC area.

Live Passionately Campaign

admin — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 14:58:03 +0000

Last week at the Metro Center station I saw Virginia Tourism’s new ad campaign, Live Passionately—Virginia is for the Lovers. It’s a great campaign with stunning photos that really grab your attention. The campaign focuses less about a vacation and more about the lifestyle you will have by choosing to visit Virginia.

Read more about the campaign and see the other print ads here.