Alternativas de Composición (organización de los elementos)

5 Step Formula Based on Work of David Ogilvy

Ads and sales fliers are common desktop-published documents. Whether designing ads for clients or for your own business, you can improve the effectiveness of those ads with just a few time-proven design strategies.

When readers look at your ad what do they see first? Research indicates that readers typically look at:
1. Visual
2. Caption
3. Headline
4. Copy
5. Signature (Advertisers name, contact information)

in that order.

One method of making sure your ad gets read is to arrange elements in that order, top to bottom. However, your ad should also lead with its strongest element. Sometimes the visual may be secondary to the headline. In that case you may decide to put the headline first. A caption may not be necessary at all times and often you'll want to include additional elements such as secondary illustrations or a coupon box.

While this isn't the only way to design an ad, it is an easy to implement, successful formula for many types of products or services. On the next few pages I'll show you the basic layout and three variations on this format, also called the Ogilvy after advertising expert David Ogilvy who used this layout formula for some of his most successful ads.

Advertising expert David Ogilvy devised an ad layout formula for some of his most successful ads that became known as the Ogilvy. The illustration on this page is the basic design that follows the classic visual, headline, caption, copy, signature format. From this basic ad layout, other variations are derived.
Try changing the margins, fonts, leading, size of the initial cap, size of the visual, and placing the copy in columns to customize the basic format of this ad layout.



1. Visual at the top of the page. If you are using a photo, bleed it to the edge of the page or ad space for maximum impact.
2. For photos, place a descriptive caption below.
3. Put your headline next.
4. Follow with your main ad copy. Consider a drop cap as a lead-in to help draw the reader into the copy.
5. Place your contact information (signature) in the lower right corner. That's generally the last place a reader's eye gravitates to when reading an ad.

Variations on the  Ogilvy layout: Headline on top or Visual next to headline