Dissect, Dissect, Dissect

American Apparel is clothing company that strives to be more than manufacturers of cloth. The company is known for poignant ads that evoke messages about sexuality, age, and gender. In the ad above, the message is not instantly recognizable, granted the model is not wearing much, but that is true of most ads today, so it is not controversial here. What is controversial is that this model is not 7 feet tall, and 95 pounds. There is nothing wrong with being tall and skinny, same as there is nothing wrong with being small and curvy. However there is something wrong with media, corporations, the entertainment industry, the fashion industry, and anyone else who makes “beautiful” something that is not “universal”. I do not believe in standards of beauty, nor will I say that everything is beautiful. My issue is when one thing becomes the only thing. American Apparel put a woman in their ad that does not match the idealized version of what industries deem beautiful. The company put her in clothing, the industry would say is not fit for someone of her body type, empowering the viewer to wear what they please. The ad is effective because you look twice at it. You begin to look at the models body type, her features, because it is different. The ad screams confidence.

                The use of proximity in the ad is interesting. The description of what the model is wearing and where it can be found is close to the actual website name and etc., however they are not as close as you would expect. You understand that they are related, but the spacing contributes more to the aesthetic and style. Obviously the retail locations are closer together, organized and spaced nicely.

                Interestingly enough there does seem to be a line going through the middle of the ad.  The words “Micro Mesh” are left aligned, but the tail of the word does stop in the middle. The tail of “Micro Mesh” seems to be centered with the beginning of the models body, and the retail locations mentioned at the bottom of the ad. The invisible line, is not obvious but it is present, a good use of alignment.

                The end of the ad is where repetition is most present. The headings and subheadings font match, along with the same spacing in between all of them. The repetition however is not overwhelming, it creates unison within the ad.

                The ad presents stark contrast automatically with the white background, everything against it stands out. The large graphic becomes the focal point contrasting with small text under it, and only one piece of larger text to deter they eye.

                What is interesting about the ad is that it contains two main colors, black and white. The pure white background, the contrasting black font color, even the graphic contains large amounts of black, white and grey. The minimalist use of color, makes the models skin tone stand out, creating beautiful contrast.

                The use of type size is not subtle, your eye is drawn to the large text “Micro Mesh” right after looking at the large graphic. At the same time the smaller text peaks your interest, both because of its placement and the fact that it is so small compared to the rest of the text. The type relationship is concordant, it is the same type family with variety only in size, and weight. This concordant relationship gives off a calm and formal yet still desirable feeling to the ad. The font is sans serif, so the letters have the same thickness which gives off a modern feel because it is straight to the point, there is no variation.

                Overall I believe the ad reaches its goal. It is modern, straightforward and eye-catching. The graphic speaks for itself, the image is controversial but not for the reasons you would think it is. The contrasts are simplistic yet powerful.