Banners 1-2-3 with Illustrator, Photoshop, and Fireworks
By Erik Olsen
While many Web technologies have taken off over the last few years and have gained relatively wide acceptance, the banner ad has more or less remained a slave to the lowest common denominator. Even at the most media-intensive sites -- those with video, audio, or Flash -- the vast majority of banner ads on those pages remain simple animated GIFs. In many ways, this is not surprising.
Online companies are in the business of attracting visitors to their sites. Although banner ads can be a key source of revenue, the last thing a developer wants is to have a rich-media banner crash a browser, require a plug-in, or take too long to load (see "Getting Rich Media"). For this reason, the animated-GIF banner ad promises to be around for a long time to come.
There's no big secret to developing a GIF banner ad. The process is straightforward, and differs from developer to developer, mostly in terms of the tools of choice and the ability to tell a compelling story quickly. The difficulty is in execution -- making a banner that catches the user's eye and persuades him or her to click through. I'll discuss a few of the tools we use at Rubin Postaer Interactive, an interactive agency in Santa Monica, CA, in the development of banner ads, and provide step-by-step instructions on how to do it yourself, while offering a few other considerations in the world of banner advertising.
The Process
Unlike the 30-second television commercial, a banner's message must be conveyed almost instantaneously.
