Ad for NEFF ovens

Above: double page spread for NEFF - you might need to click on the image to see it properly.

I really like this dps ad for NEFF ovens.

Firstly I applaud the way the designer has gone for black and white, using size (a double page spread) to achieve impact rather than colour. There must have been a strong temptation to use colour, but given that the product is stainless steel and black, the monochrome image on the left was an intelligent choice. The only colour in the ad is the dull red of the logo, carried through into the copy on the opposing page.

Therefore you are immediately presented with a sense of balance - the creative treatment does not overwhelm either the product or the client's logo.

I also really love the sense of symmetry throughout the spread. Especially the way the longer you look at it you discover more symmetries. The human eye and brain is conditioned to see symmetry as beautiful, and so the use of elegant symmetries is this ad is exceptional (the way the dark head on the upper left is balanced by the dark product on the lower right; the way the copy panels carry across the central page division; the way the vertical lines on the right created by the justified edges of the text are mirrored by the very subtle vertical lines in the photograph especially the line created by the gaze looking straight down through the finger and the fork etc).

I admire the way that the photograph has been used - on the left and ostensibly looking out of the magazine. The obvious thing would be to use the image on the right so that it carries the gaze towards the copy of the opposing page, but that would have created an ad so predictable it would risk being banal. The designer here has been confident of the tension in the ad, realising that the photograph has such impact that most people are going to want to seek out more information (which is provided on the opposite page - and this gives a clue as to the target audience since well-educated high-income consumers are always more persuaded by an ad where they have been given some work to do).

The choice of photograph is inspired. The photographer seems to have caught the model at a moment of total absorption. This ad is not selling an oven, it is selling the promise of culinary perfection.

More: http://www.neff.co.uk/ovens.html