257 - Skyscaper Web Advertisements

Definition: An advertisement featured on a website running along the left or right side. Significantly taller than usual ads as its name implies.

These types of ads often range from a height of 500 - 800px and a width from 120 - 160px. For a while, they didn't sell web advertising space in custom sizes, they had their standard sizes, so to have a skyscraper ad, it had to be on large well-branded sites that sold custom advertising packages. The Internet Advertising Bureau has made a standard size for skyscraper ads, it is 120x600 and a wide skyscraper is 160x600.

These types of advertisements can be divided in the middle for a picture up front and text pop up in the bottom, or it can be used for a full picture advertisement, the height gives you a lot of room to work with, though it means you have to crop pictures or pick ones that work with that space really well. Below are some examples of skyscraper advertisements from before there were standard sizes.Though the sizes aren't the same because as I said, this was before there were standard sizes for skyscraper ad's, but the one on the left was a flash advertisement whereas the one on the right is a standard ad, no animation or flash, just a still ad.

 What I need to look at and learn is about designing and layout for just tall skinny advertisements. I do not like that half of the picture of the iPad is off the advertisement, it makes me feel as though it has been oddly cut off. The centering of everything except for that one piece also throws me off so it might be a simple error rather than intentional.

I have to design an animated advertisement therefore what I like about the one on the right is that I can watch how they animate their ad so that it is still interesting without taking up too much space or being too busy. Its use of white space is really good, I like the contrast in colors and the font choice. Everything seems airy and light, which is good for advertisements because you want them to be easy to read quickly as people browse through the page.