( CNN ) -- In print advertisements , which comes first -- the word or the image ? The brief for Harley Davidson parts and accessories was to encourage more riders to personalize their bikes . The popular answer to this question would be either can come first , but I 'm going to stick my neck out and say it 's the visual . If for no other reason than to create discussion . It does all depend on who is asked and what period of time they worked in advertising , but we 're in 2008 . I am , after all , an art director , so that may explain my opinion . Any kind of print advertising should be treated as an art form . That 's how it all started many years ago and is still true today at its best . Print advertising is always so much more interesting when it 's visual . It 's a piece of printed medium that is there to be explored , studied and then rewarded . My first example for Harley Davidson parts and accessories does exactly that . The brief was to encourage more riders to customize or personalize their bikes . Quite a simple brief really , but when you 're asking someone to put their artistic stamp on a bike , it 's a little dull to do it through words alone . Hence , the visual of a face made out of many Harley parts and meticulously art-directed at the same time . The line `` Build Yours '' came after the visual idea . It 's a good line that acts as a signature to the picture . No fancy words needed . Just simplicity . The next example is equally as simple . It 's an ad for Sony In-car speakers . Sony makes damn good speakers with an amazing sound , and they wanted to tell everyone that . However , everyone talks about sound , and when they do it in print it hardly ever comes over as believable , mainly because a print ad has no sound attached to it ! So rather than talk about the sound , the ad talks about the experience that comes with the sound . If you know your music , then you 'll recognize the famous Bob Dylan album cover `` Freewheelin ' . '' Print advertising can be very effective when it subverts what people already know . In this case , the album cover is recognizable , but its context completely changes by looking at it from the point of view of an open top car . With clever lighting on the car and fabulous retouching , the car looks like it 's in the street where the album cover was shot . The line , `` Get closer to the music '' does all the work in explaining the idea , but the visual does all the emotional heavy-lifting in describing the experience . Once again , the visual came first . As I said at the beginning , opinions will vary and perhaps it 's true that either line or visual can come first , but this is based on my own experiences . Maybe someone should write a case for the line ?
Any kind of print advertising should be treated as an art form . Harley Davidson 's line `` Build Yours '' acts as a signature to the picture . It is not just about the image, but also the message that it conveys.