Case study · Hotti In The House
Hotti In The House
Magazine advertisements promoting Hotti In The House, a 17.3H AQHA stallion sired by These Irons Are Hot, to breeders and show horse owners.
01 — Context
Stallion advertisement design for an AQHA stallion
Hotti In The House is a 17.3-hand brown American Quarter Horse stallion, sired by These Irons Are Hot out of a Last Detail mare, and shown in hunter under saddle. His owners needed magazine advertisements to help promote him to breeders.
Stallion advertisement design has a particular audience. Breeders scanning a horse magazine want the essentials fast — size, colour, genetic testing, pedigree and stud fee — but they also want to feel something about the horse. A stallion ad has to be a spec sheet and a portrait at the same time.
We designed three ads, each with its own mood, so Hotti's presence in print would not feel repetitive.
02 — Two moods
Same horse, two very different stories
Both main ads use the same core image: Hotti moving under saddle in profile, his rider in a navy show coat, cut out cleanly so he can be placed in any setting. What changes is the world around him.
The first is light and modern. A pastel sky shifts from mint to pale gold, layered with faint geometric shards, over a warm sand-coloured arena. His name is set in a tall, hand-drawn script for "Hotti" alongside spaced capitals for "IN THE HOUSE," with his size, colour, panel results and pedigree in small, tidy caps beneath. Plenty of open sky keeps the focus on the horse's long, level frame.
The second is dramatic. Hotti travels across dark ground under a starry purple sky with a band of green northern lights, while a large, faded portrait of his head watches over the scene. The name sits on black typewriter-style labels, and the details — including his pedigree and stud fee — follow in a typewriter face. It is an ad designed to stop a page-turner.
Contrasting directions like these let an owner choose with their buyers in mind, the theme of designing for your audience, not yourself.
03 — Holiday edition
A seasonal ad for the breeding season ahead
For the holidays, we designed a seasonal ad that also announced his 2017 stud fee of $850 USD. Here, a close-up head portrait on black sits inside a layered scrapbook frame of gold polka-dot tape, lace paper and torn notebook edges, with cedar sprigs, gold berries and a red-and-white striped bow.
The name is set in glittering gold lowercase across a dark wood background, with his credentials — ROM and 2015 Reserve High Point Open HUS Stallion — on the notebook strip above the photo, and "Sired by These Irons Are Hot" on a small tag below.
Along the bottom, the farm's logo, phone number and Facebook prompt sit beside the association logos for AQHA, NSBA and others, so a breeder knows exactly how to book.
04 — The result
A stallion with a recognizable presence
Across all three, the essentials stay consistent — name, size, colour, panel results, sire and stud fee — while the mood shifts with the season. That gave Hotti's owners a set of graphic design pieces they could rotate through equine publications without repeating themselves.
We have designed ads for many competitors in the western and equine world, including Carly Epp & PF Shy Guy, Carrie Ann Berkenbosch and the National Team Roping Tour.
What we delivered
Magazine advertising for Hotti In The House.
