Plato's Closet Clip

Mexico Project

Print Design Critique #3: Sprint brochure

The design audience for the Sprint brochure is professionals, businesses, and adults who are looking for the most direct approach.  They don't need colorful graphics and fancy fonts for this brochure to appeal to them.  Proximity is used very nicely in this brochure.  There is white space that brings contrast throughout the wording and the tables.  All of the alignment is flush-left, which creates a nice, clean edge throughout the design.  It causes your eye to naturally move from line to line, and you don't have to search for the next piece of information.  The repetition seen in the brochure are the  colors used (black, gray and yellow); there are also two graphs that mirror each other so that you can compare the two very easily.  The words "Any mobile anytime" is repeated twice (on the second page and the last page), as well as the Sprint logo.  There is nice contrast.  Some of the text is worded on a gray text box which makes it stand out.  On the front page, There is a lot of great contrast: the large image, a yellow diagonal line along the left side, and a bold horizontal line along the top.  The piece is very unified, and the design elements do a great job tying it all together.  The design would not make every person stop and stare, but for its audience it fits perfectly.  I would not pick it up to read unless I just wanted statistics and to check out comparison among other cellphone service companies.  I do not think that I would change anything in this piece.  It is unified, professional, stands out, and is very clean.   

Print Design Critique #2: Saxon Woods Newsletter

Welcome to Saxon Woods, a self-proclaimed oasis from the cookie-cutter suburban standard found in McKinney, Texas. The towering stone walls of the complex scream pomp, power and prestige to those who happen to step on their cobbled driveway.
If only their newsletter mirrored that type of perfection. Saxon Woods has a plethora of various tenants ranging from teenagers fresh out of high school to senior citizens reluctant to check into a retirement home. The newsletter attempts to target the entire spectrum, but hardly does a job worth blinking at. As far as white space is concerned, Saxon Woods believes that fun, cartoon clip art should inhabit the area created for absence of activity. The only alignment visible is the infamous center-alignment. Saxon Woods does a royal job of butchering a seemingly harmless alignment. Without a congruent sense of flush-left or flush-right, the entire newsletter is bound to be kindling for the next fire in the family fireplace. There is one sign of cohesiveness and uniformity: the 70's-inspired flowers framing the staff list. To save the overall direction of the newsletter, more repetition could be the saving grace, alas there is hardly any to be found. There is no contrast in this document. The pages are a white blur of confusion and monotony; the main title of the document desires to remain silent.
Overall, the document has no uniformity that ties the piece together. An array of fonts and monochromatic pictures don't give the design a focused appearance. If I were to arrange the newsletter to my liking, I would keep the basic content of the newsletter, but create a sense of professionalism by giving the newsletter contrast, changing the alignment, and adding subtle repetition. This document screams for a direct theme and message, and in return, your audience will appreciate the textual sanity.

Maui Project

JOUR 2200 Radio Exercise

JOUR 2200 Gulls Exercise