A blog for Summer 2015 NEiA Publication Design class with instructor, Coni Porter. The purpose is to offer faculty and peer feedback in a timely manner, allowing and encouraging the students to progress in a focused and productive way. As the semester ends, this class has produced 117 posts, 263 comments, and been viewed by over 5,000 internet readers. See the last group of postings below to view final student work: sample pages for the (fictional) Habitat Magazine: The Future of Food.
Wednesday, August 19, 2015
Updated Design Brief - CR
Here's an updated version of my design brief:
I've changed the target audience to land and farm owners ages 25 to 35.
I also changed some of the content that will be included
as well as changed some imagery I want it to feel more unisex.
Chelsey – since you have changed your audience to be young people living in agricultural areas and farming their property, I think you must assume they are raising a family too. So – your audience is actually young families who aren’t just reading about this stuff… they are living it. So… why are they reading this? It will be important to think about that because it will drive your choice of photos. Are these people drinking beer at sunset, or are they putting their kids to bed after driving a tractor? At some point you will need to show the audience in the photos, working on their land. The cover in particular must speak clearly to your audience (and there is nothing more successful that actually using a photo of the audience itself).
The masthead might have a readability issue – but the font is homey and has a hand-written feel which is good. See if you can fix that “b” in Illustrator to be clearer.
Fonts – I encourage you to find a condensed body copy for your departments. Clarendon is a nice body copy font as long as you have a longish line width – and your features probably do. Your departments will have more columns with shorter widths on the page. It’s OK to use 2 different fonts (one for features, one for departments)… and it might make this publication look pretty contemporary to do something like that because you could mix the fonts on things like the ToC. I like the idea of a sans serif subhead – because it’s important that this doesn’t look too “down home”. We have to assume your audience has made an informed choice to live on the land if they are reading this magazine… they could easily be city folks that have decided to move to the country to raise their children in what they consider to be a healthier environment. They are young, smart, and willing to work hard to make their own way in life. They are the future, not the past. Am I right to assume all this?
Colors – it’s a good idea to include warm colors with those cool blues (which if used alone would look pretty corporate). However, I wonder if oranges might be a better choice than mauve and burgundy red. It depends a bit on your photos – so after you have done more photo research look again. The reason I recommend orange is that your family, both husband and wife, are the audience, right? And, orange is considered “the everybody” color… both males and females equally respond favorably to it (look down a grocery story isle… which color is used most often?).
That’s it, I hope this helps you move forward. I’ll check back to see your new interior layouts with this new audience in mind.
Chelsey – since you have changed your audience to be young people living in agricultural areas and farming their property, I think you must assume they are raising a family too. So – your audience is actually young families who aren’t just reading about this stuff… they are living it. So… why are they reading this? It will be important to think about that because it will drive your choice of photos. Are these people drinking beer at sunset, or are they putting their kids to bed after driving a tractor? At some point you will need to show the audience in the photos, working on their land. The cover in particular must speak clearly to your audience (and there is nothing more successful that actually using a photo of the audience itself).
ReplyDeleteThe masthead might have a readability issue – but the font is homey and has a hand-written feel which is good. See if you can fix that “b” in Illustrator to be clearer.
Fonts – I encourage you to find a condensed body copy for your departments. Clarendon is a nice body copy font as long as you have a longish line width – and your features probably do. Your departments will have more columns with shorter widths on the page. It’s OK to use 2 different fonts (one for features, one for departments)… and it might make this publication look pretty contemporary to do something like that because you could mix the fonts on things like the ToC.
I like the idea of a sans serif subhead – because it’s important that this doesn’t look too “down home”. We have to assume your audience has made an informed choice to live on the land if they are reading this magazine… they could easily be city folks that have decided to move to the country to raise their children in what they consider to be a healthier environment. They are young, smart, and willing to work hard to make their own way in life. They are the future, not the past. Am I right to assume all this?
Colors – it’s a good idea to include warm colors with those cool blues (which if used alone would look pretty corporate). However, I wonder if oranges might be a better choice than mauve and burgundy red. It depends a bit on your photos – so after you have done more photo research look again. The reason I recommend orange is that your family, both husband and wife, are the audience, right? And, orange is considered “the everybody” color… both males and females equally respond favorably to it (look down a grocery story isle… which color is used most often?).
That’s it, I hope this helps you move forward. I’ll check back to see your new interior layouts with this new audience in mind.