Task 1: Required Design Critique
Hawaii Honeymoon
As you may know, I am getting married in a little over five
months, and therefore, I have many wedding magazines. While reading about possible honeymoon
locations, I can across this article/ad for a Hawaii honeymoon. I found this page aesthetically pleasing and
decided to break down the design elements I read about in the articles and in White Space Is Not Your Enemy.
1.
Layout –
The layout of this page reminded me of the “works every time layout”
(Golombisky & Hagen, 2010, p. 21-31) but with an extra picture. The visual is at the top of page, where the
reader first looks. This is followed by
a headline, text with columns, and then a tag at the end.
2.
Visuals
– The visuals on this page are beautiful, very enticing, and directly
related to the purpose of the article/ad.
The beautiful beaches and gorgeous waterfalls make me want to book my
honeymoon right away (if only my fiancé wasn’t afraid of getting on a plane).
3.
Audience
– The audience here is engaged couples looking to plan a honeymoon
get-away. This ad attracts its audience particularly
through the smaller picture, a romantic visual of a couple at the Hyatt Regency
Maui Resort and Spa enjoying themselves in paradise.
4.
Headline
– The location of the headline right below the picture and above the text is
good; however, the overlap of the headline and the visual makes reading the
headline a little difficult, especially since the font is white and the
background is at times light.
5.
Fonts
– The fonts were well chosen for this page.
The page designer stuck to one or two normal fonts that are easy to
read. The size of the text is good as
well. The headline is the biggest size
and the other important features of the article are slightly bigger than the
average text, drawing the reader’s eyes to the important features.
6.
Columns
– The text on this page is split into two columns, which makes it not seem
overwhelming for the person reading it.
I must admit, I will often skip over a page with a lot of text when
flipping through a magazine, but a page layout like this makes it much more
inviting.
7.
Colors
– This page is not just plain black and white; it has inviting colors without
being hard to look at. The designer’s
choice of introducing the color orange may be used to evoke happiness and
adventure from the couple as mentioned in Graphic
Design Basics.
8.
White
(Negative) Space – This page has the right amount of white space, not too
much that the page looks empty, but just enough so that the page is not cramped
and is easy to read.
9.
Tags
– At the bottom of the article is a tag for The Knot, the company that made
the magazine, along with their website URL where the reader can obtain more
information about honeymooning to Hawaii.
10.
Busy Backgrounds – To fill some of the
white space, the designer of the page used vertical lines. I do not think this was needed, although I do
not think it takes away from the page either.
Task 2: Before/After
I am an advisor for the National Honor Society at my school. In the fall, the organization collected school supplies for lower income districts. One of the officers created the before flyer, and I redesigned it. |
| Before |
 |
| After |
Task 3: Toy Store Ad
This was by far the hardest task for me to complete. Here are the two 90's Toy Sale ads that I came up with.
 |
| Highly Structured Layout |
 |
| Loosely Assembled Ad |
Hi Katie,
ReplyDeleteFirst off, congratulations on your upcoming wedding! I really enjoyed the break down of the advertisement that you have done. I love the "works every time layout." It really brought my attention to how my eye moves across the page-- and this advertisement follows the model of this layout (as you mentioned.) I find this advertisement to be graphically pleasing as well. I am just a little concerned about the visual on the bottom of the advertisement that seems to look like lines (but maybe it's because I do not have access to the original design.) I feel that the layout creates a sense of calmness and tranquility with its' enticing visuals and use of symmetry and white space in its' design, which I am sure was probably its' overall goal. I also really enjoyed seeing the comparison between your before and after assignment. I really like your new design and how it focuses upon how the eye travels across the page. It looks very well done and pleasing to the eye. In addition, the toy ads that you have created are very visually pleasing as well. It looks like you have followed many of the rules for "good design." (Personally, I like your first advertisement better because of your use of color in the background that ties together the theme and imagery of this project.)
Good work!
Congratulations on your upcoming wedding! Hawaii is beautiful any time of year, so if you are thinking of going there for your honeymoon, I highly recommend it, especially Maui.
ReplyDeleteI agree that the magazine page follows the “Works-Every-Time Layout” and it seems that it does work every time! (Golombisky &Hagen 2010) The main image pulled me right in and the small amount of text shows it is a quick read. The vertical lines do appear unnecessary and possibly distracting, though it is harder to tell from the smaller image. The color use is very appealing and it is a twist on the very beach-y turquoise and coral. One thing that caught my attention immediately was the space in the middle. It seems too big of a space and thus I think the designer committed the sin of trapping negative space. It still makes me want to go to Hawaii though!
The after product for the School Supply Drive looks great. The layout is very clean and organized. The basic layout works well here. I also like your toy ads. The yellow background really makes the first one stand out. In the loosened alignment I like how you put borders around the images and avoided the “naked photos”. Both the bold colors and borders were items mentioned this week and I think you incorporated both well into your designs.
Hi, Katie - I enjoyed reading your post; especially the reference to the Hawaii ad being the "works every time" design. I don't know that I would have picked that out without you mentioning it. I agree that the ad does indeed reflect the "best practices" of layout and design. Additionally, it is interesting that neither of the pictures chosen have the focal point centered in the frame of the picture. (This is something that I am focusing on for my personal development because I tend to like things centered and streamlined.) The silhouette of the couple is off to the right and the palm tree comes from the right side of the page and stretches across the top; both very visually appealing. The silhouette of the couple is very intriguing. It gives the viewer the idea of romance, like you noted, while also keeping the focus on the location. One could easily pictures themselves in the silhouette. (I also noticed that the water flows toward the right of the page; not the left. So, the "flow" moves in the positive direction.)
ReplyDeleteI was very impressed with the rework of your honor society flier. Nice job! The variety of pictures in your "after" was visually appealing. I like that they weren't all the same size and shape. I could have done that for my fliers, too. It would have been more visually stimulating. Thanks for the idea.
I have a hard time with the last part of the blog post, as well. I think that was the purpose; to make us stretch outside of our comfort zone. Rest assured you did a great job!
Thank you.
Hi Katie,
ReplyDeleteI echo the sentiments of your colleagues above. They each did a nice job of articulating the point I myself would have made in regards to the exercises you completed for this week's Mini Art School blog.
In greater detail:
1. Congrats (again) on your upcoming wedding -- I realize your fellow classmates said it but I wanted to say it again. Also, I like that you selected an ad from a magazine that has meaning to you personally -- you are literally the intended audience for this ad in particular, so it'a always great to read from the perspective of the targeted market what they felt was done well (or not) with regard to the design layout/overall appeal.
2. The flier you revised from the one your co-worker created is spot-on. It is significantly improved from the original (shhh, your co-worker didn't hear me say that ;)
3. I appreciate your candor about the difficulty of the last assignment. It's always good to know what exercises students struggle with. You did a nice job developing each -- it was quite the flashback to read the word "POG" in the upper left-hand corner! Power Rangers and Beenie Babies were definitely well selected illustrations for the overall concept -- something that's particularly important in advertising, and, judging from the PowerPoints developed by multiple middle school students over the years, something that needs to be "taught" more explicitly!
Nicely done!
Prof H
I HOPE YOU GUYS ACTUALLY PING YOUR LINKS OTHERWISE YOUR SCRAPEBOX IS USELESS PSD to HTML
ReplyDelete