"Before" version of Persuasive Brochure
In the first draft of my brochure, I incorporated colors that a typical audience would recognize in regard to bees (i.e., golden yellow, white and black) so there would be an immediate sense of what the document was about. The colors in the final draft remained the same since they effectively caught the eye of the reader and portrayed the overall style and feel of the document.
In my first draft, I used a “loud” font for the title and a more relaxed, friendly font for the different headings on the front and back spread. This design decision promoted typographical contrast within the brochure as a way to draw readers in. I also used “bee” in place of “be” in the main headings so there would be, in a sense, a play on words throughout the document. In response to peer feedback, I changed the brochure’s title to a similar bold font so I could then adjust the title from all caps to lowercase on my final draft. The font I used before only permitted all caps wording, so I found a different font with a similar style. My classmate suggested I change my title from all caps to lowercase since Robin Williams discusses in her “The Non-Designer’s Design Book” how all caps detracts from legibility and the overall cohesiveness of a document. It was also suggested that I remove the X from over the bee on the front panel since readers may perceive the X as suggesting “Kill the Bees,” not “Save the Bees.”
I purposefully designed my document in a way that would both visually and contextually map out the logical progression of the piece in an energetic yet professional manner. This is why bees are repeatedly flying around in different directions throughout the entire piece. Essentially, the reader follows the bee paths to understand the logical flow of the piece from beginning to end. However, I discovered from peer feedback that my document could have been designed more effectively in regard to proximity. For example, in my first draft, the panel “Bee Educated” was featured on the back spread while the panel “Bee Involved” was featured on the front spread. Incorporating this feedback, I switched the orientation of these panels so my audience would read the “Bee Educated” panel first before moving on to the “Bee Involved” panel. The reasoning behind this change was so my readers could open the brochure and become educated on the topic before learning about getting involved.
Last, my text is aligned via bullet points not only because this promotes easy legibility and quick comprehension for readers, but it also contributes a cleaner, more professional look to the whole piece instead of featuring large blocks of text. Concerning text alignment, a fellow classmate suggested I align the headings of each panel with the bullet points for easier legibility and a more cohesive look. To align the headings and text flush-left, I condensed some of the main text to fit the column parameters.
"After" version of Persuasive Brochure
