Design Portfolio
CSCI 114-03
Emily Parkman
Sawdust Festival Magazine Ad
In my advertisement for the Sawdust Art Festival, I chose many particular design elements to create visual appeal to my intended audience. For the top and bottom borders of my ad, I chose to use watercolor strokes to appeal to the artistic nature of the festivl itself. The colors complement the palette used on the Sawdust website. The rest of the background is just a neutral color to keep the ad from not looking too busy. The picture of the fesstival runs off the page on both sides because I wanted the audience to feel as if the picture wasn't over; that there is more to the festival than what is shown. This would intrigue the audience and persuade them to find out what else is at the festival.
I chose to only use two fonts because the repetition made the advertisement look unified. The fonts are simple, which makes it easy for the audience to read. The word "Sawdust" is the only major word that is in red, making in contrast from the background and everyting else on the page, which shows that Sawdust is the main focus of my ad. I kept the main focus of the ad "Sawdust" aligned in the middle so the audience's eyes would go straight to the word. By having "42nd Annual" and "Art Festival" not aligned with "Sawdust", it gives visual interest to the main focus of the ad.
The date and location were kept on the same line, yet aligned to different sides to show their proximity towards one another. The rest of the text was aligned into two columns underneath the picture because I felt the columns broke up the page and gave the ad more visual interest, but stayed organized and easy for the reader to follow. Overall, my design appeals to the intended audience because it is simple, yet it has enough contrast and interest to keep the audience reading.
Humane Society Calendar
My goal for the Humane Society calendar was to keep the animals a major focus, without distracting from the main purpose of being a calendar. . By keeping my design simple, the viewer would not be overwhelmed by having too many details on the calendar. I used clean, straight edges for the boxes to keep the calendar looking crisp, yet simple. The simplicity of my main font choice, Gill Sans, will allow the viewer to read with ease (which was repeated throughout my whole design). In between the month and the fun fact, I kept the space blank. The white space gives the eyes a break from all the information, and makes the page seem less cluttered. I designed my coupons to be very minimal because it keeps the reader from misunderstanding what the coupon is for.
I organized my design in certain ways to keep the audience appealed to the calendar. The dog shown on the top of the calendar is the most dominant feature of the calendar, which will appeal to all dog-lovers. Next, I aligned the year and month of the calendar to the left of the page because people read from left to right. I aligned the fun fact for each month on the right side of the line because I felt that position balanced the month well. By keeping the main points on either side of the page, balance is created in the text of the calendar. I organized the coupons by putting them on the bottom because that would be the best place for the owner to be able to clip without ruining the rest of the calendar. Overall, I believe that my design for the Humane Society calendar is visually successful in attracting an audience and potential customers for the Humane Society.
InDesign
The designs below are my personal creations using Adobe InDesign
