Reading Response Week 5
http://www.cwp.org/Community_Watersheds/brochure.pdf
This is a link to the brochure I found. It is a how to brochure on how to build and install a rain barrel and also how to install a rain garden. The proximity of the pictures in relation to the text associated with those pictures is okay. I think that the text could be closer to the picture in order that the steps have the picture associated with it just to the right. The alignment of each bullet is good. The text is all aligned to the left side of the section the text is in. The repetition is good with this brochure. The headings and subheadings are all in the same style of font and are sequential. It goes from what is the item to why you should use the item to the steps in order to install the item. The subheadings in the steps for installing the rain barrel are all underlined and aligned the same. Repetition is also seen in the bullets as they are raindrops under each step of the installation process. There is good contrast between the light blue colors of the graphics to the darker colors of the picture. It makes the graphics pop out and draws your attention to each section. The fonts follow the rules suggested by the Thomson Handbook. The headings are in sans serif fonts and the body of each heading is in a serif font. The headings are larger font sizes compared to the smaller text font size. The line lengths are short to medium in length and dont exceed the recommended 75 character line for the most part. The leading of each section appears to be a standard size and consistent throughout the entire brochure. The first brochure is all left justified while the second brochure is fully justified. The first brochure uses many shades of blue to keep a consistent analogous set of colors. The pictures use plenty of complementary colors to contrast well as the book describes. All in all this is a good brochure, I would give it a B if I was to grade it.
Comments
Comment
Is this one brochure or two? The differing color schemes would suggest that it is two, but it is unclear to the reader. I think the color scheme on the second page is more effective than the color scheme on the first page. I found that the combination of the blue with all the white space made it very hard for the viewer to concentrate on the copy, where as the second page is more pleasing to the eye. I also found that the amount of copy on each brochure to be overwhelming. Overall, I think you did a good analysis of pointing out the techniques used in this brochure.
Reply
This brochure doesn't look as professional as others that I have seen but it definitely has some of the characteristics of a professional brochure. There are good examples of alignment and proximity throughout and I like how many pictures they have. Since this is a "how to" brochure it's nice to see they show good examples of exactly what they are doing. There are also plenty of different colors used throughout and it does a good job of drawing your eye to the pictures. I like how it breaks down the process of building these things into steps so it easier to follow when you try to make your own. Overall I think this brochure is not the most professional but it has a lot of good information and is a good "how to" brochure. I think it was a good choice and you can take some good ideas from it.
Comment
The brochure you found is organized very well. From the color schemes to the format of the content, it all appears professional and makes it easy for the reader to go through and understand. A lot of the times brochures contain too many images that make it complicated for the information to flow. In this particular one, the fact that they showed the steps on how to use products had a more of an impact on the reader. For the customers that needed help with installing a rain barrel or rain garden, it enticed them to read the entire brochure and developed credibility for the Center for Watershed Protection.