Reading Response #5
The brochure I chose is for the Manchester City football hospitality. It is quite a bit longer than the brochures that our group will be producing, but it seemed to follow everything that was pointed out in Chapter 25. I thought the length of the brochure was significant to point about because the company did a good job in keeping my interest and attention, despite how long it was. This is the whole idea behind writing a brochure; holding the readers' attention by using good visuals and concise text.
The Manchester brochure used the four principles of proximity, alignment, repetition and contrast very effectively. Concerning proximity, for every different section they described, a large selection of pictures were shown. I thought this worked very well, because the first thing that caught my eye were the pictures. After viewing the photos I immediately wanted to know what they were illustrating, which the text provided. This strategy also adheres to the principle of repetition. The brochure continually kept the theme of presenting the text first, but it made sure to put the pictures where the eye would catch them. The text was repeatedly formatted to have a small sentence or paragraph followed by bullet points highlighting certain features. All the text in the brochure was aligned to the left with no indentations. This gave it a professional look and was pleasing to the eye. The principle that was most effective was the brochure's use of contrast. They alternated between a black and white background which made the light blue text jump out at the reader. Also, in the beginning and towards the end of the brochure they made half the page blue and the other half white. It was a nice look, and by using the opposite color for the text the document was very attractive.
I think I got some good ideas for my group's brochure. I liked the quote at the beginning of the brochure, it seemed to give it context, and make it more personal. Additionally, I felt the use of bullet points in the text was very effective. When I read a brochure I don't want it to have extremely long paragraphs. The bullets give you the important information in a concise, easily readable manner.
The brochure is available for viewing at http://www.mcfc.co.uk/default.sps?pagegid=%7B9DBDB4A6-3F82-4B26-80B6-0F4...
Comments
Group Reply
I think you made a lot of valid observations. I also really like the brochure that you chose. I noted the contrast in the black and white background. That is an interesting technique to use, but it seems to be effective in keeping my attention. Also, I really like the use of the images. I think you made important comments about keeping the brochure interesting (keeping our audiences attention) but also being concise and giving them information using bullets and different alignment techniques. A quote at the beginning of the brochure is also a different technique for getting the viewers attention. That could also be something that our group considers when preparing our document.
Group Response
I agree that the pictures were used effectively in this brochure. They caught the attention of the reader and helped give visualization to them. The format was consistent and I think that made it easy for the reader to follow. Colors were repeated and kept a consistent theme as well. I liked how they used the bullets in the text for certain points because it broke it up well so you could tell the difference between each point. I also agree that the quote at the beginning was a good one and caught your attention, especially since there was not much else around it.