Weather service PDF
The brochure that I chose online was one about how to prepare for tornados and thunderstorms. You can find a copy at http://www.nws.noaa.gov/om/brochures/ttl.pdf. I chose this brochure because I thought it displayed all of the aspects that I read about in the text to make a good publication. The front cover drew you to the publication with the amazing pictures of natural disasters. The colors and alignment they used was described exactly in chapter 25. They choose to align the pictures of center on opposite sides of the paper. This made it look very professional, especially with the titles and logos located on the bottom of the page. The colors of the pictures were also chosen for a specific reason. They used complementary colors, yellow in one and blue in the other, because they contrast very well and print very effectively. The red shadow that is placed around the pictures contrasts those colors well and makes them pop off the page. The colors in the title also play an important part to where your eye drawn. The most important words are written in red while the others are written in a light blue. They continue this color scheme throughout the document which makes it very effective.
Another reason that I believe this is such a strong document is their use of highlighting a bulleting to improve the layout. In order to make it easy for your eye to group specific information they alternated highlighting. The alternate yellow and white background made it easier to quickly locate all the information that you wanted. The middle of the document contains short text descriptions along with pictures for almost every topic. This adds to the ease to be able to skim and retain information. Textboxes are also used effectively to insert relative information next to a specific paragraph. The end of the document also contains a small summary and a list of places to go if you are looking for more information. All together I thought this was a great brochure that accomplished all it wanted to.
Comments
Reading Response Comment
This brochure utilizes many of the elements in Chapter 25 of The Thomson Handbook. The brochure used a great deal of proximity very effectively. It is clear that the pictures relate to the text especially when showing the life cycle of a thunderstorm. It is easy to see the life cycle as well as read about the life cycle. The different types of backgrounds using the three colors in the brochure are very effective. It is easy to follow and it isn't all on a white background. It switches between white, light blue, and light yellow. The brochure is also consistent with the red border that surrounds part of the pictures. It draws the eye to the picture and red is often associated with caution or danger which is what the brochure is informing the audience about. I also liked that the brochure capitalizes the word "YOU" when talking about being prepared and only putting "YOU" in red font. It draws the reader to that word and gives the reader the feeling that the brochure is speaking specifically to the reader. I also like the pictures that show how to cover yourself if there is a tornado. It is more effective to see a picture than just reading text. This brochure is very informative but uses a creative design to keep the reader interested.
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This is a really god brochure. Its use of proximity is very effective. I especially liked its use of pictures. They are informative and easy to read. Showing how a tornado develops gives the reader a greater idea of the damage from this kind of a disaster. Even in the section of hail, the picture of the large hailstone made the reader more aware of the seriousness of the issue. The fact about the disaster each causes is also an extremely effective tool.
The highlighting of titles and emphasizing of words by writing them in red was very effective. The action plan is simple and the use of short and easy to understand words makes it easier for people to follow.
I also liked that websites are mentioned in case people wanted follow up information. Each of the websites was in a box making it easier for them to be spotted in case of future referral.
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This brochure was very nice. It did an excellent job of using contrast of colors to grab the reader’s attention. The pictures on the front page were very real looking and made me as a reader think about what I would do in that situation. No one really thinks about whether colors are complementary or not when they look at them but when you begin to choose colors for a document you then begin to realize how much better complementary colors tend to look. The brochure was very professional and sounds like it will be very useful and provide helpful hints for the upcoming project.
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The first thing I notice when I see this brochure is its consistency. I like how they never changed their colors and every page has the same layout. I have always been fond with patterns and they followed it in a very nice way. The only thing I would recommend is to use other colors in the brochure. The information is very important but not that interesting. It makes you just start thinking about accidents and things like that. They should use more vivid colors in order to keep the readers’ attention. Also, the type of font they used was very standard but had a nice contrast to the font used for the titles, which gives the title the highlight it should have.
Comments.
I was immediately impressed with the bright photos on the front of this brochure. I think they did a very nice job with the front page. One thing that I did not like about the brochure was the colors they used. they colors were not very eye-catching. This isn't too big of a concern because of the topic of this brochure: people will be reading it if they need to be reading it. The difference in the one that we are creating is that people don't have to read ours. That means the colors and the layout needs to draw in out attention so that we choose to read the brochure. I think we would need to use brighter colors then what is used here.
Reply Reading Response Week 5
The choice of aligning the picture to the center of the opposite sides of the paper is nice.