Reading response 6 - whinchcl
Finishing up the reading has really helped me start thinking more about my groups draft and how we put it together. Some of the principles from the readings have already beeen incorporated into the draft, some of them subconsciously. Other principles could probably use a little more thought, and can be used to make our brochure even more effective.
The whole time I worked on the brochure I tried to consider the principle of conciseness, knowing that it was a brochure and needs to get the point across without too much excessive information. Audience was one of the harder things to consider while coming up with the draft, as the audience is very broad and attempting to relate to the whole audience is quite difficult when you’re not used to doing it. Variety is a principle that I did not think to consider as much and is probably something I will need to take a look at with my group to make sure our brochure is not too much of the same thing over and over again.
I feel that a good portion of discussion and thought went into our design, but as this is a very important part of the brochure we will be taking a very critical look at it right up until we turn in the final draft. While working on the brochure and adding pictures around the text, I tried to maintain a link between the images and the nearby text so that a clear message was established within the brochure. This is one of the things I plan on taking a few more looks at in the next couple of days to make sure we aren’t just using pictures as decorations, but rather to help with our message. With a brochure, we have limited room and a lot of information. So effective pictures are essential in getting the message to our audience.
Comments
comment
I agree with you when u said that the reading really helped u think more about the group draft and how to put it together. After reading the chapters myself I got a good idea on how we should make our Brochure. Most of our discussion and thought did go in the design of the brochure since it is one of the most important parts of the brochure, I think we need to even it out and not focus a lot on the design and just ignore the content. The pictures make the brochure more attractive and eye-catching but on the other hand I like what u said that we have to make sure that we aren’t just using pictures as decorations, but rather to help with the message since we have a lot of information and very limited space. Over all I think you and the group have done a good job.
reading response 6 comment
As your group member, I felt like we did use a few of the things mentioned in both chapters but we could have used them more. The idea that you considered conciseness was appropiate, it made the wording in our brochure a lot better. Audience was the key area to consider when writing a brochure. It was very important to maintain their interest. I think we did a good job of this. One thing we did was use our designs to correlate with text. By doing that we helped them understand what we were trying to accomplish with our Christmas brochure. I think we had a good start, and with a few revisions we should be fine.
Reply
I agree that the audience for the brochure was very broad. It was difficult to cover such a large scope of people. I tried to use different techniques that would appeal different people.
You mentioned “The whole time I worked on the brochure I tried to consider the principle of conciseness, knowing that it was a brochure and needs to get the point across without too much excessive information.” I too tried to keep in mind conciseness. However, as I stated in my blog it was very difficult to be brief. There was a lot of information that was required to go into the brochure. I felt like just meeting the required information that was given made the brochure full of text. I, similar to you, tried to be as concise as possible when giving information. My group used the technique of bullets and indentation. That technique not only helped the brochure be more concise but appear organized.
Comment
I think you bring up a great point about placing pictures where they are necessary. I know in past publications, I have places pictures throughout it just as a ‘decoration.’ After this weeks reading, I understand the importance of rhetorically placing a picture to help convey the meaning of my text. This is something I will defiantly reevaluate in my brochure. As you said, in a brochure, there is a very limited amount of space to effectively get across a lot of important information. I also agree that variety is an important principle, but remember that repetition is also a strong tool. In the case of your brochure, you would not want to have a different boarder for every page, the repetitive red and green boarder looks very good.
Comments.
I think it was very insightful of you to realize the importance of using pictures to help emphasize your words, not just to make the brochure look good. This is extremely important, yet goes over looked some times. I also think that it was good that you know the importance of continuing to edit the brochure up until the last day. I think another thing that is equally important is the layout. It needs to progress logically from one area to the next and the layout of the text boxes and pictures need to lead from one point to the next. Keep these things in mind also as you are editing your brochure.
Reading Response Comment
I agree that pictures must be placed in certain areas to attract the reader's attention. Placing pictures wherever is not a good concept because you might not put them where they are most needed to keep the reader interested. I also think the layout is equally important because you must present a good layout so the information presented is presented in a reasonable and professional manner. You have to make sure you have the right layout for the audience you are trying to attract. I know that in the week to come I will keep these principles in mind through out the editing process.
reading response week 6
Adding excessive information does distract the audience from the main and most important aspects of your brochure.