Testing - One-Two-Three...

Wow! I've been blogging for over three months now. It's been quite a journey. I never anticipated that it would evolve into something that feels so natural.

In my senior year of high school, my English teacher, Mr. Pross, required our class to keep a journal. How I HATED that assignment! I would have gladly written a research paper every week to avoid writing a journal. I guess back then I viewed it as a "dear diary" type thing. The teen years are pretty difficult times as it is and my family life was in a bit of turmoil so I guess the vulnerability of exposing myself in writing was a bit too much for me. For some reason, I held on to some of those entries - maybe it was all of them. (I did as few as I could get away with!) I came across them a year or so ago. The writing was evasive. Anyone could tell I was not comfortable documenting my life, thoughts, or feelings.

It's been exactly 30 years since that class. And here I am writing a blog and considering starting another. While this is certainly not a journal - at least not in the same respect as what I was writing in 1978 - I certainly have come a long way in documenting my thoughts. In fact, looking back over the past three months, I see a lot of progress since September.

Aim, Shoot, Score!

As I state in the banner above, the purpose of this blog is to explore technical communications. I have spent much of the last three months learning and talking about design. From examining websites geared toward different ages and corporate blogs to reviewing specific elements of design such as typography (September 23rd and October 6th), audience analysis, and usability analysis to attempting to understand Web 2.0, I have learned so much.

It's one thing to just read about topics; you can hope that you retain the information when it's needed. It's another to measure your comprehension by redefining it and putting it into use. Sitting down, looking for and at examples, and writing about them moves me forward. Actually practicing what I've learned helps me meet my goal that I set back in my blog of September 23rd - to create visually appealing pages.

I have a way to go but I'm progressing.

Yes, It IS Something Personal

When I started out this blog, I was all business...straight to the point. No self exposure. You could have assumed certain things about me. (My entry about corporate blogs where I compare McDonald's blog to PETA's blog might have led you to assume a certain bias toward one organization over the other.) But it would have been purely conjecture.

There's been quite a shift since then. My most recent blogs have been fairly personal. Some might say a little too expository. Sometimes, though, information is more meaningful if we can relate it to our own experiences. And personal stories can help illustrate the importance of a method - as I discussed in my entry about usability - or how advances or changes can impact how we approach problems - as I discussed in my entry about Web 2.0.

Relax...

When I look back at my first entries, they were stiff, business like. I believe...and I hope it comes across to others...that I've relaxed some. These entries have become a little more conversational, a little less "instructional".

That's a leap for me. As it was back in high school, I'm much more comfortable with the research paper type writing. After all, at least half of my professional career has been spent writing policies and procedures. Not exactly sitting in the living room with friends type language. I have to admit that I am finally enjoying the freedom of writing informative material in friendly, personal manner. This has been a very positive experience that I intend to continue and, as I mentioned, possibly expand. (Gardening with native plants...I could learn and talk about that for a very long time.)

Moving to Missouri

"Show me". Hmmm. I'm still working on that. Maybe if I move to the "Show me" state. Actually, I have been working on adding more visual elements to my entries. There are challenges. First, importing graphics into Blogger and formatting so the entry looks nice is not especially easy. Well, at least not for me. In addition, I often fail to see the opportunities to illustrate certain ideas.

I hope that I have exhibited that I have some grasp of visual design. My redesign of this site is one example. As are my attempts at creating print ads. I'll be picking up another design class in January. I'm looking forward to it. The class I participated in this fall was fun and interesting. I can only hope to learn more and further develop my skills.

Where Am I Going?

I hope that, in another three months, I will be prepared to look back and see further progress in my writing and my design skills. I also hope to be able to say I've accomplished each of the "to-do" list tasks I've identified so far. Having it in writing certainly helps to keep my feet to the fire.

Stay tuned.

Ready for Madison Avenue?

When I was in high school, I entertained the idea of a career in art. So many of us at that age have unrealistic opinions of our talents, strengths, and, yes, even weaknesses. Fortunately, I came to realize - before applying to art school - that I had neither the talent nor the discipline for that life.

One of the eye-openers was a class in advertising and commercial design. While I generally earned "A"s in the "fine art" classes, the graphic art course was much more challenging. I could no longer get away with fuzzy edges of my drawings and I had to deal with the preciseness of lettering. This was in the 70s so everything was done by hand.

So, when I was presented with an opportunity to participate in the development of a marketing campaign for a new company, I decided to give the challenges of advertising and commercial design another shot in the digital world.

My approach to this project included:

1. 
   
   Creating a proposal for the campaign.
2. 
   
   Understanding the company and the audience for the ads.
3. 
   
   Developing a theme for the message.
4. 
   
   Creating a design.

Getting to Know You

The company's name is kr3c. They're a "think tank" or venture capital group headquartered in Princeton, New Jersey. The first step in this project was understanding the company. What were they planning to do? What problems or initiatives did they intend to work on? Where were they getting their funding? And what did they want to accomplish with their campaign?

kr3c will be working with government and private industry to develop solutions and innovations in technology and industry. Pinning down exactly what they will be working on was not an easy process. Their interests are diverse: from clean energy to screenless computers to education initiatives. The common elements seem to be creative solutions and change. Unlike many of the "think tanks" we hear about on news reports, there appears to be no interest in making public policy or promoting particular agendas.

Funding will be acquired through private investors, grants from foundations, and fees for services - the sale of the "ideas". The purposes of the ad campaign include attracting investors as well as promoting awareness and soliciting clients.

What's It All About?

Designing ads for a concept is a lot more difficult than designing ads for tangible products like clothing, food, or appliances. Tangible products visually speak for themselves. You can dress them up, put them in a certain context to give them "personality". But they can also stand alone and still tell you what they're about.

Concepts are harder to express visually. Since I was working on the print ads, I found this to be pretty tricky. I could go with the "infomercial" type ad. You know the kind. It says "Advertisement" at the top but it resembles an article in the magazine. They must work for some things; there are so many of them. And they certainly would be informative. However, it did not seem like the correct approach.

So, I needed a theme. I decided to focus on change by:

1. 
   
   Finding the answers to pressing issues; and
2. 
   
   Shaping the future.

I Can See It Now

Before designing the ads, I did a little research.

First, I had to consider design elements. Things like:

• 
  
  Layout
• 
  
  Proportion
• 
  
  Color
• 
  
  Typeface

Fortunately, I've been studying design lately so I had easy access to elementary information. One little piece I picked up was the "Rule of Thirds". With the Rule of Thirds, you take the space you're working with and divide it into three equal rows and three equal columns. Important elements should appear on two to four of the intersections of the lines creating the columns and rows.

Colors were determined in part by the marketing team's selection of a logo and the colors of the logos. (One standard logo and one for "green" initiatives. I chose to only use the standard logo but separated out a leaf graphic from the green logo for one ad.)

For layout and typeface, I did a lot of research by leafing through financial magazines and newspapers. The client wanted two magazine ads, two newspaper ads, and two web banners so the layouts, and even the content, would be significantly different.

What I found was a large number of ads with a top-heavy graphic - usually a photo - with a short message and a web link underneath. There were also a number of text ads but they all (but the infomercial variety) had limited, clear text. Newspaper ads were simple, usually text of various sizes. Web banners, due to their size, had limited information with small graphics.

The following are the results:

Magazine Ad

Magazine Ad

Newspaper Ad


Newspaper Ad

Web Banners

Is It Easier The Second Time Around?

I've been asking myself if this was easier than it was back in high school. As far as coming up with ideas and text. A little but not much. Having more life experience, I guess I have more ways to say things than I did back then but finding the ideas is still hard.

As for creating the end product, I have to say "absolutely". I can't say I'm any more creative than I was back then or that I've acquired any talent I didn't have at 17. Creating material on a computer, though, makes all the difference in the world. Having tools to line up images, create straight lines, and create the lettering for me. Wow!