Brochure Topics

Three topics that are somewhat underrated that really need to be addressed are going green, illegal immigration, and volunteering at local food banks. These three topics were really big a couple years ago, but now they have dropped under the radar without being fully addressed.

Going Green

Green stands for G- generate less waste, R- recycle everything that cannot be reused, E- educate the community on eco-friendly options, E- evaluate the environmental impact of actions, N- nourish discussions and activities that integrate environmental education into existing curriculum. This topic has been current because as time progresses we use more and more of our natural resources we need to be more conservative. Going green will never not be current, because we will always be dealing with natural recourses and their conservation. If we give more information on the topic we can extend our recourses as long as possible, but many people aren't going green. With this information people will realize what is happening to our environment they might consider going green.

Volunteering at Local Food Pantries

Organizations like Feeding America our great examples of how you can get out and help your local community. Feeding America has been helping deal with the hunger crisis for 35 years by providing to food to food banks all throughout the country. Feeding America has become the nations largest domestic hunger relief organization, with a network of 200 food banks. With these food banks Feeding America feeds 46 million people at risk of hunger. This is current because people every day deal with hunger and everybody should do their part to help feed some of those starving people. It is so very important that people should not go hungry, especially young children and the elderly, because they need their strength more than ever. If we all donated a few canned good items, that have probably been sitting in our pantry for months now anyways, we could make a huge difference for the people who don't have the luxury to let canned food sit on their shelves for months at a time. 

Illegal Immigration

Illegal immigration is something that has been happening in our country for years, but has become more of a recent issue because of the presidential election. Each presidential candidate has a strong opinion on the matter, but the fact of the matter is even though their immigration is illegal it benefits our economy. Illegal immigration benefits the US economy through additional tax revenue, expansion of the low-cost labor pool, and increased money in circulation. This immigration is also an example of following the American Dream of freedom and bettering a persons life. If we deny their entry into the states we are hypocrites denying them the same dream we all have. This thought illegal immigration is just a form of racism, we don't want "these people" coming into our country, eating our food, stealing our jobs, but we were once in a form "these people" when our ancestors first came to America. This needs to be properly addressed because people don't think about the facts when it comes to this, they immediately jump to "these people" mind set.


We need to really think about these three topics and not just go off what we heard from someone else. These problems are not going to go away any time soon unless we bring the proper attention to them and get people all the facts. With brochures we can get some of the vital information out and give people resources to find out more information on their own, and possibly make a difference.

What makes a good design?

In the design world you have to take in multiple factors such as color, font, layout exc. To make a good brochure, business cards, or flyers for example. If we don’t think about these things while making a flyer, or anything else, then we will have a terrible design that will not be effective at getting your message across.

Good Designs:

Brochure-

This brochure is an example of a good brochure because it has good images of Paris, showing you some of the nice sights you can see when you travel there, including the Eiffel tower. The picture on the front is also good because it shows Paris in the middle of the map and is very bold. The brochure also kept the words to a minimum while also giving you the information you need. One thing about a bad brochure is excessive amounts of writing where 90% of the brochure is writing. The font of the brochure is also good because it is legible which is very important, but it also fits with the “Paris” theme. It’s very elegant just like Paris is. This is what makes this a good brochure.

Business card-

This business card is good because it is very simple, and gives you just the information that you need and that’s it. The most important information, the business name, is in a large font while their motto is slightly smaller font. It is also in close proximity showing that you should associate the motto with the company. The color is also effective because it alternates back and forth between orange and grey, but the most effective part is that the motto says “we do everything” in orange and then listed under the name is all of the business card owner’s specialties in the same color.

Flyer-

This is a good flyer because it is very creative. Because it is a spiritual retreat it was a very smart choice on the designers end to use a creative font that is still legible to the viewer of the flyer. The font size was well done too it kept the events name in the largest font size, while still keeping other important information big without oversizing the event. The proximity is well done because the what, when, and where are kept next to each other all in the circle while all the other information is outside of the circle. The colors of the poster are also a good choice because it’s very calming pastel colors. This is a good choice because it’s a spiritual retreat and you go to be calm and relaxed.

Bad Designs:

Brochure-

This is a bad deigned brochure because it looks like the designer of it was a college student who waited 10 minutes before it was due to actually start the assignment. The designer barely used color, most of it is only white which does nothing to attract people to the brochure, and then the rest of the brochure is an ugly mustard yellow. There is also to much negative space meaning that there is quite a bit of information that could have been included but wasn’t. We know almost nothing about this school. There are also too many different fonts and font sizes which is confusing to the viewer.

Business card-

This business card is a bad example because it has way too much going on. There is no negative space so everything is in close proximity to each other. With everything clumped together there is no organization and things become very confusing. The font size is also contributing to the poor design because important information is very small. At first look at this card the viewer doesn’t know what this woman does, but if you look at the very bottom in the smallest font on the card you will find what she does. This information should be in a much bigger font than her social media sites. Also the graphic is kind of creepy and not very inviting.

Flyer-

This flyer is a bad example because of the font, graphics, and the layout. For starters the font is a cheesy comic sans like font, and we all know that comic sans is a joke of a font. The font also doesn’t go with the theme. A tea party is civilized so the theme should also be civilized or mature. Now same can be said about the graphic. Why would you include tiaras on a flyer for a tea party? What about the little girl? Why is she on it? Wouldn’t it make much more sense to have a picture of a tea party, or even just a mother and a daughter? Finally, there is the layout, there shouldn’t be a box surrounding where the information is going if it is just going to flow out of it. It just makes the whole design look bad, it shouldn’t flow out of the box. That’s what makes this a poor flyer design.

Communication we can see

Audio communication is the most effective form of communication. It is incredibly hard to get an interesting and compelling story across to your audience. You need to make sure you have a good plot, as with any form of communication. You also need to make sure you have good sound effects that match the general theme or feel of your message.

With visual communication, there are a few standards that are a little different than with audio and written communication. For starters visual communications need to account for symbolism, color, and images. Important aspects of visual communication are its color and symbolism. Color emits emotion and you want to have the right emotion to get your message across. Symbolism is probably the most important aspect though because it is how you get the majority of your message across to your audience. You have to make sure it’s subtle, you want your audience to recognize it, but don’t “throw” it in their faces.

Three logos that do a good job of visually communicating are, Tostitos, Amazon, and ToysRus.



First is Amazon:

 

Amazon is a good logo because it is very simple and to the point. The symbolism is subtle and effective. The arrow is placed in such a way that it looks like a smile, symbolizing that you will always be happy with your service from amazon. It also is an arrow going from A to Z, implying that they have everything you could possibly need. Finally, the color of the arrow is effective because it is a warm yellow, which is associated with happiness which goes back to being happy with the service of Amazon.

Next is ToysRus:  

This logo is good mainly for the color. The color in the logo is so whimsical and fun. It represents the youth of the store. They want the children to see the fun colors and tell their parents that they want to go play with all the toys in the fun store. The font also makes this logo very effective. It is a very playful font that you would see on a kids show, like sesame street for example. The Backwards "R" makes this effective also because it makes it seem as if a child wrote it.

Finally, we look at the Tostitos logo:  

This logo is well done because of the color and symbolism. This logo has the warm and happy colors of yellow and a dull orange. Now the color alone isn’t why it’s a good logo, it’s also the set up of the logo. The two Ts represent people enjoying the chips and a nice bowl of salsa (The dot of the I) That combined with the colors is why this logo is effective.

These three logos all are great examples of effective logos because that all have subtle messages that convey their product. With their combinations of color, symbolism, and font they convey playful creative logos. Visual communication is all around us and it is highly under appreciated.