Assignment 3 : Info Sheet

This is another assignment that I felt, at the outset, was going to be rather even-keeled. As research, I looked through magazines such as Business Week and Newsweek to see how items were laid out in info sheets. After that I read through the copy to get an idea of what belonged where; also to get a feel for what fonts and colors I wanted to use. The copy came to a conclusion of “Buy our magazine” so I choose Pantone 349 U, the color of money. I did a few quick sketches of layouts and jumped onto the laptop. This is where the fun began. After designing a header banner, placing the image, blocking out a place for the chart and pull-quote, and inserting the text I realized that space was limited. I wanted to keep some semblance of margins, have an eye catching/interesting header, a neat image while still allowing the text to breath. The first layout was so choked and so boring I had to take a step aside and rethink things. The one part of the copy that I felt I could really sex up was the timeline. I laid out a rather simple swooshing clock and placed the dates sequentially along its tail. I hope that this breaks up the logjam of text while drawing the readers’ eye across the page, invigorating the reader. Everything else was a bit of play and trial and error. I set everything then took a step back to see how it looked. In the end I’m pleased with how it turned out. I will not claim that this is the best or most exciting piece I’ve created in my short career. I feel it presents the information in a logical way and has enough “umph” to not completely bore the reader.