“Don’t judge a book by its cover.” That is what we are taught from the day one; that there is more to something that just looks. Truth is our culture does not always follow that. As PR professionals and advertisers, we will need to consider this notion. In chapter four, Kent breaks down some key elements of design and appearance in the pieces that we will be creating.
The visual aspects of any document we will be creating are extremely important in getting our message out to the public. No one will give your piece a look if they are not intrigued or grabbed by it. Kent explains the use of space and how positive and negative spaces are used to create different looks in documents. This plays into the element of balance as well as symmetry in every piece that will be made.
He then goes into specific documents that would need to consider visual attention. Brochures, for example, are definitely something I knew would require a lot of design consideration, but Kent explains the process of deciding things like content, colors of paper, how many folds and weights of the paper. I realized there was a lot more to the process than I had thought. As a consumer, I am constantly using and reading things that have been created by other PR professionals and advertisers. But when I think about the other end of it, they really have a lot to consider. Prices and logistics are things they actually need to think about which, like I said, as a consumer is not something I am even aware of.
Another point Kent expanded on was the photography aspect. I have always been interested in photography and enjoyed the classes I have taken for that, but I was interested to learn about it from a PR/ advertising point of view. I watched a film the other day about a Brazilian liquor company designing a new ad campaign and all the steps they had to take to complete it. Of course there was the creative process, but the interesting and new part to me was everything that has to happen after that. One problem they ran into was finding a photographer for their print ads. After reading chapter four and learning about the difficulties of hiring a photographer, I was able to understand more what the liquor company was struggling with.
It was enjoyable to read about the design concepts behind the media we consume every day. After taking several courses in advertising and PR, it has definitely made me, as a consumer, more aware of what I am exposed to and the thoughts behind everything I see, however it never ceases to amaze me how every element plays a part in the big picture.
