Course+Reflection

** Reflections for Course-Embedded Assignment - Newsletter **
In my career field as Graphics manager and Web Designer, I have created and provided many publication printed pieces, including newsletters, brochures, posters, magazine layouts and various other printed items for public viewing, as well as for the college population itself. This assignment was instrumental in reminding me of the importance of a clean layout and design, as well as entertaining or factual information that would be shared with your potential audience.

Although my expertise is in design and layout, I have generally performed such tasks for other “customers” who had their own opinions on how they wanted their finished piece to look and would give the instructions or guidelines for their product. I have not, however, produced a newsletter with myself, personally, as the client, nor with the thought of what my “words of wisdom” might be in those paragraphs that would dictate a story line, let alone one that would continue onto the next page with possible advertisements of some sort. I found myself staring aimlessly at the blank computer screen, trying to imagine myself as a separate identity with an interesting story to share with a make-believe audience.

In the article, **//“//** **// Desktop Publishing: Evaluating Newsletters” //** [] it provided numerous tips on how to create an effective newsletter with varying information on the overall presentation, the audience, format, and content, but the section that drew my attention the most, was the information on the layout. Questions such as: **//“Does the newsletter have an effective front page?”//** to **//“Does the format look like a newsletter rather than a report?”//** reminded me of the numerous details involved in good design that would appeal to your prospective audience. Details, that after years of working in the advertising field, I sometimes take for granted and assume that it would come as natural to others, as it does to myself.

Some key questions listed in the above article, **//“Who is your intended audience? Does your content match this audience”//** reminds me that knowing who your readers are is critical. Although you might not want to include comical insights of your weekend adventures in a newsletter addressed to your business clients, your story lines might be effective in entertaining your family and friends, as an annual Christmas newletter.

Other questions addressed in the article, **//“Are the headline active (using verbs) to attract readers?”//** and **//“Does the lead article convey excitement about news?,”//** brings to mind the “3-second rule” practiced in the television-commercial-world, as well as the world wide web. You can also readily apply this rule to your newsletter project. If you don’t grasp the attention of your audience in the first 3-seconds of their scanning your document for catchy headlines, drawing them into actual reading of your newletter, your “work of art” will probably end up as one of the numerous files sent into cyberspace purgatory!

I thoroughly enjoyed our 5th week assignment. It reminded me of the details that are so often overlooked, but so important in providing us in that link of communication that instructs and very often entertains our prospective audience. What we produce whether on paper or on a computer screen provides our visual arena with a 3-second window on who we are and how we present ourselves to others.