Here are some examples of redesigns I did for ENGL 392B: The Rhetoric of image.
- Newsletter Redesign - Grade Recieved: A (87%)
The full report can be found here.
"As you can see in Figure 3, I also made some substantial changes to the presentation of both of the main 'blocks'. In the original, the main body of the article was free of any sort of container, and thus the words appeared to be swimming in a sea of white. Given that the contents and credits were enclosed, I felt that the body of the document deserved the same treatment. Giving the contents a background privileged it over the main article in the original, and I feel that the content of the front page article needs to be at least equally, if not more so, privileged. Thus, I gave the article its own background, and distinguished the colour from the contents while keeping the two-colour scheme of the original and using some gradients to give it a softer colour. While the colour of the contents is still brighter, and thus more salient, its location on the page counteracts the colour choice. It would seem that making the background of the main article orange would have been better for salience, but it ends up looking like an eyesore, as the orange dominates the text. Thus, this colour scheme and containing of the elements, combined with the location of the boxes relative to reading direction, results in a distribution of salience that privileges the header foremost, and then the front page article over the contents and credits."
- Print Ad redesign - Grade Recieved: A+ (95%)
The full report can be found here.
"The ad uses all the positional elements - ideal/real, given/new and center/margin - in a perfect construct that balances all the contents of the ad into the proper places. The balance is also a perfect demonstration of inverse-symmetry: the 'speech bubble' offsets the 'thought bubble', female offsets male, bottom-right offsets top-left; everything is symmetrical except for the logo that is located in the 'new/real' quadrant. This lack of symmetry causes the logo to stand out, without taking salience. It's perversion of the symmetry renders it the key element of the ad, but not the focal point. Most importantly, all these effects come together to emulate the order, balance and structure that this demographic demands from their business and lifestyle, and thus the ad acts as a perfect metaphor that gets its point across easily, clearly, coherently and effectively."
