J. McKenzie Hansen
Professional Formatting
For this section, I decided to choose my projects from Document Design. These projects include my event flyer, digital booklet, and infographic. In Document Design I learned a lot about how to organize elements on a page, while getting to be creative. Each project that I did for the class was centered around my programs–EAST and SELECT Programs.
The event flyer was created to showcase an event for my EAST students. I used Canva to create the project because it help provide inspiration and it is also a very easy design software to use. I chose to use different shapes to make the poster more appealing and colors that would attract my audience’s eye. I also included a picture of my students working to help demonstrate what the program is about–collaboration, brainstorming, and self-directed learning. I ordered my document in a way that provides all the important information about where and when the event is at the top. I decided to center the text to make the flyer look a little more formal because this is a professional event where my students dress in professional attire and give professional presentations to their clients, family, friends, and community members.
The next two projects I chose for Professional Formatting are for my non-profit organization, SELECT Programs.
The digital booklet was a project that had to incorporate a multi-page layout, including front and back matter. I decided to make the booklet about the different skills that SELECT Programs teaches in its programs and workshops; however, I realized that this was a big project to take on and a big booklet would not appeal to my audience. I decided to scale it back and only focus on the first section–soft skills– and have since decided that I will make each section its own booklet, so it does not overwhelm my audience.
This project was very challenging for me, but also a lot of fun. I decided to use PowerPoint for this project because it is easy to manipulate elements. I was surprised at how easy and complex PowerPoint is to use. I am familiar with PowerPoint, but was not aware of all the features it has to make designing easier. I played around with different borders, filters for images, shapes, and text effects to get the design that I wanted.
The booklet is consistent and organized. I use pictures to help attract my audience’s attention and use the official colors for SELECT Programs. Each page with content includes plenty of white space so that the text is easy to read and the reader is not overwhelmed by a ton of elements on the page. I used one picture (either at the top or bottom of the page) that helps demonstrate the skill that is described on the page. To give an extra effect to my booklet, I alternated where the picture and text went. I also used a border that changed color on each page to show the four official colors of SELECT Programs.
The infographic is my favorite project that I completed in Document Design and I believe it really shows my creativity, my eye for design, and my organization and formatting skills. For this project, I focused on the five Technology Tracks (sophisticated technology skills) that SELECT Programs’ students will learn. This infographic provides a symbol to represent the Technology Track, a short description of the Technology Track, and is very colorful and fun for the students to look at. I used Canva and PowerPoint to create this project. I used Canva to design the background and used PowerPoint to add different effects to the background, as well as add the symbols and text.
While SELECT Programs teaches students (ages 10-17) professional skills and sophisticated technology, parents and students who are interested in participating need to know that the organization is “fun” and “kid-oriented”. I chose to use the rainbow colors instead of the standard SELECT Programs colors because I believe that the rainbow colors spark creativity and give a “fun” vibe to the program. The same thinking went into choosing a font for the infographic title. The font looks fun, but is easy to read. I chose to use Century Gothic, which is SELECT Program’s standard font, to write the descriptions because it is easy to read.
The image I chose for the title section shows a student using a computer. To make the title and description of the infographic easy to read, while also hiding the students face, I decided to blur the picture. I think this gives a unique effect to the overall design and keeps the document centered around technology.