On Monday during class, we had 1 hour to create a job fair flyer in black and white. We had all the text and information – just had to format the layout. Sometimes that’s easier said than done but it was pretty simple. I drew out a few sketches and then got into InDesign. I found that one element that I thought looked nice in my sketch just didn’t work out. It had the time in bigger fonts and formatted on top of each other. While it provides a punch unfortuntely, it left too much white space. But it was an easy fix and I finished it in the hour and printed it out.

We all placed our flyers on the wall and went to the opposite side of the room to look at them. That’s when I realized that my first composition just didn’t have the right hierarchy. The title “Job Fair” didn’t stand out and didn’t grab enough attention. Look up close and it was compelling. But far away – not so much.

We then had about 10 minutes to fix it and then hang it back up. I provided a black border around “Fair” and the details I added to the side changed from black to a medium gray. Looking at it now, the added black makes everything stand out so much more and the only reason I was able to see that was when I printed it out and looked at it far away. That’s why a printed proof can be really helpful. I spend hours looking at a computer screen that sometimes it distorts what the actual content will look like. Zoom is available only online, not in real life.

Lesson: Print out a proof and look twice. It’ll save you time.