Our last assignment involved creating a digital newsletter. At first I thought, this should be easy enough. I used to create newsletters all the time for the family as a way to keep in touch before we started utilizing social networking. The assignment was not difficult, but it was very informative. Whenever I have created newsletters or any type of handout for my trainings, I have worked very hard to ensure they were visually appealing and the right information was emphasized. What I did not know was there is an actual process for this referred to as “CRAP” principles (contrast, repetition, alignment and proximity). I was basically on the right track, but lacked the technical knowhow. Now I am armed with the “CRAP” methodology and as a result my newsletters and handouts should be more effective.
Why will they be more effective? I now know that contrast is the first thing we notice and yet repetition “reminds the visual cortex of the brain that there is something similar here, and this suggest that there is a kind of unity in the design” (Yearwood, 2009). I have to admit that to me alignment meant left, right or center and that was about all there was to alignment. What I learned was that alignment can be off center but must have a purpose. Now when placing text and objects on my pages I learned that if I violate the principle of proximity I could easily confuse the reader so I need to ensure that my placement makes sense. This is done by placing like things close together and items that are different should not be placed together (Williams, nd, np). Being crafty and loving to play around with photography I felt somewhat comfortable with most of these concepts but was thrilled to get a more in-depth understanding. For example, I have always heard that some fonts are easier to read than others but our readings clearly explained that “serif text seems to be easier to read because the shapes of words made from serif letters are more recognizable by the trained visual cortex” (Yearwood, 2009, p11). Being a visual learner something as simple as fonts, a page with too much white space or a page that is too busy can result in confusion.
Another extremely important area that I gained additional knowledge in was regarding permissions. I have worked with my church on vacation bible school for the last several years. As a result I know that before we publish a child’s picture we must have permission. During this class I learned that I must check to see if there are school policies relating to newsletters, student names, photographs or other personal information (Lamb, 2005).
This newsletter assignment helped me not only in creating effective newsletters but also in understanding a little more about my own learning style (visual) and why we as learners have visual preferences. Working with the graphics was not too much of a stretch for me; however, the digital moving graphic was completely new. I would like to later learn how to incorporate that moving graphic into a digital newsletter completely instead of just as a link. I believe that the CRAP principles would also be beneficial to share with my colleagues. They could utilize these principles in assignments, handouts, fliers, newsletters, blogs, and wikis. Overall, the class and the newsletter assignment was something I can utilize in a classroom or an office environment.
Sources:
Lamb, A. (2005). Planning newsletters. Retrieved from http://eduscapes.com/sessions/publishing/planning.htm
Williams, Robin. (nd). The non-designers design book: Basic visual design principles. Retrieved from http://www.hu.mtu.edu/~njcarpen/hu3120/pdfs/Basic%20Visual%20Design%20Principles.pdf
Yearwood, Dr. J.(2009). Basic design principles. Lamar University.
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