- Makers: Carlos Rodriguez Rosa and Jordan Guido
- Genre: Newsletter Template
- Level: Graduate
- Program: Composition, Rhetoric, and Digital Media
- Course: WRIT 5800: Editing, Layout, and Design
- Instructor: Dr. Eric Mason
- Semester Created: Winter 2020
Description:
This document is a multi-page template for the NSU Writing and Communication Center’s (WCC) monthly newsletter. The purpose of the newsletter is to inform the members of the WCC community of important updates, messages, events, and highlights for a given month. Graduate Assistant Coordinators, Carlos Rodriguez Rosa, and Jordan Guido worked throughout the 2019-2020 academic year to expand the newsletter’s focus, purpose, and design. In particular, they sought to find a way to create standards to follow for every issue to both save time and create a sense of uniformity.
The document was created through Adobe InDesign, keeping in mind the history of the document and its potential future. Special consideration was given to the use of color, as Nova Southeastern University has a set of guidelines for individuals to follow when creating any kind of material representing the university. As there were 20 colors to choose from, this template focused on the use of three colors (Sunrise Gold, Palm Green, and Light Blue) that were pleasing to the eye. While the WCC requires the use of the “Montserrat” font, the creators of this document decided to experiment with the look and feel of the template when using different fonts. In this way, the template makes use of “Lato” font for titles and “Minion Pro” for body text. The document makes use of a 11 font size for all the body, a 49 font size for the overall title, a 35 font size for the headline on page one, and a font size of 23 for section headings.
Reflection:
Our main concern when creating this template was establishing a sense of uniformity while still staying true to the essence of what the newsletter has been during the 2019-2020 academic year. We focused mostly on creating design rules, like the left-aligning font and the block-like orientation.The newsletter’s audience has grown to expect a core value of the month, community updates, and a consultant highlight. We didn’t want to stray from those sections, though we did want to expand on that foundation. In particular, we wanted to emphasize on the “news” aspect of our work, as seen with the addition of a “headline” section in which we hope to choose a prominent event in the month to highlight. All we’ve ever wanted to do with the newsletter is foster community through highlighting important work, but we also acknowledge the importance of interaction. Because of this, we added an “Ask a GAC” section which functions as an advice column so consultants can interact with GACs further. Taking the interaction even further, we’ve also added a word search section which features vocabulary used commonly within the WCC’s daily practices.
The design process that this template entailed taught us how important design is for a document. For a long time, we focused on the content of the newsletter, trying to make every word and section perfect. But through this project, we learned that sometimes words cannot stand on their own. The use of color, font size and type, and placement of images are just as–if not more–important than the written words themselves. It’s what draws the reader in, what makes the information meaningful. In that way, this project was also very close to us, as its something we will use in our work moving forward. While learning how to use InDesign for the purposes of this document was difficult, we feel like the results are worth it. It is by no means perfect, but it’s a place to start with confidence.
