If you can spare a moment, I’d like you to do the following favor.
Go to this page.
There you will see six items listed. Pick one at random–roll a d6 or something–and visit that item. You’ll see a flyer. It will probably be a very bad flyer. That is well and good for now. Also, it may seem a bit obscure. That’s also okay for now.
What I would like you to come back and tell me is, what service you think the flyer may be advertising.
Having done that, I also welcome any comments or suggestions about the actual design of the flyers. And of course once you’ve said something about the first one (the one you picked at random) you’re welcome to say something about the others as well.
Thanks for any help anyone wants to offer here!
-Kris
ETA I created these documents in Word 2007, and saved them as “word 97-2003” files. Hopefully that preserved formatting. I have no way to tell at this very moment whether it worked right.
I picked “absurd.”
My guess is that it’s a service where you send someone your paper, and he/she critiques it for you and returns it with comments.
Did I win?
I picked “reference.” I assumed it was some sort of paper critiquing service. It looks like a flyer that would be pasted to a college bulletin board.
I picked “email.”
The text is OK, as it is written in an “email” like tone, but the layout is crap. Sorry to be so blunt.
No one is going to read that flyer because their is no form of composition, nothing to draw the viewers eye to it or keep it on the page. An appropriate font, such as Courier would help extend the metaphor. Add some inbox-like elements to the page to frame the text. If this is to be posted around a college campus, try to copy the look of the school’s email program, or use something generic, like Gmail as inspiration. You don’t need fancy graphics, or a lot of formatting, just some form of visual appeal. People will walk right by unless you can capture their attention for a moment. Then, they will read your text, which is brief and to the point.
Ok, after seeing all your flyers, I retract the suggestion about adding any graphics to “Email,” except maybe a box around the “body” to make it look like a text field. Its clear that all your flyers are text only, and if you “spam” the campus with these, you will get your message across.
“Straightforward” is too bland. Try this… print out the flyer, post it on a wall, and look at it from a distance, as your audience might. Does that first line, “Do Not,” really grab your attention like you thought it would? Probably not. You need a bolder font in a bigger size. also, try making each line of the flyer a different size, getting smaller as you go down the page.
“Zig Zag” has a good composition. Try printing it out too, just to see if you should tweak the font thickness.
“Edges” seems weak to me.
“Absurd” is great. Only change I would make is to align the “shadows” on the boxes so that they both look the same.
“Reference” could be better, same suggestions apply as for “Straightforward”.
Obviously, these are just my opinions, but good composition in an advertisment can make the difference between people ignoring it or noticing it. Good luck with your business!
Absurd:
Repetition can be effective in design, but usually you also need to have a contrary element to really make it effective. The boxes add nothing and take away everything. Do this:
You see, what I do is igradeyourpaper.com
You see, what I do is igradeyourpaper.com
You see, what I do is igradeyourpaper.com
You see, what I do is igradeyourpaper.com
etc…
Then, 8 lines from the bottom, bold “You see, what I do is” but keep on with the “You see, what I do is igradeyourpaper.com” until the last line…
…
You see, what I do is igradeyourpaper.com
You see, what I do is igradeyourpaper.com
You see, what I do is igradeyourpaper.com
…igradeyourpaper.com
…igradeyourpaper.com
…igradeyourpaper.com
…igradeyourpaper.com
…igradeyourpaper.com
Bonus points if you use a gradient for the first third of the columns.
ZigZag:
The vertical rhythym is all off. Try something like bold justifying the first bit and italicizing the second. Perhaps put first first bit a third down the page as well. Then put the website 2/3 the size of the second bit underneath the 2nd bit and aligned right.
That’s all I looked at for now, must go get some sleep.
ETA: Maybe in absurd, do what I did above, only write “You see, what I do is I edit your paper” throughout and have the last line be “iedityourpaper.com” in bold.