This week we continued working on our Newsletters. I chose to work with Nike thinking it would be easy, I mean how could working with one of the largest athletic brands be hard? I was wrong. I found creating a layout that fit all content was much more difficult than expected. And once I had done that, I actually had to find the stories to fit into that layout. Granted, I understood what a newsletter was before beginning this, but didn’t realize just how hard it is to create one. I definitely struggled with the creative aspects of it and still am not 100% pleased. Nike is a clean cut brand that doesn’t tie in a lot of colors or symbols so creating something interesting made it difficult. In this situation, I think less is more.
My target audience was people who already hold a position in Nike. I chose to create for employees because I felt it was slightly different than creating for buyers. This allowed me to use stories that would compliment employees and the overall brand instead of trying to sell a product. If I was trying to sell Nike, I would have used more images and colors to attract viewers. But because it was employees, I used photos the would drive the message home, even if it wasn’t pretty.
At the end of it all, I was proud of myself for pushing through the assignment and completing this newsletter (at times it felt like that wouldn’t happen). But I still wish there was more I could do. I feel as though the content is a little too smushed and I struggled to put elements of the newsletter in (subheads, quotes, etc.). I also think I don’t completely understand how to use continuing headlines or jump pages. When looking at design though, I tried to make the pages interesting to look at, but it ultimately just came down to fitting it all in and avoiding white space. I am happy with the project and am much more comfortable in InDesign, but I don’t love my finished product. I think I should leave newsletter layouts to the professionals! However, I am really glad I dabbled in this and definitely took this as a learning experience. I hope one day I am able to take on this task again and create something I find more appealing!
