For this design project, I was asked to create direct mailers using Adobe Photoshop. First I was asked to create a front and back for a specific stakeholder, then I was asked to create a second front and back for another stakeholder. Direct mailers are essentially postcards that focus on graphic elements to engage the audience they’re being sent to. When I read the project description and worked on the first drafts I was excited to practice my design skills with Photoshop and really focus on incorporating text. This is an example of what the front of one of my drafts looked like that I believe to be as my “roughest” copy that needed the most work. 
When looking back at this, the text is really hard to read against the image because of the contrast, and the logo is almost un-seeable. After applying feedback from Professor Croom this is what I came up with. 
I incorporated the logo in the text for a cool play on words, and I added a black box to the back of the text at the bottom so the text is readable. Also, I added a space that would be utilized as the space for the mailing address because I had forgotten the first time that this element is one of the most important for a direct mailer.Overall, I’m really satisfied with how all of my final direct mailers came out because I never thought to utilize the opacity on boxes when overlaying text. I chose to build on my original designs because I still enjoy the concept that I came up with and the feedback I got really helped me learned how to improve on them. I’m also glad that we were initially provided images and logos because it took the burden off having to find a design that worked with the message that the client (OU Recruitment Services, in this case) wanted. For someone that doesn’t think of themselves as having much creativity, like myself, being provided design elements that I could easily place and move into a Photoshop document, made it less stressful to play around with different images.
I think that this was my reaction to this design process because I have been confident in my design skills in Photoshop due to the practice that I’ve gotten upon completing the direct mailers. Thinking about elements like contrast and opacity were elements that I didn’t think I would utilize because I didn’t think I would be confident in my design skills but I now realize it’s more common and needs to be assessed when designing something. Throughout this lesson, I’ve been positive and instead of getting frustrated, I’ve stepped back and looked at how I can improve or approach something a different way, which I think contributed to how I’ve done on my direct mailers.
