After completing both stakeholder profiles and direct mailers, it was easy to see the comparisons and contrasts between the two and how important stakeholders are for determining your message. The first stakeholder helped define the second because in my case, the two were dependent on each other and the second was an influence of the first. I used a student for the first and their parent for the second. I could see the perspective taken by both if they were to receive a direct mailer from OU. The importance of defining all possible stakeholders came to me when I had to create a message for a new audience. Since the last design, I chose to still have a similar format and concept, but my message and images changed. This was because I wanted to appeal to the second stakeholder by emphasizing academics and what I believe a parent would look for when determining if their child should go to OU. The images, as well as the words placed on both parts of the direct mailer, were made to reflect what I believe the second stakeholder would react to in a positive way.
Between Photoshop and InDesign, I’ve found similarities in layering. I’ve moved text and images forwards and backward, similar to how InDesign works. I’ve also found adding text to be a similar process, both sharing the ease of having a uniformed design through saving colors and styles. I am still finding myself to be more proficient with Photoshop because I feel more comfortable due to the lack of boxes around every element that’s placed in the document.
