Reflection – Direct Mailer

For this design project we were asked to design a direct mailer for OU’s recruitment services. We got to choose two specific audiences within the recruitment services public and target each direct mailer towards one of them. We defined these stakeholders and analyzed them through various tools and research. This design project was to only be created in Photoshop because the last one was created in InDesign.

I was kinda hesitant to begin this one because I wanted to come up with something original but I was worried about using photoshop after spending so much time on the last project using InDesign. I also wanted to create a unique design but knew that since I had seen so much of OU’s previous material it sends out that it would be hard to do something that didn’t look like what they already use.

I think I felt that way because OU graphics seem so professional and I didn’t want my pieces to look very amateur. I realized quickly that the more I played around with the design the more comfortable I felt with my work and using the tools we have.

I definitely am feeling more confident and I really enjoy creating these pieces and I also think I;m getting to the point where I can work more quickly. Each time I do something on Photoshop I discover new ways to do something which is really helpful. I also am able to now use it for work in other classes or extracurricular stuff as well! Which is pretty exciting.

I think InDesign is a little more clearcut and simple to use. It’s not as complex which I like, but on the other hand with Photoshop being more complex, it is able to do more detailed work that InDesign cannot fully do. I like them both a lot for different reasons I think, it just depends what exactly I am doing.

I really liked my final designs and felt really good about them so I don’t think there’s anything specific I would have done differently except maybe go in and get really detailed with it but I think I was able to learn a lot from this project especially.