5th Re/Design: High School Graduation Announcement

Introduction

My fifth and final redesign started off as something completely different than what it ended up being. My plan was to redesign an employee evaluation form and focus on alignment and usability. When I finished the forms, I realized that I had improved the alignment and usability—but the redesign was boring, and I couldn’t imagine spending at least five hundred words talking about it.

At the same time, I was designing a high school graduation announcement for the daughter of a coworker. I had no intention of submitting the announcement as a class project until I decided I didn’t want to submit the redesigned evaluation forms, and the announcement turned out pretty good after all.

Apparently, graduation announcements have changed a lot since I graduated from high school. Gone are the days of foil colors and fancy fonts. Today, kids want fun and personal announcements—announcements that show off their personalities. So, that was my task in designing this graduation announcement. Jennifer only had two requests: that I use the picture she provided and incorporated some scroll designs somewhere.

Design Principles

Contrast

Jennifer had a classmate take a variety of pictures. Of all the ones she had to choose from, Jennifer liked the black and white photo taken in front of an abandoned building here in Lubbock. I liked this photo because it provided ample room for text. Naturally the black and white photo would provide definite contrast for whatever font colors I chose to use and any additional colors I wanted to add. I didn’t want to use too many colors, so I used black and her favorite color: pink. I used the pink in her name and also in the scroll designs on each side to tie the whole announcement together. I contrasted the pink font with a black font for the graduation details.

The font was contrasted too by the types of fonts I chose. I went with Scriptina for Jennifer’s name and Miles for the graduation details. Jennifer loves Bradley Hand and asked if I could incorporate that font into the design, but I thought Bradley Hand took away from the overall effect of the design. I chose Miles because it was tall and precise, whereas Scriptina was long and flowing. Together, I thought these two fonts contrasted yet complimented each other very well. After Jennifer saw the design, she was glad I decided against Bradley Hand.

The last way I contrasted the text was by making one line of the details smaller than the rest of the text. I thought “…invites you to her graduation from…” was less important than her name and the rest of the details. It provided just the right amount of contrast between her name and everything else.

Repetition

Because the entire design is simple and really only consists of seven single elements, repetition was a little limited in this design. However, my major area of repetition was color. The pink and black fonts were also used for the colors of the scroll designs on the sides.

Alignment

I know, I know, I know—center-aligning text is a mistake often made by inexperienced designers. However, I chose to break the rules here and go ahead with a center alignment because it just looked better than a left alignment.  Jennifer’s pose lent itself well to the text being centered because both the photograph and text worked together for a balanced appearance.

Proximity

I actually designed this announcement with a 3/4 “ bleed all the way around. (What you’re seeing would be a finished product). So, proximity to edges was an important thing to consider. I didn’t want to throw her picture or the scroll designs too close to the original design because they would be cut off after printing. Grid lines were a useful tool for making sure I didn’t put anything too close to the edge.

I kept all the text on the left side of the announcement. Even though the text of Jennifer’s name is different from the text of the graduation details, the design still allows viewers to know that it all belongs together.

Perception

This will be printed as a 4”x8” announcement in a matte finish. The cost associated with this is already a little high for Jennifer and her family, so it will only be printed on one side. Therefore, all the information and impact had to happen all at the same time.

The announcement obviously presents Jennifer during her senior year, ready to graduate and enter the awaiting world. So, the focus is all on Jennifer. I wanted people to see her but to also get the information they needed. (Had I had the opportunity and the family had the money, I might have considered adding a map of the Eagle Athletic Center to the back of the announcement for those unfamiliar with the location.)

I was also fortunate to get a good, mature picture of Jennifer to use. I’ve known Jennifer for five years, and she has grown into a beautiful young woman. I thought this picture was an excellent way for Jennifer to show everyone how much she’s matured over the years.

Culture

As I mentioned before, graduation announcements have changed a lot over the years. Most traditional announcements consist of the metallic school colors and some sort of graphic pertaining to the school or mascot. But when Jennifer’s mom showed me some of the announcements she received last year, only one of them was traditional. The new norm is to go all out on a very personalized announcement, especially for students graduating from private high schools like Lubbock Christian.

Rhetoric

Well, the purpose of a graduation announcement is to let invitees know when and where a ceremony will take place for a particular person, and I accomplished that task with the text.

Conclusion

I think I’m most proud of this design because it’s actually being used. Jennifer and her mom were very pleased with the way it turned out, and I was happy that I could produce a piece they liked and that I could also use for my portfolio. I was able to implement Jennifer’s requests and also incorporate the basic design elements learned in class, which produced a lovely high school graduation announcement.