Mariah march

I thought that identifying my primary stakeholder was pretty easy. I wanted to focus on getting women into the NFL fan bases. I know that some NFL teams have a larger female fan base, but I also have researched that women’s NFL involvement is dwindling. That’s due to several factors, but I thought that would be a good target to focus on since I am a female NFL fan.
The segmenting worksheet was a bit confusing at first, but I think I managed to work it out correctly.
This week we started working with Photoshop and I have to say that I’m a bigger fan of InDesign. The more I practice with Photoshop, I feel like I will get more comfortable using it, as I did with InDesign. As of now I’m having a difficult time adding images without everything getting jumbled. So far my direct mailers are kind of boring.

Overall, it was not a bad week!

Here’s an example of my prospective student mailer. The side with the picture is the front and the words are the back. I found inspiration from a lot of my law school mailers, but it didn’t turn out as planned. Hopefully my Photoshop skills get better so it’s not so plain.

My target stakeholder for the NFL would be women spectators because women have the potential to grow NFL viewership by the increasing numbers of NFL participation. Many women are die-hard fans and several teams in the league have seen an increase in their women fan base. My target stakeholder’s persona is:

Active North American women between 22-28 (average age 24), in populous cities, interested in sports with an average income of $55,000.

So this week we were just working on finishing our business card and letterhead designs. I actually completely changed my business card idea. I kept playing with the field background, but it was just so hard to read. So I switched the background to anther football aspect, and what’s more football than an actual football? Nothing! I really liked my design and would possibly use this in the future. I feel like it definitely had the professionalism of a legal NFL representative while still incorporating aspects of the sport in the card.

My letterhead was kind of boring. I added some red font and different typographic, but it’s hard to find things for the letterhead without it looking like an invitation to a kid’s birthday party. Overall, I think this week was a lot better for me using tools like Indesign and getting more creative with my organization.

Some advice I would give to future pubbers is don’t be afraid of Indesign because it’s not that bad. You just have to be patient and learn the ropes!

So this week e worked on the letterhead design for our organization. At first, I was super excited and then I realized how boring the NFL logo can be, so I felt pretty limited in my letterhead design as you can see below. I have no idea how to spice it up. I thought the stars were kind of cool, but then I wasn’t sure if the stars made this look a birthday invitation. I tried to play around with a football earlier in the process but then that looked really weird. I feel like there are only so many ways to play with colors, especially since it’s supposed to be a letter. I’m a little lost on the letterhead design. I don’t want it to look too childlike but I also don’t want it to be too boring.

Indesign Letterhead

This week I was asked to identify an organization and their logo, preferably somewhere that I’d be interested in working for after I graduate. I’m actually going to law school, but I plan to work for the NFL, so that was my choice! The logo was super easy to locate and there are tons of NFL logos to choose from but I chose the current traditional logo. I had fun with the Pinterest boards because I spend a significant time on Pinterest for fashion and workout things, but that is not the point! I had so much fun with that part and I learned a lot about the organization I chose and the competitor, the NBA. The only assignment I was not fond of was the business card one, but again, it was because I had never tried to create a business card on InDesign before. Again, once I sat down and played with it, I had a lot of fun. I have so many directions I want to take this card. I honestly think if I stop psyching myself out, I’ll enjoy the creative assignments a lot more. This business card design is just one of the many ideas I had!

I might change the font color because it kinds meshes too much in the background. I also couldn’t figure out a good place to put the logo.

Images need detail (close up sweat, veins, muscles, beat up padding etc.)
Need to be vivid but not too all over the place.
Need to be image driven
Connotations ( tough, passionate, dedication, caring, integrity)
Images mean business, mean dedication and hard work, will get the job done

The NFL differs from the NBA in the way that the NBA is a lot more involved in the community. The NBA has a program, called NBA Cares, which centers around raising awareness to social issues as well as building a better community. The NFL does not have a program that caters to the community specifically. There is also more fan involvement withing the NBA. Fans can si court side and be featured on the kiss cam. Children can also be floor wipers in the NBA. There is more entertainment when it comes to gmes. For example, the NBA has some sort of halftime entertainment between halves.
Thee NFL should strive to be more fan oriented. The NFL mostly focuses on the game and the players. The NBA has a more fan oriented feel and a lot more fan interaction. The NFL should also add more community to the messages it send to its audiences versus just focusing on players.

The NFL values respect, integrity, resiliency and responsibility to its teams as well as the community. Along with those values are messages of inclusivity, and valuing what makes each individual fan and player different. The NFL strives to bring communities together and uphold quality character for its audiences.The NFL vows to take responsibilit for their actions and make the correct call when it is crunch time. The NFL aims to provide fans and partners with entertainment that is consistent with their core values. The main competitors of the NFL are the NBA and MLB, but for assignments I have been more focused on the NBA as the main competitor of the NFL.

This week I was asked to play some typography games, find pictures that were examples of some of the concepts we learned this week, do a newspaper markup and do my first graphic design typesetting assignment. I actually had fun with every assignment, although I was most nervous abut typesetting. I have this irrational fear of graphic design and anything that dives in too much with computers. I even tried to learn how to code and all of the unknown stuff just freaks me out. It’s probably because I’m naturally good at a lot things and I hate being uncertain with anything, but that’s totally off topic! I put off the type setting assignment until the last day because I didn’t want to deal with it or feel overwhelmed. Luckily there was a video, that I definitely should’ve watched on Monday but me being me, I’m over dramatic and didn’t. After I watched it, I felt a bit more confident because it didn’t seem impossible to do. After I played around with it, I found it more fun. My friends were also able to give me some InDesign tips. Hopefully my anxiety toward the unknown subsides soon!

The design blitz assignment was very helpful because it really made me think about how important it is for design elements to be effective to convey the intended message. The five elements I provided examples for are: color, typography, metaphors/symbols, balance and the F3, form/function and message.

Color:

I thought the background on this flier was a good use of color. Because it’s publicizing the upcoming career fair I thought that the orange. red and yellow ombre was a good choice. Those colors are energizing and bright, just like the spring season! It’s a great use of color to catch the eye and get the audience energized by the upcoming event.

Typography:

This is one of the signs we use at my job. I thought this was a good use of typography because there are mostly classic fonts being used here. The 1-3 different typefaces rule is also being used here. The only typeface that isn’t classic is the “shirts” typeface, but that one being shown differently is eye catching.

Metaphor/Symbol:

This is also the main symbol my job uses. The symbol is for the behind the scenes screen printing process. Every package that comes into the office has this symbol. This symbol is on signs and employee shirts as well. This is a good use of the symbol because whenever this symbol is seen, most people will know what brand that symbol is associated with.

Balance:

This is supposed to be focused on the “Boomer Sooner” sign. This sign is represents symmetrical balance because the space being used by the words and symbols is about equal.

Form/Function/Message:

This flier does a great job with presentation, conveying a powerful message about being careful about posting on social media because it could effect you in the future.