In this blog we will talk about the infographic design of Amandyk, a blogger from Astana, and suggest him some ways to improve his design to effectively convey his message.
We have met with Amandyk to discuss his infographic design. We discussed what kind of message he wants to convey and information to add and changes should be made to achieve his infographic goals. Below you can see his first draft of his iconofraphy.
The main topic of his iconography is AIESEC.
AIESEC is the largest youth-run organization with 27,000 members in 127 countries that provides young people with leadership development, cross-cultural global internships, and volunteer exchange experiences across the globe. AIESEC focuses on empowering young people to make a positive impact on society.
Throughout my post I will use information from "Universal Principles of Design" (UPD) and "Writer/ Designer" ,"Visual Culture" books. Additionally, before each paragraph I will first introduce the definition of the terms I will use, so that you, my audience, can better comprehend my analysis. My analysis includes not only pointing out the positive and negative design elements but also suggestions I make to improve the design.
Note: In the middle you can see the list of benefits joining AIESEC gives, in the blog I will use ‘AIESEC pros’ or just ‘pros’ to refer to the list.
Analysis of Rhetorical Situation
Audience is the intended readersip for a text or in our case iconography ("Writer/Designer").
Purpose answers question "What is this text meant to acomplish?" ("Writer/Designer").
Context answers question "Where the text is published or distributed?" "How it is meant to be read?" "What sorrounds it?" ("Writer/Designer").
Looking at the goals of this organization the primary audience are the university students. Since Amandyk is the representative of Nazarbayev University (NU) AIESEC, particularly NU students are the primary target audience.
Assuming this infographic might be posted through the social media by NU AIESEC, the secondary audience are the university students of Astana.
The purpose if this poster is to attract the university students to join AIESEC organization. However, even though the poster would perfecly convey the message, its audience will have no idea where to approach/ contact to join AIESEC. So most important information , contacts, is missing.
The medium of the infographic is both print and digital. The infographic will hang as a poster at NU and students’ dormitories among other posters from student organization, so it shall be more eye catching, since the goal of all the student organization posters is to attract students to join. Additionally, the infographic will be posted at social media such as Instagram, so the format of the poster shall suit the one Instagram allows.
Analysis of Design Elements
Iconic Representation- "the use of pictorial images to improve the recognition and recall of signs and controls." ("UPD").
Gutenberg Diagram principle states that the eyes when looking at homogeneous information tend to look from left to right and top to bottom ("UPD").
Through the various kinds of form (visual and audial form) author tries to evoke certain emotion in the audience. ("Visual Culture")
Accorong to UPD, Okham’s Razor - the simplest design should be selected between functionally equivalent designs ("UPD").
Use of AIESEC logo iconic representation will attract students, who might already know about AIESEC, while for students who might not heard of AIESEC will make a firsthand association of AIESEC with its logo. The location of the logo being in the bottom might hinder the iconic representation effect on its audience. Since according to Gutenberg Diagram principle, the information is perceived from top to bottom, the audience may quit the infographic before they reach the logo.
Considering the form of the iconography through the color pallet, this blue color with green notes of clear sky demystifies the bright future. It gives a positive mood to its audience. On the other hand, just plain blue background seems very boring. Amandyk shall add some attractive elements of it such as some shapes, brush lines or fading images. In addition, the font for writing on the top looks childish. I believe the font should be changed to more sharp looking letters to give a sense of professionalism.
It seems like Okham’s Razor principle is perceived too directly by the author. Even though it seems to be the simplest design conveying the main message about AIESEC organization, this design poorly attracts audience to it and, therefore, does not perform its function effectively.
Picture Superiority Effect states that pictures are remembered better than words ("UPD").
Picture Superiority Effect where the main pros of AIESEC are given with the pictures and words so that the audience can easily remember the benefits of AIESEC.
Serial Position Effect- "a phenomenon of memory which argues that items presented at the beginning and end of a list are more likely to be recalled than items in the middle of a list" ("UPD").
If Amandyk would choose to leave the poster as it is, according to Serial Position Effect, only the points at the very top and very bottom of the list of AIESEC pros will be remembered by audience. So, it is better to place the items that you feel will most attract your audience in the top and bottom.
In terms of the AIESEC pros, at first, I did not understand the meaning of the items on the list, especially 6th. We decided to write additional text under each of these pros, to clarify the audience what particularly is meant by each pro. Another thing is that these acronyms used in this infographic might be known for people from AIESEC, but they are not common knowledge for your audience, students. I would avoid using the acronyms and use the common words instead.
Additional clarifications during our discussion, we decided to shorten the list to 5 items. Since the 3th and 5th turned out to belong to larger category of “Leadership skills”, which could be further elaborated in the text under the category.
Additional Suggestions:
Rule of Third- "a technique of composition in which a medium is divided into thirds, creating aesthetic positions for the primary elements of a design" ("UPD").
I think once the authors will add his elaborations under each category, the portrait format will no longer accommodate the infographic without making the letter to small to see. Therefore, I suggest turning your poster into album form. Additionally, Amandyk shall utilize the Rule of Third principle to efficiently place your AIESEC pros in your infographic.
UPD states that Uniform Connectedness is elements perceived to be more related when they are connected by uniform visual properties ("UPD").
In order to reinforce relations of pros to each other, Amandyk shall use Uniform Connectedness principle and place the pros in the similarly colored boxes.
Storytelling - "a method of creating imagery, emotions, and understanding of events through an interaction between a storyteller and an audience" ("UPD").
The Storytelling principle could be implemented, by using word “WE” with each pro Amandyk has listed in order to personalize the poster and to make AIESEC feel more like a welcoming family to the audience.
Importantly, Amandyk shall add contact informations like email, phone and social media accounts.
Below you can find my suggested layout for improvements.
In Sum...
For now, Amandyk’s iconography does not impose students to join AIESEC, but I hope that my analysis and suggestions will help him to better convey his message. I will post the revised version of his iconography later next week, so we can see how effective if at all my suggestions were.
References:
Book: "Visual Culture" by Richard Howells and Joaquim Negreiros , Chapters Iconology & Form (p.12 - 59)
Book: "Universal Principals of Design" by William Lidwell, Kritina Holden and Jill Butler (p. 18- 202).
Book: "Writer/Designer" by Cheryl E Ball. Chapter (p. 36-43).
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