Chapter 2, Exercises 1 and 3

#1) I gathered up a magazine, a mail-order pamphlet, and the uca parking permit pamphlet.

#3) a. The entire page of the document is designed in a triple column layout. Each column reads left to right to the bottom of the page and continues at the top of the next column in the middle of the page, and so on. I count 16 objects. All shapes but one are literal images of the product being offered, while the last one is a bold horizontal line in the upper portion of the middle column. The images are placed to the right of the columns but do not necessarily line up with the description of the image. The color of all objects are in variations of black on coral pamplet-esque paper with various shading of grey to allow an appearance of texture. The value of each object appears to be somewhat high because the black and grey imaging is set against a coral background; the contrast is good. However, the size of each image is not varied enough to allow emphasis to be given to a specific group of items. The size of the objects compared to the text surrounding it isn't significant enough to give proper emphasis to the objects. Their position in the document appears haphazard and lacking any real cohesion. Some objects appear to the left of the description while others will be to the right and slightly above or below their descriptions. It requires a significant amount of effort to find the specific image that goes with the descriptions.

b. The objects on the document that are of similar items (books) appear in the same size but others (like stickers) vary in size with one another, and because the entire document is printed in black and grey, all objects are similar in color. As stated above, the position of the objects seem random. Contrast in this document is poor between the objects; they all appear to be the same in value. The proximity of the objects to one another and related text is poor which makes navigating the document difficult and frustrating. The alignment visually is clean but lacks functionality. Lines are placed randomly and not to separate groups of objects or different themes. The order is arranged differently depending on what the item is which, again, causes a serious navigation issue. There is no form of enclosure other than the separation of text and photos by using columns; however, this is not a functional enclosure, it seems to be a default format that is carried out in every page of the document. I would enclose all similar items in separate sections of the page using bold borders. The most prominent items in the document (the books) would be placed at the top with larger text then sectioned into columns, and the objects that represent each item would be moved to the left. The less expensive items would be moved to the bottom with a similar layout as the items above.