When I was a kid watching cartoons on Saturday mornings there were a series of ads call The More You Know. They encouraged kids to get involved with their education. Well, in many ways this week’s project is much the same for me.
My topic for this semester is wrapped around the change in our school district from a junior high model to middle schools. It’s a big change for us. Big enough to have people picking sides. With that in mind, I tried to create a visual collage poster that could speak to parents inviting them to learn more about how middle schools can help their student succeed.
It started with the little children. (Doesn’t it always?) They are the beginning and therefore placed at the top of the overall design. There are four pictures, a blend of boys and girls, different racial groups to be inclusive of as much diversity as possible. The pictures are selected to show four different aspects of modern education in the elementary schools. There is math and writing (traditional education), but also work on computers/technology and the arts (aspects of the dedication to STEM and the Arts in our district (you can just see the displays in the background behind the two boys in the second image).
The four images are showcased in a film strip as a nod to how we often take so many pictures of our children when they are young. It’s also a subtle subtext message of the development process by alluding to the start of the photographic process – we took pictures and they were on film before being fully developed into photographs.
Below that is the finished full photo of the graduates in their caps and gowns. I selected this image because it delivers a powerful punch. We all want to see our children succeed in school. Graduation is the epitome of that success.
The treatment of the text is planned as well. Notice the type face starts smaller at the top of each copy line and the font size grows larger. It forms a type of pyramid structure, with the base being located where the most important information is, as well as the call to action. The message “To get them from here, to here, there must be something in the middle” refers to the educational process. I chose the word middle deliberately to allude to middle schools. Notice that the corner of the graduate picture points directly at the word middle. After all, middle school is the point of this piece.
Directly below that is the call to action “Learn more about how middle schools in the South Kitsap School District can help your student succeed.” I said student rather than child because by the time they are out of elementary we stop referring to them as children when we talk with parents. Below the call to action is the URL to take them to the page on the district website that has information on how middle schools are different as a model and how they specifically support the developmental needs of students in the 6th to 8th grade age groups.
In the bottom left corner is the South Kitsap School District logo to make it easily identifiable that this piece relates to our district. Across the bottom are the image credits and required attribution requested. Photos were used with permission from the South Kitsap School District, and the flim strip cell image by Nevit Dilmen was used under Creative Commons License https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Film_strip.svg
THE PROCESS
To create the design in Photoshop I used multiple layers. Images had to be resized from the originals (which I quickly found needed to be done in their own separate files before being copied and pasted into a layer or else it changed the entire piece of work). This also happened to be the biggest challenge for me because not being familiar with Photoshop, I was use to dragging and stretching images as needed like you do in Windows programs. The film strip came in individual boxes designed to be layered over the top of photos so there was no need to multiply the image to get that effect. I rotated the graduation photo using image/image rotation prior to pasting it into the layer. Both stroke and drop shadow effects were applied to the graduation photo using Layer/Layer Style/Stroke and Drop shadow. For the school district logo, I had to take the file and erase the background of the image before being able to apply it.
Overall I found Photoshop incredibly frustrating to work with. There were times when all I wanted to do was edit a piece of text and it would insert new layers when I didn’t want them. I also had to spend a lot of time in the resizing of photos. It might be because I’ve used Windows products for 20 years, or possibly because this is my first real experience trying to create something using Photoshop. Either way I found myself muttering that I could have done the project in a 10th of the time in Microsoft Publisher. But then learning is a process and not always an easy one.
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I am very impressed by your collage! The design is straightforward and overall the elements blend really well together. I like the film roll element and I think it serves your collage well, it allows you to have multiple images without being overwhelming. The drop shadow effect blends nicely with your photo and tilting the main image gives the collage a balanced offset.
I thought your collage already had a professional look and would only need minor improvements. Experiment with slightly tilting the film roll to counter balance the large image on the bottom. Try giving a drop shadow to the film roll and see if that further adds a cohesive theme to your collage.
I had difficulty seeing any of the text beyond the first two lines, and some of the text was completely unreadable. I understand that you are wanting your audience to go to a particular article/page but it is very long website and since it cannot be easily copied and pasted from your picture, it is not easy to use. I would also like to see a little more information about what happens in the middle or what makes that school district special on your collage.
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Hi Theresa,
Wow, it took me a double take to realize your collage was not a professional poster. I see ones similar all over my school. Thematically, I really like the simple and clear message. The film strip across the top is visually appealing and really sets your story out with clarity. From a nitpicky old fart, it looks like the clips aren’t quite lined up. However, if that was intentional maybe a bit more crookedness might add more character to the messiness of getting them through the process of growing up. Maybe the “There has to be something in the middle” text would be more powerful if it was moved up between the film clip and graduation so it was actually in the middle? Maybe a third picture- rule of 3- of the folks/facilities in the middle schools who try to do the magic with hormone riddled goofballs- I teach high school and could NEVER EVER EVER teach middle schoolers. God bless those brave souls that do
Looking at the photoshop portion, I also really like the shadow border around the graduation picture. I can’t quite put my finger on it, but the graduation picture looks like it could benefit from some brightness/contrast experimentation. It is a I know it looks a bit better when I see it- which I find very frustrating since I have no sense of color to really know what direction to start fiddling, I just fiddle and pray I find something that looks better. Lastly maybe a little color in background instead of the plain white.
Cheers rob
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Theresa,
A very nice draft collage. I think your message comes through nice and clear, and you present it with good visuals. The design is very simple and I like the variety of photos that you have at the top of the collage. The effects that you added from Photoshop are strong, as they seem to blend in overall with the rest of your design.
The film strip seems to get off path at some points. If you can get that to be one, consistent line, it will really help that section of the design. On the bottom photo, I would suggest making it a little smaller or moving it up so the text isn’t running over it.
One other suggestion I have is to add some sort of background effect. The design is neat and simple, but adding a background effect (as light as it may be) will help bring the design forward. Right now, the white background does not add much to it.
– Robert
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In Review: Giving it the Once Over
So now that I’ve gotten some feedback from classmates, my instructor, my family and my work associates, I can see that there are definitely some areas worth improving. The basic bones are strong, we just need to get this sucker on a workout routine and pump it up a little.
Several people commented on the starkness of the background being all white. I agree that perhaps the big photo would pop more with a little texture, color or an image (very light on the opacity) screened in behind the entire design to bring it together even more (via Gestalt principal of spacing images closer together and repetition of images to create cohesiveness). Some options might be a very light, extra large version of the film strip. Another could be the high school colors or the SK from the high school screened into the background or the image of the Port Orchard waterfront on the Puget Sound that the district uses. All would still link back to the district in a very familiar way that would help people clearly identify on site that these are cohesive with the branding and image creation the district has already worked to create and keep unified.
As for amping up the message of the “middle”, the review of Gestalt may be really consider the opportunity for negative space. Perhaps nothing at all might speak more clearly than adding more. For example, instead of tilting the graduation picture, I could run it straight across creating three layers of space in gradually bigger sections. That middle layer could be just blank and I could move the copy “to here” down onto the large photo itself, changing the color to white to make it stand out. The impact would be to create an illusion of emptiness needing to be filled.
I also need to clean up the film strip, making sure all those single cells aligned correctly and that the photos inside are cropped enough to fit within the designated space without “spilling” over. I will also experiment a little with the filters for the photo to see if I can refine the picture a bit more.
Honestly I spent so much time just trying to navigate and use the tools in Photoshop just to do simple operations like resizing photos that I think we could have used a tutorial in that aspect. It’s great when the materials are given to you to filter and fiddle with, but when you are taking raw images of your own it’s another of level of difficulty. I’m hoping this time to be familiar enough that putting another layer into the background and sizing it correctly won’t cause significant other issues with the material already there.
I also plan to integrate a little more information into the written portion of the final draft for this project. I was really concerned about going over word count and so may have edited out vital details that needed to be included (an unfortunate consequence of being use to writing book length works).
Finally, thank you to those who were kind enough to make your comments in a timely fashion so I could get my homework done. It’s really appreciated when we’re all on deadlines! You had some excellent suggestions and feedback.
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Hello Theresa!
What a comprehensive collage. Your experience in the publishing world is quite apparent. Thank you for walking through your choices of each of the design elements. Some of the selections at first simply made an impression (because I scrolled to the bottom of the page to see the pic before reading about it) but after reading your description I could see how you had chosen the pieces with intention and so why they had impact. My two small suggestions would be to continue to play with font size and placement so the bottom lines of text can ‘breathe’ a little more and to consider whether you also want to let the readers know they can also leave their feedback on the district page (if that is possible) so that the conversation can be two ways since the issue is heated. Also, I like the phrase ‘learn how’ as it ties in to education.
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