Hello all,
For this next class project, I will be designing two handouts for my school, the University of Oklahoma's, Recruitment Office. Handouts are important because they provide a little bit more in depth information on an organization and they can be customized for different audiences. These are also just a good way to highlight important information or statistics that you feel are necessary or helpful for your audience to know.
Just like designing business cards and letterheads, you need to do your research before designing a handout. Check out my Diamond K Leather Co. Series for a more in depth look on the research I did for the business card, letterhead and envelope. For this assignment, started with thinking about who the target audience is. One would obviously be students, but the more specific you can be, the better you'll be able to attract and relate to a group. For example, my first stakeholder that I am focusing on is transfer students will at least 3.0 GPAs. There are a lot of opportunities for transfer scholarships at OU as well as a number of services for transfer students. Some of the questions I asked myself when doing research is what are the common questions transfer students have? What are they looking for in a university? What may detract them from applying to OU? What makes this university a better opportunity than others for these students?
Another thing to do is review design elements before you begin designing. This will allow you to focus on what you want to convey with the handout and visualize the best strategies to accomplish that. Feel free to review my Ten Design Elements Everyone Should Know. I frequently go back to this page to review.