Chapter eight lays out exactly what it takes to make a good personal package, in order to best sell yourself for whatever reason needed. Showing examples as visual aids helps guide readers into seeing how packages look when laid together. This way the reader can carefully pick out what looks good together and see the difference for themselves -- plus, the book containing good and bad examples is awesome.
Speaking of good and bad examples, I loved how in the same chapter on p. 141 it says, "Absence of the bad features of web design takes you a long way toward good web design." This is why it's so helpful for the text to contain do's as well as don'ts. I like thinking about design using the frame of mind that knowing what to do is even more powerful to use if paired with knowing what to avoid doing.
Later on in the book, the content is more exciting!! Despite being a writer who could care less about design, I really like fonts. My favorite font is Georgia -- which paired with Times of course is utter conflict because the two are so similar. However, I admire Georgia over the common standard because it's what readers are familiar with and expect, but with a little more oomph or added flare. It flows more. So when paired with a sans-serif font, the contrast between the two proves even more stark.
I've studied a little on my own, mostly for school projects, the concept of creating contrast between fonts in order to visually please readers. I love that there's chapters and examples of this in the book -- the wedding invitation on p. 149 shows how ugly two fonts which are too similar look when paired together on the same document. There is no visual separation on the invitation between the what's going on and the who's getting married -- all the type runs together.
In the blackboard reading by Klein and Shackleford, my favorite part of the reading is the concept of how graphics can often express what writing can't. Whether a picture or a table, it's easier to keep information organized by using fewer words.
I know that at the Post our graphics for items such as "If You Go" boxes help the paper to function more efficiently. A reader can glance from lede to graphic and gather all the information needed to attend the event written about.
I also found in the reading, p. 7, information on how to apply design principals outside of designing. This made the reading more applicable to my life because I seldom design layouts or pages outside of required coursework. The reading suggests using simple space-saving and clean-visual tips for resumes as well as academic papers also. When writing a paper for class I tend to think more about the content, effort and research poured into the assignment -- which I should -- than the design of the page. I've never stopped to ask if reading all that jumbled text leaves my professors with a headache. I know I wouldn't want to read 200 multiple-page papers all written in crammed size 12, Times New Roman font -- even if double-spaced.
Both the book and required reading posted to blackboard contained very useful tips ... all held within multiple well-designed pages.
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