Calendar
For this assignment we were required to create a calendar that would be given away as part of a Humane Society’s annual fundraising drive. As an animal lover and someone who has adopted pets from shelters, I tried to think of how this calendar would be beneficial to the Humane Society and to the people receiving it.
This is a giveaway calendar so it needed to be appealing but at the same time financially reasonable for a non-profit like the Humane Society to create. Because of this, I printed it in black and white. The cost would have been at least two times more to print in color. Even in black and white, I was still able to create a visually appealing and useful calendar.
I decided to use the months October, November and December for the assignment because, first of all, they’re the three months coming up and secondly, because there are major holidays in each. I thought it would be a cute idea to incorporate those holidays in the design for each month. I was able to find pictures of pets dressed up for the corresponding holiday. I also used corresponding holiday clip art around the month title and the fun fact. Finally, the fun fact on each page was about an animal that is thought of for the specific holiday; bats for Halloween, turkeys for Thanksgiving and reindeer for Christmas.
For the coupons, I decided to create two national coupons and one local coupon. I made the border around them 3pt and dashed (3 and 2). I added a clip art pair of scissors to each one so that it would look like what you see in actual coupon books as well as adding more detail. For the wording in each coupon I used 14 pt Times New Roman so that it would look professional as well as readable. The only time I veered from this was for the name of the store “Fred’s Fish House” and the name of the company “Three Dog Bakery” since those are the hypothetical logos for their stores. I also added barcodes to the two national coupons for additional detail. The month was put in 40 pt Snap ITC so that it would stand out and look fun. I added the words “Humane Society of Charleston” in the same font but in 14 pt. Even though the assignment didn’t say to put the name of the Humane Society, I felt it was necessary since they are, ultimately, who is being advertised.
As far as the general layout is concerned, I decided to basically make the calendar in two columns so that visually everything would seem to have its own place on the page and not look cluttered or too busy.
On the left side I created the calendar and put it in the middle of the page so I would have room at the top for the month and the bottom for the fun fact. Also, having it in the middle of the page makes it the most important item, visually, on that side of the page. On the right side I placed the animal picture at the top. I placed it at the top because, on this side, the picture stands out more than the mostly empty coupons. Even though I was working with two columns, I wanted them to be weighted in a different way so that the page seemed more interesting. Underneath the picture, I created the coupons. I made the coupons larger than one might expect for two reasons. First of all, these advertisers are hypothetically paying for space and the goal of the Humane Society is to make money. Secondly, for the consumer, I wanted them to be easy to cut out and easy to keep up with.
I think my design appeals to the intended audience because it is fun to look at and functional. The calendar itself is large enough to add important dates and appointments to it, the fun facts would be fun for a family to read every month and finally, the coupons are relevant to pet owner’s needs.
Overall, this calendar suits the needs of both the Humane Society and the people receiving it. I think, for a giveaway, it is very cute and functional and done in a way that people would enjoy using it.