As this semester comes to a close, I wanted to reflect on what I learned in my PR design course. Throughout the semester, I got to play with a few softwares and tools that PR practitioners can use to create publications. First off, PR design is a medium in which we create publications targeted towards specific audiences to achieve a specific goal. There are many aspects of PR design. However, the first I will discuss are the tools used to create these publications.
Before you create anything, you must research your target audience. A great tool to do this is by creating a segmenting stakeholder matrix. In class, we created these for two target audiences to launch a campaign for OU admissions and recruitment. This tool was extremely beneficial because it provides information on what your audience wants to hear and how they want to receive the information. This is a tool you must use before you design anything.
The second tool is the multitude of computer programs that allows to create these publications. These are Adobe InDesign, Photoshop, and Illustrator. Over the semester, I got very familiar with these programs. They allowed me to create a business card, letterhead, envelope, social media posts, and newsletter. These tools give you a blank slate and creative freedom for designing your publications. It was fun to use on these platforms and become more familiar with them.
These platforms are used for designing different things. For example, Photoshop is used for raster graphics or pixel by pixel design. It's good for retouching and image editing. I created social media posts and cover photos on this platform. InDesign is good for document design and desktop publishing. I used InDesign to create my final project, a six page newsletter about Amazon. Illustrator is used for vector graphics, which are used in all forms of stationary and websites because they're crisp no matter the size. This platform is best used for logos.
My biggest recommendation for someone starting to learn how to use the programs is to just play around on them. As someone who learns from doing something rather than watching a tutorial, I found I learned quicker when I used each tool to familiarize myself with them. If you simply go into InDesign and create a generic blank document, you can play around with each tool.
As I conclude this reflection, I want to stress the importance of knowing your audience before you start a design. You want to make sure your design communicates your brand while giving your audience what they want. I quickly learned that what looks good to me on a design may not be effective for the audience I'm trying to target. You must think about the font, font size, colors used, and information included. While a font looks good to me, it may be too small or hard to read for a target audience of older age. For each part of a design, you must have a reasoning behind it.
I really enjoyed this course and it will be very beneficial in the future! I will keep learning and practicing because there is always room for improvement in design.
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