When first paired up with fellow classmates and handed the assignment of University Class scavenger hunt, I thought it was like other assignments in my UC190 class: busy work and a waste of my time. My opinion did not change until I came across a question I did not know. Where is and what is the name of the garden in the shape of the state of Ohio? I came to find out that the garden the scavenger hunt was talking about was Wolfe Garden located directly behind Alden Library on college green. Upon personally visiting the garden, something about it drawled me in and I felt an instant connection with the art, quotes, and naturalistic setting that provided a seeming escape from the academic world of Ohio University. So when prompted to pick a place for this project I could not think of a better area that I would like to learn more about then Wolfe Garden. After all it was one of the first places I felt a personal relationship with my surroundings on this campus. Although I felt an instant connection it was not an easy task to represent the garden in a promotional piece and make decisions that not only drawled my audience in, but also represented the garden in the light I wanted, with the history I wanted. I feel I did this adequately by producing a series of flyers.
When deciding what kind of promotional piece that would adequately represent the history of Wolfe garden, but at the same time bring across a message of tranquility and escape, I could not think of anything else but a series of flyers. I choose to do flyers because it aloud me to organize my thoughts and ideas into two separate entities. The first flyer I used to get across the history about the garden. For instance the name and significance behind the things in the garden itself. The second flyer I used to get across the history Wolfe Garden has within Ohio University and why it was named a meaningful place in the 2009 book Ohio University: A Campus of Meaningful Places. Overall I believe the flyers represent Wolfe Garden in two separate lights but together it helps my audience understand its significance as a whole.
When making decisions on who and how I wanted to appeal to my audience I started thinking about myself and why I’m so attracted to Wolfe Garden. Like I stated before it provides a naturalistic escape from the academic world and the day in and day out routine of school. So I aimed my second promotional piece titled the “The Secret Garden” at students who are like myself. The first flyer or promotional piece titled “Wolfe Garden” I aimed more at people that have either already been to the garden or just have a curiosity about the history of certain places on Ohio University’s campus. These people include prospective students, current students, past students and of course teachers and faculty advisers.
The purpose of my series of flyers was to represent the history of Wolfe Garden and why it is a significant place on campus. To carry out this purpose I deployed multiple design techniques. The first one I used was the attraction of pictures ranging from the time it was first open to modern day. This solidified the fact that Wolfe Garden does, in fact, through a visual sense, hold a history behind it. Along with pictures I used large font titles with green color. I used the large abnormal fonts to obviously catch the audience’s attention and inform them on what they are reading about. As for the color, along with green being the dominant color that represents Ohio University, it is also a color often associated with nature, fertility, and life. These things are also associated with gardens. Finally I used short writings to fill the audience in on the history of Wolfe Garden. I felt it was very important to be brief and direct with what ever was written on the flyers as to not drag down the audience member with words. After all when one receives a flyer they expect it to be brief and strait forward. If I failed to do this I risk the possibility off the flyer ending up in the trash.
My piece falls short of this purpose somewhat in the artistic aspect. If I were more artistic or even capable with using design programs on the computer I would have been able to incorporate the details and purpose of my flyers in more visually pleasing and artistic manner. For example, since I used Microsoft Word to make the flyer I wasn’t able to place some of the text next to the picture I wanted. I eventually found that I could wrap the text and move it around, but it distorted the color and print so some of the text has different shades then the other text. Also I was unable to add a creative border of flowers or something visually pleasing to make the flyers look more like a finished product.
My main goal of the information and history I chose to share in my piece was to give the audience a brief history behind the garden and why this history makes this place a significant one at Ohio University. I did this by providing in my first flyer the basic history of the people and things that the garden is really centered around. This information included a short description of Thomas M. Wolfe and that he was valedictorian of the graduating class of 1919 from OU, along with how he returned as a Professor of Economics. Other information I choose to be part of the first flyer was things on the different significance of the things in the garden from pieces of artwork, quotes, and even the shape itself. The information in the first flyer helped me lay a foundation for the information being presented in the second flyer titled “The Secret Garden.” It did this by helping the audience understand why in 2009 Wolfe Garden was named a significant place on campus, and how the various history and the history of the things in the garden help shape it and make it what it is today. That being said I intentionally left out some history, for example some information on Thomas M. Wolfe because it didn’t hold direct significance to the garden or at least the features I was choosing to highlight in the garden. I also left out tedious details about the plants and quotes located across the garden because while it makes the garden visually pleasing it would have been to wordy to try incorporate all that information on series of two flyers, plus like I stated before if I became to lengthy with the amount of words used in the flyer I risked loosing my audiences attention.
Overall after my discovery of Wolfe Garden in early fall quarter I found myself not only visiting the area on a weekly base, but also sharing it with fellow students that I thought might enjoy and appreciate the naturalistic tranquility it provides. Even though I found it difficult to represent the garden in the light I wanted to, I feel I did acceptable job and I attracted not only the audience I wanted, but was able to share the history I wanted. I feel that while my connection with this garden is strong it will continue to grow as I discover and strive to learn more about it,, and what truly makes it a significant place on campus.
No comments:
Post a Comment