Thursday, February 12, 2009

In The Non-Designer's Design Book, Robin Williams makes the case for attractive and exciting, in advertising, as opposed to bland and boring. Obviously, effective advertising is an essential component for any successful business. I appreciate the fact that Williams wrote this book for people who need to use advertising strategies on a daily basis, but who may not know the first thing about graphic design or marketing technique (or even good taste!). I was impressed at her "nuts and bolts" approach, and her practical advice concerning the real-life application of design principles. 
I decided to do a little web-searching to find other design "tutorials" and see how they measure up. There seem to be some excellent online resources for this type of thing, but there are also some that fall short. My favorite is turnkeyflyers.com. I initially found this youtube video, in which the argument is made that creating an exciting and attractive flyer for real estate purposes should be a priority. If your flyer is bland, they say, it will have a negative affect on your business. True enough. Here's the video:

 


My initial response to this video was, "wow, this is boring and bland," but I assumed their area of expertise is in making exciting flyers, not thrilling videos. So I decided to click on the link to the actual website for TurnKeyFlyers. This is what I found:






Not only is this website boring and bland, it also violates several of the basic design principles in Williams' book. I was especially amused at the irony of their preaching versus their practice. TurnKeyFlyers might consider revamping their website, before making heady claims about "presentation."
Posted by at

3 comments:

  1. Shawon RodgerFebruary 12, 2009 at 11:31 AM

    TurnKeyFlyer! Whod'a thunk it? I agree completely about the presentation- it's such a silly, irrefutably bland landing page that makes me think of a political party (red, white and blue much?). For a website that boasts its knowledge of presentation, they drop the ball.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Burtick2583February 12, 2009 at 11:35 AM

    It's a nice example of what not to do in presentations, which we don't get enough of. I liked what you said about it and agree that if something's going to be presented, the principles should be what we go on.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Karen SpringsteenFebruary 16, 2009 at 11:17 AM

    The issue of audience here is interesting to me too. I noticed that the video claims something to the effect of "no graphics skills needed." So the audience is similar to Williams'. Both design texts are aimed at the "visual novice." But note the difference in how that audience is cast. And note the difference in the degree of credibility the audience will afford the author. It is the marriage of form and content in Williams' book that makes it so much more persuasive. That's my quick rhetorical analysis anyway.

    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)