From Blah to Beautiful

All of us have messages that we want to share with others, and let’s face it. Most of us don’t want to stare at pages of plain text all day.

How do we go from busy, text filled pages to something that your average Joe might want to read? Great question!

First, I remember back to mom’s art lessons. (It’s amazing what you can learn as the child of an artist!) She asked, “When you look at the page, what do you see first?” The goal is to grab the reader’s eyes at the beginning and pull them through your page. Often that means top left zig-zagging to the bottom right, but that’s not always the case. To the right the orange numbered arrows direct the reader through the document in a creative way.

You’ve got your reader’s attention. Now, how do you keep it? One method is using visuals or info-graphics… without sacrificing readability.

Info-graphics are intuitive, memorable, and often leave your page with desirable white space (the artsy term for the part of your page not covered with stuff). The example above is easy to read and engaging. To the left, you’ll see a graphic on Harry Potter book sales. While it’s visually super cool, you probably aren’t going to take the time to read all the way through that busy page (unless you’re a huge fan).

Appropriate formats vary by setting and audience. While not all of us are info-graphic design rock stars, would your readers rather read the plain text below or the vibrant info-graphic? Which stirs more creativity in the would-be social writer? And, what creative ways can you make your content pop?

The Main Steps for a Successful Ebook info-graphic was from http://blog.widbook.com/infographic-steps-for-a-successful-ebook/.

5 Steps to Make Your Social Content Great was from http://www.graphs.net/201210/5-steps-to-create-great-social-content.html/5-steps-to-create-great-social-content.

Simple Markup: Easy on the Eyes

Recently I’ve been exploring some of the new features in Office 2013. While there doesn’t seem to be a whole lot of major upgrades to the Office Suite, there are a few changes that I really do like. One thing in particular is the Simple Markup enhancement to the Track Changes feature in Word.

If you’ve previously used Track Changes, you know that just opening your document can cause stress, let alone try to collaborate easily in it.

Here’s a snapshot of a document I recently worked on in Word 2010. And, boy is that red text seriously making my blood pressure rise!

Take a look at the same document in 2013. I can actually read it easily when I first open it. If I want to dig in deeper and look at what was changed, I can. The document still opens with Track Changes on but by default will display in the Simple Markup view. Changes that were previously made are indicated by the red bars on the left. If you click on a bar, you’ll still see the markup. This new format definitely makes it much easier on the eye.

This is just one of a variety of new features I’ve been toying with. If you’d be interested in taking a tour of what’s new in Office 2013, consider joining me in one of my upcoming webinars, and I’ll show you a whole lot more!

The Cloud is Rolling In

I can hear the thunder. Adobe Creative Cloud is almost here! This fall we will be updating from Adobe CS6 to the most current CC (Creative Cloud). Aside from getting the most updated version of Creative Suite, SMU machines also get a host of other goodies, like Muse, After Effects, and Premier Pro.

While all of us designers eagerly anticipate all the new tools that will come along with the update later this fall, we’ve put together our second Adobe Tech Day on September 25 from 9 a.m. – 12 p.m. in the Hughes Trigg Forum. Continue reading The Cloud is Rolling In

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