Project 2: Event Ad

Description: A full bleed event ad to promote a charity event using only Microsoft Word and a scanner.

Process (Programs, Tools, Skills): I scanned a Mother’s Day card I received from one of my children. I really liked the flower images and wanted to incorporate them into my design. I used Word Publishing Layout to crop the flowers from my original scanned images. There were a few flower types that were positioned on the card so as to be incomplete. To create a complete flower with these images I duplicated them, then rotated one of the copies to fit perfectly over another. Then I grouped that image. Next I removed the backgrounds of each of the different kinds of flowers I wanted to use with the Remove Background tool under the Format Pictures tab. I wanted a “grassy”effect, so I added a rectangle shape and colored it a complimentary shade of green on the bottom third of the page. Next  I used the Line and Scribble tools in the Lines and Connectors tab under the Shapes tool to add white lines to offset the green to mimic grass. I made these lines random thicknesses, and grouped several at a time to be able to duplicate them quickly. For a blue sky effect I created another rectangle shape and increased the size to fit the entire page, then filled it with blue. Next I wanted white cut-outs of my flower images to border the grass and sky. I duplicated one of my flower images and then used the Black and White 25%  tool under the Recolor tab under Format Picture tab to make it completely white. Next I duplicated that white flower image several times, and even resized some of the duplications slightly. Next I arranged my graphics to  the formation I liked. Then I added a banner from the Shapes button, from the Stars and Banners category. Lastly I added my text in boxes.

Message: This one hits close to home. My little brother was killed about 3 months ago in an avalanche accident in Utah. He was 34 and left behind his wife and five young children. The community rallied together to raise money for my sister-in-law by holding a golf scramble and auction. Many items were donated, even a lasik eye surgery procedure! I’d much rather go to a craft show than play golf, so I decided to recreate the benefit with a craft fair and silent auction sponsored by the local quilt guild. I wanted to send the message that it is a happy, springtime find raiser in memory of my little brother, that would benefit my brother’s family.

Audience: Anyone in the community of Ferron who interested in supporting the family of my brother, Clint Conover.

Color scheme and color names: I used the Tetradic Color scheme with shades of Green, Blue, Red, and Orange.

Most Valuable Skill Learned: I learned how to isolate images and enhance them by removing background color and resizing. Before doing this project I didn’t know that an item could be duplicated by holding the option key and dragging, so that was pretty cool.

Title Font Name & Category: For the title I used Bernard MT Condensed, which is a from the Modern category.

Copy Font Name & Category: For the body I used Avenir Heavy, which is from the Sans Serif category.

Scanned images used, sources, original sizes, location of scanner used:   This image is the front of a Mother’s Day card I received from my daughter’s family. If you look at the heart, which is showing through a circle cut-out from the inside of the card, you can see some scribbling where my grandson wished me “Happy Mother’s Day!”  It sat on the dining room table for a few days, and if you look closely at the bottom right a food stain can be seen.

I used my home scanner, which is A Cannon MG5400. The original size of the card was 5 x8″. I scanned it at 300 dpi so I could enlarge it and not lose much detail. The final size after scanning is 1203 × 1800 pixels.