h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: Creating and Designing Your Own Print Ads - A696305
Author: Lentilla (Artist) There's something in the bag... (Mommy? Mommy?) Keeper of Non Sequiturs (Is that a mongoose I smell?) - U144292

Howdy, folks! This is a repost - I've combined both of the Macintosh articles into one, and eliminated redundancies. Let me know if it reads well, or if it's too technical.

Well done it reads well to me, I don't know anything of the subject matter but it managed to hold my interest well! All you really need to do is change it into UK english, I spotted a "color" instead of "colour" in one place. I'm sure someone with more knowledge of the subject matter will drop by soon enough.

The British version of the English language has some quirks to it that I'd rather leave up to the sub-editor to fix. I'm glad it's not too dry! It's difficult to talk about what you know and not bore people to tears.

Caught this again on the way to work. Again only time to skim read, but it looks good enough to come back and have another look at, Lentilla!

Oh, a new thread! That caught me out . I've got loads of comments. I'll be back.

Hi Lentilla

I'm still short of time but I'll make a start.

I think people will find the content of your entry very useful. There are lots of little gems of information in it. I think the structure of the piece could be changed so that it better reflects the formal design process.

I think the first thing people need to know is that you can design your own advertisements and that you would do this by using a desktop publishing program. The names of some of the major DTP apps such as Quark and InDesign would be useful. To this end you might consider starting with what is currently the third paragraph and adding some information to it. Links to the external sites of the DTP apps would be useful too.

Follow that with 'Advertising is an investment that does not always pay off so make sure you spend you're money wisely. Before you commit to advertising, ask yourself some questions.'

Then go straight into the Choosing Your Media section.

You can come back to the general advice about design that you've put in paragraphs 1, 2 and 4 of the opening section at a more appropriate point in the description of the design process.

There are bits in Technical Aspects that would be better nearer the beginning.

You have used quite a few technical terms that aren't explained or at least aren't explained straight away. Examples are 'in process colour' in the second paragraph and 'colour separations' in the Technical Aspects intro. You could explain things straight away, or use footnotes, or perhaps flag up that an explanation is to be found further down the article.

The style of your writing is quite informal. For example you use the abbreviation 'ads' throughout the piece (including in the title), the writing is sprinkled with contractions like you're and it's as if you were writing a post and there are lots of exclamation marks. I don't know how acceptable this is. It's your writing style and I wouldn't want to interfere with that but there might be some sort of editorial guideline about it. Perhaps a Scout or Sub Ed could advise.

Throughout the piece you seem to be suggesting that graphic design and advertising design are synonymous. I think it could be clearer that advertising in the print media is just one example of graphic design. Having said that, I'm not sure it's necessary to mention that the process is called graphic design at all but if you are going to include some mention of graphic design, I think you need to give a much clearer definition of what it is.

I'm not sure what you mean by your opening sentence. What is unique about graphic design?

Amy

Howdy!

Thank you for the critique!

You've mentioned some inconsistencies that arose when I joined the two articles - I'm still going through it and re-editing. I had planned to include a paragraph on software and hardware, but forgot - thanks for pointing that out.

I know about Quark, InDesign, and Pagemaker. Quark is the best of the three, and Pagemaker the worst. Is there any other programs that deserve a mention? I don't want to leave any programs out that deserve a mention and are indispensable to the PC crowd.

re: Style - All my edited articles have been rather encyclopedic and more scholarly, which is something I wanted to avoid this time around. I'll let the sub-editor sort it out.

I rarely get so much attention paid to an entry in Peer Review - I appreciate it!

I can't think of any other programs you should mention.

I'll pop back in a couple of days when you've had a chance to work on the article some more.

Amy

It's already looking great, Lentilla!

Gracias, Zarquon... I've updated this a bit, added a little more, and moved stuff around. My entries tend to bloat up while in Peer Review, so anything that could come out, let me know!

Had a quick look and it looks fine, Lentilla. I'll have another look later when I've more time. Early in the entry, I thought ' what is all this about 'vector paths and raster graphics, which allows users to create clipping paths'. Then I saw it was addressed later in the entry.

Good that you've emphasised looking at why someone would need to advertise. Something that is often mentioned is the need for accountability - the need to be able to see how well your advert is working. Possibly this is beyond the scope of this entry. You might not want to add more bloat. So, direct mail could be one way of measuring, as could doing surveys to see who has read the advert.

I can't add more than they have! This is a good piece and really does cover a lot. Can't help you with the changing from English to British bit though. Technically, American English is a form of British English, not the other way around, seeing as they came first. But who's counting?!

Intersturber

Your Guide Entry has just been picked from Peer Review by one of our Scouts, and is now heading off into the Editorial Process, which ends with publication in the Edited Guide. We've therefore moved this Review Conversation out of Peer Review and to the entry itself.

If you'd like to know what happens now, check out the page on 'What Happens after your Entry has been Recommended?' at EditedGuide-Process. We hope this explains everything.

Thanks for contributing to the Edited Guide!

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