BCMP 330_Application Assignment_1_Newsletter

BCMP 330 – D ESIGN S OFTWARE FOR B USINESS 1 School of Business © 2023, Southern Alberta Institute of Technology Application Assignment #1: Creating a Newsletter Weight: 20% Marks: 125 Purpose At the end of this assignment, you will have created an informative and attractive newsletter for your small business. Scenario For all the assignments in this course, you are the owner of a small business in an industry of your choice. Your industry could be finance/banking, healthcare, oil/gas, technology, beauty, environmental, not-for-profit/charity, community organization or automotive. Pick an area in which you have an interest. You will create a four-page newsletter that contains information about your small business. Please Note: Your small business MUST be approved by the instructor prior to commencing work on this assignment . Please check Brightspace and/or with your instructor for instructions. Instructions This assignment requires you to submit an individual assignment. Working with a partner or small group is encouraged to assist in the creative process, however, each of you must submit your own unique file for your newsletter. You may be given some class time to begin the assignment, but you are expected to complete it outside of class in order to meet the deadline date (see Course Schedule for due date). Please carefully read through the entire instructions below. 1. You will be creating a four-page newsletter with a two-page spread. (See Chapter 3 in the textbook for instructions on how to create a four-page newsletter.) 2. Decide on the purpose of your newsletter and your audience : Will it inform new customers? Connect with existing customers? Celebrate successes? Educate on a particular aspect of your company? Do all of these things? You will share this information in your Rationale for Design (see #16 below). 3. Draft a thumbnail sketch to plan the approximate content of each page. Do this step PRIOR to beginning your design work in Publisher. Scan your sketch or upload a photo so that you can submit an electronic copy with your assignment. Remember, a thumbnail sketch is a quick, non-detailed sketch showing the layout of your publication. It does not have to match your finished publication, as things often change as you begin the actual design process.

BCMP 330 – D ESIGN S OFTWARE FOR B USINESS 2 School of Business © 2023, Southern Alberta Institute of Technology 4. Find a template, font and colour scheme that seems appropriate to your type of business. You may also create a custom colour scheme if you wish. 5. Use either full colour in the brochure or choose one of the other colour schemes we discussed (monochromatic, complementary or analogous). 6. For the purposes of this assignment, use ONE of the logos you created for your company in Module 4 (choose either the type-only or a logo with a graphic/shape). 7. You will need to either find or create the content for the newsletter. Keep your target audience in mind when deciding what content and how much to include in the publication. Don’t forget the principle of white space when deciding how much content to include. At minimum , your newsletter should contain the following: • Company name, address, contact information, website • Description of the products/services your company provides • Reasons why your target audience should work with/use/purchase from your company • One of the three form options (order form, response form, sign-up form) • One cartoon or joke (tasteful and appropriate for a business clientele). • Some statistics/facts you can share about your company (you can make this up). • A reminder piece (e.g., upcoming event, sale or deadline). • One helpful tip you could offer to customers. This is based on what your company does or services it provides. This could go in a side bar somewhere to help fulfill your building block requirement (see #8 below). • Add one more item to provide additional information you feel would add to your newsletter or be helpful for your customers. You can include a map to the location of your business, interview someone from your company, add a calendar, response/order form, or incorporate testimonials from satisfied clients. 8. Use at least two building blocks (page parts, borders, advertisement, pull quote, side bars, etc.) to add interest to the newsletter. 9. Include a brief table of contents on the first page with page numbers. 10. Avoid the layout sins we discussed in class and aim for visual balance on each page. Try to vary the layout of the newsletter pages. 11. Remove any hyphenation in the newsletter. Click on the text box, go to Text Box Tools>Hyphenation and remove the checkmark from “Automatically hyphenate this story”). 12. You will need to find several photographs for your layout. Use photos from free stock photo sites. Use a variety of sizes of graphics for reader interest. Resize your photos where appropriate, but always maintain excellent graphic resolution and proportion . Where appropriate, add a caption to your photo/figures. You can cite your photos/graphics by