This week’s assignment is the culmination of everything I’ve learned so far this semester, displayed in one tidy little PDF package. In preparing to construct my persona layout I had to remind myself not to focus so much on finding additional resources on personas per se, but rather in tools that would aid my understanding and practical application of visual hierarchy, typography, grids, and composition, among other elements. I knew right away that I would need software better suited to laying out a composed and harmonious framework, so I broke down and purchased a subscription to Adobe InDesign. (Fare thee well, Microsoft Office!) I experienced a moment of panic when I opened the app and realized I had no idea how to use it, but after an evening of browsing video tutorials and FAQs, I had acquired, as our buddy Don Norman would say, a “good enough” approximate mental model to move forward with the assignment. Admittedly, I still have a great deal to learn about InDesign, but I am well on my way to proficiency. Plus, the Typekit included with the program is fantastic!

My goal – and personal challenge – for the Jane persona layout was to keep the design as simple as possible without being boring. Lacking strict parameters or constraints other than content, I was initially inclined to produce work of extravagance, minute detail, and complexity—I tend to run before I learn how to walk. As mentioned in a response earlier this week to another student’s pattern board, I was so impressed with Karl Gerstner’s compound grid for Capital magazine that I immediately wanted to replicate it in InDesign, never mind the fact that I had no experience designing grid systems, or for that matter, using Creative Suite. Pinning down this flight of fancy and saving it in a jar for later, I instead created a simple 9-square grid, to which I aligned text, photo, and other elements. Aiming for a clean, modern design, I quickly abandoned the idea of a complex color scheme in favor of a high-contrast, monochromatic one with sunflower yellow used as spot color. I pulled this particular shade from Jane’s clothing using the eye dropper tool and applied the color sparingly for maximum effect.

To maintain visual interest and keep the design from being too linear and blocky, I retained the photo’s original aspect ratio, allowing it to break out of the grid. Since the photo of Jane is the primary dynamic visual element of the design, I decided that forcing it to fit in a frame the same size and shape as the rest of the content would be doing the viewer a disservice. I also made use of horizontal and vertical lines to direct the eye of the viewer and frame the readable content, then added a diagonal outlier with just enough tension to keep things interesting. In the interest of simplicity, I limited the typeface design to two font families: highly-legible and reliable Futura PT was employed for the heavy lifting of body text as well as the primary subhead, while Laura Worthington’s whimsical, handwritten Boucherie font chirruped the headline, pull quote, and remaining subheads. I took a chance on the latter even though it is a novelty font style because I wanted to tease out the persona’s personality. I reasoned that imagining Jane as an actual student with an effervescent disposition and a creative mind rather than a generic, clinical archetype would be more useful for designing an academic program around real students. Finally, I experimented with color, font weight, size, tracking, and kerning to establish visual hierarchy in my design. The result, hopefully, is a clear and balanced layout that is easy to read, pleasing to the eye, and most importantly, useful to its intended audience.