Reflecting on 3369

Reflective Memo- Culture.

Learning about culture in design was not simple. 3369 Document Design was a crash course of sorts, in my experience. I came into the class having never used Photoshop or Adobe InDesign, and by the third week or so I owned one and consistently used the both. I really had myself figured out before the class and felt that I could not contribute to document design by any respectable means. I felt that I didn’t have the natural ability. By the second redesign assignment that opinion of myself had reversed. I realized great design can come purely from the talent of an individual, but also from someone that understands the important components as well.

I needed to understand all concepts in the class to really push myself in the right direction. What I mean is that I needed to actually understand the relationship between a document’s desired effects on people and what concepts could help you achieve those affects, like proximity, repetition, alignment, and so forth. From gathering and “gleaning,” as Dr. Rice would say, I realized that the components of design fit into a greater scheme- culture. I had never fully understood that design choices represented culture. I knew that architecture and paintings designed by glorified artists were culture, but I didn’t realize the way common artifacts could be designed contributed to culture as well.

In my redesigns, I tried to effectively create components that would relate to specific sub-cultures. My movie cover was for movie buffs, my redesign of the 742-Ride service was aimed at drunk college kids, I could even say that redesign of Anthony Bourdain’s book cover for The Nasty Bits was aimed at readers and foodies alike; consequently, those are all cultures that I was pandering to. I realize now that every product is a derivative of culture but the design is what truly displays its culture relevance in the public. For example, Texas Tech designed all of its buildings in a Spanish style, which means it is trying to convey an international and academic culture to people.  

                                                            

Naturally, culture cannot go without rhetoric, whether written or even physically constructed. Therefore, my lesson in culture was subsequently also a lesson in rhetoric. I realized that for every culture I was redesigning artifacts for (movie buffs, college kids, readers), I was also inserting graphics, designs, or words that would attract their attentions. I was using rhetoric. I realize now that effectively using rhetoric means you analyzed your target audiences well, which is something I can say I have become better at after this course.

Knowledge of culture and rhetoric will be an effective tool at my disposal. I can enter the workforce and develop content for websites, software companies, or whatever, and realize that culture and rhetoric might be the first concepts I need to consider. I need to think about what I create and its use of proper rhetoric, whether my prospective project or idea actually speaks to the audience and culture that I want it to. Also, I now know that rhetoric isn’t just the written word. In my opinion, regarding design, rhetoric is just how you use something to attract the attention of your target audience within a culture.  It’s almost cyclical: culture affects rhetoric and that chosen rhetoric can represent and tell about a culture.  

Final Redesign: Tech Pamphlet

So this is my last redesign. It is a pamphlet for the Safe Ride service at Tech that is still being utilized today. I have to admit, with all of the resources bestowed upon Tech that this is flat out embarrassing.  Its problems are copious and obvious. For starters, it looks like a colored-in coloring book. Hell, in the QnA section they, for some odd and inappropriate reason, chose to capitalize every letter "o" like this, "what dO yOu mean by 'shuttle'?" If that's not the most unbecoming of a Tech pamphlet I have seen then I'll be darned. 

So this process began difficultly because I knew I would have to start completely from scratch. The colors are bad, the contrast is just overwhelming, and there are distracting elements everywhere.
So where I started was with my own layout. So I eliminated the cheesy graphics and chose red and black as my primary colors because of our university. To utilize the powerzone, which I have chosen to abuse this semester because it really is an easy way to make things look nice, I made a top bar and chose a picture where the focus (the seal) is on the left. (So the seal in the photo and the top bar makes up the powerzone)

Inside the top bar, I displayed some contrast by putting the main points of the document, each phone number, in different colors: one in white and one in red. I knew that most students knew the numbers, so seeing them displayed on a pamphlet would be an instant attraction for information-seekers. Also, I knew that there should be something to even more helpful to attract the students to use the service, and being a college student, I know that the word "free" is magnetic to our eyes. So I created somewhat of an eye-capturing award type shape and put "free taxi." Not only did the symbol attract eyes because it was bright yellow, but it was also an exercise of rhetoric. It was almost like I wanted to say "dont forget about this service you pay for" but without those exact words.

The sequence of information that was put into the original document was also very distracting. It gives these snake like arrows that take your eyes to the right or the left rather than simply down, where the information lies. I made sure to trash that concept. What I thought was most conducive to attracting college students was putting as little distractions as I can and only including graphics that were relative, so for each informative page I put two columns worth of information with a graphic above for some extra rhetoric and symbolization.

Lastly, my emphasis was on creating a decent amount of white space and grouping(proximity) so that there was no straying of the eyes from the focal points of my revised document. All relative information is under relative questions with plenty of white around so that all of the information does not look overbearing to read. The simplicity and short quality of my writing was also aligned perfectly for both pages thanks to inDesign.

In the end, the only real thing I recycled from the original was the entirety of the last page. I realized that it actually looked like a solo graphic so when I placed it on the page it looked like a suitable logo that was representative of the document's goal.

The Redesign

Photo Credits:

From freedigitalphotos.net,

Andy Newson-confused girl, page 1

Exsodus- moon, page 2

Redesign #4- Message Board interface

Before:

It is already an established part of our American culture to be obsessed with the internet. People are going as far as speaking in acronyms like "lol" and "omg." A common accelerant for this kind of communication is social networking, including message board indexes. My fourth redesign is the interface of a message board, which are now things that should be really eye pleasing because of growing traffic to online messageboards, especially sports messageboards.

The specific website I chose was Raiderpower.com. I am not  a subscriber to this site, nor a frequent visitor, but I saw potential to make it better. For starters, there is a lot of gray. Gray is not a bad color but there is too much to where it looks old, I would even say dusty for some reason. Most messageboards that I have visited in the past are of mostly white and black because when posting and reading comments it's best to stay simple, even in color scheme. So I made sure to enhance areas where I believe white would have looked better.

Another problem that I noticed was empty space. At the very top black heading bar, on the very left, "raiderpower.com" is emblazened in hot red but the rest of the black bar is not being utilized. The power zone theory will tell you that not using at least a little more of that black bar is a waste of valuable space that viewers' eyes usually gravitate towards. So to enhance it I put a few relative football pictures on the bar to accompany the logo. I made sure not to use the entire bar because I did not want to do so much as distract the viewer from the website's logo.

Also, more space isn't used right under that black heading bar. On the right of the army advertisement, the one with the guy that is screaming (I think?), is an empty lot of a space that could be valuable to advertising sales as well as balance on the page. Without filling that space there is glaring asymmetry. I simply made a homemade, rudimentary ad for that spot.

The problems I had were being able to alter enough of the interface. Using photoshop was very difficult for a novice to try and cut things and add things to the interface design. I think overall the website is no longer what I call "dusty" looking, if not bright now. On a few bars, I changed the color of gray to black because black contrasts well with white as well as matching well with the heading bar. Also, directly under the advertisement I made, I filled in the two retangles with black to match their counterparts below to enhance repetition.

Redesign #3- DVD Cover

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

This latest undertaking was definitely difficult. The original DVD cover to Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless mind is actually pretty immaculate, which adds on to the difficulty because no one wants to redesign something  to be worse. (By the way, the photo above is actually a movie poster but the dvd looks identical, minus a few things).

What I wanted to fix was the normalcy of the DVD cover. When you see this cover you do not imagine the movie to be one with many twists, turns, and surprises. Instead, if you haven't heard of the movie, you just see a happy couple, romantically laying side-by-side, gazing at something, and Jim Carrey's eyes wandering. The real plot is really abstract, though. I thought what this cover lacked was a forecast into what their relationship is actually like in the film. Eventually, after days of searching for screenshots of the film i could use--which was a huge concern by the way, because it's hard to find a picture with adequate pixels--I feel like I have found the right ones to combine and make a cover of my own.

Contrast: The original cover had more than adequate contrast. There was the white ice at the top and a dark blue, spacey looking color at the bottom half. The title Eternal Sunshine... is yellow and black and even Jim Carrey's face color contrasted nicely with the blue it was up against. Because of the proper use of contrast in the original, I had to make sure mine contrasted well. The most noticeable contrast is Jim Carrey's face extending through two different photos. The top of his head extends into the photo of the couple and his lower half contrasts with the blue sky in the photo below. I also decided to use the original cover's idea of internal title contrast by making "Eternal Sunshine" yellow, like the original, but I used white for the rest of the title because it contrasted well with his suit. I also did not want to plaster a huge quote from a critic because I have always kind of thought those ruined movie covers, which I think are things that should be valued, but at the same time I couldn't just leave an empty blue area on the cover. So, to avoid putting some obnoxious quote, I put four stars to display the credibility of the movie while not tattooing someone else's thoughts on the cover. The black stars contrasts nicely with the blue. 


PowerZone- This redesign I prided myself for utilizing the powerzone described in the text. The powerzone extends from the top of the cover through the left side of the cover. If you notice, I put a very strong photo on the upper half of the power zone and let Jim Carrey's figure run through the left side of the powerzone. Using the powerzone helps attract the attention of passer-byes. Even the title of the film is at the very bottom of what is considered the power zone. 


Proximity- There is a lot of proximity in my new cover as well. I kept the title of the film within Jim Carrey's figure and put the names of Kate Winslet and Jim Carrey directly beside their characters in the top photo, a very common trait in some DVD covers that I looked at. Most noticeable is the overlapping images, but less noticeable is the little image of Winslet and Carrey in the same bed on the beach on the lower right hand corner. I put it directly beside Carrey because I realized I had some room there and also it kind of helps forecast the style of the film, which is to say unconventional. People will look at that little image and immediately be intrigued at how those two in a bed could have possibly ended up there.  

I had to try and make this DVD cover many different times. It put me through a real fit. But in the end I do feel proud of it and think it could serve equally as well as the original. I think it helps forecast into the story a little better than the original by displaying Winslet's discontented look, a key theme, and the beach and bed screen shot that helps the viewer wonder what is going on because the film is a labyrinth of story. I also didnt give in to something I hate, DVD cover quotes. The only quotes that belong on a DVD cover are quotes from the movie itself, an idea I almost acted on.

My weekend

The weekend consisted of wine and happiness. Although, I did go to spring football practice as well. 

Page Design and my prior re-design

Page Design is the process of placing design objects, such as text, headings, and images, consistently and effectively on the page, taking account the information you are trying to convey, actual visual field, characteristics of the design object, and relationships implied among them. The definition I have chosen to improvise slightly on is long but, considering page design is not a one note process, necessary.

Kimball and Hawkins write a lot about the concepts that are involved and interplayed within page design, and it's impossible to truly hit on all of them because certain designs call for certain strategies but not all. One main concept mentioned by Kimball and Hawkins I took into consideration was culture. Culture is the relativity of objects and their location within a page design. In my redesign of Anthony Bourdain's book The Nasty Bits I had to remind myself of the conventional ideas of where components of a book cover belong.

Unlike Asian culture, American culture insists we read from left to right, and our book covers act on that. In my design above, I decided to use a picture where Anthony Bourdain is depicted as walking but the original photo I found depicted Anthony walking the opposite way, away from the book entry. In American literature, I figured that almost symbolized him walking away from the entry of his own book-- a bad way to start off someone's reading experience. So the first thing i did was make sure that he faced the direction of the book's material, not away.

Another component of page design is sequence. Sequence revolves around what order your page design objects are presented to the reader. It played a large role in my design as in the original, published design as well because for certain writers and celebrities the first component of a cover presented is their name. Anthony Bourdain is a very recognizable American figure and it needed to be represented well and atop of the pecking order, so to start off my sequence of components I put his entire name first. It allows people to see the book and immediately become curious whether they knew of the book's existence or not because Bourdain is a celebrity. Following his name was the title as well as his figure beside that with a bar code and quote from the times last because they are less recognizable or culturally revered as a title and last name is.

Another affect of my design was the use of power zone. Power zone is depicted in the book as the left side of the page as well as the top. It's as if you were to create a capital L and turn it upside down on the page. The use of power zone is used by having Anthony Bourdain's figure exist on the left side of the cover in the power zone. His figure is what I consider to be a "mission critical" object because he is the proprietor of everything written in the book and as well as the person selling his personality in the book. Putting Anthony in the power zone is to put him in an area of the cover that people naturally gravitate towards with their eyes.

Also, a large contributing idea to my design was of balance. I didn't want Anthony's body to be penetrated by any letters of his title because I knew, given the photo I chose, there would be room next to him to place it. With Anthony on one side of the cover it allows a dearth of space to the right of him of which I was able to fill with content.

Redesign #2- Book Cover

My latest redesign is of the book The Nasty Bits by Anthony Bourdain. Upon first glances, I think this is a relatively sad cover for a guy as cool as Anthony Bourdain. He is a guy/critic that demands respect with highly articulated, and fiendishly hyperbolic, criticisms and opinions. His fake grin with the senstive looking face-resting-on-palm look just doesn't do his persona, or great writing, adequate justice. I used photoshop to recreate the true style he emits, which is to say confident and take-no-bullshit.  

Firstly, I had to choose a new picture to use. The one above didn't suffice, so here is what I chose:

Although I it, this picture has inherent problems. For example, when your eyes read this cover they want to go  from right to left, which is an unwanted characteristic of something you read left to right. It's almost like, symbolically, Bourdain is walking away from the opening of his book. To recreate a feeling of "follow my direction towards my story", I naturally turned the picture around. I wanted Bourdain to face the opening of his book, not seem to be walking away. Aesthetically, it's more pleasing. Here it is:

Contrast: In the first book cover, I'll admit, there is plenty contrast. The original has dark colors with a piercing red, but I don't feel the red and dark colors meld with each other very well. In this redesign, I made sure to go with probably the most classic contrast known to man: the black and white photo. But I didn't stop at the black and white. As you can see in the original photo, the photo is filled with color, from the sky to the graffiti, but in the redesign I chose to leave Bourdain as the sole personification of color against the black and white. He is a well known figure amongst a multitude of different communities and to have him brighten up what is to be a dark, black and white, cover is eye catching. Also, there are slightly different fonts and font sizes. The top where it says Anthony Bourdain is in Times New Roman, a conventional font, while the title Nasty Bits is in a font where every limb of each letter is the same thickness. Then the obvious quote from the New York Times below is in a more plain, smaller text. 

Repetition: The repetition is most represented in the colors. Other than Anthony Bourdain, the entire cover is in black and white. 

Alignment: Alignment is a key ingredient to all professional documents or covers. To help fulfill my alignment needs I made sure to use the grid system provided by photoshop. In the original book cover, when looking from the front, there is a quote on the top left corner and on the opposite side there is a red circle. I saw that there wasn't any particular alignment that they followed so I completely avoided putting anything in those two corners. The corners in which I sealed the title with the center of is completely aligned with the black rectangle's left side below it. The corners that I created to contain the title are aligned as well, which was something that I did take from the first cover. 

Proximity: The use of proximity is useful in the design of a book cover because, like this book, there sometimes a second title. In this case, besides The Nasty Bits, there is the title Collected Varietal Cuts, Usable Trim, Scraps, and Bones. To imply relationship, which is the purpose of proximity, I contained the second title within a rectangle and placed it directly under the primary title. Also, instead of placing the title directly on Anthony Bourdain's body, I placed the title right beside him so that it seems like an  accompaniment. 

Stylistic Choices:  As I introduced earlier, I dont believe the first cover represents Anthony Bourdain, or, more notably, his book title. The book is called The Nasty Bits yet he seemed to do his best to smile but in a truly happy manner; he looks more exhausted than happy. In true form, Anthony Bourdain is actually energetic despite his frail look but also, given the title, he should look more serious. So find what it really means to be him, I chose the photo of him walking along a graffitied wall with a more serious (more nasty) demeanor. Aside from changing the photo altogether I placed a barcode on the front of the cover to imply something nasty and eye-catching that doesn't belong on the cover despite its practicality.  

Significant Concepts from Kimball/Hawkins

The 3 concepts that I feel I try and embrace are the laws in a theory that was presented to me called Gestalt Theory. Gestalt  theory supposes that we dont see edges, shapes, or blurs. Instead, as people, we see the sum of those parts, such as a dog, a tree, a car, a house, or whatever is being depicted. The theory then breaks into specific laws. One law being the Figure-Ground Discrimination. The law separates perception of an object (figure) and context of an object (ground). The law has helped me realize that object perception and context should marry each other but in contrastive ways. In the design of a document, an object or information that is supposed attract primary perspective of a viewer should contrast from the paper or vehicle, which puts the object in context.

Grouping is the second law of the gestalt theory. Grouping is something we have covered extensively in class and in class we all learned that it suggests relationship when things are in close proximity to each other. The Gestalt theory breaks down grouping a little more specifically by proximity/similarity, continuation, and common region.

In terms of proximity and similarity, it is presented that we group things together that are closer together and that we perceive similar figures as belonging together. Continuation assumes that we imply a relationship between things that are lined up. Continuation is stated as the "foundation of alignment", which makes total sense as alignment is the structuring of different objects to share the same edge or congruous placement on a page. It's a component of design that I have learned is vitally important to create an easier viewing experience for people.  Common region states that items within the same are belong together.Common region is very useful in the insertion of graphics and information. If certain pieces of information and a graphic share a region than presumably they have a connection or relationship that is supposed to be noticed by a viewer. It works equally well with just graphics or just information alone.

Good Figure is the the third law. The Gestalt theory suggests that when using grouping techniques a figure is stronger, stable, and more consistent, allowing an easy experience for a viewer/reader, we are then using techniques to make a good figure. We take notice good figures much easier than we notice bad figures but what people don't realize is that a good figure that uses grouping principles isn't always complicated with too many components. Brevity/minimalism is stated to be more effective to create a good figure because more complex components isn't always efficient. I made sure in my last redesign that I used plenty of simple components as to not overload a reader for a simple card.

I used all three of the concepts within the Gestalt theory because I thought they were the most concise and, in my opinion, most correct based on my experiences. The 3 three laws/concepts offer good advice and information for a designers to take in and understand for future projects. What I feel I took most seriously was the use of continuation because if one thing is most noticeable is that when components of a document are not aligned properly, which affects the reader by subconsciously breaking the connection of objects that people make when that connection was not supposed to be broken, merely because of continuation/alignment problems. 

My First Artifact Re-design: Business Card

This is the culprit artifact.

Upon first glances, there is one grand noticeable problem. The card isn't inviting nor memorable. The business itself actually sells home protection systems, like alarms and what-not, and part of their business plan is going door-to-door to inform people of their products, but this card doesn't help. It's probably dawned upon you that if you predicated your business on some door-to-door action then you ought to have a very intriguing card, not one that is easy to throw away. The card does not have to be glitzy or shiny but does need to look much more presentable than this. Also, if you were to find this card a few months after you received it, you truly wouldn't know exactly what the business is. The card does have "protection" in the company name but protection is ambiguous and no clarification is offered. The location of Pinnacle Protection is a mystery on this card and forces a person to do work to find it, which isn't ideal. I made sure to give reminder of what the business is (home protection services) by including a slogan-- kind of like a statement of purpose--and also more information on how to get into contact and where the business is.

                                                                        My redesign of the card

My redesign of the card is based off the four basic principles given in The Non-Designer's Design Book: Contrast, Repetition, Alignment, Proximity.

Contrast: In the first card, there is no contrast, really. There is merely white with the logo and two lines given for written information of the salesman. So to create some true contrast I inserted the red corners. They are not the actual tips of the card but they act almost as boundaries almost. Also, for some color contrast I made those corners red. 

I also put contrast into the words of the card. I completely overhauled the logo with a futuristic font and also made it completely red because underneath it is a separated slogan in black. The slogan is also contrasts the info below and above because I italicized it some and made it slightly smaller in font size than the logo but still bigger than the address information I included.

Repetition: There is repetition throughout the card but it starts with the color scheme. There are three colors: white, red, and black. I chose to make two elements red (logo, corner tips) because if there were just one element, the red might seem out of place. I also made sure to make the corners all identical so there is no deviation in size, they're just flipped. The font style, outside of the logo, is exactly the same. The contact information and the slogan are the exact same because more than two font styles may make reading the card slightly irritating. As well, there are two lines in this card just like the last one, but one is for a name and the other is a separater. 

Alignment: The alignment of the card is very consistent and no component of the card is out of rhythm in terms of alignment. I just bought Adobe InDesign the other week and the beautiful thing about that software is that the alignment tool is always exact and helps the user dictate where to put a certain component.

For example, all of the red corners are aligned perfectly due to the software. Also, the separater line between the logo and slogan acts almost as a boundary as well because all of the components below are aligned perfectly with its outside. The software also helped put every centered component in the exact center of a proceeding graphic. For example, the name line has a "Agent Name" tag directly below that is perfectly centered. And the slogan, as well, is perfectly centered under its separater line.

Proximity: The book indicates that proximity always implies relationship. When information is grouped together, there is always an assumed correlation amongst them. In my business card's case, the slogan and logo are very close so that they are very easy to identify. An easily identifiable slogan and logo have a higher chanced of being recognized in the future and because they are both marketing tools they deserve to be grouped together as such. Below is the contact information. All of the contact information is very close together so that it is discernible from the other elements. The agent name line is just slightly to the right because it is kind of its own solitary element but still not too far from the contact information.

Stylistic Choices: The red corners, as I have stated, are almost like bounder lines. What I mean when I say that is that they are there to keep the readers' attention within their alignment immediately. It is almost like I put a cross hair on the card and the information with the red corners is like the bulls-eye.

The logo has been completely redesigned because the other one was a little misleading. In its background there were mountains and the first letter was encapsulated in a red square. A regular person would not know at all what that business is based off aesthetic design. I remodeled it into a sleek, sharp futuristic version. There isn't a graphic to give hints of the businesses products but there also isn't a chance of distraction from a graphic at all. To remind what the company is, a slogan is used instead of a distracting graphic.

My 5 artifacts

I'm pretty excited about having chosen my 5 artifacts and I don't think I'll have to change them to cater to my inexperience with design. I think re-creating them to be better and more effective is a great exercise because it's fun and re-design/design of products is definitely a skill that is needed by every major company. Also, these artifacts were an excuse to buy Adobe In-Design, a program that many work ads have encouraged fluency in. Not to mention, my portfolio will probably look much better after this course.

1) Pinnacle Protection business card

The other day a stranger knocked on my door offering a subscription with Pinnacle Protection——some sort of home security package. He didn't look like any reputable salesman, in fact, he dressed almost like a homeless guy and the eerie coincidence of his mentioning of recent break-ins in my neighborhood was not missed by me, as my car was broken into just a few months ago. It was probably pretty paranoid of me to start thinking that maybe he bashed the window of my car and jacked my CDs so that he could come back and sell me some security. But nonetheless, setting my paranoia aside, he gave me his card and upon my review of it I found its blandness perfect for redesign as an artifact.

2) DVD Cover: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

I love this movie. I love the interplay of reality, relationships, and memories being re-lived as they're actually being destroyed through minor brain damage. The movie offers everything you need and feels more like an indie film than one of the oscar winning kind. Even the DVD cover is nice and probably needs no re-design whatsoever. But my plan for redesign is to make a cover equally, if not more, artful and telling of the story but also creating an even more spectacular cover for a "special edition" version. The fun with the special edition idea is because most special edition DVDs are always flashier, shinier, and they are more attention grabbing and aimed at the true movie collector/fan than usual. My love of this movie is motivation enough to try and do a great job.

3) Book cover: The Nasty Bits by Anthony Bourdain

Anthony Bourdain is one of my favorite personalties in all of pop culture. Ironically, it's because, in my world, I consider him so normal, or at least, what normal should be. He is verbose, descript, witte in the dirtiest sense, and the dude has a standard for everything and is intolerant of bullshit——the way everyone should be but somehow most aren't.  His book The Nasty Bits, despite its fantastic writing, in my opinion, has a very bland and unmemorable cover. It's much less symbolic than his most recent writing, Medium Raw. Upon looking at this cover you would imagine this guy is some self-absorbed motivational speaker in a leather jacket rather than suit, trying to look modest and not the brash, unapologetic, very natural and good guy he really is. It'll be fun trying to turn this into something that I believe fits with his true personality.

4) Message board interface

I love Texas Tech sports in an obsessive manner and I often try to acquire any football related news in any way one could concieve——meaning I enjoy sports message boards every now and then. This particular website I almost don't visit at all, really. I just remember it because of it's extremely boring, sleepishly gray look. Its appearance makes it look as if it belongs at some internet message board garage sale. Other than the dvd cover, this particular artifact might be the most difficult. I am hoping my Adobe In-design will prove useful with this one.

5)Texas Tech Safe Ride Brochure

I want to laugh at this brochure because it's bad in a lot of different ways. Or maybe I should say it's plain and underwhelming in a lot of different ways despite containing a subject with a very serious message. What this brochure lacks is almost disrespectful to its message, but oh well, I guess.  Safe Ride is obviously a service for people that get too wasted and need a safe driver to take them home so that they don't kill themselves or someone else but when I look at this I can't help but think it looks like it directed at the attention of 5th graders; i don't know many them that get drunk, either. Its most obvious that clip art was probably the main tool used to design this brochure and whatever department at Texas Tech that developed this should be embarrassed. Surely the staff that created this has better design skills and computer resources than to use clip art and could make this a little more serious looking, considering its message. The copyright says its from 2005 and I hope that is true and that the current one is 10x better but if not, then I think I could make a much more adequate one.