Parkland Student Gallery

I chose a graphic design by Kathleen Skamel used for self-promotion.

Subjective critique: The design at first glance appears to be a picture of a Hershey's candy bar but your eye is drawn to the light-colored textbox at the bottom of the label that says "INTERN FOR HIRE". This causes your eye to refocus on the word "HERSHEYS" which in fact says "HERE SHE IS". The designer very cleverly used the same font type and size as the real candy bar. Her spacing of letters in the title is perfect. It's close enough that your eye doesn't really notice the space between words until you go back to read it the second time. Most people in our society will have an immediate association to a Hershey's candy bar as an American icon in itself. The chocolate bar is representative of our desire for something special. Chocalate is a luxury. How many people turn to chocolate when they're down, stressed, or anxious? By presenting herself on a chocolate bar, the designer is saying I'm special and I can help with your problems. Overall, I think this designer was very clever. In a basket full of resumes, that chocolate bar is going to leap out. I'm hoping she actually handed out the real things with her information on the back of the label. I would like to see how she would present her information - perhaps like the nutrition facts?
Objective critique: The design is symmetrically balanced with equal visual weight on each side of the vertical axis. Unity is well-established by continuity and proximity of font. If this is just a graphic design, not an actual candy bar, then depth is created by shading of the front edge and highlights on the "foil". The text box at the bottom of the label also shows depth by the overlapping of black letters on white letters. Emphasis is placed on the textbox at the bottom by contrast of shade - the white popping out on the gray background. Since the letters are so large and so close together, a little rhythm might possibly be seen by the slight breaks between words.