Kate Brunkhorst ,The Allure of Color: Blog Post #6

This was part of a six page spread featured in Oprah magazine about becoming the person that you are meant to be. It was clearly targeted to middle age women, and was quite frankly depressing. It was one of those articles about embracing change that just makes you feel worse after you read it, but I was a sucker largely because of the color appeal and the headline.

"But What If I'm Scared of Change?" is written in red, a warm color that jumps off the page. The woman under the umbrella (told you i'd be here foreva...sorry Paul, couldn't help myself) is colored in a bright green, the complement to the red headline. The neon blue is also appealing.

The theme of rain and new growth goes with the article's "oh-so-uplifting message" described in the pullquote: "Change is as inevitable as the spring. Some of us just put on raincoats and splash forward." How complacent. How lame. The graphics are drawn in a way that makes them look like pastels were used. The visual works well with the text in that it creates natural grid lines that demarcate where the articles begin and end, and they point to the text directly (flowers lead to the sidebar and overlap directly with the text). It's also ironic that the author's name is Amy Bloom, so they liked including this ironic graphic. :)

The article goes on to caution the reader that if you worry constantly about change and do absolutely nothing at all, that one day you'll just wake up and realize that you're old. This promted the idea to art direct an old woman sitting in her chair, but at least she's got that umbrella! This is a busy spread, but it is laid out well enough that your eye isn't confused about where to look next. The color choices were simple, and the font is still consistent with fonts used throughout the magazine. I ended up thinking that the article was crappy and not worth my time to read, but it was salvaged by the headline and bright, interesting graphics--the key components of Gestalt Theory.