Memorandum

To: Dr. Karen Kuralt

From: Erica Ivy
Subject: Document Design Portfolio Piece #4–– Parkview Arts/Science
Magnet High School Flyer

This final portfolio piece is one that I’ve created as the sponsor of the
Parkview Arts/Science Magnet High School Feminist Club. This club,
started at the behest of several of my students, has approximately sixty
members to date. It is also the first feminist club started in the Little Rock
School District, with Central High School following closely behind in its
creation of a similar club. It is important to note that, while there is a club
sponsor, the students in the club essentially run it–– choosing its activities,
t-shirt designs, and types of guest speakers. Given that the president will
be a freshman at Hendrix in the fall, it is my duty as club sponsor to recruit
new members. This flyer is important in creating interest, as is social
media, and its logo must be a symbol of the mission of the club in both print
and digital realms.

As such, I have created a revised logo and had it approved with senior
members Using the Youtube videos posted on the Document Design
Blackboard website concerning creation of logos, I used Pages to do this. I
created the logo by beginning with simple circles picked from the “Shapes”
menu, and essentially designed the logo according to our t-shirt designs
last year. The fist clenched in a circle with the female symbol represents
the passion for the struggle toward equality, and both male and female
students unanimously agreed that we should make it our main logo. Taking
that design, in the beginning, I made the logo red and black, thinking it
would be a nice contrast of colors and eye-catching. Upon its presentation
to the senior members and some of their parents, one parent offered a
suggestion that I think really helps the design: change the black circle to
blue, thus using the school colors for Parkview. This serves as a logo that
hints not only at solidarity, but also, given that our mascot is a patriot, the
club icon rhetorically aligns with working for the common good (Kostelnick
13). The other elements of the flyer, such as the collage of pictures in the
last three-quarters of the document, also gives students a pictorial
representation of what the club is about and who may join.

I was often asked by students last year if males could join the club, so I
decided to use the “Hey girl Let’s Smash the Patriarchy” above and below
Ryan Gosling’s face. Gosling, apparently a famous actor I’ve never see in a
movie, has been thrown into the “Hey, Girl” meme craze, and the creator of
these memes and t-shirts, Danielle Henderson (daniellehenderson.net),
uses this on Tumblr to discuss various gender studies theories she’s
currently studying at the University of Wisconsin. This satirical picture is a
talking point for many students, as they tend to swoon over Mr. Gosling and
the messages in the memes, so it is a definitive talking point for the club.
Other photographs, from the young black male wearing “This is What a
Feminist Looks Like” t-shirt (found, again, on tumblr) creates an inclusive
rather than exclusive club, and to be honest, answers a question I’m rather
tired of answering from so many people (students and parents alike).

There are also photographs of Rosie the Riveter and a play on Rosie for
people of color, a 50/50 equality photograph that reiterates the egalitarian
feminist mission of the group. This collage, along with the typography (from
stencil to helvetica) is all meant to “perform both structural and stylistic
functions” while “conform[ing] to document conventional codes” (24).

Similarly, as Salinas states in “Technical Rhetoricians and the Art of

Configuring Images,” that “ research insights suggests that images are no
longer subordinate to verbal texts in our communicative practices and in
our larger cultural realm, but images are integral to all forms of writing,” the
text is informational, but the images are the most important elements of this
document because it creates the central tenets of the club.

Students only have five minutes between classes in which to view the
flyers, so having a text heavy flyer would not help garner interest. The
photographs, however, will allow students to get the message as quickly as
needed and answer questions that may keep students away from joining
the club. This also works to create the message that feminism is not a bad
thing, as many students have attempted to argue that it is, in fact, “Satan at
work” (this was actually said to me by a student asking questions about the
club last year) (Carliner 563).

All of these elements are aligned to create a cohesive move from one
portion of the flyer to another, and the information contained on either side
of the flyer concerning the actual meeting is highly readable.

Designing this on my own was absolutely a challenge, as I had to think

critically about the information I needed to get across to students and how
to do it quickly. Also, the changes from the first document to the final
document, such as the changing colors of the logo, the changing of photos
and collages, all work to create a synergy of information, rhetoric, and
message. I will inevitably create more of these flyers, and I feel much more
comfortable doing so.
Works Cited

Carliner, Saul. “Physical, Cognitive, and Affective: A Three-part Framework for Information
Design.” Technical Communication. Fourth Quarter. 2000. Print.

Kostelnick, Charles. “The Visual Rhetoric of Whole Documents.” Technical Communication

Quarterly. Winter, Volume 5, No. 1. 9-33. Taylor and Francis. 1996. Print.

Salinas, Carlos. “Technical Rhetoricans and the Art of Configuring Images.” Technical
Communication Quarterly. Spring, Volume 11, No. 2. 165-183. Taylor and Francis. 2002. Print.