During my time as the Communications Intern at the Greater Pittsburgh Arts Council, one of my main projects was redesigning the information packet for the Creative Entrepreneur Accelerator (CEA) Grant Program application guidelines. I was given the text content that needed to be laid out in a way that was clearly communicated via PDF format.
A previous version of the document had been made around 2016 that had a few problems that needed updated design solutions. Those problems included:
1. Use of generic stock images that did not connect with the intended audience
2. Lack of attention for document accessibility (i.e. color contrast and text layout)
3. Only available in English
Here are the solutions I devised with my colleagues.
1. Use of generic stock images that did not connect with the intended audience
Though the original document's inclusion of images helped effectively break up the text information, they barely related to the content material. The Greater Pittsburgh Arts Council has a strong focus on strengthening the local arts ecosystem, so having generic unnamed artists featured with information about a grant program made for local creative entrepreneurs seemed impersonal and clashed with their mission.
In looking for ways to connect the images to the content and the intended audience, I looked into the photography and accompanying posts that the Arts Council CEO routinely share on his personal social media accounts. In said posts, he talks to local artists and features photography of the work as well as the artist themselves. I therefore petitioned the CEO to allow me to feature his photography and the background to each image.
I carefully and intentionally curated the CEO's photographs and included them throughout the document's design. I showed my coworkers a few different options for the front cover to get feedback on which image worked best. I also made sure to include captions for each image so the photographed artists are credited for their artwork.
Three photos by Patrick Fisher are featured with captions on page 11 of the CEA Grant Program guidelines document // Document layout design by Soren DeNiz
The information on page 3 of the CEA Grant Program guidelines document is split into sections defined by colorful rectangles // Document layout by Soren DeNiz
2. Lack of attention for document accessibility
Some accessibility concerns had been brought up to the Director of Marketing and Communications at the Arts Council. One such concern had to do with color contrast ratios of certain pages that used gray backgrounds and colorful text.
While redesigning the document, I stuck with the Arts Council brand colors but continuously checked the color contrast of text and backgrounds against the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG).
Another aspect I changed to better alight with the WCAG was setting the point size of text content to never be smaller than 10 point font. I also suggested a new order for certain sections of information that flowed better sequencially.
I made sure to print out the different versions of the document as I arranged the content to lay out the pages and have my coworkers and supervisors look it over. Through this testing of printed drafts, we were able to physically shift pages or sections until it fit well, so I could later update the order in the digital working document.
The main solution that consistently worked was simply adding another page if one section felt too crowded. Some sections therefore ended up spanning multiple pages, but it made the content much easier to follow and more manageable to consume.
3. Only available in English
Most of the population of Pittsburgh, PA speaks English, although not everyone is at the same comfort of fluency. Two of the other most popular languages in the Greater Pittsburgh Area include Spanish and Arabic.
Because part of the Arts Council's vision focused on diversity, equity, and inclusion, they wanted to make sure the information they provide services the various communities living in the area. They plan to translate the document to multiple languages, but this year the began with Spanish.
Seeing as I am fluent in both English and Spanish, I was able to take my layout design for the English document and use it as a guide to layout the information in Spanish. The Arts Council contracted a translation service that provided me the content text fully translated. Understanding the Spanish content I was laying out in the document gave me a great advantage to correctly matching the English design as well as knowing how the information flows best.
Besides inserting the translated content into the redesigned document layout, I also made sure to go in and proofread in Spanish. After the text was received from the translation service, a few changes were added to the English document as far as wording that weren't included in the Spanish text, so I went through the redesigned document and compared the English and Spanish version to make sure the content was equally represented in both languages.
The last page of the document, for example, was added to the English text far after we had already received the finalized Spanish translation, so I manually translated the entire page worth of content. I used online tools that show which translations of certain words are most popular on certain websites or within certain communities to make sure I kept my vocabulary accessible for speakers of most regional Spanish dialects to clearly understand the content.
I also advised the Director of Marketing and Communications on specific language to use in Spanish graphics related to showcasing the guidelines document and information sessions available in both English and Spanish.
