Canada

Communication World, May-June, 2004 by Diane Riddell

In a former position, I was involved in developing a new publication for 300,000 people. For the first edition, our designer recommended the use of two colours: gray and purple. The publication looked great--or so I thought--the copy was terrific, the articles were interesting and I was pretty pleased ... until I started hearing from seniors and others about how difficult the publication was to read! I learned through that experience that readability is the single most important consideration when working on communication material. It was a valuable experience, because every time I review a publication now, I'm very aware of how elements might translate visually. Fortunately, we also have much better access now to colour proofs and other tools to help us do those types of quality and readability checks before things go to print!

DIANE RIDDELL

Ottawa, Ontario, Canada