Special Interest Magazine

By Tyler Mahoney in assignment five, Assignments, JMC 3433
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I think a good assignment for my PR Publications class would be to make a magazine. I know that the other classes do a magazine, and I think it would be a cool way to showcase our talents even more. I think this would probably be a 4 on the scale of 1-5. It would just be extremely time consuming; however, I think t would be a great way for us to dig deeper into our passions. For example, I would probably try to make a men’s fitness and health magazine. I would include workouts, recipes, and other health related topics. I really liked doing the newsletter, and I feel like this would be similar. The main difference would be that we would not be writing for an organization.

 

Instructions:

Create a 5-page sample magazine over a topic you are passionate about. Include a catching cover with slogan and pictures. Include two feature stories, one instructional/advice and the one story over something in the news(pop culture, politics, business, etc.). There will be three weeks to finish the assignment.

Blog post: write one refection blog post.

Twitt

Originally posted at Tyler Martin Mahoney

PR Publications Class

By Tyler Mahoney in Assignments, JMC 3433
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This has honestly been one of my favorite classes since I have been in college. I feel like I learned a lot more than I have in most of my other PR classes, because I had more independent thinking. I was able to discover my creative side and do projects over things that I am passionate about. I had never used photoshop or Indesign before this class, and I hated the programs at first; however, I really like them now. The favorite thing I learned about this semester was the concepts presented in the book “Designing for Emotion,” It was very interesting and if you read my previous blogs you will be able to understand some of the ideas the author wrote about. I think the thing I am the most excited about is that I have this awesome website to show to future employers and family/friends. I definitely never thought I would be a blogger, but I think I will continue to use it this summer to document my experiences. I also want to study abroad and this would be a perfect way to share with my audience. I think ultimately this will become a blog for me to just write about my thoughts on issues and tie it in with my religious views as well!

Twitt

Originally posted at Tyler Martin Mahoney

My Summer Adventure

By Tyler Mahoney in Assignments, JMC 3433
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Hey friends!

School is almost out for the summer. We just have to get through a week of finals and then we are good to go! I cannot even express how excited/nervous I am to be moving down to Dallas, Texas, in 15 days. I took a paid internship position with JCPenney Corporate in Fairview. It is the Emerging LEader program,and basically I will be working closely with the management team for 10 weeks at the Fairview store next to the Allen Outlet mall. I do not start work until the 1oth of June though, so I will be living in Dallas for pretty much a month before I start working. I am really excited, because I know a lot of people down there and it will be a great way to get my feet wet and make new connections. My 22nd birthday is June 5, and I think I may also be taking an adventure to Austin. I have never been before, but I can’t wait to wear an OU t-shirt when I get there! I feel like this will be a great opportunity for me and an awesome adventure before I start my senior year. I am living on SMU’s campus, so hopefully I meet a lot of people and make new friends!

Twitt

Originally posted at Tyler Martin Mahoney

How to Make a Website

By Tyler Mahoney in Assignments, JMC 3433
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Hey everyone,

This was the first website I have ever made (unless you count Myspace). Overall, it was a lot of fun for me. It allowed me to be creative and showcase some of my favorite things. In order to make a website you have to first purchase a domain and then give it a name. Tylermahoney.com was already taken so I took tmmahoney. The M in the middle stands for my middle name Martin. Next, download WordPress and then add a theme to it. For our assignment we were asked to make a portfolio that we could show to future employers. We first made an about me page, which is just a background about you. Then, we added a portfolio page that you put documents that you have created in for examples. We also have a resume page and a blog page with different post. The homepage should have a creative logo that relates to you. I did my initials and decided to make the colors like the OKC Thunder, because they are my favorite NBA team. You will also install widgets that serve different purposes. I mainly used the widgets to have a way for people to easily follow me on social media. You will also want to put a photo slider in. I used three photos that displayed my interests. The last thing I did was mini-features. I decided to incorporate my leadership strengths that I discovered by taking the StrengthsQuest test online. I put my four strengths in with different headings and described them. This is a fun project. It takes a lot of time and effort; however, it is very rewarding in the end, because you feel very accomplished with yourself. Plus, you get to reflect on who you are.

Twitt

Originally posted at Tyler Martin Mahoney

DU Spring Newsletter

By Tyler Mahoney in Assignment Three, Assignments, JMC 3433, newletter
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Hey everyone,

Out of all the assignments I have done so far in my PR Publications class this has been my favorite. I feel like I am starting to understand InDesign better and I am beginning to enjoy working with it. I even downloaded the trial version to my computer so I could use it for other things. I felt like the stories were easy for me to write because I had key parts in all of them and they were about my organization, Delta Upsilon. For my stories I decided to write about Sooner Scandals, The awards banquet coming up and the IHQ internship that DU offers. My target audience is our alumni and active members of the Oklahoma Chapter with maybe a few views from other chapter/IHQ. I did a couple interviews and used several quotes to make it more personal for my audience hearing accounts from people like them.  For the design process I used blue and gold stripes, because they are DU’s colors and I also incorporated our four founding principles into the first page. I used the Delta Upsilon emblem in the header and decided to name the newsletter “The Quarterly- Oklahoma Chapter.” Our international newsletter is called the quarterly and it is published four times a year; however, we do not really have a newsletter for the Oklahoma Chapter. During capital campaigns they send out newsletters twice per year, but they are more geared towards raising money and for alumni. That letter is called the Sooner DU.  In the background of the newsletter I faded out a picture of burnt paper and then put the DU crest in the center faded out to make it have a unique appeal.pub newsletter4 pub newsletter3 pub newsletter2 pub newsletter

Twitt

Originally posted at Tyler Martin Mahoney

OU Parents and Prospective Students Direct Mailer

By Tyler Mahoney in assignment two, Assignments, JMC 3433
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When I started to design Mailer 1 I decided to choose rural Oklahoma high school students as my target public. I grew up in a small town in southwestern Oklahoma, so I wanted to design something that would have appealed to me in high school. Most schools in Oklahoma talk about small class sizes as one of their main advantages for rural Oklahoma students; however, I did not think that was as important to me. When I was in high school I expected college to have larger class sizes and for the course work to be tougher. I was more interested in choosing OU, because I felt like it was the most prestigious school in the state and had more opportunities. I added facts about study abroad to emphasize that students have a higher chance of studying abroad at OU than if they went to another school in Oklahoma and it is a way for them to see the world. I used a picture on the front in front of the union with a student who I said was from a town in western Oklahoma. It had a quote that said how much he loved OU, because he felt like it was a great atmosphere. On the back is where I listed my facts and included a picture of Oklahoma with Cleveland County highlighted for students from different counties to compare from their counties. The Mailer 2 was directed for parents of students who just got accepted to OU. It has a welcoming letter to ease the parents’ anxieties they get about their child going to college on the front. The back has a reminder of things they need to be thinking about before their child leaves like: FASFA, enrollment, scholarships and housing. I did not go deep into detail with it. I just said, “Have you made your checklist yet?” to keep it simple, but at the same time get them thinking about what the next step is. I feel like I am finally picking up InDesign and starting to enjoy working in it; however, I am still lost with Photoshop. That is one thing that I think could have made my design better by using my own pictures of small towns in Oklahoma with Photoshop to make it more personal.

mailer1back mailer2back mailer2jpg1507848_10152233716573459_1298512553_n (2)

Twitt

Originally posted at Tyler Martin Mahoney

Conflicts with Design

By Tyler Mahoney in Designing for Emotion, JMC 3433
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This week I read chapter 5 of Walters’s book Designing for Emotion. The chapter was about how the flaws of people’s personalities can conflict with your designs. These flaws can be traits such as: laziness, skepticism, and apathy. He said that your designs need to be able to work against these problems. I loved how he used the example of a used car salesman to describe how people can be skeptical of new products. I can definitely relate to this, because I feel like anytime I go to a store where the workers get paid off of commission I feel like I am being attacked by vouchers. It is the same way with designs for selling products when I see lots of pop-ups or flashy designs I am very reluctant to buy the product. I thought it was cool how the site Mint used a softer design to appeal to people, because I had never really thought of that but it is true. It is kind of like going to a market place and you see the salesmen dressed differently, but selling the same product. Obviously I am going to buy the product from the salesman who is dressed nicer and looks more professional. I could also relate to how he used Dropbox as example of how to fight laziness. I began using Dropbox last summer with my internship. It is a hassle to get started up and figure out how to do everything, but it keeps you motivated along the way, which is really smart of them. I loved how he talked about surveys/focus groups in this chapter. It was a good review for me from my PR Research class that I took last semester. I had also never thought about usability tests for a design and I think that is such a great idea to incorporate.

Twitt

Originally posted at Tyler Martin Mahoney

Business Card for Delta Upsilon

By Tyler Mahoney in Assignment One, Assignments, JMC 3433
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Business card

Business Card Back

Business card2

Business Card Front

letterhead 2

Letterhead

Hey everyone!

This was my first assignment in my PR Publications class. When I started this project I had absolutely no clue how to use InDesign. After playing around with it I started to get the hang of it though. I originally wanted to use JCPenney as my organization, because I recently accepted an internship with them this summer; however, after emailing my supervisor she told me she couldn’t legally give me the 2014 logo. I interned with Delta Upsilon International Headquarters last summer and am close to the graphic designer, so I decided to use them as my organization since I am still an active member. I decided that my design needed to be clean and professional, because its audience is anyone who is an alumnus, active member, or professional in the fraternity and sorority world. It is not just going out to my chapter, but to everyone since it is from international headquarters. On the front side of the business card I faded out the logo that was sent to me and decided to use a white background, because it went better with the blue and gold (which are DU’s colors). I used the Futura font, because I think it looks very sleek and modern. DU is a very progressive organization based on its values so I thought it would be a good font. On the back of the card I wanted to incorporate the organizations Greek letters/badge. I found a brick background and decided to fade out the letters/badge to make it look like it was engraved in the wall. I also chose to write the motto “Dikaia Upotheke” meaning “Justice, our foundation” across the badge to put some symbolic history into the card.  On the letterhead I decided to use the organizations colors blue and gold and a birch font. I chose to put DU’s crest in the center of the page to have symbolic meaning, while fading it out at the same time so that manuscripts could be read. I put the contact information at the bottom. I wrote a memo to a staff member about my internship experience that I had, because I thought it was appropriate for both business card and letterhead.. I did not upload the memo to this blog though, because the image was too large with the content. Overall, I thought this assignment was very fun after I had finished it. InDesign was hard to pick up, but after I asked for help and experimented I learned how to use it. I am still not completely sure about everything in the program, but I have a grasp of it. My favorite part of the assignment was learning how to use MailChimp. It such an awesome tool for organizations and I have always wondered how they created their neat emails and I now know how.

Twitt

Originally posted at Tyler Martin Mahoney

Engagement

By Tyler Mahoney in Designing for Emotion, JMC 3433
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This week I read chapter 4 from Aaron Walter’s book, Designing for Emotion. It sounds cheesy, but each week I am reminded why I love my major so much…. My work will involve people. This chapter covered how it is important to draw in your audience by giving them something to engage/participate in. My favorite examples of how he explained it was when he said it is like hearing your favorite song being played on the radio rather than you playing it. People like the element of surprise, and I definitely feel like I can relate to that. I love how he used twitter as his example as well. I use twitter constantly and had an account before the site went through a redesign. I saw the redesign and was able to better understand the concepts he presented, because of actually experiencing it. I remember when I was in high school the anticipation of the new Twitter. Everyone was talking about the redesign before it was released , because it was leaked online. When it was completely launched it was exciting, because we had waited so long. I also liked how he said that Facebook has been unsuccessful with their redesigns. because they don’t engage people. Facebook users have to go along with the organizations schedule of when they release it without any notice. Nothing is more annoying than logging on to Facebook one day and having to relearn how to use it. Facebook did a better job with “Timeline” by giving everyone an advance notice, but that is the only redesign I can think of that they gave notice for. I thought this chapter was interesting; however, I didn’t think it was as interesting as 2 & 3, which one can see through my previous posts.

Twitt

Originally posted at Tyler Martin Mahoney