I have had the pleasure of working with a variety of genres in my internship at Women Helping Women this semester. One such genre I have been focusing on lately is design.
Design is very important for a voluntary organization. All funds that Women Helping Women disperses are donations. Members often pay for supplies out of their own pockets. In that case, design is crucial in letting the community know about Women Helping Women and also encouraging people to contribute to the cause or volunteer their time.
I have been utilizing design lately by designing a print ad that could potentially be placed in the newspaper or in flyers advertising the latest formation to Women Helping Women--a Men's Auxiliary. This auxiliary is an important addition to the organization because it places an emphasis on men donors.
As Carolyn Millers says in "Genre as Social Action", act must involve situation and motive. My design is intended to motivate people to action. This action will improve the lives of many women in the SEK area so I take my job as designer of this ad very seriously.
Design in other professional contexts will differ. For example, in designing for an ad agency, the designer is not trying to motivate donations or change. The designer's goal is to design a package, product, etc that will encourage purchasing decisions, establish brand identity, build equity, etc. In this way the motivation behind the same genre is different.
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