MEMO

To:

Karen Kuralt

From:

Dyana King

Date:

16 December 2014

Subject: Portfolio: Proposal PowerPoint

I.

Introduction and Purpose

This is a proposal for Shaun Donovan, secretary of the Department
of Housing and Urban Development, requesting better maintenance
for Fair Oaks Apartments. It is possible that other board members
will be shown this proposal, as well as the property manager of the
apartments. This document will be used to determine if there is a
need to make improvements to the property, and therefore it must
be truthful and error free to avoid any negative feedback and to
establish my credibility.

II.

Description of Users/Readers
Shaun Donovan and other board members of HUD have very
important jobs that require a lot of training and skill, so I designed
the document in a way that would match their level of
professionalism. I did not want to bore them with the same old blackand-white print, but I also did not want to overwhelm them with too
much creativity.
The readers expect an organized and well thought out proposal in
order to influence their decision on whether the plan will be
implemented or not. They expect to be able to find information
quickly and efficiently.

III.

Description of Employer/Client (If Applicable)

N/A

IV.

Description of the Context and Design Constraints

HUD receives numerous proposals to weed through in addition to
their busy schedules, so they often skim for the problem and the
solution proposed to resolve the problem. Since the entirety of this
document was not going to be read I decided to keep it at a
minimum of 8 slides. That way the readers would not fell
overwhelmed with information and it would be more inviting to read.
I kept the color scheme restricted to different tones of brown as the
neutral colors will help to relax the reader and encourage them to
take their time looking through the document.

V.

Design Rationale
Technology is rapidly taking over the world, and instead of sending
Mr. Donovan a printed copy of the proposal, I designed it as a
PowerPoint. This way I am free to do more visually. For the typeface
of the heading of each slide I used Bakersville Old Face. This ties into
the wooden background, giving it an old southern feel. I used
Garamond for the main text, as it does not too much contrast from
the Bakersville font of the headings so it keeps some consistency.
I used a fair amount of white space in this PowerPoint to help break
up the text and to make it appear easier to read through. If I piled on
the text and left a limited amount of white space then the document
would not appear skim-friendly, and the reader would be reluctant
to look at the document.
For the slide explaining what HUD was and how it worked, I
incorporated the Section 8 housing logo to add some interest and to
help break up the white space. For the slide discussing the main
problem and the reason for the proposal, I included two photographs
showing the conditions of the apartment complex to add credibility
and really SHOW the readers the problem instead of just telling. For
the Solutions slide I added a graphic that tied into what was being
requested, which was the formation of a volunteer group.

VI.

Design Evolution

In my first draft I just simply stuck to the default design without

taking any risks but there seemed to be a bore factor to the layout
and an excess of white space. In the second draft I began to play
around with color, using the wooden background as inspiration for
my color pallet. I decided to make the slide serving as the coverpage
and the ending slide a solid brown to help separate them from the
main body of the proposal. Since it is PowerPoint I began to play
around with transitions, but I did not want to use it excessively so I
only applied it to the first slide.
In my final version the first and last slides are of a solid
brown/orange color, and to add consistency I applied a solid top bar
of the same color containing the headings of each slide. The related
text is in close proximity and aligned with the other text boxes. In
this version I have also added a transition to the last slide to mark
the ending of the PowerPoint. This version hold the most consistency
and organization.
VII.

Design Assessment
I never really thought about being creative through the use of
PowerPoint, and quite honestly never knew how to be. My
presentations were always straightforward without a lot of thought.
From this project I learned that you can be creative and still produce
a professional and organized document.