THE FRIENDS OF THE PRAIRIE WETLANDS LEARNING CENTER
With room to grow, this newsletter can now flourish.
Designer: Elizabeth Davis
Teaching children about the environment and conservation
aren’t easy tasks, but providing hands-on
learning opportunities can go a long way. In Fergus
Falls, Minn., the job falls to The Friends of the
Prairie Wetlands Learning Center, the only residential
environmental education facility in the country
operated by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
Here, some grade-school students spend as much as
two hours a day getting field-based lessons in science,
math and writing. There are also family and
nature-based activities for people of all ages.
The organization relies on its newsletter,
The Prairie Wanderer, to generate funds, update supporters
and drive membership and volunteer numbers.
To accomplish all of that, the newsletter must
be visually dynamic and appealing—traits the current
Wanderer is lacking, according to editor Cathy
Peterson. She says, “[The perfect design] would be
compelling and professional; a showcase for a unique,
one-of-a-kind learning center.”
Keeping this in mind, designer Elizabeth Davis
set to work. “The original newsletter used too many
typefaces, and the columns were too chunky,” she
notes. “I divided each page into three columns and
selected one typeface for body copy and one for
headings. This gives the newsletter a clean, professional
look and facilitates reading.”
To give the newsletter a more streamlined
appearance, Davis moved the sidebar to the bottom
of the page to increase the number of text columns,
and she placed the registration form opposite the
address label.
“When choosing a color, I thought about the
colors of prairie grass—golds, ochres, greens and
browns,” Davis shares. “I chose a gold tone that was
dark enough to hold its own opposite black and
could be used in multiple tints to give the illusion of
multiple colors—and to balance the page.”
