About this project:

I made my three calendar pages using my own photographs from Pet Helpers animal shelter on James Island, where I volunteer. I chose pictures of animals that are in cages rather than outside because generally people find it sad that animals are in cages and it may encourage them to adopt. I chose colors for the calendar grid after I chose the image based on which colors would compliment those in the photos.

I made the boxes in the calendar grid a little longer than wide, and I made the boxes big enough to write in but small enough to fit beneath the photo. I also added a small graphic for a holiday in each month (the four-leaf clover for Saint Patrick's Day, the earth for Earth Day and the sombrero for Cinco de Mayo) to add color and mix the overall page up a little. I found it fairly difficult to fit the fun fact and the coupons in the page (although I, for some reason, thought we needed four coupons instead of three. Three would have been easier to accommodate), but I don’t think they detract too much from the calendar.

I kept the C.R.A.P. principles in mind while designing this, so I chose a completely different font and font size to type the month. The alignment is different on each page depending on how the photograph is centered and spaced, which I think is better than keeping the alignment the same for each page and sacrificing a clean visual of the photograph's subject. Repetition is integrated through the colors - the fill of the days grid is the stroke of the dates grid and vice versa. Proximity is the element I had the least amount of control over, but I did my best to neither overcrowd the image, nor have random spacing.