Recreate a Logo in Illustrator
Posted on October 30th, 2007
Class Notes, Chapters 12
Demonstration / Specialty Sash and Door. Students work with the ellipse and rectangle tool to recreate the graphic foundation for the SS&Door Logo.
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Line Composition in Adobe Illustrator
Posted on October 30th, 2007
Using straight lines only, create an abstract composition in Adobe Illustrator. All paths must be composed of two anchor points only, connected by a line segment. Using only black (no colors). Concentrate on the principles of design as you create your composition. The following key principles of contrast, repetition, alignment, and proximity should be reviewed when asking yourself how you might create visual interest in an abstract illustration.
Of all the elements in art, line is the most familiar to us. Since most tools that we use for writing and drawing are pointed, we have been making lines constantly since we were young children. What is a line? Other than a mark made by a pointed tool, it is a form that has length and width, but the width is so tiny compared to the length that we perceive line as having only one dimension. Geometry defines a line as an infinite number of points. The usual art definition of a line is a moving dot…Line is capable of infinite variety…A line is a minimum statement, made quickly with a minimum of effort but seemingly able to convey all sorts of moods and feelings.
Master Pages in InDesign
Posted on October 29th, 2007
Simply put, Master Pages take much of the labor out of creating InDesign pages because Master Pages can house all of your repeating elements. Master Pages also help you maintain design continuity from page to page. Master elements can include page numbers, folios, empty frames, text, graphics and guides. Creating text and graphics on a Master Page is identical to creating them on any other page of the publication, with the exception that once positioned on a Master Page, master elements within the body of the document are locked in position so that you cannot accidentally move them.
Let’s take page numbering, for example. In order for a multiple page publication to look right, page numbering must be positioned in precisely the same place on every page. When thumbing through pages, numbers are likely to appear to “bounce around” if they are set in position individually, because their position could easily vary by a point or two in any direction. By ignoring the master page feature, you’d have to set and format all of the numbers manually, leaving plenty of room for errors and a sloppy looking publication.
Tabs and Paragraph Settings in InDesign
Posted on October 16th, 2007
We continue our discussion of Paragraph and Character styles. Tabs and Paragraph rules are discussed and students will be given an exercise that relies heavily on: The use of a ruler, unit conversions, Tabs, paragraph rules, paragraph styles and character styles. You will be given a copy of the flyer shown here. You will use the rulers supplied and class time to reproduce the flyer.
Design with Style: An InDesign Style Sheet Starter Exercise
Posted on October 8th, 2007
Continuing our discussion of text formatting, we learn how to use style sheets.
- Paragraph Styles
- Character Styles
- Based on Styles
- Next Style
Link to the menu exercise which was originally published in FatBits, a Macintosh user’s group newletter. It was written in the 1990’s for PageMaker’s style sheets and I recently updated it for InDesign.
Font Indentification Simplified
Posted on October 2nd, 2007
If you’ve ever had to match a font with only a few words or even letters to go by, Identifont may save hours of research time. Identifont analyzes the anatomical features of the characters at hand. Enter the characters that match your sample text, and answer a series of questions to narrow the field. Once the requisite questions are answered, Identifont presents the likely candidate(s) from among the thousands of possibilities.
Readings in Publication Design
Posted on October 1st, 2007
Reading – Typography 2
Introduction to Publication Design
Text Formatting Using Style Sheets. Continuing our discussion of text formatting, we will learn how to use style sheets.
Flowing Text
Readings from Roy Nelson’s “Publication Design” – Choose the readings that will help you with your final project.
Chapter 6 – Magazine Formula and Format
Chapter 7 – The Magazine Cover
Chapter 8 – Magazine – Inside Pages
Chapter 9 – Newspaper Design
Chapter 10 – Book Design
Chapter 11 – Miscellaneous Publications
Duplicate a Layout – Exercise
Posted on October 1st, 2007
Topics:
- Margin Guides
- Column Guides
- Rulers
- Measuring
- Layers
- Stacking Order
- Text Frames
- Line Tool
- Basic Text Formatting
Step-by-Step Instructions for duplicating an existing page layout – “Wired”
