Tonight we will jump between Adobe Illustrator and InDesign, examining how each addresses multiple “pages” in a single document. We review Illustrator typography and artboards, and then move to InDesign where we’ll pay particular attention to the features that will facilitate the production of your greeting cards and your final project, which will be a “portfolio” book that includes all the work you have done in this class.
- White Space read Chapter 9, pp. 111–130
- The InDesign workspace
- Familiar tools – the pen tool
- Set up greeting cards in InDesign
- Single vs. Multi-page publication-compare/contrast to Illustrator Artboards (1,4,6)
Final Project – Book
For the purposes of our final project, we’ll refer to any multiple page publication as a “book.”
The minimum number of pages in your book should be 16 pages including front, back and inside covers. You can, of course, go over the 16-page minimum.
The book is an art and design portfolio. Please include every project and exercise that we did during the semester. The accompanying text should explain the objectives of the project and an overview of what you learned from the project. Your book can also include projects you worked on outside of class during this semester.
Step 1: Create a Dummy book. You’ll create a “mock up” of the finished product, beginning with either the minimum, or anticipated number of pages. Use your Dummy to plan out page numbering and content, remembering that even pages are always on the right and odds on the left.
Step 2: Choose a ‘Style/Format’ for your book. Examples: Magazine, Newspaper, Comic book, Newsletter, Novel, Picture book, etc. Your book should include the appropriate sections that comprise the style of book that you have chosen. For example, a book is not printed on the inside front cover, while a magazine is. A book has a title page and the copyright page is on the reverse or in book language, “verso.”
Step 3: Choose the appropriate type of bindery for the type of book you’ll be creating. Consideration should be given to the way in which the book will be handled and used by the intended readership. The type of binding determines the publication’s final page count and dictates the size paper and style of printer or printing press on which the book is printed. Bindery and usage are of critical importance in the production of the artwork in InDesign, the final step before outputting PDF files to send to “the printer.”
In designing the look of your book, you will be choosing everything! This may be the last time you are given so many choices, which means…let those creative juices flow. Among your choices as a designer are:
- Page Size (8.5×11. 5.5×8.5, or 3×5 to name a few possibilities)
- Cover/title
- Text Fonts, Headline Font
- Art/Images – captions
- Accompanying text…story…narrative
- Margins – how much space between the text and images and the edge of the page?
- Columns – How is the horizontal space divided on the page?
- Rows – How is the vertical space divided on the page?
- Grid – Following RW’s Design Principles, how do we utilize the grid (columns and rows) to create a “page environment” that has the flexibility to change content from one page to the next, while maintaining a sense of continuity and rhythm that unifies the pages and their content.
- Printing – how and where do you intend to print your final book. Make plans now!
- Paper – what type of paper do you want to print on?
- Will it be a “self-cover” or will the cover stock differ from the interior pages?
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