Finals

Our final is scheduled by the University for Monday, December 16 at 8am. 
We will be meeting on that day at 9am, because 8 is just too darn early.

Attendance is mandatory.

During our allotted time you will be returned your final project (unless I choose it to showcase it in the hallway display), receive your final grade (which will already be entered into SAIL), and be asked to discuss the course as it progressed over the semester. 

Video :: Selecting Colors

Please let me know if you like these or the step by step tutorials better. 

Note you can play this video through the blog or click on the YouTube logo in the lower right hand corner of the player to view on YouTube (this option will give you more flexibility as to your viewing size). 

For the best viewing quality in Full Screen mode make sure your video quality is set to 720p. The video has been recorded with  the ability to be played back in HD.

New Adobe CS6 Tutorials

Learn the basics of InDesign CS6 with Getting Started and New Features tutorials by product experts.

http://tv.adobe.com/show/learn-indesign-cs6/?PID=2159997

Learn InDesign CS5 & CS5.5

Learn the basics of InDesign CS5 and CS5.5 with Getting Started and New Features tutorials by product experts…

http://tv.adobe.com/show/learn-indesign-cs5/

Grid Articles & Books

Please read the following articles to help you on your way on the booklet project.

Anatomy of a Typographic Grid by Steven Bradley at Vanseo Design.
4 Types of Grids and When Each Works Best by Steven Bradley at Vanseo Design.

The book he references in both posts in an excellent addition to any library. 
If you will be doing any type of graphic design or layout this is a must buy. 

Making and Breaking the Grid: A Graphic Design Layout Workshop
Timothy Samara
Amazon :: $20

Basics Design 07: Grids, 2nd Edition
Gavin Ambrose (Author), Paul Harris (Author)
Amazon :: from $28

Setting Up Your Grid

Before continuing with this post, please read the blog post "Creating a New Document". Once you have followed those steps, come on back to this post and follow these directions. Thanks.

Setting up your grid

With your new document now created we have just a few more steps to complete before we can start designing our layout. 

While there a infinite number of ways to help organize our layout, we are going to use a simple grid that will offer everyone flexibility and be easy to use. This grid is called a Modular Grid.

If not already open, open your "Pages" panel and double click on your "A-Master".  

Note: To tell quickly tell what pages are selected and therefore editing you can use two different visual references. One the name or number of the pages will be highlighted in black with the text in white. Second the thumbnail of the page you are working on will be highlighted in blue. 

When you first double click on the "A-Master" page your "Pages" panel will look like the following image. See how both the name and page selected is highlighted.

In order to apply the changes we are about to make to both pages we need to first select the second page in the spread. To do this hold down "Shift" on your keyboard and click on the page next to the first highlighted page, turning them both blue. See below…

Once we have the appropriate pages selected we can move on to setting up our columns. To do this navigate to the "Top Menu" and select "Layout" > "Margins and Columns…"

A new window pane entitled "Margins and Columns" will open.

First, I like to see what I am changing so make sure that "Preview" is selected (selecting "Preview" is a small function that will make you more efficient in any of Adobe's Software as it can prevent mistakes.)

Secondly we need to change the "Number" of columns and the "Gutter". For this project we want four (4) columns with a "Gutter" of .125 (1/8) of an inch. 

Once you have made these changes, click "OK"

The visual appearance of your document should have changed to match the image below.

Now we want to create horizontal grids that will finish out our Modular Grid and give us vertical touch points for our layout.

To do this navigate to "Layout" in the top menu and select "Create Guides…"

A new window pane entitled "Create Guides" will open.

We need to change the Number of rows to five (5) and the "Gutter" to .125 inches.

Under "Options" make sure "Margins" is selected under "Fit Guides to". Again it is a good idea to make sure "Preview" is selected. 

Click "OK".

Again the visual appearance of your document will change and should look like the image below.

At this point save your document. The keyboard shortcut for this action is "command S".

Now if you double click on any of the other page thumbnails within your "Pages" panel you will notice that the columns and guides you just created have been applied throughout the document.

Start designing … go, go, now, start creating magic … you can do it!!

Creating a New Document

Before continuing with this post, please read the blog post "InDesign Preferences". Once you have followed those steps, come on back to this post and follow these directions. Thanks.

Ok lets get started at setting up your InDesign file for your new project.

Creating a New Document

With InDesign open, go to the "File" menu and navigate to "New" and select "Document…". 

Note: The quickest and easiest way to open a new document in InDesign (and any other Adobe Program) is the keyboard shortcut "command N".

After selecting "Document…" you will be presented with the "New Document" window pane.

If your window looks like the image below, please click "More Options" before continuing.

After clicking "More Options" your window should look like the image below…

Making changes to your document's specifications.

In this window we are going to change the following items: "Number of Pages", "Page Size", and "Bleed" (highlighted in the image below).

Our specifications for this project.

1. "Number of Pages" to 16.

2. "Page Size" 4.75 x 7 inches (vertical).

3. "Bleed" of .125 inches all the way around.

If you have edited the "New Document" window correctly it will look like the image below.

Click "OK" to create your New Document.

Your InDesign workspace should look like this…

STOP.

Before you do anything else, we need to save our document.

Go to the "File" menu and select "Save As".

A new window will open.

Change the nomenclature of the file to "first-last-Brochure" and navigate to where you wish to save your file and click "Save".

Note: To save a file for use in an older version of InDesign, you will need to go to the "File" menu and select "Export…". This will open a new window where you will choose the "Format", which should be set to an "IDML" file. Remember "old will always open in new, new never in old".

Congratulations you are now ready to move onto the next step, before starting your design.