Process and Production - InDesign Interactive PDF

In this process and production session, we firstly talked about the previous InDesign sessions, going through what we have created so far. The first part that we had to do was to save the PDF and other documents that we were provided with on UniLearn. I decided to save these documents into a folder in my computer then I would be able to reference them when I wanted to. In this session we will be talking about alignment and possession.

The first part that we had to do was create a new document in Adobe InDesign. To create a new document I had to go to File > New > Document. We then need to change the size of the document using a pixel perfect size, we then set the document to a custom document or to do this we had to write 360px in both of the height and width box for the document to be. I had to make sure that the intent of the document was changed from print to web. I then had to make sure that the facing pages symbol was tick so this would then create a booklet for my document. I also had to change the pages from 1 to 4 because I would then have two pages on one side and two pages on another side. We learnt that we always have to work in a multiple of four for print. I then had to change the gutter to 0px and the margins to 20px for the top, bottom, left and right. I also wanted to make sure that there was bleed that I could work to, so I decided to add a 5px bleed to document. 

I then modified my menu by taking my pages menu from the main tool bar and snapping the menu to the side, which enlarged the menu, which I found was better and easier to see. I then double clicked on my masters page to add my guides to the whole document to do this, I had to follow the process Layout > Create Guides. I then had to make sure that the number of rows and columns were both 12 and the gutters for both were set to 0px. The last part I had to do in this set up was to change the fit guides from margins to the page.

I then selected back onto the page one of my document. I then followed the process of View > Grids and Guides > Show Grids, a grid then appeared on top of the document that I had already created. The next part I had to do was go to preferences, which I could find under the InDesign tool menu. I then selected the grids selection under the preferences menu. This then popped open a menu that opened up the grids section of the menu. Within this menu I had to change the horizontal and vertical selection by changing the gridline every to 30 px and the subdivisions from 8 to 6. I was then able to select the ok button. 

We then looked at paragraph style by going to Windows > Styles > Paragraph Styles. After this when then used the text box tool, to draw out a text box at the size that we wanted it to be, when then had to had to fill the text with placeholder text by going to type > placeholder text, which then filled my text box with body text. 

Paragraph Style > New Style > Click on the new style > popped open a menu > called the style name body text > had to select the hyphenate option > un tick the hyphenate box. 

After this we applied the body text to the placeholder text > double click on the menu again > indents and spacing > align to grid all lines.

Preferences > grids > change the increments to half what it is already so mine was 12px to 6px. If you are working with pixel perfect you need to click on preferences again > units and increments > change the cursor key to 1px. this will then change the layout to a more professional. Once this is selected you will be able to move this design 1px each way. After this we had to make sure that our snap guides was on my going to view > grids > snap guides.

We then moved onto creating the album cover by placing the album cover onto the first  page of the document, file > place. Again I had to snap a menu from the tool bar, this time I selected the layers menu, I then created a new layer on the menu, after this I then locked out the first layer. I then to draw out the geometric shapes on the layer and create the colour palette for the design. To create the circles I used the ellipse tool. For the rectangle I had to use the rectangle tool. To add the colour to my colour swatch tool menu I had to use the eye dropper tool to select the colour that I wanted, after this I had to double click on the colour in the bottom left corner to open up the colour menu, to add the colour to the menu I then had to select the add RGB Swatch button. I then selected the swatch panel and to create a new colour swatch folder to add the colours that I had been using for my design. I then made sure that I dragged the colours that I had used into the folder. I then had to change the layer names to the the objects that I had created.

I then used the align tool, to make sure the alignment of the circle were correct, to find the tool I had to go to window > object and layout > align. I then made sure that the circle were exactly the same as the circle on the previous cd cover that we were recreating. The font style that I used for the design was Ariel Black because I wanted the design to be the same, as the design that we were recreating.

After I had done this, I then added a new page to add a photograph of a Count and to place the image onto the page, I had follow the process of file > place, where I was then able to find the photograph that I wanted to show on this page. The page that I used to place the image onto was page 5, however when placing the image onto the page, I had to resize the image in order for it to fit on the page. I then had to crop the image to the size that I wanted and the part of the photograph that I wanted to see on the page. On the previous page, I had to again create a header text using the same process that I had used to create the body text, the font style that I decided to use for this header text was Helvetica Bold because I thought that this font style was like the name very bold, stood out well and was easy to read, which is very important.

I then had to create two new pages, by using the add a page button. On the second page that I had created, I had to create black background using the rectangle tool. Once I had done this I then had to add another chapter heading, that displayed Swing of Chance, I had to modify the text slightly in order for the target audience to read the text, which was from Black to White. To place the video file above the text onto the page that I had created. On the opposite page I again created a text box with place holder text.

We then had to save the document and export the file as an interactive PDF, at first my document didn't work, as the video file didn't play. However, I then noticed that I hadn't got the programme Adobe Acrobat on my laptop. So I had to install this on my computer in order for the file to work. We then return to the document to create a table of contents, to do this I had create two brand new pages, I then changed the settings as we were told and selected the ok button. This meant that when the design was interactive PDF clicking on the name would take you to the location of the file in the document.

The final part that we did in this process and production lesson was to create interactive buttons, to do this I had to follow the process window > interactive > button and form. After this a pop up menu would appear on the screen, this then allowed me to change the settings of the buttons, I had to select the rollover tool and select fx > inner glow > ok. This meant that when the file was a PDF the file would show a glow inside the buttons I had created. The final task was to again save my document and export it, as a interactive PDF. Once I had opened it in Adobe Acrobat the file worked perfectly.

 I am happy with how this Process and Production lesson went and I have learnt a lot of new skills in Adobe InDesign that I haven't seen and used before, which will help me in the future when designing my own design work.

InDesign Double Page Spread

The first part that we had to do was open the programme Adobe InDesign, we then had to create a new document at the specific sizes, which were 210mm x 250mm with a 5mm margin and a 5mm bleed. The next part that we did was to create guides for our new document. To do this we had to go to the option layout > create guides. We had to then change the guides from 0 to 12 in both option with the gutter staying the same at 5mm. We also had to make sure that the guides fitted to the margins.

After this we had to find a photograph of a celebrity or any person of your choice. The celebrity that I chose was Lucy Hale, from one of my favourite tv shows. Once we had found a photograph of our celebrity that we wanted to use for the double page spread, we then took the photograph into programme known as Adobe Photoshop were we then had to modify the photograph using 4 different tones. The first was the option RGB, once I had selected this option, I felt that the photograph that I had chosen to modify, didn't really change as the colours were the same and everything else was the same.

After I had done this I then selected the option known as CYMK. After the first option that I had selected nothing changed in the photograph, however when I selected this option it brightened up the photograph. I like this option better, as I felt that the colours a little more vibrant and people would take more interest in the photograph if the brightness of the photograph would be better.

 After this I then looked into the option called Black and White, the would then take away the colour of the photograph and replace it with a black and white colour. After selecting this option, I began to like this photograph even more. I liked this photograph even more in Black and White because I felt that the photograph was best suited with this option because it was very professional, eye-catching and engaging because it was very different to the coloured version.

 The final photograph option that we used was called Bitmap, I felt that this was the option that modified my photograph the most because it changed my photograph to have lots of circle to make up the photograph that I had chosen of Lucy Hale. This option was my favourite because I thought that this was very different to the designs that I had created using different selections. The way that the design was created made the design stand out very well and would engage a lot people to look at the photograph. To create this design I had to follow the process of Image > Adjustments > Bitmap. This then popped up a menu where I had to make sure that the resolution was at 300 pixels/inch and that the method was set to the halftone screen setting. After this a pop up menu again appeared for the halftone screen setting were I had to change the frequency to 10 lines/inch and the angle to 45 degrees, I also had to make sure that shape was circle. I then selected the ok button and got my finishing result.

Once I had finished with editing the four photographs, I then saved the photographs as tiff's, which we the best format that I needed to save them as because this would allow the photographs that I have modified to be high quality and professional. I then opened up my InDesign document where I then added eight pages to my InDesign document where I had to duplicate the pages in order to get the rest, which allowed me to produce four double paged spreads. The first part I had to do was to choose the page 2-3, I decided to use page 3 to place my photograph on to as it was on the right hand side. To place the Image, I had to follow the process of file > place, I was then able to choose the photograph that I wanted to take into the document. To make sure that the photograph perfectly fit into the document I  held down shift and stretched the image to make the image fit the page, I then repeated this process for the other three of the images that I was going to use and placed them on page 5,7 and 9.

After I had placed all of my Photographs perfectly on to the page I then decided to experiment with one colour tones by using the bitmap image to see how the image would look with the one colour tone, the colour I chose was pink. It wasn't a light pink that I chose it was a dark and vibrant pink that would catch the attention of the target audience very easily. After I had done this I found that the photograph I had placed onto the document was easier to see overall, as I found that the brightness of the colour allowed the detail displayed on the photograph to stand out well, which made it easier for the people who would be looking at this photograph and design to understand what was being displayed in the image.

Again I decided to add colour to add new pantone to the Bitmap design and the black and white design, as I wanted to experiment with the colours even further. The first photograph that I decided to edit was the bitmap photograph because this was my favourite design overall, so I thought that I would start with this one first. To create a new pantone I had to find the colour swatch panel on the right hand side of the page, once I had found the colour swatch panel I then created a new colour swatch by selecting the tool that was placed next to the bin. Once I had selected this button a pop up

menu then appeared on the screen where I kept everything the same apart from the colour mode that I changed to any of the Pantone colour options. After I had sone this I then was able to choose a shade for the list of colours that I had been given the colour that I chose in the end was pantone 130 cp, which was a bright orange colour. I chose this colour because it was very bright and vibrant, which would catch the attention of the people that would be looking at the photograph. I also thought that this colour was more engaging than other colours that I looked at.

                   

                                                           

Above is the final result, after I had applied the pantone colour to the bitmap Photograph that I had decided to edit even further. I found that this colour that I had chosen to use for the photograph was very bright and allowed the photograph to be easily understood what is being displayed in the photograph. I feel that the colour suits the design well, which allows the lots of detail to stand out on the photograph that isn't easy to see. I then did the same process for the black and white photograph, however for this design I decided to change the colour of the pantone colour swatch to a purple rather than a yellow. I chose to use this colour I thought that it would match the personality of the character that the actress Lucy Hale plays in the hit TV show Pretty Little Liars. 

Furthermore into the task of creating a double page spread I then decided to move onto the left side of the page, where I was then able to add some text to my design this was because the left side of the double page spread look very bare. To start off with we were shown a example of a double page spread that had been created, I thought that the typography of the design was very creative and very easy to read. I found that this design was a good example because the layout of the design was very professional, as the design was very easy to understand. 

After this we firstly did an experiment with the text tool because we were still learning the basic principles of InDesign. The first part that we had to do was to create a text box using the text box tool, we I then selected an area on the page and dragged the text box across the page to make the box larger than what it was before. Once I had created the text box I was then able to start writing inside of the box to get the basic idea of what it would look like when text was placed onto the left side of the page.

I then decided to experiment with the text even more by enlarging the text that I had placed in to the text above. I did this because it made the text that I had written bolder and easier to read. However I then wanted to experiment with the text even more by changing the length of letter 'T' and letter 'E', to do this I had to follow the process Type > Create Outlines. After I selected this option, I was then able to change the length of the letters of the text using the white arrow button. I was quite happy with how this turned out.  

After I had done this I then decided to add another text box underneath the word 'Type' that I had modified using the create outlines tool. I decided to add the text underneath the text because I thought that this was the place, which displayed the text in professional layout because it is easy to see. The font style that I chose to use for the text was a bold font style that stands out very well to the people that I am trying to aim my double page spread towards. 

Once I had experimented with the text tool, I then decided to create words that were relevant to the TV Show Pretty Little Liars (PLL) using the text box tool. I then decided to change the shape of the letters that were different words that I had created for example 'Emily'. To do this I followed the same process that I used to for the word 'Type' when I was experimenting with the different tools in InDesign. The process that I followed was Type > Create Lines. i then used the white arrow to modify the length or width of the letters that I wanted to change. 

Furthermore after creating my final double page spread design, I found that the Process and Production lesson allowed me to explore new skills that I hadn't used before for example the create outlines tool, which allowed me to change the length and width of a letter of my chose. Overall I really liked my final design that I created because the design layout that I created was very well presented, which allowed the design to look very professional and very attractive to the target audience that I will be aiming towards. 

I found that this Process and Production lesson was very helpful, as the skills that I have learnt will really help me in the future, as I found that this lesson was very fun and I enjoyed it very well.

InDesign Modernist Posters

JOSEF MÜLLER-BROCKMANN POSTERS

For this session, we learnt how to use Adobe InDesign, start from the basic tools, that we will need to use when creating a poster or another piece of design work that I will be going to working on. I was also given the task to create several posters using the basic tools that we had learnt in this session. The posters that we were given to design in the programme Adobe InDesign were by the designer known as Josef Müller-Brockmann, who is famous for the grid system in Graphic Design.

The tools, I used to create these Poster in the programme Adobe InDesign were the Rectangle tool, the Pen tool, Circle tool, the Gradient tool and the text tool. We had to create these posters to understand the basics of how to use the programme Adobe InDesign, even though I had used this programme before I did find this Process and Production very helpful because it was like a refresher.

I thought that this session was really good, as it refreshed a lot of the basics when using the programme. I thought that the programme was quite easy to use and I also learn't new tools that I could use when creating my work in Adobe InDesign. The part of this lesson that went well I think was creating the poster designs because I thought that when creating the posters I was able to put the basic tools that I had refreshed to good use. I thought that the posters that I have created looked like the posters that was created by Josef Müller-Brockmann. 

I have learnt new skills and refreshed on the basic tools that I already knew, which will allow me to apply this to my future project work, when using the programme Adobe InDesign. I will then be able to create the best possible outcomes for my project, which will attract people to look at. I think that in the future I am going to take inspiration from Josef Müller-Brockmann's Posters to create my own designs, I am going to also try to make my own Poster using Josef Müller-Brockmann's artwork style.