Class Info

  • Date: Wednesday, 11/13
  • Meeting Info: In-Person, Pearl 112

Topic

Objectives

  • Understand the relationship between complex background imagery and legible typography.
  • Understand how to improve legibility
  • Learn how to work with more complex grid for type and art placement.

Activities

  • DEMO (follow along) — How to Place Photo in InDesign: There are multiple ways to not only place a photo into InDesign, but how to get it to appear within a particular frame/boundary. We’ll go through these ways together.
    • Step 1: Open InDesign and create a file:
      • 8.5″ width x 3″ height
      • Horizontal orientation
      • 1 Page, NO Facing Pages
      • Margins are .25″ all around
    • Step 2: Use the frame tool to create three boxes 2.5 x 2.5 inches each. Place as shown:
    • Step 3: Place the picture of the flowers by Prof. Guliani into the document 3 times: once per frame.
    • Step 4: In Boxes 2 and 3, experiment with different ways to fit your art within a frame. Select you art (frame and all) and go to OBJECT > Fitting to experiment with different options.
      • Fill Frame Proportionally: InDesign fills the full frame with your image, proportionally.
      • Fill Content Proportionally: InDesign takes your image and scales it to fit into your frame proportionally, even if it leaves negative space within your frame.
      • Content-Aware Fit: InDesign finds the central focus of your image and places your image within the frame accordingly.
      • Fit Frame to Content: InDesign changes the shape of your frame to fit your image.
      • Fit Content to Frame: InDesign forces your image to fit within the frame, even if it skews it so it’s not in proportion.
      • Center Content: InDesign centers your image within the frame.
  • Type Textures: This is a GRADED assignment. You will experiment with type, color, and layout using the textures you photographed for homework.
    • Step 1: Create a new InDesign Document
      • 9″ x 9″
      • 1 page, NO facing pages
      • Column Gutter: .5″
      • Margins: .5″ all around
      • Save as Lastname_Firstname_Type_Textures_1
    • Step 2: Click “A-Parent” in the Pages Panel and apply the following:
      • LAYOUT > Create Guides
        • 2 rows, 2 columns
        • .5″ gutter for both
        • Select “Margins” under Options “Fit Guides to”
    • Step 3: Create 4 square frames, using your grid as a guide and place one texture photo in each frame (four different images total).
    • Step 4: Looking at your images, choose 4 words (things or concepts) that each of your photos makes you think about. For example, the top right looks like an oil spill
      • Think about the image itself and how the word could be designed to represent it.
      • Place these words over your texture (one word or thing per texture). The word must be legible.
      • IMPORTANT: This is a typography class. Use what you’ve learned so far this semester to create something the expresses the meaning of your chosen word. Think of typeface, variations of type style, size, case, word spacing, placement, meaning, color and contrast.
    • Step 5 Add Color to your Word: One of the strongest ways to add color that thematically aligns with your photo, is to create swatches with the COLOR THEME tool.
      • Go to WINDOW> Color > Swatches
      • In the Toolbox/ Panel on the left of your screen, locate the EYE DROPPER tool, click the little arrow and select the COLOR THEME tool.
      • Click your photo with the COLOR THEME tool. You will see a strip of colors. You can even view variations by clicking the little arrow right next to it.
      • Select the icon to the right of the arrow to add the strip of colors to your swatches panel.
      • Use these theme colors in the swatches panel for your word in order to make a more cohesive design and relate the typography color to the image.
    • Repeat this process with the other 3 images and words. (Example below by Prof. Guliani. Shared only so you can see a variety of solutions. Your work should not resemble these.)
    • Once finished, save your work in InDesign.
      • Export a PDF
        • Name PDF: Lastname_Firstname_Type_Textures_1
        • Place in Dropbox

To-Do After Class

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