My blog post InDesign project blog by Jess scrivener
Design ideas and design process
My first design for the postcard project was experimental I used rectangles in different shades to make dimension and illusions. I then added the typography to the corners so it would add a frame to the design. This also made it look more even whereas before it looked wider due to the layout of the rectangles. I chose green as it is a calming colour with connotations of nature and peace. Also, it works well with white, making it stick out and complimenting the connotations of green.
In my second idea, I changed the colour scheme and layout. I changed the colour to pink/red the connotations of those are passion, anger, love, romance and danger. Obviously very different to the calming green. This will attach the attention of the audience very quickly as people pay attention to shades of red quite quickly due to warning signs being branded this colour. It is also a similar shape to a cross (x) symbolising no and stop. Not only this it makes the design appear more square and bigger than it is as the layering effect reaches out of the frame. This is balanced out by the typography levelling out the edges.
On my 3rd and final post card, I played around with the typography more. Initially, I kept my geometric theme but changed the shape to circles to create a bubble effect however I was fonder of the squares and thought the text wrapping would flatter rectangles better and appear more post card like. So, I thought about post card conventions and thought this style typography suited abstract postcards better. I used 4 different shades of pink to create the hierarchy between the colours, for example, darkest is at the front lightest
as at the back. Finally, I also chang
ed the font on this one to be more fun and abstract. The curvy, thickness creates a contrast between the sharp edges but the flat edges mean it still fits the rest of the design.
Software tutorials
For this project, I didn’t use many tutorials as I am quite confident with InDesign due to my previous experience with the software. However, I did use a few to help me spiral rows of text around my 3rd post card but I already knew how to use the type on path tool so it wasn’t too helpful. I did learn how to make the stroke colour clear this helped me remove and change borders till I was happy with them. Finally, the tutorial that helped me most showed me how to use the pen tool. I really struggled with the pen tool but I’m now getting used to using it, I found out that you can draw a shape with the pen tool and then put an image inside the shape you just made. Although this wasn’t the most helpful for this specific design, it will definitely help me in the future.
During this project, I used a lot of Behance. I personally love Behance it has incredible work from so many brilliant artists, designers and more. I used this website for my inspiration along with experimenting with my own ideas. For example, I saw an illustration of slime dripping down a wall and that inspired me to create my own slime inspired cover. Or for the post card project, I saw kite shapes drifting over a postcard and geometric stairs next to it this inspired me. I saw how the stairs used the shades of black to create dimensions and the way the kites overlapped using the same method and I knew I wanted to try it. All of that thrown together became my final post card.
For my first design (Figure 1) I simply took my podcast cover and made it fit the postcard format better. I added a thick black bar to break up the composition and included the apple music and Spotify logos at the top-left of the page. I counterbalanced the image at the bottom-right by adding a man who is appearing to be pushing the black bar — this adds movement to the design. To make the image fit in better with my original ‘Typophoto’ inspired theme I recoloured it to black and white, using the fact that linked photos automatically update when you edit the original file to my advantage.
Idea 2
Figure 2: Idea 2
Figure 3
This design is the strongest of the three (Figure 2). Not only is it aesthetically pleasing but it is also well planned out. I used the Fibonacci sequence to create a grid: firstly I used rectangles to produce a shape that differentiates with every interval in the sequence (Figure 3). After this I used these intervals as markers for where to place ruler guides both on the horizontal and vertical axis (Figure 4). I then filled in some parts of the grid that I was left with and this produced a modern and minimalistic arrangement of shapes. The composition looked kind of flat at this point. To fix this, when I came around to adding type, I reflected the main text around the corner of a shape — this gives the postcard a sense of multidimensionality as it prompts the viewer to look at it from different angles in order to read the text.
Figure 4
Idea 3
Figure 5
This final variation, just like previous designs is very minimalist. I used black bars once again but this time to assist the viewer in following the flow of the type. I scaled the words in relation to their importance.
Software tutorials
The first software tutorial I used was ‘How To Draw And Use Fibonacci Grid In Your Design Layout’ (https://youtu.be/n6BsmS68uAo). This introduced me to thinking about the theory behind my designs and how I can use useful features of InDesign such as ruler guides to help me do so. Grids are very effective for making sure that all elements of your composition are aligned and are especially helpful when working on editorial projects. I used the grid to determine the placement of shapes in order to create an abstract picture. Experimenting with the grid has opened up new questions for me and I’d like to explore other ways of manipulating your design through theories and mathematical experiments. It would also be interesting to investigate what makes a good balance between laying out page elements by eye and laying them out using theory.
The second tutorial I watched was ’11 Visual Hierarchy Design Principles’ (https://youtu.be/ZXItTIjC0Wk). This encouraged me to think about what stands out most, and the least, in my compositions and why — whether it was in relation to type size or the colour of certain elements. My third postcard design is the best example of this: the less important the text the smaller it is and the lighter the colour. I also decided to make the main text a bright red that stands out from the black and white. The only mistake I think I made, in regards to hierarchy, is making the black lines so bold. They are quite distracting.
Design resources and articles
After taking a look at some of Genis Carrera’s postcards and their purpose of capturing human ideas or ‘isms’ (https://www.designweek.co.uk/inspiration/philographics-postcard-book-by-genis-carreras/) I thought that I should try represent something in my own work. This inspired me to embody the concept of “design” through my second postcard. The black shapes almost represent building blocks that a designer would have to organise and arrange to create order and balance — hence why some of the shapes appear to have parts which seem as if they could slot into one another. It’s a metaphor for the obstacles a designer is presented with when designing. In general I found the geometric nature of Carrera’s designs successful at conveying a sense of modernity — something which you would want to encapsulate in a ‘Typography and Graphic Communication’ podcast. Design, like many things is about new and fresh ideas, and I think a modern design is the perfect way to capture that.
For the Photoshop Task, I experimented with the use of gradients, I continued this for my postcards, to create synergy between the branding elements. For this particular design, I wanted it to have a poster feel on a smaller scale. It includes a logotype, as well as body text that includes the title and information about the podcast. I felt that this design paid off and I was able to solidify my skills on InDesign, it is probably my favourite of the three.
My second postcard design
For my second postcard design, I wanted to replicate my screensaver by using the gradient tools on InDesign. I also wanted this particular style in landscape, I thought it leant itself better this way. I felt that this didn’t challenge me as much however, I did learn how to create a grain effect.
My third postcard idea
For my third postcard design, I wanted to experiment more with type and paragraph styles. This was particularly fun and I enjoyed making swatches for my repeated text. This design was nearly my favourite because it was rather straightforward to make but also required me to use various tools.
Design Process
I started by creating three swatches and then using these to create a gradient swatch. Then I created a circle with the ellipse tool and set the fill to black. After that, I made a larger circle over the top with the fill set to the gradient swatch and then sent the larger circle to the back of the document. Then I selected object>effects>gradient feather. I set the type to radial and then adjusted the gradient stops. I then copy and pasted the gradient circles twice and moved them to to the left and right of the original circle.
This was before I had added the text and I was experimenting with the ellipse toolThis was once I added the text, creating my ‘logotype’.
Software tutorials
I found tutorials on InDesign really beneficial. I haven’t used InDesign as much as the other software so was least confident for this program. I began by watching the tutorial on Adobe which was a very brief video about creating a postcard on InDesign. One of the most useful tutorials I watched was another of Adobe’s which showed how to apply colour and effects to my postcard. The most useful tutorial was probably one I found through Pinterest when looking for inspiration. This tutorial showed how to create gradient effects. These tutorials helped me develop my general skills and confidence in using InDesign. I now feel that I can confidently implement gradients and utilise swatches on an InDesign file. Some areas I would like to improve are consistently using paragraph styles, I found for this project I forgot; whereas, in the TY1INT book design project I rarely forgot. I would also like to experiment more with the tools as there is still a lot that I haven’t used so hopefully I can watch some tutorials and follow them.
Design resources and articles
Alongside the David Pearson article and the Molly Scannell article, I also found my own. I did a lot of research on social media in particular Pinterest and Behance. I found it useful to see how others designed postcards in general or podcast branding. I also used Behance to look at general work created on InDesign to get a better feel for it. In particular, one article I looked at was for gradients, this was interesting to me for background and also seeing how it’s applied.
Design 1
Design one features one of my designs from my photoshop task. I have added a bar on the right-hand side of the postcard. I have used a white font that has a rule set to below the text in colours that help add to the design while not taking away too much from the main image. The design is effective at telling you what the postcard is about. Experimentation could be carried out to make the text more legible and not make the postcard look to blocky.
Design 2
For the second design I decided to go for a more relaxed and simpler look. The only piece of ‘flair’ that has been included into the design is that the type has been ruled below and then I have applied a character style to certain letters that make them drop slightly below the rest of the text on that line. By using paragraph and character styles it made the creation of this postcard very straightforward.
Design 3
This design focuses on the opacity of layers and the use of type with strokes instead of a fill. I reverted back to the original image and just placed it in the back. I then added a layer over the top of this and reduced the opacity of it. Once the text was added the postcard was completed. Again, simplicity in the design does work in this case, the subtly of the type also compliments the postcard.
Final Design
For my final design I tweaked design one to give the text more of a connection to the postcard. The use of drop shadow helps accomplish this, I also lined up the angle of the box to be parallel with the neon triangle. Leaving the overall postcard with a more refined look.
I start off by using the image that I edited for my photoshop task as I will be using it as the main image for the postcardI then added text which I selected to have a rule below on. I also placed this text into a rectangle that I placed on the right hand side of the pageSome of the paragraph rules that I set out for the text to follow
I decided to move the text from the right hand side of the page to instead having the rectangle be placed diagonally across the bottom half of the postcard. Having also added the drop shadow effect it makes the text feel more connected to the actual postcard. As shown by the image I have also added a colour overlay just to give the overall design a pop of colour, almost making it feel electric.
Software tutorials
After watching the tutorial on Adobe help on applying colour and effects my understanding of the software grew and it was easier to work with the tools that were available to me. Being able to use the eyedropper tool to capture the right colours was extremely useful. In addition to this using the eye dropper in combination with swatches allowed for me to create a pallet of colours that I used throughout the design. The tutorial also explains the use of effects such as drop shadow which I ended up using for the box with the text. This helped the text play more of a role on the postcard as it is emphasised by the drop shadow. In future I would like to develop on using layers more effectively, the implementation of using more effects in my work. ‘Effects Tutorial’ the following tutorial shows of how blends and effects work on InDesign. The tutorial also helped me understand how to go about drop shadows as well as the adobe help pages. In addition to this I also watched videos on understanding how to ‘work with layers’. This video did help although it may be seen as a simple concept it was still very important that I fully understood how to work with layers as for my designs it was more important to have multiple layers in use to create certain effects.
Design resources and articles
The David Pearson article helped me develop my ideas looking the different proposals that had been shown. The amount of variation and different ways that the same cover had been presented gave me inspiration to chop and change my own designs. This method of experimenting was effective in my designs as it enabled me to see what worked best. Following on from reading this article I was able to implement this way of working into my own work. I would base my decisions on not just how something looked but instead compare it to different variations of the same element of the given design.
Before starting this project, my software skills on InDesign were limited, I had only used it once in a demonstration class at A Level. InDesign is intimidating, it’s scary and professional. So, I ignored it and stuck with my best friend Illustrator for two years, I even designed a 12-page magazine on Illustrator too.
Until I started this course and knew that I had to master this software, for the sake of my career. Through the tutorials and guided sessions, I began to break the ice with InDesign. I started to see how useful and powerful it is as a piece of design software. When the time came around for the InDesign task, me and InDesign were certainty on acquaintance terms.
I have explored some of the online tutorials available, using adobe tutorials as my starting point. I could list all the new things which I have discovered how to do on InDesign, but I have taken away more important lessons.
InDesign has a huge extend of tools available to use
The internet is a good stating place to discovering what InDesign can do
InDesign isn’t so bad once you start hanging out and getting to know each other
Sorry Illustrator, but pros work with InDesign.
Design Idea & Process
Typography for Design Nerds
Screenshot 1 – Drop ShadowPostcard 1 – Typography for Design Nerds
With my first design idea, Typography for Design Nerds, I started out by exploring the Adobe InDesign Tutorial for some inspiration. The Create a Retro Effect jumped out to me because of the funky typography. Through the properties panel (Windows → Properties) you can access the text effects by clicking on the fx button, circled in Screenshot 1. For this project I thought that the drop shadow, with yellow as the contrasting colour, was eye catching and visually exciting.
Design Nerds
Podcast – For Design Nerds
For this postcard I chose to extend one of my podcasts covers, Podcast – For Design Nerds When looking for some inspiration I found this postcard, Inspiration – The Secret Garden, and quite liked the interactionbetween the text and the image, something which I hoped to achieve in my own postcard.
I challenged myself to create an interactive pdf, using this tutorial. I found it so much easier than I thought it would be.
Screenshot 2 – Adding a Link
With the text (or object) selected access the hyperlinks window, see Screenshot 2, and paste in the link. When saving make sure you save as an interactive PDF.
Postcard 2 – Design Nerds
Typography is the Art of Arranging Letters
For my final postcard I again have taken inspiration from another Adobe InDesign Tutorial, and learnt how to use drop caps. A skill which I have been able to transfer to the book project. I have achieved this by selecting the first letter and then over in the paragraph settings and increasing the Drop Cap Number of Lines, Screenshot 3. To add an image into a letter, I had to firstly change the editable text into a shape, by converting to outlines, Screenshot 4. Then insert in your selected image, by using the place function, Screenshot 5.
Screenshot 3 – Drop CapsScreenshot 4 – Create OutlinesScreenshot 5 – Placing an Image
I wanted to learn one final thing, how to Create Gradients in Adobe InDesign. Access the gradient tool, see Screenshot 6, and apply the gradient to the object, Screenshot 7. For more exciting colours, drag a colour from the swatches over to the gradient window, Screenshot 8.
Screenshot 6 – Accessing the Gradient ToolScreenshot 7 – Basic GradientScreenshot 8 – Changing the Colour of a GradientPostcard 3 – Typography is the Art of Arranging Letters
Design Resources and Articles
It’s hard to access your skills and know where you need to improve, when you have no idea what InDesign has to offer. So, I did some research and discovered this article 5 Cool Things You Didn’t Know You Could Do in InDesign. One of the suggestions was to create drop caps, which is what it did, with the help of another tutorial.
I hadn’t created a gradient before, but knew it was something you could do on InDesign so again searched up how to do that.
I’m discovering that the scope of resources out there are huge. I can keep challenging myself to extend my skills or to read up about something I haven’t come across before. There is always something new to learn how to do, and that is what this project is all about.
My first design was inspired by a previous podcast cover, but I also took inspiration from one of our first seminars at reading university. We were given a typeface anatomy sheet that covers the basic parts of a type face, and I wanted to include this in my rendition. I liked the baseline and cap height lines that gave the lettering structure and wanted to include this in my design.
postcard 1
Design process
As mentioned previously, I was already inspired by the type face anatomy handout before I had begun my design. So, I knew that the cap-height, X- height and base line was going to structure my type. However, I did struggle with the layout of this and it is clear I was experimenting with different typefaces during this development. This shows my stages of development before my final version displayed above. I was not satisfied with the sizing of lettering and the fonts I had chosen. It was noteworthy, when moving from development 1 to 2 and playing with the layout, that my design was too simple, and an additional element would be beneficial for my final design. Adding a microphone covered the spacing well.
postcard 1- development 1postcard 1- development
Design idea
For my second design, I wanted to play around a bit more with my text and for the design to be a little more exciting with a layed back approach. Using words of improvement from my lecturer about how I should manipulate the original image a lot more, I focused on a certain section of the image and used the coffee cup element to base my text around. I used light pastels in my design to give it a more feminine appearance and I loved how this turned out, matching well with my snappy ‘let’s talk graphics’ title.
postcard 2
Design process
Before settling on a final design for my second podcast, I was previously experimenting with layout and text. In development 1, you can see I was trialling out including the colour theme tool as a side margin. However, I decided this made my design look too cluttered and did not add anything to my design. On my second development I included aspects of my podcast cover, but reproducing it using different tools in InDesign. However, I felt this was too similar to my previous podcast design. So, for my final idea I settled for circular writing framing the coffee cup.
postcard 2- development 2postcard 2- development 1
Design ideas
For my final postcard, this was also inspired by a previous podcast. I wanted to include miscellaneous shapes and forms in the background to add body to my design. I took this inspiration from my original podcast cover too. However, unlike my podcast, I added additional elements e.g., the opaque boarder and the focused figure on to the page. I feel that this postcard has a very serious yet has a modern look about it, which I enjoy.
postcard 3
Design process
As I mentioned beforehand on trello, I wanted to involve more to my design to keep it busy and exciting. From my development 1, you can see there was not enough to my design, there was a clearly too much spacing in my design and there was a lot of room of improvement in my first draft.
However, there was a little more improvement in my second draft. I trialled with different lettering for ‘podcast’, experimenting with duplication. I did not mind this, however I feel this did not add anything to my design. At this stage I added an opaque boarder. I kept this in my final design, as it makes the title of ‘graphics etc’ more prominent.
postcard 3 development 1podcast 3 development 2
Section 2
Software tutorials
Before starting my postcard, I watched the tutorials suggested in the brief. This covered a lot of basic information that was essential to know to complete the task for week 6. These covered how to set up a new document, how to save, and goes through what each individual tool does in InDesign, so as a beginner in this software this was very helpful. Though these videos were useful, they only included the basics, to develop further skills in InDesign, we had to find software tutorials ourselves for our designs.
From my postcard design 1, I did not need to research much further in this design and used the basic tutorials we were provided as this was my first design and I was adjusting to the new software. Involved in this design, however, I used tutorials for photo placement and layering in order to produce this final outcome.
Moving to my second design, I was more open for experimentation. This involved photo manipulation, watching tutorials on how to crate circular text (using on the line text tool) and in one of my developments for the second design I also followed a perspective text tutorial from YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vg732m5bTOc
For my third postcard design, in order to create the miscellaneous shapes on this design I focused on using the shape tool, and to do this I followed a tutorial to get to grips with this new tool.
As InDesign is a large software that holds several different tools in order to complete successful designs, I understand that there is a lot more I can learn about it. There are some software skills I’d like to become more advanced in, for example masking and overlapping my texts to make my designs appear more professional. Truthfully, I’d like to become overall become more comfortable and confident when using the software, e.g. be able to experiment a lot more, and learn more keyboard shortcuts to enable faster design skills.
section 3
resources for research and inspiration
As mentioned previously, my first podcast was inspired by the handout we were given in the beginning of the academic year. This type face anatomy hand out inspired my layout as I had included the lining and connotations in my postcard.
The resource I used was the actual handout that I had kept from the lesson and used that. However, I also found other layout examples of typeface anatomy from the book ‘thinking with type’ by Ellen Lupton. This is a book about typography for designers, that covers typeface anatomy as well. Specifically, the front cover of this book uses anatomy as a decorative element.
http://thinkingwithtype.com
For my second design, I wasn’t so much inspired by a certain source, however I wanted to follow a feminine yet cartoon like aesthetic. Since my postcards were designed from out podcasts, I took inspiration from others I had previously listened to. A podcast that I liked the most and was inspired by was ‘looking up’ by courier media. They follow a cartoon aesthetic and use similar colour schemes as I have. This majorly helped me with my idea development of for my second postcard cover.
For my final design, I used a different podcast as inspiration, this one was called ‘becoming wise’. It is clear that I took inspiration from this podcast. I liked the range of different shapes they used and wanted to include this. Further, it can be argued my design for my postcard is very simple, but I believe this is from the source of inspiration. It is somehow calming due to the spacing it uses, and I wanted to incorporate this element in my own work.
After finishing this task, I grew interested in other topics I would like to explore myself or possibly throughout the rest of the year. I have always been interested in logo design and advertising, and how I can apply my new software skills to possibly move towards this area of graphic design. To do this, I could possibly branch out to other software for this, for example illustrator.
I have chosen the InDesign task as I liked the end result of the postcards.
These were my biggest inspiration for my InDesign task as I really liked the layout of these designs, I have used elements of these designs in my designs.
I have made 3 designs which are different from my posters however not so different that it would look completely different.
For my design 1
I have designed this postcard which is the picture of my last poster which I really liked. To make this postcard opened the picture in InDesign and then I have sized it small however it was not all over the page. Because the poster was more like a portrait poster. After making the postcard I realised that the font which I have used is traditional however the design is modern.
Design 2
To create my 2nd design, I have used the same picture but this time I have made the picture resize again made it small. After resizing it I then have used some text on the side and the reassessing date.
Design 3
My design 3 I have used a different layout and tried to make it more modern. To create this, I have used triangles on left top and right bottom and then I have used podcast name in the middle. Then I have used different sized circles and changed the opacity. I have used some lines on he left top to make some lines. I didn’t really like the triangle in the left corner, so I moved it to right top.
Design 4
My 4th design is really simple however I really like it because its minimalist and effective.
To make this I have used the podcast name and reused it 6 times.
After that I have used the circles to link it to the rest of the podcasts and the poster.
Then I have added full stop on the top to make it more effective. Lastly, I have added the releasing date.
Tutorials
To create these posters, I didn’t really watch any tutorials as i am doing another project in InDesign and I am quite confident in it. However, I did learn however I watched how to import the images and resize them as it was not clear to me.
To resize the image, I can go edit and then click on the art bort and drag the image from the text box, when you see the brown sine around the image that means it would edit now. To make it smaller I will have to click shift and t.
Resources and inspirations
To make these posters I have used ideals from Pinterest which I have used on top of the blog, which really helped me decide what I wanted in my design. I have used Pinterest to get inspirations of how I can make different postcard and then looked at google to see what existing postcards looked like ,my biggest inspiration was from Bauhaus as I was doing research about the essay when I looked at some Bauhaus covers which were really fascinating to me and I really liked the way they have used geometric shapes to create such an effective cover as well as the way they build the subject in the centre in a architecture sense is quite interesting. I have looked at some other postcards which really helped me to make my mind map of what I wanted my designs to have. all my research was about my poster cover which then I used again to develop my design further in InDesign.
To develop on my postcards, I would like to make them a bit more perfetional I would like to ask my classmates or my teachers to give me some feedbacks and try and see these postcards from a different point of view which can really help me make my design further. I think I would develop my first designs as I didn’t do much in that I would like to change the layout into a different style. Same with my 2nd design it was a bit too simple however I think it did look more like a postcard.
For the TY1SK module, I designed a podcast cover (which can be seen below) and a podcast postcard. In this blog post, I will be discussing how I used Adobe InDesign to create my podcast postcard designs. While designing the podcast covers, I came up with the name Counterfeit for my podcast. I chose this title as it incorporates a typographic term counter, which are the enclosed or partly enclosed areas within characters, such as in the letter ‘d’.
Design Ideas & Design Process
I began by creating a more collage-like outcome, incorporating images I downloaded from the website Pixabay, with solid colours within my colour scheme of red, dark brown and beige.
I used Photoshop to design a podcast logo inspired by images I had seen online. I incorporated this into all three of my podcast postcard designs.
After adding the podcast logo to my design, I then layered text over the top of the solid colour. After this, I incorporated a few geometrical shapes to the design. These shapes reflect the counters of letters and characters. The font I used for all my designs is the Adobe Gala font, with a shadow, which almost highlights the counters of the letter within the name Counterfeit.
For my second design, I decided to explore the more geometric style that I used in my podcast covers. I used layers to add shapes in the same colour scheme as the previous card design. For all of my designs I made sure to exploit the bleed space on InDesign, to ensure a sleek postcard without a white border.
I also incorporated the podcast logo as seen in my previous design, as well as the title Counterfeit in the Gala font, with a shadow. The subheadings are also in the Gala typeface. I played around with typographic hierarchy, using different weights and sizes of text, to create a visually organised podcast card.
I felt that my second design was more successful, and so I wanted to develop the geometric style further. I created a third design, taking aspects from the previous designs to create an even more visually appealing and successful outcome. I decided to add more contrast to this design, and so instead of the pale beige background, I used a dark brown colour with lighter text. For this design I played more with alignment and hierarchy. I centred the main title of my podcast, but I right aligned the subheadings as well as my podcast logo.
I continued with the idea of typographic counters, and so I incorporated the geometric shapes as seen previously. I exploited the layers tool to allow me to play with the relationships between these shapes.
Once again, I used the Gala typeface. This final design was definitely my favourite as I believe it is eye-catching and bold, while still having a minimal, uncluttered feel.
Software Tutorials
I watched Youtube tutorials and read articles to help me discover techniques and tools within InDesign. In particular, the Youtube video ‘In-Design Postcard Set-up’ by Lauren Rabinowitz was useful as it showed how to create the correct InDesign file for postcard design. For more information on InDesign and the tools within this Adobe app, I used the official Adobe website. One of the most helpful tutorials by Adobe was the ‘How to Make a Postcard with InDesign’ tutorial. One aspect of this tutorial that I found particularly valuable was the combination of text and images, using layers to do so.
Resources for Research & Inspiration
The resource that I found particularly useful was an article about Molly Scannell, and her design work, on the Adobe website. This article was called ‘How Molly Scannell created “Taken”’. Although this article focused on Scannell’s use of Photoshop, I was really inspired by her posters and designs. She frequently exploited layers and experimented with the positioning of the elements within her works to create eye-catching collages and composite outcomes. I really enjoyed looking at Scannell’s use of layering with both images, shapes and text, which was something I aimed to incorporate within my designs. This article did show examples of Scannell’s work, but it also gave a step-by-step tutorial on how she created her design ‘Taken’. Although I did incorporate the layering of shapes and text within my final outcome, I would like to further explore collage and the use of images within InDesign. On top of this, I looked at Pinterest for further inspiration on compositional and typographic ideas.
Reflection
Overall, I was very pleased with my final podcast postcard design. Although my final design was more simplified and minimal, I believe it is eye-catching and effective. This task allowed me to experiment with InDesign, an Adobe app that I am less confident with. It also allowed me to implement my new knowledge on typography, such as the use of leading and the techniques used to create hierarchy within text.
This was my favourite design and the one which I developed the furthest out of my three ideas. The aspect of this design which I developed the most was the type. Following on from my Podcast task (as seen in featured image) I wanted to continue to work with warping the type. I liked how this worked along side the image as I felt like it gave an impression of the crowd moving the letters around. I wanted to emphasise this sense of movement further in my postcard designs so to do this I developed different ways of enhancing the image and the format of the warped type. For this particular idea I decided to duplicate the picture, this is something I also did in my second idea but the way I utilised this differed. For idea 1 I flipped the image and cropped it (as pictured above) to create the impression of one mirrored image that frames the text. I liked the sense of balance this gave the postcard and how it emphasises the idea of the type almost being pushed around by the people in the image.
Postcard Idea 2..
Similar to Idea 1, I also duplicated the image in this postcard to enhance the sense of movement. This time I experimented with transparency, to create a blurred effect I lowered the transparency of the duplicated image and shifted it slightly in position (pictured above). I feel like this created a sense of movement in a different way to Idea 1. However I think this idea would off worked better with to similar images rather than two identical images to give the impression that the movement is changing as this would be more realistic. In order to develop my ideas I wanted to play around with the effectiveness of the warped text. Therefore in this design I warped some of the words but not all. I actually really like how this gives a focus on the most important aspect of the postcard which is the topic of type. I think this creates a sense of hierarchy within the postcard allowing it to inform the reader efficiently.
Postcard idea 3..
For my third idea, I actually wanted to explore using type that wasn’t warped. I wanted to see what effect this had visually compared to the warped type that I had used for the last two ideas. I didn’t want to alter the background image too much for this idea so I simply flipped it up side down. I still think this idea is effective but it did help me to realise that the warped text did work well in creating unity between the image and the text. In all my designs I made the word ‘with’ significantly smaller than the other two words as I wanted the focus to be on ‘talking’ and ‘type’ as these are the focus of the podcast/postcards.
SOFTWARE TUTORIALS
An issue that I encountered when completing this task in indesign is that indesign does not have appropriate tools to allow you to warp text. I got the idea to do this to the text through exploring photoshop in the previous task but when It came to working in indesign I realised that achieving these same effects within this software wouldn’t be possible. In order to solve this issue I searched for information on how to best transport images from photoshop into indesign. I googled this and was able to find out that only certain files can be transported from photoshop to indesign. I created my text in photoshop and then imported it as a psd into indesign. This worked okay but i has to do one word at a time so that I could figure our where to place the different text layers once they were actually in indesign. I plan on carrying out more research on how to do this and on how to use the softwares together. I know that this will also become an issue when I need to import from illustrator to indesign in future so I found a tutorial to refer back to ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FF9-l07KmDY ). I found that for this task, there was not much I actually wanted to manipulate in terms of image editing that I would need additional resources for. I felt as though my image was already prepared and edited in photoshop from first podcast task, to do this I had used a tutorial I found on YouTube ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oOTxsRTjkNM&t=741s ). This tutorial really helped me to learn different ways of removing parts of an image in photoshop and helped me to achieve a background image for my podcast and postcards that I was happy with. I think this Is something I could definitely do with referring back to as I did find it quite complex the first time round, but it was good to experiment with different tools I had not used before.
RESOURCES FOR RESEARCH AND INSPIRATION
For this task I wouldn’t say I was inspired by any resources in particular it was more a case of exploring new tools within software and just experimenting until I got something that I liked and thought was effective in advertising a podcast. I wanted to represent sound in a still image so my goal was to create a suggestion of movement within the design. I searched through my own photography to generate initial ideas and found the image of the crowd. I thought this would be appropriate as a crowd of people with their hands in their air represents people listening to music at a concert/ festival. People obviously listen to a concert differently to how they would listen to a podcast but I still think this is a close enough associated. After importing the image into photoshop I thought about how the crowd could almost push the text around the page and then I developed this further by warping the text itself. I feel like this almost gives off a metaphorical meaning in how we manipulate type for design purposes. On reflection I should off taken compiled more sources of inspiration for my work however I feel the process became more of an experimentation of tools than ideas which I think was beneficial in its own way. I think it would off been beneficial for me to have looked at examples of how others incorporate warped text into their designs and gain inspiration from this but overall I felt happy with my final outcome despite a lack of research/inspiration. I did have a look at a page provided to us for inspiration (https://helpx.adobe.com/uk/photoshop/how-to/composite-multiple-images-create-collage.html?playlist=/services/playlist.helpx/products:SG_PHOTOSHOP_1_1/learn-path:key-techniques/playlist:topic/set-header:get-inspired/en_GB.json&ref=helpx.adobe.com), ‘How Molly Scannell created Taken’, which I did find really intriguing but I think I found this at a point in my design process where I had already developed my ideas in the first task and didn’t know how I would incorporate aspects of this kind of style into my work. The techniques of image manipulation that this designer uses are definitely something I plan to explore and gain inspiration from in future work.
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