Tag Archives: InDesign

Computer Graphic Design

Redesigning an Advertisement Project 2017

Objective:

Students will demonstrate an understanding of the principles of design by re-designing a real-world flyer advertisement.

Links:
  • None
Topics Discussed:
  • InDesign Page Layout
  • Horizontal Width
  • Vertical Width
  • Document Grid
  • Snap to Grid
  • Margins and Columns
  • Principles of Design (Contrast, Repetition, Alignment and Proximity)
Assignment:

Let’s face it. There’s a lot of ugly flyers on the walls of this campus.

If they’re not ugly, they’re just plain and boring. Regardless, nobody pays attention to them and that completely defeats the purpose of a flyer. With all that you’ve learned about design, there’s no reason why you couldn’t improve on the ugly, boring, attention-starved flyers littering the walls of this school and help make the campus a more beautiful place to live and read.

Instructions:

Open a new InDesign document. Use the standard default size of paper and margin settings.

  1. Create a new folder with your name on it and save all files and images in the same folder as the InDesign document.
  2. Select a flyer from the front table, and use everything that you’ve learned about typography, page layout and the Principles of Design to improve on its design. Make it better than it was before!
  3. You must use all the text on the page and re-type it exactly as it appears on the page. You may not use any of the typefaces or images on the original page.
  4. You may download fonts from the web, as long as they are free and you convert the type to Outlines before you turn in your completed assignment.
  5. Go out on the Internet and find one or more pictures that you can use to recreate the ad. Make sure they are of appropriate size and quality, and are not watermarked or otherwise labeled.
  6. These will be printed on a black and white printer (Printing lots of color copies is expensive!), so you may only use black, white and shades of gray in your design.
  7. You must save the images you find in the assignment folder, and place them in InDesign. DO NOT copy and paste them or drag them directly from the web browser into InDesign.
  8. Use search engines like Google Image Search to look for images. Your pictures don’t have to be an exact match for the ad, but you’ll want to find something relevant to the flyer’s message.
  9. Turn on your grids and use the Snap to Grid setting to align your images and text. Leave at least one square of space between all images and text.
  10. Have your completed ad checked by Mr. Marmolejo, and upload the entire contents of your project folder into the Google Classroom assignment post entitled “Redesigning an Advertisement Project 2017” by end of class on Thursday, October 5th.
Assigned: October 2nd, 2017
Teacher Pacing Due Date: October 5th, 2017
Computer Graphic Design

Intro to Typography – Typeface Choices 2017 (I am a…)

As a designer, good (or bad) design is all about the choices you make. One of the most important decisions you’ll make is what typefaces you will use to produce your headlines, subheadings and body text.
Strong typeface choices set the appropriate tone for your intended message, while inappropriate typeface choices send conflicting messages and can disrupt the message you intended to communicate.
Today we will practice making strong typeface choices.


Objective:

  • I can select the most appropriate typeface available for a given design scenario.

Vocabulary Words:

  • Type
  • Typeface
  • Font
  • Serif
  • Sans Serif
  • Script
  • Ornamental/Decorative/Display
Links:
 
None.
Topics Discussed:
  • Serif Fonts
  • Sans Serif Fonts
  • Script Fonts
  • Ornamental/Decorative/Display Fonts

Assignment:

You’ve seen those “Hello! My Name Is…” badges, right?

2000px-Hello_my_name_is_sticker.svg

They’re pretty generic. They use generic fonts and simple design to make them easy for anybody to recognize and use. What if we could personalize a Hello badge to fit our own personalities? Today, we’re going to use what we’ve learned about typefaces and the Principles of Design to redesign a Hello badge to reflect different aspects of our personalities. To do this, you will need to make important choices about how you arrange the page, what typefaces you would like to use, and what colors you would like to use to effectively communicate a message about who you are.

  1. Create a new InDesign document with the default size, but  use landscape orientation.
  2. Use the Pages palette to create three additional pages, for a total of four pages.
  3. Take a few minutes to think of four words that describe what you are. For example, you  might use words like “student, teenager, athlete, musician, gamer, superstar, etc.” This will work best if you think of your own, so try to think of four nouns that best represent you.
  4. On each page, create a headline containing the words: “Hello” and “My name is”. Select a typeface and font size that makes these words easy to read, and make “Hello” slightly larger than “My name is”.
  5. In a single, very large headline, type your name. Select a font that is appropriate for your name, and try to make your name fill the page without going over the pink margins.
  6. Finally, near the bottom of the page, type the words “and I am a _______.” Fill in the blank with one of the four descriptive nouns that you thought up for yourself.
  7. Fill in the background with a color, by creating a rectangle the size of the entire page and placing it on a layer below your main text layer. Lock this layer to protect your background.
  8. Your goal with this assignment is to choose typefaces and page design elements that look appropriate for the descriptive noun that you have chosen. For example, since I’m a teacher, I used a chalkboard font called “Chalkduster”, since chalkboards are commonly associated with teaching. I also changed the background color to a chalkboard green to give the idea of a chalkboard.
  9. mmchalkboard
  10. Add any graphics or drawings that you would like to include to make your design more visually appealing. For example, I added the grey rectangle and the thin white rectangles on the bottom of the page to represent a chalkboard eraser and two pieces of chalk.
  11. Repeat this process on the following three pages for the remaining three words you have chosen.
  12. When you have all four pages finished, save the document as “Your name – Typeface Choices” and upload the document to today’s assignment post in Google Classroom by the end of the day on Wednesday, September 27th.

Assigned: September 25th, 2017
Due Date: September 27th, 2017