Looking at design elements & creating business cards

In the first half of the class we looked a slide presentation of design elements.

The second half of the class was devoted to creating a template for business cards. Business cards are typically - 55mm x 90mm

To replicate this activity, measurement specifications are:

Layer 1 -

• Page - 210mm x 397mm
• 2 columns
• 10 mm between the columns
• Top margin 20cm
• Bottom margin 27mm
• Each side margin 10mm
• Vertical Guides - at 55mm. 65mm, 120mm, 130mm, 185mm, 195mm, 250mm

Layer 2 -

• Draw in rectangles for where each business card is. Each rectangle indicates the line the guillotine will make. It is best to use a very fine hair line for the rectangles.

Layer 3 -

• Add in guides for bleed at 2mm around each rectangle.
• Draw a rectangle (red) to indicate the bleed area.

Lock each layer as they're created. SaveAs an InDesign Template (.indt)

First class of InDesign

First class today, we looked very generally at InDesign. Each of us opened up the programme and we went through various features including the PasteBoard (which is the non-printable area upon which designers work on). We discussed aspects of printing language/conventions, the relationship of digital design to its origin as a printed form. 

Interesting definitions

• Pica 
• Slug
• Text Box
• Serif - a serif font has the ticks and flairs at the top/bottom, begining/end of letters. Line width may also vary in thickness in individual letters. A serif font is more appropriate for novels as they are better for readability.
• Sans Serif - sans (no/none) serif fonts have no ticks or flairs. The line width of each individual letter is uniform. Sans serif fonts are popular for titles and headlines, magazines, digital.

Possible useful links

• Pasteboard Notes