In-Design - Week 2

This week we focused on Chapter 2 of the InDesign workbook.

Terms & tools we looked at include:

• The Pasteboard
• The Toolbar
• Panels
• Menus
• Manipulating Pages - in a multi-page oducment, you can add/delete and move pages.
• Frames - InDesign - Pics and text go into frames.
• Selection Tool - you have to turn on an object before you can manipulate it. Note: solid arrow - content frame and Hollow arrow - selects content
• Text - importing information - turn on a texct box and choose file to import text from a Word file (place)
• Pictures - File > Place - Images are not a permanent part of the file until it's embedded.
• Fitting - pcitures in frames and control how a picture its frame fits
• Bridge - I still don't understand what this is
• Leading - line space between lines
• Kerning -
• Pica - column width 12 points in a Pica. It is written 0p6. 1p6 = 18pts
• Point Size - size of letters.

Homework - completed up to the end of Chapter 2

Cool animation/gif

An interesting .gif by Secrets of a Bully ....

Claim your URL

The most popular extension of course is .com. It's cheaper than .com.au - it's universal, and it doesn't tie you to a region. But what if someone already has the URL you want, here are some options ....

http://personalbranding101.com/poll-the-dot-com-is-taken-for-my-name-am-i-screwed

Branding you

Check out this "infographic". It outlines a 9 Step Path to Personal Branding and I think will be really useful to develop MyLogo idea and website.

Find the original link here: http://www.marketingprofs.com/chirp/2013/10010/path-to-personal-branding-infographic

Graphic design industry

What is a graphic designer? What do they do?

A junior designer may:

• assist
• learn from senior designers
• make changes to artwork
• repetitive work

A graphic designer may:

• produce concepts on a client brief
• generate mock-ups
• liaise with clients about changes
• liaise with print companies
• liaise with web providers, including ISPs, programmers
• check proofs

Graphic Design versus art

Useful links:

• The difference between art & design
• Art vs Design

Animation

Notes:

• We are using Adobe Flash to animate.
• File formats - .flash (create the animation) and then convert to .swf to view/play
• Key-by-key animation - like a flipbook 
• Tweaning - influence shape, movement, opacity, colour

When things aren't working, check you have converted it to flash objects. There are objects within objects within objects.

In relations to MyLogo assignment think about what kind of logo do I want to have? What do I want my logo to say?

Flash is useful - as a designer there can be a lot of bread and butter work.

Homework -

• think about the name of your business
• check if it has been taken (the URL/domain)
• do you research and look for benchmarks

Useful links:

• http://www.keyframer.com

Typography

Notes:

• Good design - leads people's eyes. We (the designer) tells them how we want them to read.
• There is a hierarchy of information. The designer can present the information so that the reader reads/accesses the information in the order you want - the most important information first.
• Nothing should be random
• By the end of the semester - each student will present their logo, their visual identity.
• Adobe programmes - Illustrator - produce illustrations, Photoshop - manipulate images, InDesign - Layout.

We explored 20 logos with Hidden Symbolism looking at how they were a mixture of icon and type.

Important - No more than three colours in a design and no more than three typefaces (two is probably too many) 

Remember when designing you should create two version, including the REVERSED image. 

Useful links:

• an example of a style guide, including reversed logo

In producing our logos (including applying it to a business card), students can follow this process:

1. Collect benchmarks - examples of what you like - add these to your visual diary
2. Analyse what works in the benchmark examples 
3. Based on your analysis, start doing rough thumbnails. You may find you do hundreds.
4. Choose three of the roughs that you like, and focus on them more fully. 

Important:

Read as many Computer + Arts magazines as possible. If you like something cut it out and add it to your visual diary. Visit the library for these resources.