Topics
Inventory Content
You must read all the provided text. Take an inventory of the structure of the text. Are there many levels of headings? Are there bullet or number lists, captions, pull-quotes? Document each of the elements that need to be designed.
Publication Format
The length and format of the publication is up to you. The one caveat is that you must use all of the provided text. You will also create vector illustrations to complement the aesthetics of the pages.
Construction cannot go forward before all planning is complete.
Your Assignment
Planning Documents
Paper Mock-up
A paper mock-up is the best way to visualize your publication. You can test dimensions, binding and paper stock. This is a fun hands-on paper-craft activity. Use imagination to create a mock-up with design elements that may refer to the content. Maybe a simple die-cut or creative binding could allude to the subject matter.
In industry, you would produce a mock-up that’s clean enough to show your client. It should be well assembled and represent the final piece as closely as possible.
This is going to dictate the format of the final piece, so take care to think this through. The client expects these details to be delivered in the final product.
Typography
The type specimen will communicate the typographic treatment in your work. You should only use two type families in this project, unless you have a specific reason for more. Choose families with a lot of variety; weight, italics, etc…
Build a type specimen document in InDesign. It can be a single page or more, if needed. It will showcase:
- font selection
- type treatment
- hierarchy of titles, body copy, photo captions, etc…
- leading
- space after or first line indent
- colour application
- appearance of captions pull quotes, emphasis, etc…
This is not a page layout sample. It will simply include each of the elements on the page. It’s actually better that it’s not laid-out so that doesn’t distract from the typography.
You can include a grey box as a place-holder for a photo to show what captions look like.
Photo Treatment
Your publication should contain a lot of photography, as travel books do. You will source quality stock photography. This is a good starting point for your search.
Your final photography should have a consistent treatment and style throughout your document. Similar mood, lighting, cropping should be used across the publication. You can vary indoor/outdoor and object/people photography. You can achieve this by using Photoshop.
Required Photo Montage
You must include one full-spread photo montage in your publication. It will likely be in the centre-fold. This is the part of the project where you’ll flex your Photoshop muscles.
Create a tabloid-sized page with samples of photo treatments. Also include a sample of what your montage will look like. Also, print a contact sheet of your photo selection.
Illustration Samples
Create illustrations to include throughout the document. These can complement the photography and typography. They need to be done in Illustrator, then imported onto the InDesign pages.
Create a layout with samples of your illustrations. Format the page as needed to showcase your illustrations.
You will have at least one info-graphic taking up a minimum of a page or as much as a spread.
You should have other illustrations as page decorations. It might be more convenient to place them on parent pages rather than having to position them individually on each page.
Supplemental Links
- Stock photography
- Create a Photoshop Contact Sheet</a>
