Game that's sweeping the nation

Cheese or Font?

Design tips

Here are some pretty good design tips. It frames it in the advertising world, but you could apply this to news and information, too.

Update

Good work day today. Here's what we will be up to (subject to change..):

Wednesday: Work day for photo story (demonstration) spreads

Monday Oct. 5: Work day .. planning on having magazine spreads due at the end of class, we'll see how this works out.

Wednesday Oct. 7: I'll show some brochure examples, we'll look at some of your microwave boxes and magazine spreads, and talk about how to use the brochure template

Monday Oct 12: Brochure work day

Wednesday Oct 13: Introduce the video assignment, Video Assignment #1

Monday: Oct 19: No class (Fall break)

Wednesday Oct 21: Brochure due at end of class (Work day)

October 26: More video techniques Video Assignment #2


Start thinking about who you client will be for your brochure!

Arial or Helvetica?

Updated class schedule

_____________________________________
Monday, September 21
Twilight poster
Assign Photo Story & Brochure

Wednesday, September 23
In-class Indesign assignment
_____________________________________
Monday, September 28
Work day for photo story, read chapter 8

Wednesday, September 30
Photo story, continued
_____________________________________

Monday, October 5
Photo story due, read Chapter 6
Discuss photo stories, brochure examples

Wednesday, October 7
Brochure work day
_____________________________________
Monday, October 12
Brochure work day

Wednesday, October 14 -- Mid point
Brochure work day
_____________________________________
Monday, October 19 -- No class, fall break

Wednesday, October 21
Brochure due, intro to video/audio storytelling
Assign: In-camera short story
_____________________________________

Photo story & Brochure info

Photo Story and Brochure Assignments

(Some changes from the syllabus here)

• Photo Story due October 5 (50 points)
• Tri-Fold brochure due October 21 (50 points)

These are the last two assignments of our "print" section. We'll be moving on to video after this.

Photo Story: this will be a four-page magazine spread demonstrating a multi-step task, procedure, service, etc., of your choosing.

Details:
Choose a dominant photo for the entire spread. This should be the best photo – in technical, compositional and story-telling quality – that you have. Then, choose a dominant photo for each of your other pages. Then choose secondary photos for your pages. You may use as many photos as good design and storytelling necessitate and allow. Use InDesign for the design and layout of your spread. Use Photoshop to correct, resize and/or enhance your photos.

Type, objects, lines, photos and illustrations are all permissible
You must include at least 7 photos in your design
Each of four pages is 8.5in x 11in (portrait orientation)
Use at least one color, plus black
Use captions to answer the necessary information about your demonstration…the who/what/when/where/why/how. But, remember, this should be mostly photos.
Don't forget a headline for this "story" (e.g., "Grilled cheese the college way: on an iron!")
Use Paragraph and Object Styles to save time.
Incorporate the elements of graphic design we have covered to this point


Tri-Fold brochure: For this assignment, you will pick a client -- it could be an on-campus organization, business, club, athletic group, or even professor. You will then create a tri-fold brochure (one 8.5in by 11in sheet of paper, front and back, folded twice into a brochure).

You will work with your client to figure out what images will be best to include. They will also give you some basic information to be communicated in the brochure's copy.

I will give you a ti-fold template you can use in InDesign, but you'll need to supply photos and information for the copy. You don't need a huge amount of text, but you'll want some introductory sentences about your client, some supporting facts and information (in the form of paragraphs or bullet points) and a summary/contact information section on the back page.

See me if you are having trouble thinking of a demonstration or a client.

Poster assignment

Poster Assignment
20 points • Due: End of class

InDesign tools we have introduced so far:
• Image placement and scaling
• Creating paragraph and object styles
• Changing fonts, font sizes, adding a drop shadow
• Creating swatches, adjusting kerning

For this assignment, we'll learn these InDesign tools:
• Creating shapes
• Creating and adding a gradient
• Adjusting vertical and horizontal scale of text

And practice these principles of design:
• Contrasting, dynamic typography
• Harmony of between your elements of design
• Strong visuals through alignment and color selection
• Reinforcing the power and implications of proximity of and between elements

You'll be creating a movie poster for what is sure to be the hit of the year, The Twilight Saga: New Moon.

Elements you'll need to include (be as creative as you want with these):
• A moon
• Title (The Twilight Saga: New Moon)
• It stars Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson
• That it is based on the novel by Stephanie Meyer and directed by Chris Weitz
• It opens 11-20-09

I would suggest sketching out your basic design on paper first. Your main task is to use type in a dramatic and dynamic way so it will make the movie look interesting, while communicating the facts about the movie. Your use of type will be very important since you only have one main graphic (the moon) to work with.
Other notes:
• You can use other shapes (circles, squares, lines, etc.) if you want, but no photos.
• Use at least one color besides black. Think about having your background color something other than white.
• Use at least one gradient
• Adjust the kerning and horizontal/vertical scale of some of your text


(OVER for InDesign notes)


To create a circle:
1. Click and hold the mouse button down on the "Rectangle Tool" on the left side toolbar
2. Select Ellipse
3. Click and drag to make an ellipse. Hold the shift key down to constrain it to a circle.
4. Resize it by clicking and dragging on an corner of your object's blue box.
5. To fill your shape in with a color, make sure your object is selected (it will have a blue box around it) and click on a swatch.

To create a gradient/gradient swatch:
1. Open your swatches palette.
2. Create your two colors that will make up each end of the gradient.
3. Click on the Gradient pop-up window (on the right side, near Colors and Effects)
4. You'll see two small boxes at either end of your gradient slider. Simply drag a swatch into one of these boxes. If you miss and create a third box, simply click and drag the new box out of the gradient pop-up to delete it.
5. In the top left, you'll see a larger box with sort of a preview of what your gradient looks like. Drag this box to your swatches pop-up window to create a gradient swatch. Now you have it saved (or right click and select Add to Swatches). You can double click on your new gradient swatch to edit it.
6. To see your gradient swatches, go to your swatch pop-up window and click the third small icon from the left on the bottom (it looks like a gradient).
Note: Whenever you create a new swatch or gradient, be aware if you have any object selected. It will create a new swatch or gradient based on whatever you have selected.
** Also note the angle option in the gradient pop-up. Don't just stick to the default!

Kerning, Vertical and Horizontal scale adjustments:
1. Click on the "Character" pop-up window on the right side
2. Here you have font type, style, size, leading, kerning, tracking, horizontal scale and vertical scale (and a couple other things we won't worry about)
3. Select the text you want to adjust (or in the case of kerning, just place the cursor between two letters) and adjust away! Remember:
• Kerning: Space between letters
• Tracking: Space between all the letters selected
• Leading: Space between lines (if you have one line selected, it will adjust the space above it)
• Vertical scale: How stretched the characters are up and down
• Horizontal scale: How stretched the characters are left and right

Other tips:
• To select more than one object, hold down the shift key while clicking on multiple objects.
• Use the alignment pop-up window on the right to align two or more objects to each other.
• Use the Apple Key and Minus/Plus keys together to zoom in/out. Hold space bar down to be able to move your page around.

Magazine spread examples

These are for our upcoming Photo Story assingment.

(some of these have a bit more text than we will be using)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/colinjohnson/1761599513/sizes/o/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ssnd/2423231164/sizes/o/


http://www.flickr.com/photos/jeope/3198407656/sizes/o/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/alexanderwolf/329762937/sizes/l/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/extraverage/2507612213/sizes/o/

http://www.kristenmassey.com/spread.html

http://laurenstine.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/move_coopers_2-08.jpg

Magazine assignment

Magazine Assignment
30 points • Due: End of class 9-16

This assignment is made up of two basic components:

• Cover photo, and
• Magazine text, including the masthead (magazine name) and descriptions of stories inside (cover lines)

Tools you'll use in InDesign will include (but not limited to):
• Image placement
• Text frames
• Paragraph styles (different font style for your copy)
• Object styles (drop shadows)
• Kerning (distance between characters)
• Creating swatches (color samples)

As you create your magazine cover, keep in mind two key ideas:
• Creating a tight, visually interesting design with your copy
• Creating something that will help sell the magazine

Document Setup:
Number of Pages: 1
Page Size: Letter
Columns: 1
Bleed: 1p6 (Top, Bottom, Left, Right)
Slug: 9p (Bottom)

When you create your Swatches, don't forget to name the color. For this assignment, for color types select:
Color Type: Process
Color Mode: RGB
(If we were to print this, we would want CMYK)

When you create your Drop Shadow (with a new Object Style) use:
Distance: 0p14
Angle: 135
Size: 0 (this makes it a "hard" shadow)
(Use this drop shadow on most or all of your text -- masthead optional)

To adjust Kerning (distance between letters): put the cursor between two letters and hold Option and either the left arrow or right arrow. (You can also choose the "Character" sidebar menu to see the numerical values).

Fonts: For the most part, you'll probably want sans serif fonts, with a mix of thick and thin weights. You could mix in a serif font to add contrast, though.

For Monday Sept 14

For Monday September 14

We will be starting the magazine cover assignment. Yes!

What you'll need:
• Yourself.
• A magazine we can critique in class (feel free to get one from the library if you don't have any sitting around)
• An idea for your magazine (something you won't be embarrassed to share with, say, someone interviewing you for a job). You'll need a name and 4-8 "cover lines" for the imaginary stories inside
• A photo for your magazine cover that you have taken.

A word on taking your photo:
Set your file quality setting to large or maximum.

This should be one of your best photos you have taken so far. Your magazine cover can be a person, place, or object. Keep in mind you will have your masthead at the top, so you will need to leave some room at the top.

Shoot several angles with your subject, with a different amount of room at the top for each so you have something to choose from.

Remember to get good lighting! Do NOT use your camera flash, unless you are shooting outside and need it as a fill light.

Since a magazine is 8.5" by 11" and your camera isn't, you'll have to crop some off the sides, so keep that in mind as you compose your image.

Assignment 3

Photo Scavenger Hunt & Captions Assignment

DUE: Wed. Sept 16

This assignment is meant to help you practice photography a little more, reinforce adding images into InDesign, and learn about the usefulness (and awesomeness) of paragraph and object styles.

Part I

Take about 30-40 minutes to snap these photos. Here's what you need to try to find:

1. Something with an interesting texture
2. A shot composed with very high contrast colors
3. A shot composed with very low contrast colors
4. A shot featuring "lines"
5. A shot featuring a person walking on campus (it doesn't matter if you know them -- if you do, make it fun if you want)
6. Your favorite building on campus
7. A unique angle of a sculpture
8. Something you always think of when you think of "Drake"

Part II

Take another 20-30 minutes to import your photos onto a flash drive and edit them in Bridge/Camera Raw/Photoshop as you have been doing (contrast, exposure, saturation, clarity, etc). Just do basic corrections for now, nothing fancy.

Save each one as a .JPG (remember the drop down menu for file format, don't just write ".jpg" on the end of the file name) in a folder you can find later.

Part III
Now to add the photos (with a drop shadow) in InDesign with captions.

Bring each image into InDesign as we learned how to do last time.

This time, however, you'll make your design on two pages: four photos of the same size per page, with captions (using paragraph styles) for each one.

Instructions:
Set up your document:
Number of pages: 2 (make sure "facing pages" is selected)
Number of columns: 6
Page Size: Letter
Bottom Slug: 9p (1.5 inches)
(Click "More Options for Slug)
Click OK.

Use the Rectangle Frame tool to layout your images. You can make the objects the same size by using the copy and paste commands. (You can also use the W: and H: to specify width and height).

Use the Text Frame tool to layout your caption boxes. They should be situated under your images.

Creating Paragraph Styles

1. Click on Paragraph Styles on the right hand side
2. Click the icon that looks like a post-it-note to Create a new style
3. Double click on the new "Paragraph Style 1" to edit it
4. Style name should be "Caption"
5. Click on Basic character format
Font Family: Adobe Garamond Pro
Font Style: Italic
Size: 9 pt
6. Click OK
7. Write your first caption in a text box (you can create a text box by clicking and dragging with the text tool). It should simply describe what the photograph is of and what it fulfills from Part I.

Example: "This photo of The Meredith Building has low color contrast."

8. Select the text, and click on "Caption" in the Paragraph Styles box. The text should automatically change.
9. Repeat for the rest of your photos.

Creating an Object Style

1. Click on the Object Styles option (it should be a few boxes above Paragraph styles). (Make sure you have the selection tool (black arrow) selected).
2. Just as with Paragraph styles, click Create new style on the icon that looks like a note.
3. Double click on it (it should say Object Style 1) to edit it
4. Click on the box that says Drop Shadow
Style name: Photo Shadow
Distance: 5pt
Angle: 120
Opacity: 40%

5. Click OK
6. Click on a photo (or select multiple by holding down the shift key).
7. While photos are selected, click Photo Shadow under Object Styles
8. Make sure your captions are out of the way of the shadow. Bring the caption boxes down if you need to. (You can select more than one at a time by holding down shift as you click on the 2nd, 3rd, etc. -- they will all move together.)
9. Make sure everything looks ok
10. File --> Export --> PDF (remember to put your last name as the file name)
11. Save in our class folder (remember to click on our class folder to open it first, don't just drag it in)

Bridge workflow

Adobe Bridge and Camera Raw Workflow

Importing:
1. Hook camera or card reader up to computer with USB cable

2. Open Adobe Bridge (in your Applications -> Adobe Bridge CS3 folder)

3. Under the file menu, click "Get Photos From Camera"
(It will ask if you want to automatically get photos when you plug in a camera -- click Yes or No)

4. Under import settings change Create Subfolder to "Custom Name"

5. Type in a custom name, such as "Photo Assignment 1"

6. If you shot in "RAW" mode (if you don't know what that means, you probably didn't) click "Convert to DNG"

7. Click "Get Photos" when you are ready.
When it is done it should take you to your photos.
If you can't find them, try clicking on the "Pictures" folder and find the folder you named in step 4.

Before moving on I would suggest sorting your photos by rating them: click on a photo and then press ⌘1 for one star, ⌘2 for two, etc. You can also click on the "Label" menu at the top.

8. To open photo in Camera Raw, right click (or hold down control and click) on the photo. Select Open in Camera Raw.

(Turn page over for Editing)


Editing:
1. Adjust your white balance. If you shot JPG files, your options will be Auto, As Shot or Custom. Try auto and see how it looks.
Try adjusting "Temperature" and/or "Tint." You can also use the eyedropper at the top (click on something white with it). Get your whites as pure as you can.

2. Adjust your contrast. Move the slider to the right (or type in a value): usually between 10 and 50. (You can lose detail if you increase contrast too much)

3. Adjust your Saturation and Vibrance to bring out the colors. Try not to overdo the saturation. If you want a black and white image, click the "Convert to Grayscale" button.

4. Adjust the Clarity slider to the right to make your photo sharper, to the left to make it softer. Try a value between -12 and 12.

5. Adjust your exposure slider if needed. Make sure your whites are nice and bright but not overexposed.

6. Crop image if needed. Click on the crop tool. Hold the mouse button down on the button to switch ratios (2x3, 4x5, etc). Simply click and drag to crop your photo.

All done?
Three options: Click "Done" to go back to Bridge, "Save" (lower left) to save it as a new file (so will still have your original) or "Open Image" to open your creation in regular Photoshop, where you can do more editing or save it.

InDesign Instructions 1

InDesign document open and photo placement

1. Make sure you know where you saved your photos (you should save them as a JPG file).
2. Open InDesign
3. Click "Document" under Create New
4. Number of pages: 1
Number of columns: 6
Page Size: Letter
Slug: 9p (1.5 inches)
(Click "More Options for Slug)
Click OK.

5. When your blank document is open, under the "View" menu, click Grids & Guides and select "Show baseline grid" (and make sure "Snap to guides" is on).

6. Select the Rectangle Frame tool (f). By clicking and dragging, draw a box when you might want a picture to go.

You can place a graphic in the box either by dragging it in from its location in the Finder or under the "File" menu, clicking Place (⌘D).

You might only see the upper-left corner of your graphic. THAT'S OK!

7. READ CAREFULLY! Right click on box. Under Fitting, select Fit content proportionally. Under the same menu, select Fit frame to content.

8. On the toolbar, make sure the Selection Tool (the black arrow at the top of the toolbar) is selected (you can also press v or sometimes Escape). Now you can move your box!

9. If you want to make the box bigger or smaller, select the Scale tool (s). ** Hold down shift to keep your original proportions.** Now click on a corner and drag. If you accidently distort your picture, go back to step 7. See that icon with nine little boxes in the very upper left? If you want to resize from a corner, that's where to tell InDesign you want to do it, instead of resizing out from the middle.

To delete an object, select it with the Selection tool (black arrow) and hit delete.

To crop your image, use the Selection Tool, click on your object frame, and drag one of the sides in or out.

Arrange your photos. When you size them, make them one, two, or three columns wide. Remember to write your name in the slug box.

Export as a PDF when you are done (File -> export) and put in class folder.

Photoshop tutorials

Some of these might look daunting but if you take them step by step, they're not too bad (they just take a little time).


A bunch of vintage effects.

Textures. (How to use them here)

100 Tutorials.

Make your pictures pop.

Useful shortcuts.

"Lomo" effect.

Wednesday's assignment

For Wednesday Sept. 2 In-class exercise:

Bring in one strong photograph you've taken of a person (on your camera, or flash drive).

This doesn't mean you'll just snap one photo of them and call it good. You might have to take 10, 20, or more photographs to get one you are happy with. Perhaps even in different locations to get one you think is strong -- non-distracting (or out-of-focus) background, good lighting on your subject, good composition, good expression from your subject, etc.

Wednesday you will make four different version of the same photo in Photoshop (black and white, artistic filter, etc) and create a simple InDesign page with all four photos arranged in a visually cohesive way.

This in-class assignment will be 20 points (10 points for your 4 photos, 10 points for your InDesign arrangement).

First lecture

Photography lecture

Photo Assignment 1

Visual Communications • JMC 059
Photography Assignment #1 • 20 points • Due Monday 8-31

This assignment is to help you practice taking photos and learn the photo editing workflow.

Eventually, our workflow will go something like this:
• Take photos with your camera (or one rented from the basement of Meredith)
• Load your photos into Adobe Bridge
• Edit photos with Photoshop and Photoshop Camera Raw
• Save photo as appropriate file type
• (And you're done)
-or-
• Import photos into InDesign or Dreamweaver for use.

But first we need photos!

For this first assignment, I'd like you to take photos of a person or object (pick something that's not too small, perhaps a basketball.

I'd like you to take photographs of this object in 5 different lighting environments. For example:
• Morning light
• Mid-day light
• Evening light
• Overcast day
• Inside, near a window
• Camera flash inside, camera flash outside
• Setting up your own lighting (not a flash) like a lamp off to the side (you can do multiple set-ups like this if you change it around)
• Fluorescent

Take at LEAST 5-10 photos per environment. For example, get close with the camera, far away, far away and zoomed in, from different angles, etc.

After you take the photo, load it into Adobe Bridge (before or in class on the 31st).

If you have a camera that shoots in RAW, use that. Otherwise, try different settings (portrait, landscape, close-up, sports) that might be on your camera. We'll talk about what these mean.

Highly recommended: if you plan on using the same model camera for these, find the manual online and read it!!

Grading: 10 points for photos, 10 points for loading them into Bridge

Schedule update

Folks,

I got word that a number of students will be gone on Sept 9.

So! That font lecture is an important one, so let's push that to Monday the 14th.

For those that can be there, bring a digital camera to class on September 9th. If you don't have one, you can check one out in the basement of Meredith. We'll go out and shoot around campus and come back and load them on the computer and do some basic photo editing. Be sure to have a cable or card reader so you can transfer it from your camera to the computer. I'll bring my card reader in case, but if nobody has a cable it will be slow going. (can you get them from Meredith? I don't know!)

So the new schedule is this:

Wednesday, September 9
Walk around photo shoot/photo editing
Photo assignment 2 due
Assign Photo assignment 3 (for magazine cover), due 9-21
_____________________________________
Monday, September 14
Type and color, read chapters 7, 9, 10, 11
Exercise: Fonts

Wednesday, September 16
Quiz, 8x10 Poster assignment
Lab work
_____________________________________

Typedia

Really like typography? Then Typedia is for you.

Composition, etc

Composition and elements of visual design.

Welcome

Welcome to SJMC 059, Visual Communication. I'll be posting links here that will help you along the way in class.