Objective: In this assignment you will carefully enhance the newsletter you laid out for the Newsletter Tutorial (Practice #7) and turn it into your own design.
Using the finished tutorial as a template, consider how the pages hold style continuity within a particular grid system (as explained in class) and improve upon it. Use the tutorial newsletter as a template but use your own images and headlines to give it a fresh look and tweak the design to be more professional.
The finished piece should serve as a full-size mock-up in InDesign for a 4-page newsletter with your own stamp on it. You are copying the layout but introducing your own subject matter, art, photos (which may be borrowed from the Internet), and display text choices to give it your own "signature."
Preliminary: To begin this project start by watching the video on Magazine design found at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Cu5FuAdOVY&feature=related
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Examine your tutorial newsletter for its page-to-page, article-to-article continuity. Is it working? If not, fine tune your grid, column lines, and anchor points. (Find the imaginary rule lines (psychic wire) used by the creator to facilitate the design grid. Note the in consistencies. What would be helped by repeating elements? Make a visual guide as you study the publication, writing notes and column/gutter measurements directly in your sketchbook. You will be turning in your notes and/or sketches with your final InDesign document.
While examining the newsletter for recurring fonts and other repeating stylistic choices, consider such details as page size, folio location, column widths, typographic and stylistic continuity, use of horizontal anchor-lines (weight lines), etc.--all things that make up a publication's unique "look."
In summary, improve on the design and demonstrate your understanding (as explained in class) of good design. You will be evaluated on your attention to detail for things such as point size and style of body text and accurate measurements throughout (alley widths, common headline sizes, and consistent artistic styles--such as BW vs. color photo vs. illustration, etc.). You will also be evaluated on the elegance and readability of your type.
Your layout needs to include effective typography with important elements like pull quotes, teasers, subheads, captions, and anything else that might appear on a “real” page of a magazine. Select any photos you wish to use at an appropriate resolution (240 to 300dpi for print). Search out interesting fonts to use as your display text. Use negative space efficiently and don’t clutter your layout. Pay attention to readability, focal points, eye path, and other effective magazine design rules AND GOOD VISUAL STORYTELLING.
Your final layout should look like a published article E-newsletter or magazine spread. You may use place marker text for body copy in your mock-up but write your own headlines.
Do not worry about printers marks or bleeds for this assignment.
Export the finished article as PDF format but also keep the original InDesign file in your student folder. Be sure to "PACKAGE" your file, too. as explained in class. (For an explanation of packaging, refer to the Adobe reference manual | Look for "package" under the ID "File" menu commands. Packaging places your fonts and images into a folder you keep for your printer (or instructor).
When exporting to PDF (for print) for this assignment you do not need to worry about printers’ marks (IN THE EXPORT DIALOGUE BOX that appears after "save." This final InDesign file is a finished mock-up (it does not have to be prepared for lithographic printing but should look as professional as any page in a magazine would and be ready for a creative director to understand and take it from here.)
Evaluation Criteria: The finished assignment will show an understanding of page continuity, magazine design traditions, effective typography, and readability, accurate translation of an existing design grid, and effective use of repetition and rhythm. You will be evaluated on how well your article looks like it came out of the same publication as the one you are "duplicating"--but also for your creative ability to put your own unique signature on it, with attention to focal interest, and evidence of effective planning with accurately measured detail.
