This week I completed my first graduate school assignment in multimedia creation, utilizing Adobe InDesign to create a poster, postcard, Instagram and Facebook ads for the grand opening of an architectural firm. Though promoting events is my day job and I’ve worked with designers for many years, this was my first time using Adobe software to create materials from concept to completion.
Admittedly, I was a bit nervous to tackle Adobe and learn the intricacies of the software, particularly when there are several other platforms out there like Canva that have made design a lot easier. However, as one of my designer colleagues shared, most design software is based on Adobe, so if you can learn Adobe, you can learn to design on any other platform. With that feedback in mind, I went to work.
One great suggestion from my lectures was to drop column lines at the one-third height and width points of each page. This helped me visualize where the blocks of imagery and text would sit on the page and prioritize these items to create a visual flow and a hierarchy. Concepts like the Rule of Thirds and The Golden Rule in Design were also helpful reminders to make each element visually appealing.
There were many text and visual elements to incorporate, including quotations, credits for the architecture firm, event information, and beautiful images of the venue itself. My instincts were to prioritize imagery over copy, but my Adobe limitations caused the images to pixilate as I attempted to increase their size.
My colleague Natalie Waters gave me some great advice: “In order to expand the image without lowering the resolution of the graphic you will select the image and click the corner button to expand it. Drag the outside lines to where you want the graphic to be. Once you have done this, unclick the outside edge and then select the graphic on the inside. Now you should see dots on each corner of the graphic that will allow you to expand the image to fit the outer box. This will allow you to have a larger visual design for the final product.” Indeed it did…thanks Natalie! This valuable bit of feedback allowed me to enlarge key images without losing resolution and minimize the text.
This creative process…moving elements on the page…prioritizing text vs. graphics and fitting it all together in a cohesive design, was fun and rewarding, as I put into practice what I’d learned.
You can check out my Final Project here:
