Skip to main content

Indesign with Stephen (Workshop 1)


In my workshop with Stephen, I was introduced to InDesign. This is a piece of software that I have never used before and has always been very daunting to me as this is something Pro designers use. I know this is something I need to learn and begin to use in my day to day life but I was very scared and worried I couldn't get the hang of it. We went over some basic steps for example how to set our page, export our piece as PDF's and working guides. We was given a task where we had to copy 4 posters. The first one we was given clear instructions which made it more helpful. I was given the poster with the guide on which made it very easy to count and work out how many squares had to be coloured in. Below shows the outcome of my first poster on the left and on the right the original work of the designer Josef Muller-Brookmann.



I was really happy with how this poster came out and I felt this allowed me to get a good idea for In Design and how to use the software. However for the next three posters we was set a task to do them on our own but only from eye. I thought this was going to be quite easy like the first but I was quite wrong. Below shows my second poster which is done from eye. This wasn't as bad as I thought as it was mainly working with lines and shapes however it was really hard to get the proportions right and I struggled to get it like the original. However for a copy I don't think it's as bad as I thought it would be. At this point I was quite impressed and looking forward to the next. Below on the left shows the outcome of my first poster on the left and on the right the original work of the designer Josef Muller-Brookmann.

                    
When I seen the third poster I was extremely overwhelmed. Especially by the semi circles and all the shapes and lines that wasn't straight. I felt pushed way out of my comfort zone. I have only ever worked with Photoshop and In Design, I felt was very different. I would be lying if I said this wasn't hard. This was really hard for me and I really struggled with the pen tool. It took me a good few hours to get my head around this and try and work out how to do the circles. The circle technique was really similar to Photoshop when I got my head around it however the squiggly lines was and still are something I think i'll struggle with.  I really couldn't get them to work the way I wanted the too. I am going to have a go using the Pen tool in my own time to see if I can overcome this. Below shows the final outcome of the third poster. Apart from the squiggly lines, I am really happy with this and how I was able to do the shapes and circle outlines. Below shows my work on the left and on the right the work of Rosmarie Tissi.

                       
Finally I was expecting the worse for the last poster. I was actually shocked when I began to work with it. I felt like I knew what tools was best and which techniques to use and I think this was because of the third poster and the problems that I faced. I really enjoyed doing this one and working with the gradient tool. I also really enjoyed how the piece was coming together and seeing the final outcome. At this point now the posters are finished, I am really happy I was faced with the challenge of the third one as It pushed me and challenged me which is something I always try and shy away from. Below shows my work on the left and on the right the work of Rosmarie Tissi.

                         



Conclusion
At this point I am still a major Photoshop lover but in time I think I will love to come In Design when I have worked on it more.
I want to work with the pen tool as I think this is still my main struggle and I don't want to worry when I need to use this technique.
I have really enjoyed this task and even though it was extremely successful at points, I feel like I have learnt a lot and was able to solve some problems on my own.




Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Typography Workshop with John (Workshop 3)

In my workshop with John it was all about refining. However I had to make the big decision as to which typography I would continue to pursue. In my previous workshops, I designed the following: Here I have a range of three different typography designs. The first one is more geometrical and fluid at the same time yet follows the structure of my inspiration throughout. The second one also links back to the inspiration however I am unsure on some of the letters for example the C. Finally the last one hasn't followed any inspiration and instead was my own type that I wanted to try. I do like it however their was no process or stages for this one. I decided to refine the first one as I have seen it develop thoughout. I developed this on graph paper, below shows the outcome:  I choose to have some letters slightly thicker than others for example the M & N is thicker than U and V as I know this is a more used letter and I wanted it to be more dominant. I like ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Editorial with Stephen (Workshop 2)

In my second workshop with Stephen, the main topic was Editorial design. We was focusing on the US standard size for the size of the In Design spread. What is editorial design? Editorial design is for magazines and websites. Once designed, this would be passed on to someone to code. The workshop We started off by setting our page up. I used the following settings below: Once I set up my spread, I then pasted in the image we was using to refer too and scaled up to my margin. I reduced the opacity to 50% so I was able to see what work I was doing on top of the image. I stared working with kerning, tracking and working with scale in order to scale the letters Alanis to fit similar to the document on the back. The reason why we was playing with these metrics and spaces was for us to have more attention to detail and to work away from the default settings.  Below shows the settings I decided to go for and what this looked like. Below shows after me playing with dist...
Post a Comment
Read more

Self Taught After Effects - Illustration & Animation Trial (Inspired by Workshop 2 with Sara)

After my past few workshops I decided to try and use the techniques I have learnt to create something of my own. I have recently been working on a new project and wanted to try and utilise what I have learnt combined with my own illustration. I decided to work with the position and animation presets in order to set the scene and create a sense of realistic movement in my work. Below shows the outcome: Milk Sea Animation from Amy Winson on Vimeo . I am really happy with this as in the past workshops I have always stayed with the idea of using text or photography and not an actual illustration. I always felt like I couldn't work with anything like this in my work as It wouldn't ever be strong enough. Although this is a short video, I am really happy with where this is going so far and I am looking forward to extending this into something longer and progressing my narrative forward.
Post a Comment
Read more