Today’s Plan:
- Lay Out Sins
- Mini-Project 1: The Remake
- Playing with Photoshop
- Homework (Canvas / Template)
Lay Out Sins
Let’s check out the discussion board in Canvas.
Mini-Project 1: Re-Make It Work
For homework I want you to read chapter 3 of the WSINYE, in which Hagen and Golombisky share their “Works Every Time” layout. They outline 7 parts of the layout:
- margins (no bleed)
- columns (two)
- visual (graphic image)
- cutline (alt text for image, not common)
- headline
- copy (body text)
- tags (logos, etc)
Note: if you do not want to use the “works every time” layout, then you might look at some of the other layout options Golumbiski and Hagen discuss in chapter 6, or that Miller lays out in Chapter 4 (see page 26 for a very short summary).
You should choose one of the flyers from your layout sins slideshow for this project.
What is a bleed?. While I am not going to ask you to print your design, I’m going to ask you to pretend we are. This project is about learning some fundamental principles on how to create something (relatively) quickly that is “good enough.” The basic C.R.A.P. as it were. Bleeds cost money.
Why We Are Using Photoshop
I’ve debated what technology to use for this first project. I’ve decided against Canva–what I really want you to practice/internalize here is Golumbiski and Hagen’s formula, the “works every time” layout. I want you to practice selecting and sizing text, blocking out a page (working with space, proximity). I want you to select colors that work together and develop contrast. So, rather than work with a template, I’d like you to design your 8 1/2 by 11 flyer from the ground up.
The pedagogical justification for the insistence on Photoshop is tied to my recent research on artificial intelligence, writing, and metacognition. Put simply, my seminar last semester showed that a writer’s metacognition of the “rules” for writing directly impacted the quality of the writing they and the machine could produce. In our context, I believe it is important that you learn the rules for design, that you start from a blank page, so that you develop the metacognition necessary to determine what is (or isn’t) a good template.
Also, veterans of 301 will know that I want you to be proficient in the tools that appear in job advertisements. While I do see references to Canva appearing in jobs, I thoroughly believe a working knowledge of Photoshop–even the basics (cropping, color/lighting adjustment, typography) will serve you well in the job market and in life.
Given what I have written above, I want everyone to try and use Photoshop for this project. I don’t expect mastery and beauty–this project is as much about learning a new technology as it is about learning the principles of design.
Saving and Submitting Your File(s)
I don’t expect anyone in here will have experience in InDesign or Illustrator, but you are free to use those if you want.
As you work in Photoshop, you should frequently save your file. The file will be a .psd. This is a proprietary Adobe file–it cannot be opened or viewed without Photoshop. It is a vector file (see Miller 7), it is editable, scalable (maybe), and maintains the various layers used in its production. However, you cannot submit this file to Canvas.
- If you design this in Photoshop, then I will require you to turn in a .jpg or a .tiff. Do not turn in the .psd file. Photoshop naturally saves as a .psd file, which retains all the layers and is editable. You will have to export your project as a .jpg or .png file, which is smaller but no longer editable.
- If you design this in InDesign, then I will require you to turn in a .pdf. Do not turn in the .indd file.
- If you design this in Illustrator, then you will turn in a .png file. Do not turn in the .ai file.
One other thing: Golumbiski and Hagen’s “works every time” layout is designed around a strong, graphic image (“graphic” is a tricky word to define here–but it generally means something like stunning, engaging, vibrant, etc). I encourage you to take a photograph that you can use in your design. This could be a picture of a building, of students studying, of a book or pile of books, a tree–whatever fits your subject matter. If you can’t think of how to take a picture to fit your subject matter, talk to me! If you really, really don’t want to do this, then you can use an existing image for your design–but you might struggle to find a high-resolution image large enough that it doesn’t pixelate when inserted in a 8.5 x 11 inch document with a resolution of 300px (on that note…)
Setting up your file
One of the fundamental rules of digital composition concerns “resolution,” how many pixels (digital) or points (printing) are contained in a single inch of your design (see Miller 7). Generally, this is how it goes:
- Will this thing be shared digitally? Then the resolution should only be 72px per inch (maybe 144px if I want it to be super beautiful and I don’t care if some people can’t load it or see it)
- Will this thing be printed? Then the resolution has to 300px or it will look like shit
The resolution on the template I offer you is set to 300px, as if this project would be printed. And I encourage you to work with that if you can print out a color version of your flyer and hang it on a billboard! It is fun to design things and place them in the world!
But there’s two immediate problems that you’ll encounter working with a 300px resolution:
- File Size increases almost exponentially. A 72px 8.5 x 11 image will have a file size of about 1.5 mb. The same design, at 300px resolution, will be about 30mb, if not more (put a large 300px photograph from a high-definition smart phone camera in that thing and you will have a .psd file that can no longer be emailed via UNC’s system).
- Images from the internet become useless. Unless you are paying from images from a stock photo site, you will struggle to find any high resolution images that you can insert into your design. Remember, digital web images are 72px, and when you put a 72px image into a 300px Photoshop document, it will look kind of like a postage stamp. Shrinkage.
- Lighting: if you are outside, make sure the sun is behind you casting natural light on your subject. If you are inside, you want indirect light behind you–if you have a lamp directly lighting your subject, then you are going to get glare. Throw a tee-shirt over a lamp (make sure the tee-shirt is not touching the bulb or you might start a fire). Do not use a flash.
- Rule of thirds; this is a rule that you must follow until you have permission to break it
- Zoom in with your feet. Don’t use the zoom on your camera. If you want to be close to your subject, then get close. The Zoom on cheaper iPhones (like mine) can create weird pixelization. More advanced phones with multiple lenses will of course give you more options.
If possible, I encourage you to take a photograph to use in the “works every time layout.”
A few tips for taking a good photograph:
But, given that this is our first project, and I am giving you limited time to complete it, you might just want to turn the resolution down on your image to 72px. To do this, go to Image > Image Size and change the resolution on my template to 72px.
Homework
See the assignment in Canvas for more info and my template.
Idea for a remake project. Here is the sad sign posted on the hallway door to the faculty offices in Ross.
