Advice for the Young At Art: Magazine Design/Production

In response to a request from my professor at Broward College and for the benefit of students or those just starting out in graphic design I wanted to provide a snapshot of the process involved in putting together a magazine such as Summa Cum Laude. For brevity's sake, I'll break it down into three articles: The Brief, Design, and Production.

The Brief
In an in-house design department the process almost always begins with the production/traffic manager or coordinator, we'll call her Krystal. (If you're freelancing you will be wearing many hats, including Krystal's.) She comes to you and announces a new project, a 24 to 32 page brochure for - fill in the blank. The production/traffic person acts as a liaison between the designers and clients, and coordinates with external vendors such as printers. They delegate the jobs to available personnel, set a production schedule and generally ensure that targets are met. If something goes wrong during the process it is they who will be initially called upon to answer why. So, with an air of confidence you reassure her that it's "no problem" and request the details. The bulk of the assignment falls on your lap, from concept to printed piece, so an air of confidence is vital.

You go over the project with Krystal and establish that this is the second printing of what will turn into an ongoing publication (great, that makes things a little easier) and that you will meet with the clients shortly. Here's what you and Krystal have discussed: The scope of the project - how large a publication (number of pages, size, and other technical particulars), photographs and illustrations - will any photo shoots need to be scheduled or illustrators hired, printing details, and most importantly the deadline.

Thumbnails of page layout.

You next meet with the clients who are generally nice if not somewhat worried. The deadline is looming and they're concerned. This being the second printing they are better prepared than the last time and have showed up with Microsoft Word files for the text and a DVD or CD or Flash Drive loaded with images (you quietly wonder at what resolution the images are and if they're in a format you can use). They've even brought a thumbnail map of the pages indicating the flow of each article. Sweet! They really did learn from their first time around. As you discuss the project with the clients  you reiterate what you and Krystal went over and you will request more details such as target audience the tone they wish to convey, ideas for the cover, are the articles complete (most times no), are all images accounted for (again no), etc. The last thing everyone agrees on is a date for the next meeting to view the first comp.

Being a second issue proved advantageous in that the initial parameters associated with a new publication had been established saving valuable time. We'll discuss that in more detail in the following article: The Design.

I'm Back...

After a long hiatus I'm announcing my triumphant return to blogging. Be prepared for an avalanche of coolness, tips, tricks, and overall craziness from the world of graphic design. But first an announcement. Broward College's South Campus is offering their Multimedia Design students a chance at stardom with the semi annual Book Cover Design Contest for CGS1060C to be used for 2012-2013 classes and sponsored by Pearson Publishing Company. Get the details at Professor Suzanne Lambert's blog here. And by the way, I was last time's winner. Check out my winning design below.

FIU Honors College Magazine Design

Cover and two spreads from my recently designed Honors College semi-annual magazine for Florida International University.

Update: FIU Honors College Magazine Wins National Award. MIAMI (September 13, 2011)- Summa cum Laude, the FIU Honors College magazine, has been awarded first prize for best publication in the faculty/administration/student-published category by the National Collegiate Honors Council. The magazine was selected from among fifteen publications competing for the award. Read more...

So this is how I'm currently spending my daytime hours. I recently designed the Honors College semi-annual magazine for Florida International University from front cover to back cover. You can view the entire publication by following this link and clicking on the magazine thumbnail: FIU Honors College Magazine

Update: Below someone posting as anonymous has accused me of misappropriating the design of this award winning publication. Rest assured, I and I alone laid out the spreads, chose and set the type, edited and placed the artwork, and designed the ads that appear on several pages except for the student submitted ad on the back cover. As you can see here I am credited on the front page as designer. In fact, I was responsible for the design of Summa Cum Laude magazine from 2011 to 2014 and I have the credit on each and everyone of those issues to prove it. To make accusations such as this anonymous fraud is making is beyond the pale and a personal insult and I challenge him/her to reveal themselves and make a proper claim.  

Issues I designed:

https://issuu.com/honorscollege/docs/summa_spring2011

https://issuu.com/honorscollege/docs/hon_honors_magazine_summer_2013-fin

https://issuu.com/honorscollege/docs/28388_hon_honors_magazine_spring_20

https://issuu.com/honorscollege/docs/14294_hon_honors_magazine_fall_2014

2012 Olympic Logo - Poll

Above is the official logo for the 2012 Olympics. Apparently some controversy ensued when Iran threatened to boycott the Olympics because the logo seems to spell Zion, a term that refers to Jerusalem. I don't know about that, it seems to me you have to look pretty hard to see what Iran is all in a tissy about (It's actually supposed to spell out 2012). However, the logo caused additional consternation, not because of any religious/geo-political connection, but because some thought it was just plain ugly. What do you guys think?

I Don't Exist Until You Make Me, I Am Creativity

Where does creativity come from? Are some born with it while others not? Why? Is it learned? Why is it two people can look at the same thing and see something totally different? I realize these are not new questions and I'm not expecting answers, but watching the Freelance Whales made me a little inquisitive. How can something so hauntingly beautiful come from mere mortals?

Goodbye Helvetica. Hello Univers Thin Ultra Condensed!

It looks like the days of web developers beholden to a measly handful of fonts may be nearing an end. With a little help from type utilities such as Suitcase Fusion and CSS, you now can design web sites without the tyrannical constraints placed upon you by HTML. Those who have worked in this field undoubtedly have heard of Suitcase font management software. Suitcase now offers a subscription based service, WebINK, which allows the integration of hundreds of fonts into your web pages without the worry of incompatibility issues. You can now specify any font contained in the WebINK library to match your design. Oh, the glory! Visit WebINK for more information.

I've put together a short podcast regarding this subject. Take a listen and let me know what you think about WebINK and being able to use unconventional fonts in your web design.

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Genious at Work

Here's an account of the graphic design process from a master, Milton Glasser. To many, Milton Glaser is the embodiment of American graphic design during the latter half of the 20th century and well worth the 15 minutes of your valuable time to watch this video. While today's designs rely so heavily on computer generated visuals, he was doing it with paste up and rubylith.

Go With the Flow

Ever lay out multiple pages with text and images only to have the client come back with copy edits requiring a repositioning of every image? Here's a quick Indesign tip for making those images flow with the text so that if you have to add or remove strings of text your image positioning is unaffected. Indesign has a feature called Object Anchoring.

The example here is typical of a catalog or brochure where several persons are featured. Editing a single page like this is no big deal, but what if you have 5, 10 or more pages to deal with? There are several ways to anchor an object to text, the easiest being simply pasting or placing an object into text using the Type tool, but if you want to have the text wrap around your object you need to modify the positioning of the anchor. You’ll have the most control over positioning if you choose Custom from the Position pop-up menu in the dialog box. You access this dialog box by choosing Object/Anchored Object/Insert. Click OK, by default the anchored frame will be placed just to the left of the text frame.

You can then drag the graphic with the Selection tool where you’d like it to be positioned. Assign a text wrap to the object. Next, insert the Type Tool anywhere in the story and open it in Story Editor view (Edit/Edit In StoryEditor), and you can view the anchor markers. Drag the anchor marker to the end of the previous paragraph. If you need to adjust the positioning of the object after repositioning the anchor just select the object and use the arrow keys to nudge it.

So True It's Funny

Scott Adams is a genius.

I Aint Got Time to Bleed!

After many years in the trenches of this crazy business I'm still floored by the number of times I come across a fellow designer's project for print, be it an ad, a catalog or a brochure, with no bleeds! I'm not talking about the red, salty stuff that vampires crave. I'm referring to the additional surface of an image that needs to spill beyond the live area of a document in order to achieve a clean edge after the printer has trimmed the document to size. And for any of you still wondering what the hell I'm talking about (I probably had the misfortune to come across one of your files), imagine painting a green wall pink, but not painting all the way to the edges. You'd still see that green border all around your pretty pink wall wouldn't you? So, from now on add bleeds damn it!