Brochure

The photos below show my Indesign Composite, which, as the assignment dictated, is a brochure. I did the brochure for my photography business, Tara Johnson Photography. The first photo shows the front cover, back cover and inside flap. The second photo shows the inside front cover, center of the brochure and the back of the inside flap. I chose a unique size because it allowed my photos to be bigger. I also didn't want the common "brochure" feel, which having a unique size alleviated.

Brochure Reflection

I found this brochure online. Although the picture with it partially folded is misleading, this is a tri-fold, full color brochure. I think the colors are spot on for the subject matter and I love the effects. It is very eye catching and seems to have a lot of information, however the use of “white” space is clean and the graphics lead you through the brochure. The graphics may be slightly overwhelming to some readers and the font is a little small. I think increasing the font a few points and making the graphics a little smaller could improve the reader’s experience.

Advertisement Reflection

I found this ad for Paper Mate’s Ultra Fine pen on the internet. This is a benefits and differentiation ad. Clearly, Paper Mate is insinuating that their pen can help you cheat by being able to write super small. I think Paper Mate is trying to differentiate themselves from the competition and this ad will definitely catch your eye. Whether you are a “cheater” or not. I love how clean the ad is. A crisp picture that is allowed to speak for itself. The company’s logo, a product shot and the name of the product are the only pseudo-headline in sight. Again, I think the visual is enough in this situation.

Good Design

I just love this layout. I am a big fan of the double truck, which is one photograph over two facing pages in a layout. This is a bit of a modified version and I think it is fantastic. The headline is bold and the line beneath is separates it perfectly. The white space in the layout is pleasing and leads you to look at the photo for a moment before you being reading the article. I also really like the subtle use of bold, regular and italics to set off different sections. For example, although this picture is small I know that the italics paragraph at the bottom of the column is about the photo and its photographer.

Working Smarter with Photoshop CS4 and Illustrator CS4 Video Tutorial

• Design at a hundred percent.
• Typically, but not always, you should design in the largest size you will use the artwork. It is much easier to go smaller than it is to increase size.
• If you can conquer the pen tool everything else will be easier.
• The pen tool is ESSENTIAL to illustrator and learning its ins and outs will help you with everything from selection to creating new vector objects.
• Just like you can in photoshop, illustrator allows you to blend from a solid color to transparent with gradients.
• This makes adding details easier to create because now you don’t have to fade from one color to another color.
• Using a no fill, no stroke bounding box on items created in illustrator makes them easier to place into photoshop.
• If you working between the two programs and will need to bring an illustrator file into a specific spot in photoshop you need to work in the same size document in both programs. Set a no fill, no stroke bounding box on the illustrator item’s desired location and it will automatically copy into that spot in photoshop.
• You create actions by going to the actions panel, selecting new action and everything from there will be recorded. Then you select the square at the bottom of the panel and the action stops recording.
• This is particularly useful for me because I am starting a small photography business and this would allow me to create cool effects on photos in a fraction of the time. Using actions will also help give a cohesive look to your photos.

Logo Reflection

I love this use of text as a logo. Circles are infinite and this company is Zoom, Infinite Resources. I also love how dominant Zoom is. The use of interlocking circles as the double o is great because that is another sign of something that is infinite. What a simple idea with great execution. I prefer the two versions that use white for the interlocking double o because white is a great contrast color and symbolizes simplicity. Black is a message of strength and sophistication. Silver is cool, valuable and futuristic.