Issuu

NEW TO DESIGN? Ulen Rodriguez

TABLE OF CONTENT GRIDS AND LAYOUTS ------------------------ 2 CHARACTERS AND PARAGRAPH STYLES ---------- 4 COLOR THEORY

------------------------------ 6

COLOR PRODUCTION ---------------------------- 8 PRINTING --------------------------------- 10 FINISHING --------------------------------- 12

INTRODUCTION This tiny handbook explores the basics of design and production, it is a small sip of what design is about, and REMEMBER DONT BE AFRAID OF BREAK SOME RULES, they are here to guide you not to lock you up in a box, have fun and good luck.

GRIDS AND LAYOUTS Grids are like the skeleton of any existing Layout, they are guides for designers to make easier the process of organizing content in a rational and aesthetic way.

Grids are patterns of vertical and horizontal lines spaced evenly forming squares or rectangles. The lines on notebooks are a great example of how a grid should look like; however, grids can be found everywhere, from candy packaging to a simple book page, grids can be found in many different shapes always flowing the vertical and horizontal pattern.

“The Grid is like the lines on a football field. you can play a great game in the grid or a lousy game. but the goal is to play a really fine game.” -Wim Crowel

GRIDS AND LAYOUTS

Layout is an arrange, plan or design, it is a draw of how a car will be build, it can be used in different contexts and areas of design, but how do we make a good layout? Well a good layout must be able to coordinate everything on the spreads, showing connection between the different objects on the composition. Often use on magazines, books, advertising and practically on every good design; HOWEVER! The use of grid and layouts doesn’t mean a design is good, you can follow them and be super meticulous with them and still get a horrible color palette or horrible characters or paragraphs styles, but don’t worry, just keep reading.

CHARACTER STYLES Character styles are used to define how individual characters are shown in the screen or print, including characteristics such as font size, and bold, italics, etc.

They are used to highlight important words, links or numbers, character styles are used to make different characteristics between titling, body text, callouts, sub-titles, and more, these character styles are also what gives the tone of a text by being ALL UPPER CASE and bold italic or just marking a name like Venus.

All the characters here are the same font and size, even that they look different, the only variable is the color, italic, and boldness in some of theme.

Never more NEVER MORE Never more NEVER MORE Never more NEVER MORE Never more NEVER MORE

PARAGRAPH STYLES A paragraph style is a set of characteristics such as font, size and color that determines how the text in a paragraph looks. You can use paragraph styles in your different designs and layouts, or posters and magazines. To make life easier ID aka In Design has a feature where you can make custom characters and paragraph styles in order to keep using the same style on the entire spread/ composition, to create a sense of harmony and connection between each object.

align left

align rigth

justify center

align center

COLOR THEORY Color theory has a many definitions, concepts and design applications (enough to fill several books and Internet tutorials) However, there are 3 basic categories of color theory that are logical and pretty useful to know if you are a beginner: first one is the color wheel, second color harmony, and the thid the context of how colors are used.

A circle, based on red, yellow and blue, is traditional in the theory of color since 1666, year in which Isaac Newton developed the first circular diagram of colors. What we now know as color wheel. In visual experiences, harmony is something that is pleasing to the eye. It creates a sense of order and balance in the visual experience. When something is not harmonious, it’s either boring or chaotic. color harmonies can be either super calm or super dynamic all depends on the colors and tones that you decide to use.

color harmony

COLOR THEORY There are also categories of colors based on the color wheel. We begin with a 3-part color wheel: yellow, red and blue, from these hues all colors can be made

7 primary

secondary

tertiary

color wheel

How color behaves in relation to other colors is a complex branch of the color theory. Comparing the contrast effects of different color backgrounds for the same reddish square, it looks way more brighter against the cream background than on the green one, and the same thing happens on the black and white.

color behavior

COLOR PRODUCTION

CMYK color stands for cyan (C), magenta (M), yellow (Y), and black (K for “key”) and this the color mode is used by commercial printing equipment to create full-color and images. The printing process involves combining different color inks to create a full-color. The “K” representing black, for “key”, it refers to the printing plates being aligned, to the the black plate. CMYK color is also called process color, or four-color process, making reference to the four colors that are part of it CMYK. Create an image using CMYK colors, printers use four printing plates that combine in dot patterns to make a full-color image. each plate is used for one of four colors (CMYK) and is designed to lay down a specific amount of ink on the image.

C M Y K

COLOR PRODUCTION The other color mode, RGB color, uses three colors: red (R), green (G), and blue (B) to create a full-color image effect. RGB is the color mode used by computer monitors, digital cameras, and televisions. Varying levels of red, green, and blue light mixed togrther to create the images that appear on the screen. That’s why web-based images are created in RGB color mode. RGB colors looko brigther than CMYK colors does,it is because they are made to fit screen settings in order to make a full-color image all the time withing different screens.

R G B

PRINTING

BUT!! before be sure to have your bleed in place in order to get THE PERFECT PRINT.

bleed

First thing first, before printing you should ask yourself what type of audience is the design going for, what kind of paper will fit better your goals withing the project, how long is intent to be “alive” what mood is going to have the final design, do you want to add textures? are you going to print just a few? maybe more? well to make sure you are ready to print your first step is choose a paper, it may sound dumb but it is a big deal. and then do you want letter press printing, or screen printing.

Bleed refers to an extra 1/8” (. 125 in) of image or background color that extends beyond the trim area of your printing piece. The project is printed on an oversized sheet that is then cut down to size with the appearance that the image is “bleeding” off the edge of the paper.

screen printing

Screen printing is the process of transferring a stencilled design onto a flat surface using a mesh screen, ink and a squeegee. Fabric and paper are the most usually screen-printed surfaces, but with specialised inks it’s also possible to print onto wood, metal, plastic, and even glass.

letter press

PRINTING

Letterpress is the oldest form of printing. In this method, a surface with raised letters is inked and pressed against the surface of the paper to reproduce an image in reverse. Typically, metal type has been used but other possibilities include carved wood or stone blocks can work as well. Super fancy and great for formal events invitations.

FINISHING TRIM LINE The final size of the document after the last out is made.

SAFE ZONE The safe area or inner margin in which to keep all important elements within to prevent them from trimming off, should be at least 1/8” inside the edge of the final trim size. BORDERS All Framed Borders must be at least 1/4 from the trim line or 3/8” from the bleed line.

bleed trim line safe zone borders

FINISHING Some designs are ment to be fold, in order to be complete, so here are some tips on how to make the perfect crisp and smooth fold. MARKS Marks will help as a guide to fold on the right angle and place, they can be errase later in the process or leave if they are part of the final design. CRISP FOLD A crisp fold can be achive by softly slide the blade of the xacto-knife or cutter along the folding mark (use a ruler if need it) this will make folding easier and smooth. FLATTEN THE FOLD Carefully fold all parts that need to be fold. Use a bone folder or another flat tool like a credit card or license, press firmly (not too hard or it will leave marks on the design) along all folds.

fold cut