JohnCitizen
Technical User
I'm kinda interested to hear how others approach this fundamental design task. I'm always keen to pick up some tips that might help me work in a more efficient manner with larger projects.
I haven't had much experience in this area and would appreciate some pointers from more experienced designers.
Usually the initial presentation will consist of a cover, a couple of key spreads (one content heavy, one more sparse) featuring indicitive table designs, pull quote elements, graphs etc and maybe a financials spread. Depending on the budget, or the studio that I am working for, I might present between 1 and 3 concepts, each featuring these spreads.
Usually at this point I'm not too fussed about getting all my Para/Character styles set-up, as that will come once the client has signed off on a direction. (maybe I should change this? Does anyone actually 100% define their styles straight from the get-go?)
Once a direction is agreed upon I will usually peruse the copy (if is is available) and make some decisions regarding document structure, sections, length, approximate pagination etc and this will inform how many Master Pages I create.
If a section of copy is then available, I will drop the densest part of the document into one of my initial spreads to check whether my point size + leading, use of negative space is realistic for the actual volume of content to come. I find it best to work from the 'worst-case' scenario as far as density of content is concerned, rather than design initial layouts which may become unworkable as I encounter busier sections of the document. I will then make any adjustments to these figure and only then proceed to set up Character Styles, Paragraph Styles (and Nested Styles, Next Styles etc)
Then, using the actual info from the most complex graph/map and the most complex table, I will define styles for each of these.
Um, and thats pretty much it - maybe create a couple of Object Styles for sidebars/panels etc and then I am pretty much set to go.
So, yeah - really keen to hear if anyone can suggest some insights that might improve upon this process - or even point out any mistakes in my approach. Are there some InDesign features that I should be making use of that I don't already? I've only worked on a handful of longer documents in my career - so I would be deeply appreciative of some suggestions from more experienced designers.
Cheers!
I haven't had much experience in this area and would appreciate some pointers from more experienced designers.
Usually the initial presentation will consist of a cover, a couple of key spreads (one content heavy, one more sparse) featuring indicitive table designs, pull quote elements, graphs etc and maybe a financials spread. Depending on the budget, or the studio that I am working for, I might present between 1 and 3 concepts, each featuring these spreads.
Usually at this point I'm not too fussed about getting all my Para/Character styles set-up, as that will come once the client has signed off on a direction. (maybe I should change this? Does anyone actually 100% define their styles straight from the get-go?)
Once a direction is agreed upon I will usually peruse the copy (if is is available) and make some decisions regarding document structure, sections, length, approximate pagination etc and this will inform how many Master Pages I create.
If a section of copy is then available, I will drop the densest part of the document into one of my initial spreads to check whether my point size + leading, use of negative space is realistic for the actual volume of content to come. I find it best to work from the 'worst-case' scenario as far as density of content is concerned, rather than design initial layouts which may become unworkable as I encounter busier sections of the document. I will then make any adjustments to these figure and only then proceed to set up Character Styles, Paragraph Styles (and Nested Styles, Next Styles etc)
Then, using the actual info from the most complex graph/map and the most complex table, I will define styles for each of these.
Um, and thats pretty much it - maybe create a couple of Object Styles for sidebars/panels etc and then I am pretty much set to go.
So, yeah - really keen to hear if anyone can suggest some insights that might improve upon this process - or even point out any mistakes in my approach. Are there some InDesign features that I should be making use of that I don't already? I've only worked on a handful of longer documents in my career - so I would be deeply appreciative of some suggestions from more experienced designers.
Cheers!