Finally!

Well, here it is...the end of yet another course getting me closer and closer to my degree. My final for Digital File Prep is a Pocket Calendar for 2012. I forgot to mention a few key things in my last post about my final. My target audience is males and females, ages 10-70 years old. The call to action that I'm using is my blogger address, which is of course: lindshaddan.blogspot.com. I got it printed today and I was so happy with it! The final printed size measures 10.875 x 4.25 inches. The paperI used was 12 point stock, which is glossy on one side and matted on the other. I also changed a couple things about the calendar after getting feedback during our on-screen critiques. Instead of one of the front panels saying "Two Thousand & Twelve", I have changed it to a list of important dates. I also took out the black squares for each month to make it appear cleaner. It was also required that we get the price of one printed proof, as well as a fictional 1000 copies. When I had mine printed, since it was so small, it printed 3 calendars onto one sheet of paper. That cost me $1.44, so for 1000 it would cost me a whopping $1440.00! Glad my grade doesn't depend on 1000 prints! I've included some pictures of my final official printed proof.

                                                                   Outside (glossy side)

                                                                  Inside (matted side)                      

As I mentioned, I am very happy with the way this project turned out. You could almost say I was "proud". I believe all of the previous projects in class helped me tremendously with my final. I'm not going to lie and say this class was a piece-of-cake; it was a headache at most times but I'm very satisfied with the skills I acquired. Now I know how to properly package files and send them to be printed. At the beginning of this course, all I did was ask questions because I had no idea what I was doing! And finally during the making of my final project, questions were hardly asked! I learned how to avoid having errors in InDesign. To avoid most problems you have to make sure that all images are placed at 100% in their native software and rotated in their native software. If you see an error, you must open the file in the native software and fix it so that it will be corrected in InDesign. Although I do not plan using this in my future of professional photography, I did find it educational and rewarding once the proof was printed. I had fun designing and creating things and was proud of the projects that printed, for the most part.                                            

Final Project...Can you believe it's already here!?

I can't believe it's already the end of the semester! This class has been a bit hectic (not gonna lie), but it has been very educational and I've learned quite a bit about packaging and submitting files correctly for print. So, the end of the semester means...FINAL PROJECT!!! My teacher gave us the choice of what we wanted our final project to be about, but the catch was that we have to include a fold of some sort. She brought in examples one day of different folds; gate folds, horizontal and vertical folds, exotic folds, tri-folds, etc. I really had my heart set on trying an exotic fold, but after I found out how much of a headache it would be for a final project, I soon changed my mind. I decided to do a gate fold, something a little simpler.

For the actual content, it is going to be a pocket calendar that people can carry around in their pockets for easy access. Since it's a gate fold, when it is closed the very front will say "Pocket Calendar". When opened once, it will have the number 12 in a typographic illustration with small numbers inside. When opened again, you will see the whole image, which will be the calendar part. Once it is closed, the very back of the calendar will have the words "Two Thousand Twelve" in some sort of fancy font or illustration.

Just as we had to have specs for our magazines, we also need specs for this project. One of the things we must know is how much it would cost to reproduce 1000 times. This project will have to be printed, scored and folded. I have not yet gotten a Price Quote from printing Services; be looking for that in the next blog. The unfolded product will measure 11"wide X 4.25" tall. The calendar months inside will have to be pretty small, considering this whole product is pocket-sized. Each month should measure roughly 2.75" wide X 1.42" tall.

These next few roughs are simply roughs, so we'll just see how much they evolve in the process of actually creating them. I'm looking forward to creating and having them printed! Check back later for more!

                                                   This is the front after it's opened once.

                                           This is the actual calendar portion of the product.

                                                 And this is opened (unfolded) back-side.

Magazine Ad

This is what the final printed piece of my magazine ad looks like. I am pretty satisfied with the outcome. Some of the elements I included from the master image list were silhouette COB, full bleed raster, screen tint, drop shadow on text, and microsoft tag. The silhouette COB was used on the top four flowers, full bleed raster was the entire image, drop shadow was used on text "Simply Sweet" and the microsoft tag that was mandatory is shown in the corner.

 

Image copyright: All images were taken by me, Lindsay Haddan

Magazine full-page ad

Our current assignment in Digital File Prep is creating a full-page ad for a magazine of our choice. I chose Seventeen Magazine.  The product I chose to represent is a made-up perfume called Simply Sweet. There were several requirements for this ad. It had to have: Microsoft tag, target audience, subject matter, and call to action. Before starting this project we also had to figure our magazine specs, which included size of ad, bleed and trim size, and the cost of printing it. My bleed is .125 inches on all four sides, margins are .375 inches on all four sides, trim size is 7.875x10.5 inches. A call-to-action is also required and my call-to-action is a website for the perfume of where to go to order a free sample. I included a few elements that were on my master image list as well. This project was probably the most fun to create but it was also one of the toughest! It was quite a headache, but I got it done and am pretty happy with the outcome.

                                                  10 thumbnails of design (Simply Sweet)

                                                                  rough draft

Newspaper Ad

Hello all. A new week means a new project! And you may ask what the project is this week...I'll give you a hint, look at the title! Yep, that's right a newspaper ad! So in my digital file prep class our project this week is to create a newspaper ad and the options are pretty much limitless. There are certain aspects we are to follow though. Included we must have a formula to determine our cost (newspaper ads aren't measured in inches either, folks). A newspaper ad is measured in columns AND inches. The formula I'm using is 3 columns by 5 inches, which converts to 5.75 inches by 5 inches-that is my InDesign document sizes. My cost formula is 3col x 5"=28.75 x $4= $115.00. We have an imaginary budget of $197.00 also. Since my cost is within budget I'm good to go! My target audience is going to be traditional college students and my Call to Action is going to be to sway the target audience into the store. My design that I created is for a coffee shop, so this is why I chose traditional college students to be my audience. In the design I've incorporated music, food and computers/internet into the equation. College students seem to really love coffee, as well as internet and music. So if the traditional college student buys coffee, food, and listens to music in the wi-fi cafe...they get the best of both worlds. Included are my 10 thumbnails and rough draft. Enjoy!

 

10 thumbnails

 

 Rough 

 

Final printed piece

A Little Inspiration

During our time off of school for fall break, our teacher asked us to take pictures of our environment for inspirational designs, whether they be good or bad designs. I went to Joplin this weekend and was driving past Freeman Hospital and a banner caught my eye. It was a well-designed banner of a tree made with hands and hearts. I found it quite inspirational and a really good design. On the way to Joplin, my mom and I stopped by a flea market in Crestline. I was looking all over the place for good design and just as we were about to leave, I stumbled upon a vintage box for Oreo cookies. I thought it was pretty neat so I snapped a picture of that as well. Also, I got a butterfly die-cut and I thought the package it came in was really cool so that was inspirational as well. Enjoy!

Completed Direct Mail piece

Okay...so after our on-screen critiques in class last Thursday I've made some changes to the Direct Mail piece. This project was a little on the confusing side, but it's over now and turned in to be graded (*fingers crossed*). Even though this project was a bit of a headache, in the long run it was helpful to learn and it was pretty fun as well. I am pretty pleased with the final result. What do you think? Changes? Thanks for taking a peek!