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.