Tag: Photoshop

Do you have a brochure I can look at?

On November 17, 2023

Designing a brochure for an organization is essential to building credible deliverables. The brochure passes on information at a trade show or event for a specific purpose. Developing the brochure is a process that relies on obtaining correct and up-to-date information and obtaining messaging that is pertinent and current from stakeholders. The design is only 50% of the effort when working with brochures.

Puzzling Efforts

Aggregating the data and most important information to include on the brochure is the most difficult task when creating your brochure. Having a clear messaging and an overall design concept also prove important.

It can seem overwhelming when tasked with the brochure. What information do I need to include? The space is limited to two 8.5 X 11 sides, divided into six smaller panels. Does the design encompass the entire room, or do you compartmentalize each panel with its information? The information may dictate the position of images, or a logo may fit in a spot better than others.

My Example – Hand Sketch

In this blog installment, I created a brochure for the Native American departments at The University Of Oklahoma. My initial hand-drawn sketch illustrates how fluid the process is with many changes happening until the end. The collective is known as ‘Tribe Nation.’ It is a great way to envelope the native community within the student body. I wanted to demonstrate the inclusiveness of the native body here at the school. This brochure would be within a media kit or handed to a prospective native student. It could function as collateral for a school information day, etc.

For this design I wanted to reflect on the earlier mentions of space and color.

Using InDesign

It has become my new go-to software for text and images projects. InDesign and its container feel allowed me to create this brochure for Admission and Recruitment. While it could use minor tweaks and nudges, the overall design features images on black and white backgrounds, keeping the traditional Oklahoma Crimson. The University of Oklahoma, in an effort to protect their brand from misuse, issues brand guidelines (found HERE) for anyone working with their colors, logo, and fonts. It helped stay within the requirements set forth by the University.

Design Mock

Outside

Inside

Note

While creating the brochure, watching your bleed and borders setup is essential. The folded crease is also critical to note. Creative Pro offers a calculator when accounting for the folds. Some even offer free templates if you want to go that route. However, remember that someone else could have the template, too. Create your own. It will encourage self-pride and spawn creativity.

Writing for your Audience

When anything goes to the printer, knowing who you are writing for is crucial. Not only is it essential but vital. Once the brochure prints, you can’t take it back. We aren’t printing money. The costs can get out of control when a design goes to print.

Function over form…

By Tony Tsoodle

On October 7, 2023

In PR Design

..or quantity over quality. Depending on the context of the situation, we usually hear these statements in reverse. In my case, its dysfunction over form. Sometimes my glaring inability to maneuver within Photoshop (proficiently) is baffling. As I grappled with a recent Photoshop project working, my lack of ability to grasp a concept frustrated me to the point of wanting to never work in Photoshop again. Its an overreaction, I know, and it probably won’t happen because my love-hate relationship with the software. Its clear to me that InDesign might work for my brain processes better. Photoshop is pretty cool though, and its just too intriguing to walk away from.

Outside of the technology gap, The recent project focused on stakeholders and how the personas affect the design. This post will explain the importance of how the stakeholders role, views, goals, pain points and behaviors dictate what to include in your project. Combining these aspects for Photoshop users can also present challenges as you are working within the medium.

Admissions & Recruitment – American Indian Mailers

Persona 1 – Native Graduate.

Front

Persona 2 – Native Higher Education liaison.

Front

Stakeholders & their importance

Stakeholders are those that have an interest in a topic, subject or situation. In this case, the relationship between the official representing the higher education offices for tribes across the country and the student to the University are the stakeholders here. If the University of Oklahoma and The office of Admissions and Recruitment were to work specifically with the American Indian offices in a mailer campaign in an outreach effort to communicate with both student and an educational official from the tribes. Knowing who you are designing for, is imperative to the creative process. Knowing which elements to include or what language to use is a symptom of good planning and creating the persona for each of the stakeholders.

Knowing

Role: Who are you creating for and what role do they play in the organization or business.

Views: Their views are what you can directly appeal to. How do they view themselves and the community.

Goals: What are the goals of their campaign or organization. What they trying to achieve?

Pain Points: What are the issues or barriers that they may encounter or currently are experiencing.

Behaviors: What are their behaviors and how do they approach their goals?

In the case of the mailers I created for this assignment, knowing the aforementioned key points for stakeholder 1 helped define these specifics in how stakeholder 2 interacts with them, revealing an angle in how to effectively communicate the message. The students needs dictate the interactions. Ultimately, its about the student needs.

Suggestions

However, my suggestion is working with the latest version. I have two machines I work with. An iMac at home and use a newer MacBook Pro for my traveling machine. The new features within the software are evident when working between two different generations of technology. The Object Selection Tool is amazing and worked well when approaching two mailers I created for OU’s recruiting and admissions office and the masking effect you see. I really enjoy PS. It does however, make me crazy. I found this guys blog to be helpful in establishing a better approach a session. The post included some helpful tricks that I am going to continue to use.

The biggest advice for anyone wanting to improve is to just dive in. YouTube videos are always helpful but not knowing what to even call a particular process or technique its rather difficult to relay what you are looking for. Its another one of those cliches: practice makes perfect.

I’m Designer-InDesign & Photoshop

By Tony Tsoodle

On August 31, 2023

In PR Design

As a media industry professional, I’m presented with tasks that heavily involve Adobe Suite. From Audition for radio production to Photoshop and InDesign for print and publication purposes. Occasionally, I’ll visit Illustrator for any vector artwork. It makes for quick work manipulating vectored art. The Adobe Suite offers nothing but complete creative control over art or projects from a multitude of mediums. I have always likened the different programs to building blocks for another program within the Suite. One program creates a building block that you can use in another. While the Suite and Creative Cloud give unparalleled access to tools that designers seek, two of the practical and robust programs for PR Design are Photoshop and InDesign.

Photoshop (handy dandy)

For instance, you can create a beautiful logo in Illustrator from the ground up. Then, use the logo in a flyer or on pictures. It is possible with Photoshop. This program offers creative control over most elements, including fonts, picture adjustments, and removing subjects from photos. Photoshop isn’t Lightroom, but it has some of the same attributes. For those who edit photos and like the ability to manipulate those images, Photoshop is in your best interest. Resizing images is an easy chore inside Photoshop. I recently had time to adjust and clean up photos of my great-great-grandfather William Joseph Cizek. My father is currently tracing our roots and came across this photo. Photoshop allowed me to remove some of the blemishes in the original photograph taken in 1926.

Before

After

Photoshop fixes-cropped, removed noise and anomalies. The spot healer tool is genius.

Photoshop has an arsenal of tools at the user’s disposal. Correcting photos to use within PS so they are usable within InDesign is the logical step to creating quality. Say I am creating a design for a family reunion. Of course, I could use the original photo as it scanned. Photoshop is unique in its ability to remove the background of an image and replace it with something else with the content-aware feature—a remarkable feature in PS.

InDesign

The interfaces appear identical, but they are not the same design programs. First, there are no layers within ID. I found myself looking for the eyeball next to a layer that was never there. My lack of use in InDesign constrains my abilities and proficiency with the program. However, I have found that creating publication pieces like flyers and brochures will be much easier than making them in PS. I tried creating a brochure from scratch in Photoshop, and it did not go well.

While it looks the part of a brochure, it took me days to create it because of the text and inability to keep it consistent. It would have been an easier putt if I would have started in InDesign first.

InDesign allowed me to create a better-structured flyer with containers to insert text and pictures. Simple.

Both programs are best discovered by jumping right in. They answer with solutions to many of a designer’s needs. Many video resources are available online, and answers are in the forums as part of Adobe’s Web Community. Chances are, someone else has had the same issue as you, and they figured out a solution.

Some online places often give many tips to help sharpen your skills within these programs. Here are 32 Indesign Tutorials to help you improve your overall abilities. If you are looking to hone your Photoshop abilities here are a bunch of tutorials, 600, for you.

Knowing when to use what program is necessary in becoming a professional designer.

Utilizing one program for another will also become routine.

However, nothing overrules a well designed piece that encompasses proportion, color, typography, and all the other characteristics that define quality.