Image and Text

I was thrilled with the result of this project. I knew immediately which article I wanted to use, and had several ideas in mind, but once again, when it came time to create the layout, I found it difficult to get started.

The first thing I came up with was an orange background. The color actually came from a picture I found during the demonstration for altering photos in Photoshop before importing them into InDesign, and I ended up using it for my final design.  Later in the project I added a gradient feather to the background, but the initial orange was a harsh color and it was hard to look at. I knew I wasn't going to leave it like that, but it served as a basis for the design.

My biggest concern was making sure the text fit in the two page spread. Almost immediately, I placed it into the document and played with different column sizes, fonts and layouts until I found one that fit and looked pleasing to the eye. The body copy ended up being Helvetica – I guess the movie really inspired me – and because Helvetica is a sans-serif font, I used Adobe Garamond Pro, a serif font, for the title.

Once I knew how everything would fit into the spread, I was able to add the photo. The picture alone was a little bit plain, so I put I border around it, which also ended up going around the title text. The design then began to feel a little asymmetrical because there was so much on the left page, but nothing but text on the right. That is when I added the gradient to the background and found the leaves to put underneath the overlay.

At that point I felt great about the result, but there was still something missing in the bottom right corner. Amy suggested I add some kind of autumn dingbat and helped me find the leaf. I added some rectangles with a gradient on either side to dress it up a bit and this was the final product.