SUMMARY:
We were to design a glossary to create visual hierarchy and to create a contrast between the name of the definition and the body text. Starting off with the inside of the glossary to make a visually appealing look and one that was easy enough to read and then creating the cover to also match with the formatting of the inside.
GOALS:
I wanted to learn more about InDesign and how it works. I also wanted to learn more about how different fonts could match together from different families to create visual hierarchy and create a nice contrast between each other. It was also nice to explore page layout and experience the way the printer color is different from that of the computer.
FONT EXPERIMENTS:
The first exercise we did was to explore different pairings of fonts. This was to create contrast between the typefaces through the use of different sizes, weight, horizontal measure, and more. Some examples would be to use a typeface that is thick and one that is thin or to use one that is fragmented and the other solid.
The second exercise would be to implement what we learned from exercise one and to do a version of a glossary to see how it would look. We would be able to use two different typefaces and could use multiple within a family of typefaces. This exercise would be used to experiment with different typefaces to see what would work together and what would not work together.
The third exercise would be to choose fonts that worked together from exercise two and work on the leading, kerning, and/or tracking. This would better prepare us for the actual glossary that we would be working on. This also was a great help to show what each of those could do for the flow of the text on the page.
PRELIMINARY GLOSSARY BUILD:
The fonts chosen for my glossary were Trajan Pro and Poppins. I chose these fonts due to the fact that one is a serif, and the other is a sans-serif. Sans-serifs are easier to read then that of serifs but when a serif font is used it is best when it is used for titles and such. So Tajan Pro is the serif and Poppins is the sans-serif. We then placed the images by matching them to their definition so apex would match with the letter A that is highlighted at the top to represent the definition of apex and did that for all the images.
FINAL FULL GLOSSARY FILE BUILD:
I used the Trajan Pro font for my cover letter I also used the same green from the inside of my glossary to go with the title of the front. I also really liked the idea of this being a real book and have a brown cover but I wanted it to have a little bit of movement to it so I added in the patterned lines in the background along with two big blobs coming in from the left and the right.
PRINTED GLOSSARY:
I learned that the color I have for my background on my cover page does not like to print lightly on the printer. The times where we adjusted the colors opacity it came out more yellow then brown. I also learned that trying to line up the stapler to the back of the paper to create the saddle-stitch bind was not easy.
To create the saddle-stitch bind we first printed out the papers and folded them in half separately from each other. Next you place your papers in the order that when you flip through the book it is in the right order. Finally, you turn the book where you are looking at the cover and back at the same time and mark where you want your saddle-stitch to go, it is best if it is about equal spacing between the top and bottom of the book and the space between the stables is also about the same.
KNOWLEDGE GAINED:
I learned how to insert pictures into an InDesign document along with learning how different type families can go together to make a coherent design. I found it fun to play around with the different fonts to see how different each font is and how it can interact with other fonts. For printing it was interesting to see how the color looks different from screen to print. I think personally I like the idea of having a tangible printed glossary I find that I have an easier time reading it if it's on paper rather than a screen.
