Producing brochures

Producing Brochures is a continuing education class offered by South Puget Sound Community College.

Do you need to create a stunning brochure or marketing piece for print and web? Do you need to know the basics of InDesign, how to edit photos in that brochure and use Acrobat to prepare it for the web? If that’s what you need, this hands-on, participatory class is an elective after completing the basic four-part core series, using Adobe Creative Suite.

This 1.5 day course includes the basic elements, vocabulary and practical use of InDesign for creating a brochure for both print and the web. Besides learning the basic tenets for creating a brochure, you will also get a brief introduction to integrating Photoshop and Acrobat in the design process.

Course files and resources

Adobe getting started/tri-fold brochure tutorial
Adobe: convert RGB images to CMYK in Photoshop
Adobe: editorial comments (video, track changes)
Adobe: InDesign CS6 tutorials and help
Adobe: optimize PDF in IND
Downloadable files (DropBox)
- IND tri-panel template files (zipped folder)
- Lynda.com files (zipped folder)
- Photos (if you need some)
- Sample files (zipped folder, if you need some)
FontAwesome
Seattle Public Library affiliations
- Adobe InDesign CS: Classroom In A Book (Safari Books)
- Lynda.com – Designing a brochure
- Lynda.com – InDesign CC Essential Training
- Lynda.com – Parts of a grid (YT)
Zerox Publishing Standards (Jan White)

Powerpoints

Day 1
Day 2

Grids

“Grids are the invisible glue that hold your design together.”
~ Kathy Gill

Grids are composed of vertical and horizontal lines which are used as a guide for design layout. A grid system is a way of organizing content on a page (digital device or paper), using any combination of margins, guides, rows and columns. The grid is invisible in the final product, but following it helps in create effective print and web layouts.

I need help with …

Adding fill or stroke color (Adobe video)
Applying color (Adobe help; text or other objects, including color picker)
Changing margins on an existing INDD document
GO TO Layout > Margins and Columns
Create a QR code
Flip an image/text panel
- Use the marquee tool to select everything in the panel
- In the far left of the control panel, click on the center Reference Point
- Rotate all the selected objects as a unit around their center by using the pre-set (either clockwise or counter-clockwise) twice. The “P” will appear upside down.
- Final panel, flipped
Making wavy lines in Photoshop (YouTube, no audio)
Managing gradients in INDD
Rasterized layers in Photoshop (mix of vector and bitmap objects must be turned into a bitmap or raster layer in order to add filters or painting tools to that layer)
Screened background images (add transparency – Adobe)
Selecting nested or overlapping objects (Adobe)
Using paragraph styles (video)
Working with type, character and paragraph styles
Working with type (book chapter)
Wrapping text around an image (Adobe, with files)