Designs by Kaitlin
Humane Society Calendar
Inspired by other calendar layouts online, my Humane Society calendar used color pallets based on my chosen picture at the top. My March page picked up the red in the little girls dress, April photo didn’t have too much color so I decided on pink, and I picked the blue in the models’ shirts.
Using the master page, I created my layout using guides to illustrate my internal margins for the actual design, which used 1/8th of an inch. I used the guides to position the photo at the top, defining the area for the numerous calendar days and days, space for the Charleston Humane Society at the bottom, and a designated area for the three coupons themselves.I found it the most difficult to create the days in separate, unattached boxes. Using lots of math, I maintained 1/8th of an inch between the boxes with 8.25 inches of filled space. I divided the horizontal and vertical space available by 7 inches less than 6 and 1/8th inch margins. The width of the boxes is 1.0714 x 1.2 inches. This left space for step and repeat horizontally and vertically. The month of March, however, gave me trouble as it is has 5 weeks. I had to use vertical scaling to reduce the boxes vertically. Using duplication, I added an extra row to on the bottom.
I enjoyed using the stroke feature in the middle of the page, creating a spiral bound effect.The bright colors and pictures, alignment, and white space make my calendar appealing to the reader. Implementing colors in the days made the actual calendar portion pop. The guides and uniform spacing makes the reader instantly focus on what is important, rather than finding the information within a busy looking layout.
Clearly, this is a great improvement from my last project. My father is a graphic designer and has been learning to use InDesign for a few months now. He helped me with the math, and exact guide technicalities. He is a perfectionist, so everything is perfectly aligned. Sitting and working with him taught and reiterated the things we touched on in class. I enjoyed this project and hope to follow up with my other projects just as well.
Magazine Ad
The design for my Sawdust Art Festival flyer was based on a simple top of the page arch of leaves which picked up colors and over all natural themes of the Sawdust and the art festival. I wanted my design to have symmetrical alignment, but also embody variations such as an odd amount of pictures. The design incorporated a centered heading with two columns, both of which used a centered text. I broke the text into two sections in narrow columns to make the flyer less wordy. The photos and leafy frame initially attract the viewer to the flyer without getting them bogged down in the text. Short paragraphs make the text appealing.
This design appeals to the creative, artistic, and naturalistic audience of the Sawdust organization and arts festival. The photos specifically incorporate traditional textual and outsider arts. The photo on the bottom right is the only shot that shows the grit of the festival. I find that specific to general is the most effective.
However, I did find difficultly incorporated the Sawdust logo. Because I used an image for the leafy frame on top, I had trouble layering the two images. I also tried using a clipping path with the logo, but I felt that that action took too much away from the logo. I look forward to improving my skills such as layering, unique layouts, and incorporating Photoshop.