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I Heart InDesign (Sneaky Critique Wanted Post)

Looks Great! Very clean, professional. I wouldnt have a problem with this piece being used in a real world situation. My only "problem" is the border on the sides. It looks a little close to the edge. For me it is right at the point where it looks like it is too close, if that makes sense. It also might cause problems when getting printed. Also maybe try a contrasting font between the body and titles. Maybe leave the titles how they are and use a simple clean san serif font for the body. Overall A+
 
I've had it printed a few times now (to revise it and so on). I figured it would be what the client would want - I worked in the National Galleries over the summer so had quite a lot of reading time with these sorts of things.


Also, it would be the free flyer/brochure you'd get with your ticket, it wouldn't be a seperate fork-over-£9.99-just-to-look-at-a-few-pictures kind of brochure.
 
The font is hard to read. I suggest using a serif font, as they are the easiest to read in large text blocks. Other than that, looks really proffesional.
 
I like how Fertigo is almost a some what mixture of serif and sans. Also, it looks really nice in print which is obviously the point of the excercise - another part of the brief was that we couldn't use anything smaller than 10pt and we had to fit all the text and images on to the pages that they had to be on. It was annoying.
 
Looks good. Like it was said before, some parts are a bit hard to read. For Paragraph spacing did you just pres Enter twice?...If you did you should look into Space Before and Space After in the Paragraph options. The spaces between the paragraphs create a gap that (to me) is a bit of an eye sore.

EDIT: I haven't seen what it looks like in print so it all depends on what you think based on having an actual hard-copy.

GOOD JOB. :)
 
my 2¢...for what it's worth

Line spacing, margins and general layout on the cover page is not working for me at all.
It looks too "pat", and the titles are falling off the page visually.
The reflection effect on the inner cover is totally out of place here.
Keep the document clean and free from gimmicky web 2.0 junk.
Nice job on the gimmicky web 2.0 junk though :)

Font for the body copy is a bit too ornate IMO; I would choose something conservative and clean like 9pt Myriad Pro or Helvetica.
I like the header font and overall layout/color scheme; seems appropriate for the content.

Columns are generally too close together and ragged looking.
Try using full justification and a bit more negative space.
You can tweak the letter spacing and glyphs, and enable hyphenation to minimize rivers in your justified text blocks.
Also the paragraph spacing looks a bit suspect; use paragraph spacing rather than hard-returns, if this is the case.

The juxtaposition between text blocks, headers and images is not quite working with the negative space on pages 8-9.
Try to shape the negative space interestingly with your content.
The pages are begging for some graphical hooks; even a simple thin stroke to unify the content and thread the entire publication would be effective.

I like the little triangle arrow thingies in the captions on page 21.
This is virtually the only "graphical hook" in the entire document and it is working nicely here.

I think I would definitely use a larger gutter, and somewhat larger L/R margins to account for page creep.

The index page is a bit too "L-A" for my tastes, but some clients really dig this kind of formatting quirkiness.
Having said that, I think this attempt looks slightly stilted and out of place in this layout. (much like the web 2.0 junk)
Good opportunity to establish a subtle graphical theme for the rest of the pages.
K.I.S.S.

GL
 
snickelfritz said:
Line spacing, margins and general layout on the cover page is not working for me at all.
It looks too "pat", and the titles are falling off the page visually.
The reflection effect on the inner cover is totally out of place here.
Keep the document clean and free from gimmicky web 2.0 junk.
Nice job on the gimmicky web 2.0 junk though :)

Font for the body copy is a bit too ornate IMO; I would choose something conservative and clean like 9pt Myriad Pro or Helvetica.
I like the header font and overall layout/color scheme; seems appropriate for the content.

Columns are generally too close together and ragged looking.
Try using full justification and a bit more negative space.
You can tweak the letter spacing and glyphs, and enable hyphenation to minimize rivers in your justified text blocks.
Also the paragraph spacing looks a bit suspect; use paragraph spacing rather than hard-returns, if this is the case.

The juxtaposition between text blocks, headers and images is not quite working with the negative space on pages 8-9.
Try to shape the negative space interestingly with your content.
The pages are begging for some graphical hooks; even a simple thin stroke to unify the content and thread the entire publication would be effective.

I like the little triangle arrow thingies in the captions on page 21.
This is virtually the only "graphical hook" in the entire document and it is working nicely here.

I think I would definitely use a larger gutter, and somewhat larger L/R margins to account for page creep.

The index page is a bit too "L-A" for my tastes, but some clients really dig this kind of formatting quirkiness.
Having said that, I think this attempt looks slightly stilted and out of place in this layout. (much like the web 2.0 junk)
Good opportunity to establish a subtle graphical theme for the rest of the pages.
K.I.S.S.

GL
Click to expand...

Pretty much agree with all that myself. Personally I really really hate jagged columns, it look so 'unfinished' in my opinion.
 
Haha, I got warned not to use Helvetica on this project and I should expand my font taste - every project up until this one featured it. We also got told never to fully justify text as it makes it damn near impossible for visually impaired users to read (had to write an exciting essay on that one and why Helvetica is such an overused font).



Thanks for all the advice though - although it is now printed off etc I'll take all this on for the next project.


Cheers :]
 
Another point, I never even knew there was a way of making paragraphs apart from hitting return twice. Honestly, how could no-one have ever taught me that yet?
 
jive said:
Another point, I never even knew there was a way of making paragraphs apart from hitting return twice. Honestly, how could no-one have ever taught me that yet?
Click to expand...

Your professors should be horse-whipped for not teaching you that.
What's the font you used for the title on the first page? I like it a lot.
 
Whoever suggested Helvetica...shame on you. It's true that Helvetica has such broad and timeless appeal and this is exactly why lazy designers overuse. The lad's teacher is right to have told him to expand his fontal horizons. I do have a beef with this thread though. My guess is that now that you're finished with your project and think that you've done a d@mn good job you're putting it out to the MacRumors community for some ego stroking. Then SnickelFritz here gives you a *****load of worthwhile critique and now you're all...oh it's printed already...cheers. If you want some ego stroking then make sure your stuff is brilliant...if you want some honest help then ask before it's off to the printer.

Cheers.
 
Your professors should be horse-whipped for not teaching you that.
Click to expand...

AGREED!

We also got told never to fully justify text as it makes it damn near impossible for visually impaired users to read
Click to expand...

Justified text is fine in columns that are roughly 8-10 (roughly) words in width. Any more and it looks very blocky. Also make sure you go in and tweak some of the justify options so that you don't create any rivers (verticle gaps in paragraphs)
 
akabenlee said:
Whoever suggested Helvetica...shame on you. It's true that Helvetica has such broad and timeless appeal and this is exactly why lazy designers overuse. The lad's teacher is right to have told him to expand his fontal horizons. I do have a beef with this thread though. My guess is that now that you're finished with your project and think that you've done a d@mn good job you're putting it out to the MacRumors community for some ego stroking. Then SnickelFritz here gives you a *****load of worthwhile critique and now you're all...oh it's printed already...cheers. If you want some ego stroking then make sure your stuff is brilliant...if you want some honest help then ask before it's off to the printer.

Cheers.
Click to expand...


No, I wanted more opinions on my work so that, wait, this is a big concept, I can improve as I do more work. What a disgusting lifestyle I lead.
 
Three little points I'd make;

1. The Type on the cover needs a little work – looks crowded (but I like the type you've used).

2. The title text of the art is a little too light in tint.

3. On the 2nd page, the ISBN text has a mirror effect, but this isn't used anywhere else – I'd drop it.
 
yeah, i have to say, all the text on the cover is too large. way too large, and the font just doesn't seem clean enough. I would tell you to use helvetica as well, but i see you can't, so....why don't your try a cleaner serif font or less ornate serif font....like goudy? darken your colors a little and try to use the arrow graphic "from pg. 21" more often. Take away the reflections, and full justify your columns. Maybe even increase your leading a little.i don't know....just some ideas.

-JE
 
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