Immersion interior design

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#1

This isn’t really the place for it, but I don’t have access to the committee forum anymore (which is good and proper) so I’m gonna put it here for general thought rather than just PM Anna.

The cover of Immersion is really slick. The content is largely awesome. The one thing that disappoints me every time is the interior design which is average. Not bad, but average. It’s such a little thing, but it really colours the perception of the content. I think once we get a slick interior design we won’t look back.

It would be great if someone with graphic design skills could re-design it.

Failing that, I’m sure that I can achieve something nicer. If no-one else steps up, I’m putting my name in the hat to create a new design to be used in December (assuming the new design is acceptable to Anna). I’m happy to work in Word format or Microsoft Publisher, whatever suits Anna. Send the September edition to ryan.paddy@fronde.com in Word and I’ll rework it after I finish the membership database. And I’ll fix those damn margins at the same time, starting from a blank doc.

#2

Actually, now that I remember. I’ve been meaning to mention that hthe articles within Immersion need to be attributed and have a by-line.

#3

Yeah, they went a bit wild on me last issue. :blush:

I can’t seem to get my hands on Publisher. I’ve managed to install some program that Mike gave me (PageCreator? Adobe Page? PageBuilder? Something to do with pages, I can’t check 'cause I’m not on my own computer) and by all accounts it’s very good, I just ran out of time to learn to use it by the time the last issue went out (assignments got the better of me)

Long story short, interior design help is welcome, I’ll just need to be collaborated with because it does affect the content.

#4

I have Adobe InDesign and Acrobat Professional, however since I don’t have Word I can’t read the Immersion files properly to adjust layout or make PDF files! That said, Word is probably the right tool for the job here.

#5

Nope.

Adobe Pagemaker *, MS Publisher, Quark Express are the right tools for the job. Full layout control vs approximate layout control that you get in Word.

The only difference is the Word has a shorter learning curve, but that is because it is much less capable for publication layout tasks. You can do a reasonable newsletter in Word but that’s about where it stops.

  • which is the on I think Anna was referring to
#6

Craig, can you export PageMaker files from from InDesign, seeing they’re both Adobe? Or could you design in InDesign and we get Anna a copy of that?

The major design challenge is to get a really polished look without full-bleed. I’ve been trying to find examples of magazine layouts to work from, but nearly everything out there is full-bleed.

If we only had an automatuic paper cutter I’d suggest printing outselves and then cuttting down to a sub-A4 size that is full bleed and fits in 45c envelopes.

#7

Yeah, they’ll definitely all be full-bleed. Adobe applications tend to have good compatibility between each other, I’ll send her a few files when we both have a chance to experiment.

#8

I wasn’t looking at mainstream mags so much as newsletters, event guides and so on. But most of them are full-bleed too, if they have any budget, and if they don’t then they tend to have crap design. I’m sure there are some ways of getting a decent design without full-bleed though.

#9

What’s full bleed-through?
(Please excuse my ignorance. :wink:)

#10

[quote=“Mike Curtis”]Adobe Pagemaker *, MS Publisher, Quark Express are the right tools for the job. Full layout control vs approximate layout control that you get in Word.

  • which is the on I think Anna was referring to[/quote]

That’s the bunny.

#11

Full bleed is when the printed stuff goes right to the edge of the paper. The cover of Immersion (which is done by a print shop) is full-bleed, the interior (which is done on NZLARPS’ spiffy new laser printer) is not.

The way full-bleed is usually achieved is to print onto a larger piece of paper and print slightly larger than you actually want, then cut the edges off to make the paper the desired size and make it so the ink goes right to the edges of the paper. Printing right to the edges of a piece of paper doesn’t work, too messy.

#12

I’ve been keeping a look out for examples of decent non-full-bleed interior design, and have finally found some.

The Herald on Sunday comes with a bunch of lifestyle magazines inside. Most of these have non-full-bleed interiors, and the design isn’t bad. They’re a much larger size so the exact design wouldn’t work, but they could be a good basis for an approach to design.

#13

So, no one else appears to have stepped up. Ryan, do you have the time to do the interior design?

Unfortunately, the current design is the best my graphic skills can pull off (I’m an English major)

#14

Ryan says he’s busy with a project for this issue, but I’ve found a design student who says she’ll give it a shot for us, but it’s dependent on her exams. On the plus side, she’s familiar with publisher programs unlike me and has far better eye for visual design. Also, keen for things to add to her portfolio.

She can’t come up with anything worse than what we’ve got :smiley:

#15

So the interior layout and design was done by my younger sister who is studying design. It was a bit stressful for us both for a while there, but she said she’d be happy to do it again, if we wanted her.

Most people I’ve spoken to have liked the new layout (with one exception, who said it looked dreadful and like the printer had malfunctioned but I think that’s fairly harsh) - so what do we all think?

#16

I liked it. She seems to have a real eye for varying the pages in an interesting way while giving them a consistent feel.

I wondered whether it was intentionally lightly coloured (to save on printer toner, maybe). If not, I thought there could be some darker bits to create contrast.

Also, I thought that the effect where images span across both pages could be used more. There should be no need for a gap in the middle like there was on the Pan page with the grey tree in the background.