inDesign help!

C

Chuckls

n00b
Joined
Nov 15, 2012
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8
So I realize I don't really have the post-count to really convince anyone to help me, but I've been lurking/buying stuff here for a month or so.

anyways

So, I have to make a 4pg newsletter for my final project and I chose to do a Bf3 Tips and Tricks newsletter. I hate inDesign and was wondering if anyone could steer me in the right direction as to what I should add/Change about it?

Here is the link to the PDF of my newsletter:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/115859200/Rough
Click to expand...
 
Do you have any current gaming magazines that you could mimic the style of? Maybe one of the review sections. I'd assume they would have a good layout and would be a good guide.

Using the builtin PDF viewer on Scribd. The photos are overlapping, not enough white space around the photos. Don't have text touching the photos. Make the "medpacks" photo the same size as the communication photo, so that those two columns "fit" together and are similar. Your clan's emblem, doesn't fit with the other images. Do you have a more polished emblem?
 
You Need a Higher Res photo for the First Page, that one is very low quality.

And make sure your pictures have a purpose don't just stick them in because they look "Cool." They need to reinforce the point you are talking about. Also make sure that the photos are in the same section as the text to relate to, don't just stick them on the side. Cut the text apart and put them where they need to go it may be a little more work but it will be worth it. You need some more details and text in their right now if you ask me their are too many photos.

And as MN Scout said, look as some magazines that will help alot. If you don't have a subscription you can usually go on to the website and get a preview.
 
Justify your columns with last line justified left. Adjust your columns to be equal in size and margin. Use a guide ruler to properly space your images, if need be. Push your clan emblem to the lower right corner. Add some fade to the edges of some of the darker images. Make the second page map image top margin align with the top of the text on the third page and the bottom of the image line up with the bottom of the tank image on the third page. Shift the aircraft image to be centered undeneath the text. Push the vehicles image and tip text to the lower left of the page it is on, more space between the image above it. Give the same margin you have at the top of the page to the bottom.

Give the clan logo a transparent background, instead of grey.
 
I took like 2 classes of adobe indesgin and page printing and don't remember any of it..
 
What version of Indesign are you using? I have Indesign CS6. My background is 9 years pre-press (preparing jobs for printing) and 6 years as an artworker for a design company, setting up jobs in Indesign amongst other things. If you were to package your job, ftp it somewhere so I can downloaded it, I'm willing to fix it and set it up as a template, ftp it back to you at no cost. It might still be confusing to you but at least you will have a good base and should be able to see what I've done. What you've done is not a bad start :)
 
I don't have a lot of experience w/ inDesign, but may be able to offer some pointers if you have specific questions. I used to use Quark for layout stuff years ago, and I hated it. For the few projects I've gotten to use inDesign for, it just seemed soooo much easier to use than Quark that I was able to just figure it out and use it almost instantly. No real help or training needed.

That being said, lately for any layout work I need to do, I've just been using Illustrator. The new Art-Board features of the newer Illustrator versions make it super-easy to do a nice consistent layout across multiple pages. If I was doing a layout that was anywhere from 1-10 pages, I'd probably just stick with Illustrator since it's what I know. If you have Illustrator as well (and know how to use it at all) you might want to take a look there and see if that'll work better for this 4-page project.
 
Oh! - I fail at reading, sorry OP.

Looking over the linked images in OP now... I'm seeing lots of issues with the fonts. Needed edits:

Cover: I can't quite tell what's your design and what's from the original box art, but you need to make sure the fonts are consistent. At the top of the cover page is some text that looks like Helvetica style; this should use the same font (IMPACT or similar) as the main title text to be more consistent. You might want to consider using some different coloring or style around it to make it more noticeable so people know this is a different product. Maybe a red stripe or block across the top to make that area stand out more.

On the right side of the interior page there are a bunch of issues with text alignment. Fonts are not the same size, and margins are all over the place. Make sure all of the text has enough breathing room, and that margins around each text-space are fairly consistent. All text should have around 1/4 inch or more of white space before a picture, don't set the type too close to image so they look like they're touching. Re-size or move around the images so that the text has enough room. Make sure you're using the same font for all of the text (or 2 fonts total if you want a different one for headlings, maybe use Helvetica for sub texts and that IMPACT from the front cover title for headers).

I will take a look again later and may have more for you. May have time to DL the image and mark it up for you later if you want.
 
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I'm an editor and designer for a magazine. Here's what I would change:

1. The sheer size of the map image would make it work better as a full-pager. You can simply overlay the information below it on a black box, similar to how the map does it. The fighter jet image can be killed; it has no relevance.

2. The column size and layout are all over the place on the next page. You could try taking the tank image and making it a half-pager. Then overlay the header text (Battlefield 3 is a...) on top of it. I think it would look nice at a smaller font size and left aligned.

3. The other elements could be condensed into equal-sized columns below. I would paint out the background on the platoon emblem, as well as the headset guy in the communications graphic so they look like they live on the page like the ammo and medpack images.
 
Make your font sizes and spacing consistent.

Put a white stroke and use a drop shadow on the UTV pic to set it apart from tank pic and make it stand out a bit more.
 
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