The final project assigned in my Basic Computer Images course was one for Adobe InDesign. We were required to think of a service, event, business or some other topic and create a direct mailer with that information. It was to be created on InDesign and have at least one fold in the piece. I went with my involvement in the Women in Business Society to create a flyer for our upcoming Spring Forum. I knew I could easily get the information, and what was better, we might actually look into using these to mail out as marketing for the forum!

The number one obstacle that needed to be jumped was learning the viewpoint on InDesign and how to reflect that to what you are trying to accomplish. My professor gave us the help of asking us to use a regular sheet of tabloid paper and create a “mock-up” of our brochures. This way, we can physically see how it need to fold and how the information needs to be arranged, and from what angle. Once we figured this out, we created the document in InDesign, noting the Facing Pages and making it 2 pages that will be printed duplex. We used the guides in the program to create our fold lines so we knew our boundaries, and then created margins and bleeds that we wanted to use. All that was left was filling it in with information!

My brochure included one folded side where the actual mailing information would be located. The other side of that would include all our sponsors. Once opened to the half size, it displayed the key general information about the event. The full inside spread became a poster that could be displayed around the campus or town. Images of the first page, being the outsides, and the second page being the inside poster, are included below.

This assignment was very helpful to me for many reasons. I learned more about using multiple pages and layout, which I have always been interested in. I played with rotating the views to create different effects and arrange the information in the way easiest to read the brochure. I was able to create an entire poster for an event, my first ever. I played not only with InDesign, but with Illustrator to create the text boxes and logo. This was a very beneficial assignment overall for me.

For a link to a PDF version of my WBS Spring Forum 2013 direct mailer, click here.