This weekend I was stuck inside most of the time with client work. I had a booklet, with cover 4/4, insert four pages 4/4, and a few ads due so I was pecking away at the long list. Here are a few pieces from the booklet.
The booklet itself is 32 pages. I teach my students that booklets are paginated by multiples of four. Do you know why? Fold a piece of paper in half, how many panels do you have? Four. 8 x 4 = 32. You can imagine all of the squeezing and adjusting that goes on when I have 33 or 35 pages of content to layout and it has to be a multiple of four for printing. And before you ditch that piece of paper. Locate the cover, or what could be the cover. Note: the cover is the outside right panel. I always suggest those new to creating multi-page documents create a maquette and write on it. Label the cover and back cover. Inside left and right. I used to do that myself to work out the kinks.
The image below is an ad I created for the booklet. Given the client’s budget the interior of the booklet is black and white. Only the cover and donor’s pages are in full color. Besides, a lot of the pages are program info that really doesn’t need full color.
It’s really the fine tuning or attention to detail that makes a piece feel finished. For example, see the pages below. Note the page numbering. Left for left side and right for right, but also notice the header because it also echoes the footer. The repetition creates a rhythm. And sometimes you have too little content and you have to find a way to creatively fill empty space. Sometimes I will look for a quote from a review and other times I will simple look for a great photo. Both examples below demonstrate filling empty space with content. And I know… the bottom pages 22 and 21 are flipped… but I wanted to show them since they weren’t really facing pages. But I know Photoshop, so I can do anything.
