Workshop / Preparing Documents
This workshop supports the journey to understanding information design for pages and screens. During the workshop, you will examine the details and design specifications of an existing print document and recreate it as closely as possible to how it appears.
Workshop Objectives
- Examine a document to determine its essential content and design characteristics.
- Demonstrate your working knowledge of design tools by reproducing that document as is.
- Reflect upon your attempts to reproduce the object of study.
Submission Checklist
- Post your summary report to the Canvas Discussion forum dedicated to this workshop. Attach your version of the document you attempted to recreate. If you selected a document other than the one I provided, attach that original document as well. Convert both documents to PDF prior to sharing them.
- In the Workshops folder on your shared Dropbox space, post the following documents: the document you created in PDF; the doc you created in the native InDesign file format (i.e., INDD); the document you attempted to recreate in PDF (if it is anything other than the one I provided for the workshop).
Workshop Details
This workshop requires you to examine a document to determine its content and design qualities and specifications. Drawing on those details, and using the document as a model, you then reproduce that document as it appears (or as closely to that standard as you can manage in the time allotted).
During this workshop, you will complete 4 tasks.
- Select a document to examine.
- Examine that document.
- Reproduce 2 pages/screens from that document.
- Craft a summary report.
Select a Document to Examine
You may examine the document I have provided in the Workshop Support folder on SVSU Canvas, or you may choose your own document to examine. If you choose your own document, select one that includes the following qualities and characteristics:
- Content. The document must contain content that is presented in a combination of text and images (this may include figures, tables, or similar content containers).
- Organization. The document must present its content in a recognizable organization scheme (e.g., headings, subheadings).
- Medium. The document must be available in a shareable digital format (e.g., JPG, PDF), or must be available for you to capture and share in a digital format. That is, if you select a printed document to examine, you must be able to scan it using a scanning app or flatbed scanner.
You may choose a document from just about any source, as long as it has recognizable pages or screens that you can examine and reproduce. This includes books, brochures, reports, as well as web sites, apps, and other digital material.
Examine Your Document
Make note of the following details about your object of study for your own use. (This is not a document that you will need to share with me or your peers.)
- Document dimensions. Record the dimensions of the pages/screens. Note the orientation (e.g., landscape, portrait). Measure the width of columns, the space between columns and content elements.
- Fonts. Identify the font families (e.g., Arial, Merriweather, Roboto), and their specific uses (e.g., type size, bold/italic, color) within the document.
- Image specifications. Note dimensions & locations of images. Note when images are framed by a border, and the specs of those elements. Note the space between the border and image content. Note the specifications for captions.
- Other details. Note any other details and specifications that would help you in recreating the object of study.
Note. When you catalog document details, focus your attention on the 2 pages/screens that you will reproduce. That is, if there are content elements that appear only on pages of the document that you will not attempt to reproduce, do not bother noting those specifications.
Reproduce 2 Pages/Screens From Your Document
Recreate the 2 pages or screens upon which you focused your attention during the examination phase of the workshop. Reproduce those pages as close to exact as you can manage in the time allotted.
Use Adobe InDesign to complete your work.
Convert your final copied document to PDF. In InDesign this process is initiated under the Export menu.
Craft a Summary Report
Reflect upon the process. Craft a 200-word summary report directly in the Canvas Discussion forum for the workshop. Organize your report into 2 roughly equal sections.
- Challenges. What did you find challenging about this workshop? What strategies did you implement to overcome those challenges?
- Lessons Learned. What can you learn as an information designer from this creative process?
Construct a document that feels professional in detail and design. Attach the PDF version of the document that resulted of your attempt to recreate your object of study.
Submission Guidelines
Post your summary report to the forum dedicated to this workshop on Canvas Discussions. Attach the PDF of the document you created during the workshop.
In addition, post the following files to the Workshops folder on your shared Dropbox space.
- The document you created, converted to PDF.
- The doc you created, in its native INDD format.
- The doc you attempted to recreate (if it is anything other than the one I provided for the workshop), in PDF.
Label the files using appropriate filenames that make clear which documents I need to locate to assess your work for this workshop.
Evaluation Standards
This section describes the standards by which your work will be evaluated for this workshop. Attend carefully to these details. If you do so, you will earn full credit for the workshop.
Evaluation Summary
There are 50 possible points for this workshop. You will earn points according to this standard.
- 50 points (full credit) for a complete summary report and accompanying documents posted according to the specifications defined in this description.
- 40 points (partial credit) for work submitted that does not fulfill all of the posted workshop requirements, or that is submitted late, but within 72 hours of the posted deadline.
- 0 points (no credit) for work that is submitted more than 72 hours late.
A Note to Instructors, Colleagues, and Others
If you are here because of random chance, or because this content came up in a search, then poke about, and read if you see something useful or interesting. If you are a teacher in any context and would like to use any of this content in your courses, feel free to do so. However, if you borrow this material, please do two things:
- Give me credit for my work in your class; and
- Share with me that you are using this material. If you adapt or alter the content, please share with me how you did so. (I appreciate seeing the ways that others apply the ideas I have developed.)