by Chad Neuman

Step 1
Open “Brochure.indd” in Adobe InDesign from the first two tutorials. If you haven’t done so already, complete the parts 1 and 2 and download the support files. Now let’s design the cover. We need to consider white space when designing a brochure. White space guides the readers’ eyes toward what we want them to look at. Using white space (which doesn’t necessarily have to be white) avoids a cluttered look with too many elements on the page. Some call it being “too busy.” We also want the brochure to use consistency, with a little variation in the elements. We need to find the right balance between repetition of elements—font size and style, color, and photo placement, for example—and variation of those same elements. Too much variation looks chaotic but not enough variation looks uncreative. By combining creative typography and a clean layout, we should be able to create a well-designed brochure with InDesign.

Step 2
With a Selection tool, click on one of the photos. Next, click the Rotate tool and click-and-drag to rotate the photos for a more creative look, as if we’re looking at a few photos laying on a floor. Click the other two photos with a Selection tool, one at a time, and rotate them one at a time with the Rotate tool. With a Selection tool, click-and-drag them so they overlap.

Step 3
Now let’s insert the logo. Go to File>Place and select the “logo.ai” file from the art folder. Click Open and be sure to click somewhere outside the rectangle and place it. Then click-and-drag it with a Selection tool and place it below the photos. If the photos are too close, just click-and-drag them up a little bit.

Step 4
Move over to the right-hand side of the cover (Hold Space and click-and-drag for a shortcut to move around the document). Let’s add a quote from the text we have, sort of like a pull-quote in a newspaper, but this is on a separate page. Select the Text tool and click outside of the rectangle so we can create a new text object. The text we’ll use is from the introduction: “Enjoy the adventure of a lifetime.” Select the Text tool and click-and-drag a text box out and type that text. Select the text and change the font to a larger size in the Control palette. I changed it to 58 pt and the font Myriad Pro, Bold. Change the justification to right justify in the Control palette.

Step 5
With a Selection too, click-and-drag the text box onto the cover and situate it so it has the same amount of space on the left and right of it, to the photos and to the border. To preview what it’ll look like without the guidelines, go to View>Screen Mode>Preview.

Step 6
Option-click (PC: Alt-click) the logo object and click-and-drag it to the second page to duplicate it.

Step 7
Move the logo to the lower-left corner of page 2. Go to File>Place and select “about_us.ai” and click Open to place it. Be sure to place it outside the rectangle background. Once you’ve placed it, with a Selection tool click-and-drag it to the top-left corner of page 2.

Step 8
With a Selection tool, click the logo on page 2 and go to Edit>Copy. Navigate to page 4, the second spread, and go to Edit>Paste in Place. This will paste the logo into the exact same spot on page 4 and it is on page 2, for consistency. Go to File>Place and select the “faq.ai” file and click Open and place it outside the rectangle background. Next, click-and-drag it with a Selection tool onto page 4.

Step 9
Go to File>Place and select “contact.ai” and click Open and click outside the rectangle background. With a Selection tool, click-and-drag the object onto the last page, the back cover. Option-click (PC: Ctrl-click) the logo on page 4 and drag it to the back cover, page 6. Instead of having it placed on the lower left side of the spread, this is the back cover so let’s center it at the bottom.

Save the file as “brochure.indd” for the next step in this series, when we’ll begin placing text and formatting it for an aesthetically pleasing look.

Continue to Brochure Design with InDesign 4 of 5.