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 first four tutorials in this series and download the support files.

Step 2
Navigate to page 4 and go to File>Place and select “Frequently Asked Questions.doc” from the Documents folder of the support files. Click Open to place it and then click somewhere off to the left of page 4 of the brochure.

Step 3
With a Selection tool, click-and-drag the text box onto page 4 like shown here.

Step 4
Click-and-drag a guide from the top ruler to create a guide to lock to, so both text boxes will be aligned. If the ruler isn’t visible, just go to View>Show Rulers. Align the bottom to the bottom margin. We need a guide for this spread because the top of the text boxes is a little bit lower and not flush with the top margin like it is on pages 2 and 3.

Step 5
Navigate to page 5, the right-hand side of the spread. Click-and-drag another guide that is aligned with the guide we just made on page 4.

Step 6
Next, click the red cross on the lower-right corner of the text box on page 4. Click-and-drag a new text box for the text to flow into on page 5. Align it with the top guide and the bottom margin.

Step 7
Select all the text by clicking in the text box and pressing Option-A (PC: Alt-A) and then change the font to the same font as the font used on the previous spread. For this example, I used Tw Cent MT. Trying changing the font to 14.5 pt to make it perfectly without having any extra text. Having the same font style, even though it’s a different size, lets the publication have a consistent look.

Step 8
Choose the Text tool and click-and-drag over each question and make it bold by selecting Bold from the Control Palette.

Step 9
Navigate to page 6, the back cover. Go to File>Place and select “Contact info.doc” from the Documents folders of the support files. Click Open to place it and click somewhere outside the brochure area.

Step 10
With the Selection tool, click-and-drag the text box onto the center of the back cover. Now let’s left-justify it to align it and change the font to the same font we used on the front cover, instead of the font we used for the body copy on both spreads. I used Myriad Pro, Bold. Enter a Return after the word “at” in the first line of text. Enter a line between the first line and the rest.

We’re done! By applying considerations of style, color choice, and the right balance between repetition/consistency and variation/creativity, we created a brochure with enough photos and text to grab your attention but enough white space to direct the readers’ eyes to areas of interest.

Here’s a brochure design of my example.

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 first three tutorials in this series and download the support files.

Step 2
Navigate to page 2. Go to File>Place and select “balloon11.jpg” and click Open to place it. Be sure to click outside of the rectangle, off to the left.

Step 3
Go to File>Place again and select “photo_border.jpg” and click Open to place it. Click somewhere off to the left of the brochure again.

Step 4
With a Selection tool, click the balloon photo we just placed and go to Object>Arrange>Bring to Front. With a Selection, click-and-drag the photo on top of the photo border image. With a Selection tool, click and drag a corner of the photo border file to make it fit the photo. Be sure to hold down Cmd (PC: Ctrl) before clicking-and-dragging so it resizes, and doesn’t crop, the photo. Click-and-drag around both objects with a Selection tool and go to Object>Group.

Step 5
Complete steps 2 through 4 with the files “balloon13.jpg” and “balloon15.jpg,” adding the “photo_border.jpg” behind each file and then grouping them.

Step 6
Next, using a Selection tool, click-and-drag the three photos with their borders onto pages 2 and 3 as shown here. When each is selected, select the Rotate tool to rotate them a little to keep with our photo theme.

Step 7
Navigate to page 4. Complete steps 2 through 4 with “balloon10.jpg” “balloon16.jpg” “balloon4.jpg,” placing them off to the side of the brochure, and then add the “photo_border.jpg” file behind each one by placing it and arranging the photos to the front. Remember to group them with the photo border. Then place them onto pages 4 and 5 spread and use the Rotate tool to rotate them when they are each selected with a Selection tool.

Step 8
Navigate to page 6, the back cover. Complete steps 2 through 4 with “balloon6.jpg” and “balloon7.jpg,” adding photo borders around them as well. Group each with a photo border and then place them onto the back cover, rotating a little bit.

Step 9
Navigate to page 2, the first spread. Go to File>Place and select “Intro.doc” from the Documents folder in the support files. Click outside the brochure, next to page 2.

Step 10
With a Selection tool, click-and-drag the text box onto the spread on page 2. Line it up flush with the margins, since well do the same on the next page for consistency.

Step 11
With the Text tool, click-and-drag over the text (or click somewhere in the text box and press Option-A (PC: Alt-A)) to select all the text. Change the text to a larger size; I chose 28 pt and changed the font to Tw Cen MT. This is just the second font I’ve used. You usually don’t want to use more than 2 or 3 fonts in a publication. Once it’s a larger text size, it won’t fit in this one text box; we want to flow it to the next page. Just click the small red cross at the bottom-right corner of the text box, then click-and-drag a text box on the next page of the same spread, page 3.

Save the file as “brochure.indd” for use in the next and final part of this series, where we’ll finish placing and formatting text and add some finishing touches.

Continue to Brochure Design with InDesign 5 of 5.

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.

by Chad Neuman

See Part 1 first for support files.

Step 1
Open “Brochure.indd” from the first part. If you haven’t done so already, complete the first step and download the support files. We have a six-page document. The first page is the brochure front cover and the last page is the back cover. The rest are spreads.

Step 2
Navigate to the first page by double-clicking on it in the Pages palette (Windows>Pages).

Step 3
Before designing the cover, let’s create a background color that will be used on all the pages. Click the Rectangle tool and click-and-drag a rectangle from one corner of the bleed to the other. Drawing it over the border avoids having the printer print any blank areas, in case the printed is barely off, which would look unprofessional.

Step 4
You may have just black and white available in the Color palette, so let’s fix this (if it already has color, skip this step). Click on the Color palette on the left. Click on the top-right area of the palette near the down arrow. Choose CMYK or RGB, depending on what the printer needs. Many old school printers will use only CMYK (cyan, magenta, yellow, and black) while others will work with RGB (red, green, blue, traditionally meant for the computer screen). If you don’t plan on printing your project or are just using this tutorial to learn with our example, choose either one. It will turn back to CMYK once we click on the Fill color in the toolbar.

Step 5
Change the background color by changing the Fill of the rectangle. To do this, make sure the rectangle is selected (click on it with a Selection tool if it isn’t selected). Next, click on the Fill at the bottom of the toolbar.

Step 6
The Color palette should still be open. It should be set to CMYK by default; if not, just change it by clicking the top-right corner down arrow and set it to CMYK. Change the Cyan levels to 50 percent and set the rest to 0 percent. This allows for a soft tone for a background that will be complementary to our section headers.

Step 7
Set the same background to the rest of the pages. We can do this two ways. The first way that would take longer would be to draw out a few more rectangles, one for each page or spread. But here’s a shortcut: with a Selection tool, just zoom out and Option-click (PC: Alt-click) the first rectangle on page one and drag it to pages two and three. Release the mouse and then click-and-drag the side bounding box handle to lengthen it across the entire spread. Repeat this to duplicate the rectangles for all pages. Make sure the edges go up to the line of the bleeds of the borders.

Step 8
Now let’s begin add elements to the cover. Go to File>Place and select “balloon1.jpg” and place it by clicking Open. Click somewhere outside the rectangle to place it. IMPORTANT: Be sure to click outside of the rectangle so we can move it on top of it as a separate object and not inside the rectangle.

Step 9
This brochure should be photo-intensive, but let’s be more creative than just placing photos on it. Let’s also place them in a photo frame or Polaroid-style image. Besides photos, we will use text creatively to get our message across. Go to File>Place and place “photo_border.jpg.” Be sure to click outside the rectangle background.

Step 10
Move “balloon1.jpg” to the front by selecting it with a Selection tool and going to Object>Arrange>Bring to Front. Click-and-drag the “balloon1.jpg” file on top of the photo border.

Step 11
Click on the photo border image with a Selection tool. Let’s make the photo border fit the photo by resizing it. If we just click-and-drag the side bounding box handle, it will crop the image. We want to resize it, not crop it. So be sure to hold down Cmd (PC: Ctrl) first and then click-and-drag the side bounding box handle to resize it to fit the balloon photo.

Step 12
Let’s make it one object. With a Selection tool, click-and-drag around both of the objects and go to Object>Group.

Step 13
Repeat steps 8 to 12 and place “balloon9.jpg” and “balloon5.jpg.” Once they are grouped with the photo border using the same steps, with the Selection tool, click-and-drag them onto the cover.
Make sure if something is selected when you place the photos, uncheck Replace Selected Item so it doesn’t replace another object.

Save the InDesign file as “brochure.indd.” In the next tutorial, we’ll start designing the cover, applying various design and layout considerations.

Continue to Brochure Design with InDesign 3 of 5.

When designing a brochure, it’s important to consider various design and layout principles. Often there won’t be as much text as with a newspaper or magazine. The purpose of a brochure and the target audience are different as well. Let’s go through the process of creating a “real world” brochure for a hot air balloon company, by using Adobe InDesign and applying some helpful layout and design considerations. The support files are to be used with this tutorial for educational purposes only, since they were provided by the actual company. The support files include some photos, illustrations, and Word documents to place into the brochure we’ll make. Download support files.

Step 1
Open InDesign CS3 and click on From Template in the opening welcome screen. (If you have an earlier version of InDesign, skip to step 4.)

Step 2
Choose the Brochures option from the templates.

Step 3
Choose the third from the left brochure.

Step 4
If you don’t have InDesign CS3 and possibly an earlier version, just go to File>New and enter the settings here for a new document.

Step 5
In this template, notice how the images go beyond the black outer line, the actual border of the printed document, by a few millimeters. This is called a “bleed.” The reason for having the photos go over the document edge a little bit is because it prevents any white lines being printed on the edges, in case the printing is barely off. If the photos were perfectly aligned with the borders and didn’t go over a little bit, there might be a small white line on the edges if the printer moved it barely.

Step 6
We don’t need the artwork that came with this template. Click-and-drag the Artwork in the Layers palette onto the trash can icon.

Step 7
You’ll get this question; just click Yes.

Step 8
Click-and-drag the Text layer as well onto the garbage icon to delete it. You should just have the Guides layer left.

Step 9
Click on the Create New Layer icon at the bottom of the Layers palette. This will create a new layer so we can delete the Guides layer. Click-and-drag on the Guides layer onto the garbage icon to delete it. Now we have just one layer with nothing on it so far, and a document to work with. Save the file as “Brochure.indd” so we can use it in the next part.

Now that we have our file set up, let’s consider our target audience. This brochure is for a hot air balloon company, and the audience is people in the Central Florida area that would be interested in it or tourists. Let’s create a bold, bright and colorful brochure that will sell the business. Brochures should attract attention, keep attention, and then cause action. The action in this case is to call and sign up for a weekend to purchase on a hot air balloon ride.

In the next part, we’ll being to add text and use a color scheme and begin to design our bold and colorful brochure.  

Continue to Brochure Design with InDesign 2 of 5.