Design InDesign Redesign FreikenDaddblastedRedesign again.

I have never gotten along well with Adobe software.  I must admit that quietly, as I have been a photographer, off and on, for the last 19 years.  I took up the profession having learned to shoot it right in the box in the first place, so I could always justify my decision to set the professional software aside, in order to focus on the the most important tool I use, my eye.  

InDesign comes with frustrations.  I wasn't going to let Adobe beat me twice, though.  I chose to spend the time, and the headaches, to push through, and really work the software, in order to better understand it.  In building  a solid design, I would need to understand the software in order to communicate my design.  I set out to build a card, from scratch.

The quote I chose came from Rumi.  His succinct poetry is timeless, I wanted something I wouldn't get tired of seeing over and over again.  "Let yourself be silently drawn by the strange pull of what you really love."  It goes on to say, "it will never lead you astray."  I chose to use just the first part, keeping with his tendency toward brevity.  My first draft was simple, just getting to know the tools.

The following few, still in redesign mode, worked out some of the kinks, and added some more.  The gradient tool, how to write on a line, filling in a creative background, along with adjusting it, were some of the things I made my way through.  I had come up with three, that I felt pretty comfortable with, not on fire about, but comfortable with.  I took them in for critique.  The top revision, being my favorite of the three.  The critique process, proceeded to kick my ass.  I took notes, thought through what was being pointed out, of mine and of the others around me.  Clearly I had a lot to learn.  As I went back to the drawing board, I continued to beat my head against the wall with this software that still seemed so unintuitive.  I spent several hours, and could spend several more, on understanding what I was learning.  It's not just the design principles, it's the getting them onto the page that I was suffering with.  In the end, I came up with a card that I am pleased with.  It might take another few months of suffering to really nail the software, but for now, I am happy with what I've created.

I went to work at creating my own background.  I thought of the words "strange pull" and tried to come up with ideas that reminded me of those words, but didn't tell the whole story.  There are birds that swarm, that I've always loved, that came to mind.  I spent the morning drawing what they look like in flight.  I took a photo of the drawing, and imported that into Photoshop (the real nemesis software for me), and used it's tools to erase everything but the drawing, creating a transparency to use in InDesign.   The photo I had used to draw the birds showed the skyline at dusk.  I wanted to create a similar effect using what I had learned about the gradient tool.  This is where the cursing began.  Knowing what tool I was using and where it could be applied seem to be in conflict with every button I tried.  I struggled to understand what I was doing wrong, right, or at all!  Thank God for YouTube!  After several more tutorials, I was able to cobble together the image below.  I think the message is stronger than in my first, the typography consistent and clear.  The image is my own.  It has a consistent concept.  In the end, I am grateful for the learning, even if my head still kinda hurts three days later.