Inside Freelance Design

Issue #15
December 30, 2005

Welcome to Inside Freelance Design (IFD), your free, bi-weekly e-letter from American Writers & Artists Inc. Every other week, you can receive this special alert with secrets, tips, and insights from AWAI's graphic design pros to help you improve your skills and reach your goal of becoming a professional graphic designer in the fastest time possible.

IN THIS ISSUE:

Improve Designs With Infographics, by Kammy Thurman
Quick Tip: Photoshop Elements – a Great Alternative to Photoshop
The IFD Mailbag
EXTRA! EXTRA! News and Job Opportunities

Improve Designs With Infographics
By Kammy Thurman

Copywriters often use numbers and statistics to emphasize the benefits of the product they're selling. They'll also use them to show trends or study results for health products. But presenting numbers in the body of the copy can be counterproductive. The prospect will often skim over the numbers and not get the important trends or the central idea the copywriter is trying to make.

Let's face it, too many raw numbers can cause the MEGO (My Eyes Glaze Over) Syndrome.

I'm sure you've heard of the left-brain and right-brain division. Your left-brain is the analytical side. It deals mostly with numbers, words, complex ideas, and logic. The right-brain is oriented to pictures, emotions, intuition, symbolism, and art.

While some of your prospects are strongly left-brained, most of your sales are still made by appealing to emotion and feeling – right-brain functions.

So what's a designer to do when you need to share numbers and statistics with readers ... but don't want to bog them down with a lot of numerical data? That's where “infographics” come in very handy.

Infographics are components like charts, graphs, and tables. They are valuable tools for providing data in a simple, digestible form. They provide pictures that appeal to the right side of the brain. These pictures helps readers understand general trends faster and remember the information longer. They also help break up the copy and make it more visually appealing.

What are the different types of infographics you can use in your designs? Which are best for different applications? And how can you “dress them up” so your prospect will find your infographics as interesting as they are informative?

Here are some of the most useful infographics for “drawing a picture”:

A pie chart depicts the proportion of parts to the whole. This type of chart is circular, like a pie, with wedges cut in various sizes to reflect particular proportions. For instance, you might use a pie chart to show how a business's budget is distributed between salaries, supplies, building maintenance, and so on.

Design Tips: When you use a pie chart, avoid splitting it into more than eight pieces. Otherwise, the pieces become too small to recognize or label. You can use a screen tint or bold color on the most important piece of the pie, or pull that piece partially out of the pie to separate it from the rest of the info. Also, you can tilt the pie, add a shadow, or try a three-dimensional effect for added visual interest.

A bar chart displays the relative quantity, size, or frequency of data in several different categories. You might use a bar chart to compare opposites (such as income vs. expenses plotted over a period of time), quantities (like the number of active members in several different organizations), or averages (such as the average amount of money spent on direct-mail campaigns for each year over a five-year period).

Design Tips: Avoid having too many bars or they'll look too thin. You might add a drop shadow, a three-dimensional effect, or a screen tint to make them stand out from the graph behind them. And to make them look more interesting, you can replace the bars with illustrations, such as stacks of coins, chimneys, building silhouettes, or another graphic that supports the information you're discussing.

A line graph shows changes over time. You can draw lines from point to point to show progress made. A frequent use of line graphs is to show the price of a stock charted over time.

Design Tips: Avoid using more than three lines in one graph, or it will become confusing for the reader. You can use different colors or screen tints to help separate the lines from each other. And for added interest, you might put the graph inside an illustration that relates to the information you're sharing.

A table gives more precise information and a larger amount of information than a chart or graph. Tables are left-brain devices. Readers need to study a table rather than merely glance at it, so tables are best used when (1) readers need exact numbers, not just lines, bars, or pieces of a pie; (2) when you have too much information to condense into a chart; and (3) when readers are already used to similar information being presented in tabular form, such as an expense report.

Design Tips: To increase eye appeal, use a different color, a screen tint, a wider border, or a double-rule to highlight rows or columns that should stand out from the rest.

When building your infographic, you'll want to include all the necessary information, along with a legend next to the graphic – or labels within the graphic – to help readers understand the information. If needed, you should also add a caption below the graphic, just as you'd add one to a photograph, to offer a more complete explanation.

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QUICK TIP: Photoshop Elements – a Great Alternative to Photoshop

One of the most powerful – as well as complicated and expensive – pieces of software you'll use as a designer is Adobe Photoshop. But the reality is, as a DM designer, you probably won't use most of its high-end (and more complex) features. So, if you're looking for a good, less-expensive alternative, consider trying Photoshop Elements.

You can think of PS Elements as “Photoshop Lite.” But it's not lightweight software. It has the power to do everything you need to accomplish as a DM designer for a lot less money and with a much easier learning curve.

You can get Photoshop Elements online at most computer supply websites for around $90 (as compared to $570 for Photoshop).

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FROM THE IFD MAILBAG ...
by Kristin Schwarz

Hello, everyone!

When Elizabeth T. sent the file for her first paid assignment to the printer, she ran into a problem. It's a problem you're likely to have too – if you don't know how to avoid it. But before we get to that, here's something I want to share with you.

Photoshop Café has launched an all new website for its highly popular resource http://www.photoshopcafe.com/. This is a free resource site for Photoshop users of all levels. All tutorials are updated and easy to follow. The new site also features a user forum and industry news. I highly recommend this free resource to any designer using Photoshop or Photoshop Elements!

Now, let's get to Elizabeth's problem ...

Dear AWAI team,

I landed my first paid design assignment, and boy was I excited! The project consisted of a self-mailing brochure for a local real estate agent. The client really liked my design, but when I sent the file to the printer I ran into several problems:

1. The photos were not embedded in the layout file.

2. Two of the fonts were missing.

I don't understand this, since the fonts and pictures were in the file when I sent them. I ended up sending the printer another CD with the pictures and fonts. How can I make sure with my next job that the file I am sending is good to print?

Elizabeth T.

Dear Elizabeth,

Congratulations on your first paid assignment!

You didn't tell me what layout program you are using for your design. However, most layout programs operate the same way. Layout programs are merely shells that provide the structure for your layout. When you insert an image into InDesign or Quark, for example, only a low-resolution placeholder of the photo is inserted into that space. The reason is that if you had a big document with 50 high-resolution photographs, the file size would become unmanageable when you tried working with it.

Also, you are using fonts that are physically installed on your computer. If you are using a standard font like Times New Roman, chances are your service bureau (where you have the document printed) has the fonts loaded on their prepress machines. But if you choose a font your printer does not have, the prepress equipment shows an error message. That's why you always need to send photos and fonts in addition to your layout file. I recommend this even when you're sending a Word document, where images are usually embedded, since they can get corrupted during transfer.

Many layout programs are equipped with a basic Preflight function that lets you check your file for any possible problems. It also packages your images and fonts into neat folders. If you're using InDesign, go to File>Preflight. In QuarkXPress, go to File>Collect for Output. In PageMaker, go to Utilities>Plug-ins>Save for Service Provider.

I really recommend getting familiar with these functions of your layout program. (Watch for more articles on preparing files for the printer in future issues of Inside Freelance Design.)

Until next time ...

Kristin

[Ed. Note: If you have a question or comment for Kristin, please send it to:
insidefreelancedesign@awaionline.com, Attn: Kristin Schwarz.]

EXTRA! EXTRA! News and Job Opportunities

GRAPHIC DESIGNER - AlphaGraphics, a full service printer, seeks a graphic designer to assist with customers layout needs. A number of customer support responsibilities also fall to the graphic designer. You must be very knowledgeable with standard graphic design programs, like Quark, InDesign, Acrobat, PhotoShop, and Illustrator. Send you resume to tvilla@alphagraphics.com.
GRAPHIC DESIGNER - Ginny's Printing needs a Graphic Designer to provide web-based direct mail designs for customers. You'll create design templates for a number of industries. This position is ideal for a junior-level designer. You must know Quark, InDesign, PhotoShop, Illustrator, and Acrobat. Send your resume to Brandon Cornett at bcornett@ginnysprinting.com.
GRAPHIC DESIGNER - Dorel Juvenile Group, the parent company of Cosco and Safety First (manufacturers of infant necessities and toys), needs an experienced designer to work on brochures, catalogs, point of purchase advertising, and more. Send your resume to hr@djgusa.com.

COMING NEXT ISSUE:

“Points of Entry” to Capture the Prospect's Attention
QUICK TIP: How to Protect Your PDFs From Un-approved Usage

* ABOUT INSIDE FREELANCE DESIGN *

Inside Freelance Design is a FREE bi-weekly newsletter from American Writers & Artists Inc., available to AWAI members and friends.

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Issue #15 December 30, 2005