Put your copy on the right, and the reader’s eye will follow the path directly to it. Like this:

It’s as easy as 1- 2- 3

Scale, crop, align

Things to watch for…

But for $99 they can’t do everything, including print to the edges of the sheet (a full bleed). Most leave a white border, which is often irregular and differs from printer to printer. This border can be a big distraction. Its real problem, however, is that the border is undesigned and undesignable. So what to do? Instead of fighting it, join it. Amplify the white space, and make it part of your designs.

Make more white

The surest way to eliminate the white border is to make more white. Reducing your live matter visually disconnects it from the edge of the page. Note that to maintain equal margins on all sides, the image has been cropped (it’s skinnier), and the result is more focused on the descriptive coastline, and more dramatic.
The proximity of image to edge (left) creates a visual connection, so the eye perceives a border. Reduce the image far enough to disconnect it from the edge (middle), and the border effect disappears. The image is now like a gallery piece hanging alone on a white wall (right).
This smaller size has big benefit: You can crop and move the image around and actually design the page.

Get moving

Moving the image to eye level creates three different margin widths, so a frame never forms. Segmenting the image vertically moves the eye down the page.
Borders are static, so what you need is movement. The image at eye level yields more natural viewing plus three different margin widths – arrow (top), medium (sides), and wide (bottom) – which eliminates the border effect. Segmenting the image in columns creates activity within it and moves the eye down the page. Above, middle, is one image divided vertically. You can also create a collage of two or three images (right). Mix-and-match colors, shapes, and textures until you have a strong composition.
From one image you can pull out three or more column- or rowshaped areas. Pick the most descriptive parts and eliminate the rest.

Coordinate the type

Typestyles and sizes that correspond to elements on the page will unify the design. Similarities convey harmony; contrasts convey energy.

Straight/round
A straight, uppercase typeface contrasts beautifully with the round logo. But since the page and image are also rectangular, adding this heavy block would overwhelm the light logo (inset).

All round
A round, lowercase typeface (same height, similar weight) mirrors the round logo. Now seen as a group of four circles, the line contrasts beautifully with the rectangular image and gives the page two strong shapes.

Make a landscape

A horizontal image can be quite large. It has the energy of contrasting direction and still appears borderless because of its varying margins and side-to-side movement.

Same proportions

Unify image and page easily by using the same proportions for both; just rotate 90 degrees and reduce to about 60%.

Eye level
A letter-size page is about the same size as the human head. Result: Eye level is the strongest and most comfortable place for a focal point.

Varying margins
Eye-level placement results in three different margin widths, which adds visual activity and keeps margins from “connecting” and forming a frame.

Create a focal center

A single line of type sustains the horizontal movement and is a powerful and sophisticated focal point. The small logo completely controls the open space around it.

Contrasting zones

Small is definitely powerful. Here, the gallery effect-one image alone on a wall-is working to the max. The page has two zones: dark and light. Centered in each zone is a focal point- the headline in one at eye level, the logo in the other. Each controls its space. This subtle treatment is classier and more effective than SHOUTING-yoohoo!-for attention.

Engergize the page

Cousin to the landscape format is the banner, an extremely panoramic shape whose total contrast to the vertical page creates real energy.
You’ll almost always be surprised by how little it takes to convey the heart of an image. Here, one thin slice shows coastline, inlet, estuaries, and wet and dry land masses. That’s the whole story!

Extreme contrasts Tall/wide, fat/thin, up/down, side-to-side

Dull space The beauty of the panoramic shape is that it’s so different from the page. It works for many images, but in this case we’re seeing a little more uninteresting space than we’d like, so we’ll crop it to half a page.

Align right

With image and text aligned to the right and at eye level, the white space-normally thought of as empty-is controlling the page. This is a very active design.

Border? What border? There is very little on the page but it’s really designed; it has a strong focal point and a lot of movement. Both text and logo are colored gray to recede, leaving the image center stage. The irregular left edge (right) keeps unwanted lines from forming.

What size should the type be, and where does it go? Work with what’s in front of you and nearby. In this case, the penisulas and inlets (above) become our rulers and govern type size, line spacing, and logo size. This creates visible relationships that unify the design. Similarly, the extended typeface echoes the horizontal shape of the image.

One Peekaboo

Layout
Once open, your design can ignore the folds. Note how the brochure has been designed in halves–the dark half is a narrative and the light half is a listing.

Type

The halves of the page use the same two typefaces but in different sizes and line lengths: On the left half, oversize, 15-pt type creates a richly textured introduction.

The narrative begins beautifully with both headline and subhead in the same typeface (ITC Motter Corpus). Note the subhead runs with the text (Utopia). This attractive detail requires adjustment–san-serif type usually has a greater x-height than serif type, so its point size must be reduced until it lines up (see left).

The panel-width column (see left side of figure) yields a narrative-style look, awhile on the right, the narrow listing looks like a directory.

Template: One peekaboo

Legal-size page (14×8½”)
Eight panels (four per side)
Accordion fold with one, half-inch reveal (panel 1)

Two Peekaboos

Three panel widths yield two peekaboos, which serve as a tiny table of contents. Inside can be similar products (as shown) or different products.

Layout
Repetition and scale are key to this handsome design—two motorcycles, two views each, two paragraphs of text, all the same size in the same place on both pages.

Giving this brochure its unusually clean appearance are its high contrasts of scale– one motorcycle is much larger than the other. Such a large difference has two benefits: It ­establishes a clear hierarchy and keeps the images visually apart—images of too-similar size tend to fight for the reader’s eye. Note that the large side views are straight-on, detailed, and meant to be examined, while the small views are angled, casual, and meant to be felt. This is a storytelling contrast.

The repetitive format–one page exactly like the other–allows the eye to fall into an easy, page-by-page rhythm. This is an excellent way to present small quantities of similar products.

Template: Two peekaboos

Legal-size page (14×8½”)
Eight panels (four per side)
Accordion fold with two, half-inch reveals (panels 1 and 4)

John McWade is a designer, teacher, and author who has been at the forefront of the graphic design and desktop publishing worlds for two decades.
He is founder, publisher, and primary voice of Before & After magazine (www.bamagazine.com; email: layers@bamagazine.com).

Character Widths

Pick a typeface with similar character widths
For the smoothest appearance, an alphabet’s characters should have similar widths. Reading has a natural rhythm; an alphabet such as Futura with widely varying character widths disrupts it.

Height-to-Width Ratio

Medium height-to-width ratio
We identify letters by their physical characteristics–stems, bars, loops, curves, and so on; the clearer they are the more legible the letter. As letters are compressed (or expanded), these features get distorted–diagonal strokes, for example, become quite vertical–and so are harder to identify.

X-height

Medium x-height
The x-height of a typestyle is the height of its lowercase characters. The larger the x-height, the denser the type will appear. You want medium; unusually tall or short x-heights are better suited for specialty projects.

Stroke Weight

Look for small variations in stroke weight
The best text faces have stroke weights that vary somewhat, which make converging lines that help the eye flow smoothly. But avoid extremes. Modern styles (left) vary too much; at high resolution their beautiful, superthin strokes disappear in a dazzle. Sleek geometric styles (far right) vary little or not at all, so are too uniform.

Mirrors

Watch out for mirrors
Geometric typestyles are so uniform that their letters are often mirror images. For text, this isn’t ideal–the more distinct each letter is, the more legible whole words will be. Look for typestyles that don’t mirror.

Counters

Avoid overlarge counters
Counters are the enclosed spaces inside letters. Avoid typestyles whose counters are very large in relation to the stroke weight. In the case of Avant Garde (right), note how much greater the space inside the letters is than the space outside. This will slow the reader. Set in text (far right), Avant Garde looks like Swiss cheese!

Type Quirks

Avoid quirkiness
Typographic sprites are fun to look at and great for heads, but in text they wear out their welcome fast. Why? The extra swashiness gives the eye too much to follow and is very tiring.

Favorite Text Faces

While many typefaces meet the requirements of legibility, readability, and beauty, the following four are the ones we turn to most often:

Adobe Caslon (11/12.75 pt)
First choice for books, Caslon may be the Roman alphabet’s most readable typeface. Its letters aren’t beau tiful, but strung into sentences and paragraphs they have fit, texture, bite, and can be read comfortably for hours. Caslon will withstand even the tightest leading.

Adobe Garamond (11.5/12.75 pt)
If we could have only one typeface, this would be it; Garamond is easy to read and elegant, too. A little on the dressy side, Garamond is a fine display face– rare in this class–and as a result can carry a document all by itself. Gara mond sets small; set text in 10-point minimum with about 10% extra leading.

ITC Stone Serif (9.5/12.75 pt)
Stone is boring to look at bit buttery to read. Characterized by its stub by, lower case r that tucks snugly to its neighbors, Stone is designed for outstanding fit. It sets large; 9-point is as big as you should go. Use at least 35% extra leading.

Janson Text 55 Roman (10.5/12.75 pt)
Janson holds the middle ground between the earthy, work manlike nature of Caslon and the high classiness of Garamond. Rounder and denser, it has a chiseled, resoslute appearance. Janson sets about average size; give it about 20% extra leading.

John McWade is a designer, teacher, and author who has been at the forefront of the graphic design and desktop publishing worlds for two decades. He is founder, publisher, and primary voice of Before & After magazine (www.bamagazine.com; email: layers@bamagazine.com).

What we’ll do in this article is design four CD jewel cases and accompanying CDs. The jewel case conveys the first impression; the CDs themselves provide the follow-up. Each must stand alone, yet both must work together.

In every case, the key to a successful second page is simplicity; the second page should be a lesser and simpler version of the first. By repeating typefaces and colors you create continuity.

You’ll face this task everywhere, not only on CDs but in books, brochures, webpages, PowerPoint presentations—everywhere that one page follows another.

Let’s have a look at four good techniques.

Repeat the Center of Interest

A beautiful jewel-box cover has been carefully cropped from a larger image. Key in this case is placement; note (below right) that the seashell’s position defines the margins containing the type. A repeated image brings built-in continuity of shape, color, and texture, and makes a fresh, bold statement. The inside is clearly a subset of the outside, yet has its own distinctive presence. Hierarchy: With a strong, central image, the rest of the layout should work in support. The easiest way to do this is to center the design, which moves the eye down the page in a straight line (right). Similarly, you want the type to recede: Set it small (smaller than you’d think), and color it gray (far right) or a light tint of the image itself, which yields a handsome, minimalist look.

When your cover has a strong focal point like this one, mask its background and bring it inside. Alone on a white canvas, it will stand out in striking relief.

Find something in the scene

If the outside is big, make the inside small. Bring something from the forest inside–a pine cone, an eagle, a rock– and you’ll create a beautiful contrast of far and near. A forest is vast, panoramic, and distant. A small object brings it close, puts it at human scale, makes it touchable. The green background is a neutral value against which dark and light type both stand out with beautiful, clear difference.

Simple alignment helps bring the outside in.

Make your own object

Draw a shape–simpler is better–atop your image, then repeat it inside. This beautifully modern look is especially handy if your cover image has no available follow-up. Cool and low-key, note in each of the designs that similarities–shapes, sizes, colors–and opposites–dark, light–work easily together. Note especially the very small type; it takes real restraint to to set your own name in 14-pt type, but the results couldn’t be classier.

Note the positive-negative use of color. Position the shape in the same place on both sides, then align the type blocks neatly to it. Be consistent and simple; note the clean, straight lines of sight.

Lift out one title

Tell the rest of a story. Here, a buildit-yourself cover grid of doors prepares the viewer for the “key” inside–a single tile lifted out and enlarged. At first glance, what you see is a collage of doors. The fun is that you can hide your message on the cover, and then reveal it inside. It’s the only image with a key, appropriately tying it to the message “Unlock your imagination.” Tint the type color to blend with the image.

Simplify with similar colors

A grid of dissimilar images is naturally complex and must be simplified. An easy organizational technique is to create one row of similar colors.	Our title row is made of images with similar colors with a few squares left empty for the words; on a busy field, such empty space really stands out.	The type color must be similar, too; words in cool blue would disrupt the continuity. To get this, just sample the warm neighboring colors.

John McWade is a designer, teacher, and author who has been at the forefront of the graphic design and desktop publishing worlds for two decades. He is founder, publisher, and primary voice of Before & After magazine (www.bamagazine.com; email: layers@bamagazine.com).