Arthur Bradley
Bristol Based Graphic Designer and Artworker

Introduction to Graphic Arts

50 THINGS - Process

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I have organised the process for making this poster into stages:

  • Recording objects

    Once I had decided and gathered all of my objects I had to record relevant information about them. This included Name, Height, Width, Depth, Weight, Acquisition Date, Donor, Description and Code. I took each item and filled in my own simplified ‘object sheet’.

  • Photography

    To accurately represent each of the objects I had decided to go down the photographic route. Based on my museum research I understand that it is important that each object is presented in a clean neutral setting. The idea of photographing the images is to inform rather than advertise or to encourage a particular opinion. Because of this I have photographed each object on a white background and where possible positioned them to be head on rather than angled to show off any particular feature.

  • Photo Editing

    Where I have tried my best to make sure that each object is photographed in the same setting using the same background and the same lighting, most of the images needed to be cleaned up to make them consistent with each other. This meant correcting exposure levels and cleaning up shadows and edges.

  • Layout, Hierarchy, Grid and Typography

    Now that I have all of the elements that will appear on the poster I need to think about how I am going to fit them into an A1 format. I need to think about the hierarchy of the information and what I want the viewer to see first. I have decided that I want to allow more space for the images over the text as they are the main focus of the poster. I also need to think about what size my copy will be in order to fit comfortably on the page. This will mean doing type tests at different sizes, layout tests and printing at full size to see what the poster will look like off-screen. I also need to consider which typeface(s) will be most appropriate to use as this will affect legibility and space on the page.

  • Data-merge

    Once the layout has been decided I can set up different layers in InDesign to house all of the information to make the handing of the document run more smoothly. I have created a base artwork layer, Images layer, Image numbers layer, Header and footer and Object information layer. Most of the information from my object sheet will appear on the object information layer. In order to keep this consistent and to move the content over easily I will set up a data-merge from my spreadsheet to the InDesign document with each section styled as needed.

  • Print

    A digital print for this poster should be most appropriate as it is mainly photographic. I will need to consider print quality by making sure that all of my images etc are high enough resolution and that my document is properly formatted for print. I will need to explore the right sort of paper stock to use for this project.

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