Multipage Documents
Making cool logos and flashy beer-can designs is usually every graphic designer’s favorite part of the job. But a valuable and overlooked skill in any designer’s toolkit is the ability to create multipage documents. Keeping a consistent design across dozens of pages brings unique challenges. It requires organization, planning, and nuance. Here are just a few of the multipage projects I’ve tackled, plus some lessons I take with me.
Sofitel Washington DC Menus
Bonner Carrington RFP
The Printing House Digital Brochure
Plan Ahead
How much content do you have? How many pages are you going to need? Can that content be divided and sub-divided into categories? Into kinds? Into a narrativee? Have an answer to these big-picture questions before you start throwing together text boxes and images. I often start with blank pages with big labels indicating what goes where.
Work Smarter
When you make a change to, say a headline font or color, you’re going to also want that change to happen throughout the document. Paragraph Styles is your new best friend. Get to know it. This is the most powerful tool at your disposal, not just for being consistent throughout the document, but for the efficiency of your workflow. Same goes for things like Master Pages, Swatches, and Character Styles. These tools make the workflow smoother and save hours of unnecessary tweaking.
