Vol. 1 No.

6 /1990

TM

How to design cool stuff

2
2
Our rst newsletter clinic 10-point checklist for an imaginative logo! How do
you say Peignot?a pronunciation guide How to make artwork from
almost nothing! Tips on maps, pie charts, ads, traps, type and more!
Illustration by Marla Meredith Nifty legal paper background is made of the following process colors:

C50

M50

Y50 Ruled lines are one-half point

THE MAILBOX

PROBLEMS WITH PIE CHARTS

I cannot gure out how to make an exploded-view, 3-D pie chart in FreeHand;
nothing seems to work right and I cant
tell if its the program or just me. It cant
be impossible; where am I going wrong?
Karen Roe-McCord
Kansas City, MO

Its not you; regardless of your software,

this drawing is agonizingand it is impossible with FreeHand 2.02. (Biggest
problem: The knife tool refuses to cut a
curve at the spot you place it.)
Even with the best software, you
must be resolute; there is so much copying, cutting, layering, and joining that
Ive yet to complete a 3-D pie in
less than an hour.
Six line ends
converge on
one pixel!

COLOR TRAPS

EXPLODED-VIEW, 3-D PIE CHART: A DECEPTIVELY DIFFICULT, TIME-CONSUMING JOB

A 3-D pie has eye appeal but conveys its information no better than a at pie, so
make sure you really want to draw one this way before diving in. What makes
the 3-D job so hard? Its that the sideswhich are closed, lled shapes, share
borders; to create them, you must clone, move, cut, close and join dozens of
overlapping lines. Note above that six separate lines converge to make the
yellow corner; when each is in place, six end points occupy the same pixeljust
try selecting the one you need! The only solution is to layer each set of lines, a
procedure which requires forethought and mental juggling; forget the stacking
order just once and youll quickly lose your mind. I made the drawing above in
the new FreeHand 3.0. In spite of slick, quick-as-a-wink layer controls and
(nally) an accurate knife tool, baking this little pie took one very busy hour.

Finally, a magazine that proves

you can do fullcolor work from
the desktop!
Before & After
gave me the courage to try it for
myself. Even
though my rst
attempt had some
trapping problems, it was a

thrill to see that the

software actually
works. How about a
special issue on traps?
Troy Turner
Redmond, WA
A color trap is a slight
overprinting of adjacent inks to ensure, should they become
misaligned, that no white space is visible
between them. Think of trapping as pulling your socks up and your pants cuffs
down so your legs wont show if you sit.
Trapping is an age-old method of compensating for imperfect pasteup, stripping and printing, but today its giving
desktop publishers
ts. Why? Because
when PostScript separates colors for printing (cyan for one plate,
magenta for another,
and so on), it does not Our eyes see the illusion of one box overrecognize our illusion
that one object may be lapping another.
PostScript sees only
atop another, like
a at red blue eld.

FREEHAND STEP-BY-STEP

How to blend around a curve

Its an easy and artful way to show movement.

1. DRAW THE CURVE

Since FreeHand cant
blend along a single
stroke (rats), your curve
must be drawn as a
llable (closed) shape.
Weve seen a lot of maps like
this lately. Ships and planes
are from Adobes Carta font.
Note Iraq stands out because
surrounding land is a uniform
second color. Blend begins the
same color as the desert sand.

2. ADD 2-pt BLEND LINES

Youll blend from line to
line around the curve.
Each line is the color of
its end of the blend and
must be long enough so
the blends will clear the
curve, shown here by
dashed lines; position
perpendicular to curve.

3. BLEND EACH SEGMENT

Use enough steps to ensure no gaps; blends will
rotate around their
innermost points.
Select blended
sections, Cut,
select llable
shape and
Paste inside.

TM

IDEA!

THE BUSINESS CARD AD MORASS

ING
EYE-ARREST O
E
WALL OF VIDSMALL
ENERGIZES Y
IL
SPACES EAS
As youve
seen in television appliance stores, the impact of a single image
can rise dramatically if
the image is repeated.
In print, this wall of
video technique is
easy and it works.
Key to a good video
imitation is to make
sure your pictures are
identically cropped
(crop one, then duplicate it) and that the
white spaces between
them are absolutely
consistentany variance will make the
composite look pasted
together. (Top: Black
background is an easy,
no-cost way to add
glamour.) Below, one
of many possible variations; grid is added
atop large photograph
with PageMakers line
drawing tool.
Experiment; many
kinds of images lend
themselves to this
trendy treatment.
Photographs look the
most like television,
and photos of faces
are most dramatic.

HAIRSTYLING SPECIAL: $25

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ipscing elit, diam nonnumy eiusmod tempor
incidunt ut labore et dolore magna aliquam
erat volupat. Ut enim ad minimim veniami
quis nostrud exercitation ullamcorper suscipit

laboris nisl ut aliquip ex ea consequat. Duis

autem vel eum irure dolor in reprehenderit in
voluptate velit esse molestaie son consequat,
vel illum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. At
vero eos et accusam et justo odio dignissim.

franklins for hair

on the esplanade

PHOTOGRAPH: TOM RUDDOCK

pants over socks. Instead, it sees an image only as a at eld, where color A
ends exactly as color B begins, and separates them with no overlap.
Some software sets traps by allowing colors to overprint (usually a dialog
box selection). But that raises problems
of its own: It is now incumbent upon the
designer to specify which colors overprint, under what conditions and by how
mucha task with which most professionals (to say nothing of amateurs!) are
totally unfamiliar. The computers accuracy is unforgiving, too; a single misstep
can (and will) botch an expensive job.
My solution? I dont use traps; colors
in Before & After are all kiss-t.
This makes my job intuitive, since
the Linotronic puts out exactly what my
screen shows. Even better, the printed
pages are clean as a whistle; overlapping
inks can easily look muddy. The downside?an occasional, minuscule sliver of
white between colors; nothing, really,
worth the gymnastics of setting traps.
Some printers will squawk, but modern pressesmany computer-driven
can register (align) colors with absolute
accuracy. Before & After is printed on a
20-year-old, manually adjusted Harris
press; the results speak for themselves.
Traps, in my opinion, are overrated.

You are in a genuinely tough spot, one

thats shared by many professionals, too.
A business card ad is usually a sign of a
charitable contribution, and youre right:
the advertiser doesnt care about the
message or hed take the time to create
an ad someone would actually read.
Best way to clean up the mess is to
discard the concept of display continues

TM

MONTCLIFF ADDRESS WILL

HIGHLIGHT 23rd ANNUAL
CONVENTION Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adip
Production notes
Photographs scanned at
300 dpi, 64 gray levels. 64
levels is usually more than
enough and requires much
less memory than 256.

scing elit, diam nonnumy eiusmod tempor in

cidunt ut labore et dolore magna aliquam erat
volupat. Ut enim ad minimim veniami quis
nostrud exercitation ullamcorper suscipit labo
ris nisl ut aliquip ex ea consequat dolore.
Duis autem vel eum irure dolor in eiusmod.

PHOTOGRAPH: KURT FISHBACK

Our theater program [for a high-school

troupe] is littered with little ads. Most
are business cards. It really looks junky,
like the advertisers dont care. Id welcome advice on how to improve the look
of our program.
Jessica Lloyd
Miami, FL

MORE MAIL

1
2
FIRST IN CUSTOMER
SATISFACTION

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sit amet, consectetur adipscing elit,
diam nonnumy eiusmod tempor incidun
ut labore et dolore
magna aliquam erat
volupat. Ut enim ad
minimim vena quisi
nostrud exercitation
ullamcorper suscipit
laboris nisl aliq uip.

KLAUS SCHMIDT BMW ON THE BELTWAY

Clever number ads stand

out amidst clutter

Want a small, inexpensive ad that

IDEA! draws attention without resorting to

cheap? Unique because they have no borders, these handsome number ads will stand
out in any amount of noise (try them in the
classieds) and draw readers for a second
look. Easy to make, this treatment can be
applied in many ways (try letters).

TWO NEW LOCATIONS TO

SERVE YOU BETTER

Lorem ipsum dolor sit a

met, consectetur adipscing elit, dinim non
numy eiusod tempor
incidunt ut labore et
dolore magna aliquam
erat volupat. Ut eni ad
minimim veniami quis
nostrud exercitation ullamcorper suscipit labors
nisl ut aliquip ex ea consequat. Duis autem vele
um irure dolor in voluptate
velit esse molestaie son
consequat, vel illum dol.

KLAUS SCHMIDT BMW ON THE BELTWAY

advertising and take

tones are no match
the PBS approach:
for the quality to
Set a handsome list
which youre accusTHE GLASS MENAGERIE
of supporters and
tomed. To restore
BY TENNESSEE WILLIAMS
donorswith whatquality you must
ever acknowledgprint your pages at
ments you wishat
a service bureau
or near the front of
an inconvenience
your program. This
you dont now have
has three benets at
and add the cost
least: (1) It looks
to your budget:
good. (2) It shortens
Four pages of negyour program by
ative lm are $60
pages, which saves
per month, or $720
money and paper.
per year. Consider
Replace charitable but unsightly business card
(3) It returns crea- ads with front-of-the-program acknowledgments, especially your own
tive control to you. saving money, paper and improving the product. time and skill: Once
If youre stuck
youve learned how
with the ads, consider remaking them in
to scan properly (no small feat), you must
a consistent style.
budget 30 minutes of scanning and fussing time per picture; at $10 per hour
thats $720and two full workweeks
WHAT ARE WE SCANNING FOR?
per year. Is it worth it? Probably not.
Is a scanner worth buying? Our organization has a small budget. We use desktop publishing for our monthly newsletJUST FOR FUN DEPT.
ter and program announcements, which
How does Before & After, How to design
we run on our laser printer. The newscool stuff translate into French? Subscribletter usually has a dozen or more photoer Lise B. Roy, a French-English translagraphs, which we pay our printer to
tor in Quebec, writes with the following:
strip in. Even $500 would be a signiCool stuff is not easy to translate. We
could say Avant et aprs, Le design du texte
cant expense. What do you think?
par excellence. We could also say Avant et
Gwenda Lippman
aprs, ou lArt de gnoler les textes. These
Rancho Mirage, CA
two translations give the feeling we enjoy
WE ARE PLEASED TO ACKNOWLEDGE THAT
THIS PERFORMANCE IS MADE POSSIBLE BY THE GENEROUS
CONTRIBUTIONS OF THE FOLLOWING SPONSORS
ANDERSON & HANSON TOYOTA
BARNABYS GRILL AND OVEN
DOMINOS PIZZA
FLORENTINES CLOTHIERS
JANICE & JOSANNE HANDFIELD
ROBIN AND MELISSA JENSEN
LAURLYNN JONES
PEPPERIDGE FORD/MERCURY
TRANSMETRO INSURANCE SERVICES
TRI-COUNTY UTILITIES
DR. AND MRS. LAWRENCE TROST
WKTV TELEVISION

Scanning photographs is quite a bother,

and it has hidden costs. At $10 each, a
dozen photos per issue will buy a $500
scanner in four months, which looks like a
good investment. But laser printer halfFar left: Commercial
quality output. Left: 300
dpi laser output. If you
scan your own photos,
budget in the cost of
high-resolution lm.

at reading the publication. What do you

think of them?
Help! I cant read a word!
Anyone?

AVANTetAprs
ou lArt de gnoler les textes

THE MAILBOX includes letters, faxes and telephone con-

versations. Address John McWade, Before & After, 1830

Sierra Gardens Drive, Suite 30, Roseville, CA 95661.

BEFORE & AFTER, HOW TO DESIGN COOL STUFF (ISSN 1049-0035), Vol. 1, No. 6, Dec. 1990. Before & After is a magazine of design and page
layout for desktop publishers. It is published bimonthly by PageLab, Inc., 1830 Sierra Gardens Drive, Suite 30, Roseville, CA 956612912. Telephone 916-784-3880. Copyright 1990, PageLab, Inc. All rights reserved. Second-class postage paid at Roseville, CA and
additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address change to: Before & After, How to design cool stuff, 1830 Sierra Gardens Drive,
Suite 30, Roseville, CA 95661-2912. Subscription rate: $36 per year (6 issues). Canadian subscribers please add $4 and remit in U.S.
funds; overseas subscribers please add $18. Back issues: $10 each. Bulk subscriptions: 510: $33 each; 1120, $30 each; 2135,
$27 each; 36 or more, $24 each. Bulk subscriptions will be entered under one name and mailed to a single address. The terms Before
& After, How to design cool stuff, Xamplex and Type: The visible voice have trademarks pending.

TM

BEFORE & AFTER ILLUSTRATED GLOSSARY

How do you say Peignot?

Here is the denitive pronunciation guide. If you know more than
half, check a map; youre probably in Europe. By Lynne Garell
TYPEFACE NAMES
Aachen Bold (AHKN BOLD)
Named for a city in Germany.
Akzidenz Grotesk (AHKTSIHDENTS
GROWTESK)
Translates from German as Trade
Gothic.
Antique Olive (AHNTEEK OHLEEV)
Named for the French type foundry
Olive.
ITC Avant Garde (AHVAHNT GARD)

Typeface designed by Herb Lubalin for

Avant Garde magazine.
ITC Bauhaus (BOWWHOUSE)

Design prototype created by Herbert

Bayer in 1925 at the Bauhaus school in
Germany.
Belwe (BELWEE, or the Germanic BEL
VUH)
Named after its designer, Georg Belwe.
ITC Benguiat (BENGAT)

Named after its designer, Ed Benguiat.

Simoncini Garamond (SEEMOHNCHEE

NEE GARAMOND)
A version of Garamond released by the
Simoncini foundry.
Glypha (GLEEFUH)
Neue Helvetica (NOYUH HELVETICA)
Neue is the German word for new. In
the early 1980s, Linotype redrew the
Helvetica family.
Hiroshige (HEAROHSHEGAY)
Designed for a 1986 book about Japanese artist Ando Hiroshige.
ITC Kabel (KAHBL)

Kabel is the German spelling of cable.

Originally designed by Rudolf Koch in
1927 to commemorate the rst laying of
the transatlantic telephone cable.
ITC Korinna (COREINUH)

Knstler Script (KEWNSTLER SCRIPT)

Knstler is the German word for artist. This typeface came out of the German artistic calligraphy movement of
the late Victorian era.

Bodoni (BUHDOHNEE)
Named for its designer, Giambattista
Bodoni, an 18th-century printer.

ITC Lubalin Graph (LOOBALIN GRAPH,

Bundesbahn Pi (BOON
DESSBAHN PIE)
Font of railroad and
travel-oriented symbols.
The Bundesbahn is the
German federal railway.

Lucida (LOOSIDUH)
Designed by Bigelow & Holmes to be
easy to read printed at low resolutions.
From Bundesbahn Pi 2

Charlemagne (SHARLEMANE)
For the French emperor of A.D. 742814.
Cochin (KOSHAN, where shan rhymes
with pan)
Named for the 19th-century French
printer Nicolas Cochin.
Eras (AIRUS)
Latin meaning to exist.
Eurostile (YUROHSTYLE)
A popular European-designed sansserif type.
ITC Fenice (FEHNEECHAY)

Fette Fraktur (FETUH FRAHKTOOR)

Fette is the German word for bold and
Fraktur is a style of blackletter type.
This typeface is a very bold blackletter.
Friz Quadrata (FRITS KWODRAHTUH)
Named for its designer, Ernst Friz.

TM

where bal rhymes with pal )

Named for its designer, Herb Lubalin.

Medici (MEDITCHY)
Designer Hermann Zapf named this
typeface for the powerful Medici family
of Florence. Medici is based on Italian
chancery handwriting and is the ancestor of ITC Zapf Chancery.
Mistral (MIHSTRAHL)
Named by its designer, Roger Excoffon,
for the cold winds of southern France.
Neuzeit S (NOYTSITE)
ITC Novarese (NOVARAYSAY)
Named for its designer, Aldo Novarese.
Peignot (PENYO)
Designed by A. M. Cassandre and
named for the French type foundry
Deberny & Peignot.
ITC Serif Gothic (SAIRIF GOTHIC)

Designed by Herb Lubalin to be a typeface combining features of both serif

and sans-serif (gothic) types.
Serifa (SUHREEFUH)

Versailles (VAIRSIGH)
Walbaum (VALLBOUM, where boum
sounds like out )
ITC Weidemann (VIEDUHMAHN, similar
to vitamin)
Wilhelm Klingspor Gotisch (VILHELM
KLINGSHPORE GOTTISH)
A gothic design by Rudolf Koch for the
Wilhelm Klingspor foundry.
MISCELLANEOUS
Bzier curve (BEHZEEAY)
Named for the 20th-century
French mathematician who
discovered it. In PostScript,
a bzier is a curved line that
is described by two end
points and two control
Bzier curve
points. The end points are
the ends of the curve itself,
and the control points determine the
shape of the curve, but are not on the
curve itself.
Didot (DEEDOH)
French printing family known for two
typographic contributions. One was the
invention of a point system of measurement slightly larger than the AmericanBritish point and still in use in much of
Europe. The second was development,
along with Giambattista
Bodoni, of the style of typefaces known as moderns,
recognized by their vertical
emphasis and high contrast
Thick-thin strokes
between strokes.
characterize the

modern style.

Moir (MWAHRAY)
A visual interference pattern that occurs when two patterns
are superimposed. In
printing, this usually
refers to the halftone
patterns that are
used when printing
Moir
four-color process.
Hermann Zapf (HERMAN TSAHPF)
Twentieth-century type designer who
has created such faces as Palatino, Optima, Melior and ITC Zapf Chancery.
As a kid, Lynne Garell (GAHRELL) was quite certain there was a California city named Ellay. Today
she is type marketing manager at Adobe. Type information from International Typeface Corporation.

The instructors sketchbook

Drawing a logo? Picture this!

The most memorable designs are built on fresh points of view.
SKETCHBOOK BY GREGG BERRYMAN FREEHAND ILLUSTRATIONS BY MARLA MEREDITH

he fun of being a designer

is in looking at the familiar and seeing something
new. This is a talent anyone can nurture; remember as a
child watching for faces and animals in the clouds?
Here are 10 imaginative ways
to visualize any object; any one
can contribute to a breakthrough
design. Best use: Turn off your
computer, get out your sketchbook and try them one at a time.

Point of view
Examine all points of view
for a fresh look at the object.
Rotate for best view.

Part of an object
Perhaps part of the object offers enough
information to identify the object.
Contain the object
Lines or shapes
provide visual limits
for the mark. An easy
way to focus the mark.

Shadow the object

Shadows help solve
difcult problems of
perception by showing
position, lighting,
levitation.

Metamorphosis/
substitution
Let it change into another
object. Substitute it for an
animate or inanimate object
of related visual form.

TM

Rearrange parts

Distort the object

Tie a knot; break it;
fold it; inate it; think
of it as another
material. Its how an
illustrator thinks.

Marks, erasure

Fragmentation/abstraction
Think like Picasso! Reconstitute
the object. Perhaps show only
marks or effects.

Multiples
Audiences enjoy multiples, patterns,
object interaction. Even familiar things
change in appearance when grouped.

Ride in it.

Alter scale
Make it hugeor
microscopic. Relate
it to a hand, a gure
or an animal.
Live in it.

Place in environment
Tell more about the object by
showing it in context, familiar
or unfamiliar.

TM

BEFORE & AFTER PAGE MAKEOVER

Newsletter clinic

An item-by-item analysis reveals

techniques useful for every job.

There is not enough sand in the sea to

count the ways in which the elements
of a newsletter page can be assembled.
There are so many that if you build a
page by clicking aimlesslya headline
here, a border thereyour chances for
a satisfying result are zero.

What makes a page design good? As

in all commercial design, the good page is
the one that communicates. Communication means that the reader receives the
message the publisher sends. This is entirely different from merely being pretty
(although pretty is preferable to ugly); it

Before: TAMS is
built on a 5-column
grid; each text column spans two grid
columns; the odd
column on the outside is for pictures,
captions and other
stuff (here, the contents). Coarse laser
printer copy is used
as nal output; blue
ink is added on the
press for accents.

PAGE 1 BEFORE

PAGE 1 AFTER

A page must be focused

A page must have a center of focus from
which the reader can move. Focus is created
through the use of visual contrasts; for
example, largesmall, darklight, round
square, manyfew and so on. Here, the
designer has laid out a balanced page, yet
the result is bland and difcult to read.
Why? Everything looks the same! The name,
calendar, contents, headlines and text are so
similar in size, style and weightand the
white space is so uniformly distributedthat
the information is effectively masked.
With nothing to attract his eye, the casual
reader will turn away. Worse, however, is
that the more resolute reader cant tell
whats importantor even where to start
without picking through everything himself.
Yet the same blandness that makes the page
hard to read also makes it appear uninteresting; that is, like its not worth the trouble.

USE VISUAL
CONTRASTS
TO GIVE THE
READER A
FOCAL POINT

Where to look?
Identical squares have
equal value; the reader
cant tell whats important or where to look.

Focus
A visual contrast (here,
a contrast in value) will
put the readers eye exactly where you want it.

Prioritize
Multiple contrasts presort the page; now the
reader has a sense of
whats most important.

TM

requires more than just clear writing,

although clear writing is vital; and, silly
as it sounds, it implies that the reader
reads the pageno reading, no communication. This seems obvious; nevertheless,
Ill go on a limb to say that most writing
is never read simply because of weak or

inappropriate design. Reading asks time,

effort and attention: Your page must appear to be worth the readers time. If it
does not, he will quickly turn elsewhere.
Nicola Richter is the editor of TAMS
IN HOUSE, the employee newsletter of
TAMS Consultants, Inc., of New York

City. Nicola is a brave soul; she sent her

work as a bad example. Actually, its a
perfect example; she is, as she put it,
right at that I-know-enough-to-be-dangerous stage, with more skill than the
beginner, less than the professional. Her
newsletter is the subject of our clinic.

Artwork must be attractive

Graphics must be purposeful

An illustration of any kind

sends a powerful message,
but you might think of it as a
guidedor, more often, unguidedmissile. In this case,
TAMS is an impersonal, multinational corporation that the designer tried to warm
up by picturing home and hearth. Her
intent was good but the result illustrates
the heartbreak of clip art; this little house
merely looks grade-schoolish, like an
escapee from a Monopoly board.
Using artwork to stir a specic feeling
in this case warm and cared foris an
extremely difcult undertaking thats best
left to the truly artistic; the rest of us
should seek a nonillustrative solution in
type, shapes, tone values and so forth. An
artistic attempt that falls short will look
dumb (or cheap) and is very misleading.

A calendar is a very
S M T W Th F
S
effective graphic de1 2 3 4 5 6
7 8 9 10 11 12 13
vice that helps the
14 15 16 17 18 19 20
21 22 23 24 25 26 27
reader visualize dates 28 29 30 31
by placing them in a
familiar context. The unmarked calendar
above, however, conveys no information
the reader doesnt already have. Its presence, therefore, adds visual noise (anything which draws the eye uselessly) that
disturbs communication.

The most common

error with artwork is
that of illustrating a
word literally. Here,
for example, TAMS IN
HOUSE has been
illustrated with a
house, yet the company, an engineering
and environmental
planning rm, has
nothing much to do
with houses. Artwork
sends a separate
message; it should
complement, not
duplicate, the words.

Right: A calendar of important dates

can be awkward to construct; unless
it is large (and therefore unsightly),
each square is too small for text.
Solution? For a small calendar, use
oversize text boxes for key dates,
add weekend dates for reference;
disregard all others. Contrasts add
clarity; note how dark labels clearly
stand out. A job for FreeHand.

The nameplate sets the tone

Craftsmanship says quality

Nothing sets the tone of a newsletter

more certainly than the nameplate; a
natural focal point, it is read rst and
judged instantly. To design a multiword

Craftsmanship is attention to detail:

uniform spacing, alignment of columns;
things like that. Craftsmanship is different from style; it is the t and nish. A
homely but well-crafted page is more professional than a ashy design, poorly built.
Some clues:

TAMS
I n

h o u s e

nameplate from scratch, start with type

only; draw the readers eye with contrasts in size, style and colorin this
way, the words can interact without
competing. The greater the contrasts,
the quicker youll start seeing results.

TM

Left, top: Extremely

heavy Futura Extra
Bold contrasts sharply with Neue Helvetica Thin, which pulls
the eye for a doubletake. Contrasting colors (white on black)
amplify the effect.
Left, bottom: Gray
(70%) on black permits white type to
span the nameplate;
black box provides
denition and the
visual muscle to
attract the eye.

he H
tion, TA
the Wat

he Harmon Meadow Wet

Restoration, TAMS entry
1990 Excellence on the W
Award Competition, received an
Award at the Waterfront Center

When used to start a

story, an initial capital should be big
enough to be seen
(try about four times
the text size) and for
the neatest appearance should align
with the baseline of
its adjacent text.
Above right: Letter T is trickier than some.
Note how the remainder of the rst word tucks
tight against it. (The two elements are part of
the same word and should be spaced as such.)
Note clean baseline alignment.

Above: The eye is

quietly disturbed by
misalignments which
occur often between
captions and text.
Adjust carefully.

Extends
past edge

Overlaps
another box

Fully enclosed

PAGE NOTES The dozens of disparate elements in this article are organized by background boxesand
boxes within boxes (it gives them something in common). This technique has a wide range of usesand a
downside: A strict box layout is predictable and therefore boring. The way around that? Extend some boxes
to borders and beyond so they irt with one another. Left: four variations, each of which appears below.

Touches edges

Never point out the obvious

Design for the reader

No, no, no, never, never, never. Here, the

designer was restricted by the odd column
of the 5-column grid and chose to ll the
space with a table of contents; superuous to this three-article newsletter, its rst
entry is the adjacent front-page story!
Such a move may seem merely silly, but
it can be fatal to the credibility of the editor. (Im not kidding.) How? By pointing
out whats obvious, especially in such a
prominent space, the newsletter is slighting the readers intelligence. It instantly
becomes a frame of reference; the reader
will approach other articles with the silent
suspicion that they are equally trivial.
Especially harsh is that this effect is unseen; the reader will rarely be aware of his
decision, yet the struggling editor will
soon be left wondering why no one is taking her hard work seriously.

Theres a reason the most honored (and

widely read) publications are not fashioned
in hot, trendy styles: Its because theyre
designed for the reader, not the artist.
To a reader, words are paramount. A
simple page thats a pleasure to read will
be perceived as better designed than a more sophisticated
page that isnt. When the goal is communication, who else is
better qualied to judge?

Editor and designer

should control the
page, not vice versa.
If you add ller just
to make the design
look right, you have
the wrong design.

Right: Details count. Here

the designer, in search of
a balanced page, centered
a photo across two text columns. Result? Extremely
narrow passages aside the
photo make reading awkward. A simple alternative
was to move the photo to
the left margin and up, permitting adequate text to
the right and beneath.

Before

Fine-tune it yourself

Talk less

Advanced as it is, the computer has neither eyes nor aesthetic judgment, so dont
rely on auto for everything. Example:

Mark Twain said it best: Id have written

you a shorter letter but I didnt have the
time. Take it from someone who knows:
16 pages are harder to write than 64.
Newsletters differ on this matter; some
topics are so compelling they could be
handwritten on Kleenex and be read. Most,
however, are not; 300-page magazines are
routinely perused and tossed aside.
No matter how skilled the designer, a
page thats jammed with text will not be
read. Your rst goal, therefore, is to make
your pages approachable. This is generally
done with pictures (they say lots) and open
space, which acts just like an open door.
You say you have ve pages of editorial
to stuff into four? My rule: Cut it in half.
Then again. And when you cant cut any
more, cut it in half again. If theres nothing
left, there was nothing to begin with.

How ragged is ragged?

Text set Align left,
traditionally called
ragged right, can
leave an unacceptably wide and gnarly
margin if its merely
plopped into place.
For the look of a
112-pica margin, set
Space between columns to 1 pica, or
even less (bottom).
In a busy newsletter,
it helps to set the
Hyphenation zone to
0, which forces
words as close as
possible to the margin before breaking.

10

After

Before: 1p6 margin, 3-pica hyphenation zone

stries Director of
ng, accepted the award
d Hartz Mountain.
President G. Barrie
tended the award
Waterfront Center

tion, education
pact, and envi
mental sensitiv
Categories inc
artistic and cu
projects, the w

After: 0p11 margin, 0-pica hyphenation zone

w Wetlands Restoration,
xcellence on the Waterion, received an Honor
s national conference this
ain Industries Director

into account a
projects relatio
to the water, de
originality and
mony, civic con

Page 1 makeover
has less copy than
the original yet is
likelier to be read.
Why? Noncontributing elements (calendar and contents)
have been removed.
Disruptive text wraps
are gone. The photo
is now central. Contrasting styles separate headline and
deckhead for clarity.
Open space (note
caption) is simply
more approachable.

TM

 PAGES 2 & 3 AFTER

Before: Asymmetrical 5-column

grid requires too deft a touch to
be practicalthe empty outside
column is just too wide (a better
alternative is seven columns). A
clean, three-column page (After)
is built atop six columns and is
much more forgiving. Note below
that headlines on facing pages
are redundant; at a glance, rightpage text seems like the start of
a new article rather than the end.

PAGES 2 & 3
BEFORE

Before: Headline and graphic are deceptive; they look like a new story rather than a
continuation of the cover story. The reader
will gure it out but he shouldnt have to.
After: White space serves as a stage; it
spans the gutter and cleanly unites the two
parts of the Whats New? section. The jump
head is now proportionate to its importance.

Cropping almost always improves a photograph

BACK TO THE FUTURE In the photographers eye

was a ne sense of historythe vice president
in person at an award-winning project sitebut
whats actually on lm is a tiny man ankle-deep
in gray grass. Poor pix are common as carrots.

TM

ZOOM IN ON THE SUBJECT Cropping brings the vice president into view; its how a designer says look here. FreeHand reects the photo so the man faces into the layout,
holding the readers eye to the page. Reection is useful
unless detail is importantnow everything is backwards.

MOTION ADDS VIGOR Youll need

retouching software to take this
step (sorry), but the reader now
has something in common with
the VP: his windy blueprints.

11

PAGE 4 BEFORE

PAGE 4 AFTER

Before: TAMS personal page is its most read. Why? Because people are
most naturally interested in other people. It is no coincidence, however, that
this is also the one page where homemade clip art and the look-who-justhad-a-baby articles harmonize; the page is exactly what it appears to be.
Even so, this clip art is plainly low grade; because it looks like children
drew it, its use in a professional document lowers the credibility of the
organization. Moral: No artwork is better than poor artwork. To illustrate:
(After) The makeover abandons artwork entirely in favor of splashy
typography. It is not an easy solution (it took six tries) but note how sharp
contrasts in type size, style and color (black or white) draw the eye briskly
from item to item. Note, too, that no two settings are alike! This tells the
readerbefore he reads very farthat each is a different kind of item.

Typefaces before:
Headlines: Helvetica bold
Text: Palatino 10/Auto

Typefaces after:
Headlines: Helvetica Inserat (sans serif) or
Copperplate 31bc, 32bc or 33bc (serif)
Text: Adobe Garamond 12/15

Typography guides the reader

Dont publish your experiments

The reader will move condently through a

publication if its typography establishes a
clear hierarchy, thereby making it clear
what hes about to read. Hierarchy is most
easily created with typographic contrasts:

The computer is a marvelous instrument,

full of endless surprises. As much fun as it
is to play, however, you must leave your
experiments on the editing room oor. Every
jot and tittle that gets into print conveys a
message (for good or ill); you must have
rm control at all times of what
that message is. Example:
Here, a picture has been
dropped into a text column just to watch the
splash. The result is
entertaining but extremely hard to read;
English has a normal
ow and this setting
disrupts it completely.

Right, top: You cant

TAMS Next Generation
tell these heads apart;
identically set in HelProfessional News
vetica bold, they give
the reader no clue
Ms. Domingue Speaks
that they are differat GIS Conference
ent kinds of information. Bottom: Same
words set in conTAMS NEXT GENERATION
trasting sizes, styles
and colors. Its clear P R O F E S S I O N A L N E W S
at a glance which
are standing heads
(regularly published
pieces) and which is
the story headline.

Ms. Domingue Speaks

at GIS Conference

12

TM

TYPE: THE VISIBLE VOICE

How contrasts create style

Creating contrast is the most common
of all typographical techniques; it yields
the greatest results in the shortest time.
How? It is the contrast between objects
which draws the eye: big against small,
black against white, few against many,
and so forth. An insect can hide motion-

less on a leaf and remain invisible until it

moves. Then, it is the contrast of movement against a stable background that
makes it visible.
In type, contrast takes many forms:
large/small, upper/lower case, roman/
italic, serif/sans serif, heavy/light, black/

5 SHELL UNLEADED

1. WHAT PUMP ARE YOU ON, SIR?

By setting the sign in Neue Helvetica Black, the designer has chosen a
businesslike presentation. But the setting begs a question: Whats the 5?
Although the English is correct, the type gives the three messages (pump
number, brand name and type of gasoline) the same voice; that is, the
same tone and emphasis. Since all three are equally important, whats
missing? Contrasts!although the messages are equal, they are not the
same; differences in weight and color will help the motorist comprehend.

5 SHELLUNLEADED

3. WEIGHT CHANGE ADDS A THIRD LEVEL

5 SHELLUNLEADED
One advantage of a type family with a
wide range of weights is that contrast
can be created without changing the
font. Here, Neue Helvetica Thin makes
Shell recedethe motorist probably knows what station hes atso the
key word unleaded stands out. Inset emphasizes brand name. The contrast is so great the words are distinct even with no space between them.

5 SHELLUNLEADED

5. WITHOUT THE BAR, SPACE IS NEEDED

SHELLUNLEADED
5
With Shellthe least signicant information (to the motorist)in thin white,
an illusion of open space appears;
bold, black type is what the eye sees
rst. Acceptable but less effective, it pulls the eye two ways. Inset: On red,
white type is stronger than black; reading order is reversed and improved.
Why? The eye naturally moves from left to right and ignores the large gap.

TM

white, plain/fancy. As these relationships

change, the toneand sometimes the substanceof the message changes.
Type has never been easier to alter;
the computer has made it possible to explore hundreds of permutations in a click.
Here are some principles to watch for:

5 SHELL UNLEADED

2. A CHANGE OF COLOR CLARIFIES

5 SHELL UNLEADED
Reversing the 5 from a bar erases the
doubt: Neither font nor reading order
has changed, but it is now clear there
are two kinds of information; Shell unleaded is the gasoline; the 5 is something else. It is not clear that 5
signies a pump number, yet when asked What pump are you on? its
probably what will come to mind. Equally effective in black and white.

5 SHELLUNLEADED

4. COLOR CONTRASTS ARE STYLISH

5 SHELLUNLEADED
Here, three levels are achieved with
color changes only; the type weights
are identical. Reversed to white, Shell
is cheery and attractivea nice corporate statementyet the information of real importance to the motorist is
left black and is dominant. In black, white and gray (50%) the treatment is
cleanbut both set in white, there is room to confuse number 5 and Shell.

5 SHELL
5 UNLEADED
6. STACKED IN TWO COLUMNS
SHELL
Stacked type improves the bar-less 5 UNLEADED
setting; it keeps the eye focused in a
small area. Against red, yellow Shell
recedes sufciently to allow thin, white
unleaded to be seen; result? three distinct voices. Inset, clarity using color
changes only. Contrast is so great between white 5 and black background
it stands distinct from lower-contrast color words. A quick-to-read solution.

13

FREEHAND STEPBYSTEP

How to build artwork

in 3-D relief
Turn your clip art into something cool.

45 sunlight plus
angled edges
transform this

Highlight
Highlights are lighter than the color
of the object. This highlight has
20% less black.

Shade
Shades are darker than the color of
the object. This shade has 30%
more black.

Color
This disk was made by mixing
process yellow (Y) and black (K).
10%Y, 10%K
10%Y, 30%K
10%Y, 60%K

. . . into this

How light adds dimension

There are two techniques to use

The effect of 3-D relief is created by adding edges to a

at object. The edges are then colored light or dark to
depict reected light. An object will appear raised or
depressed depending on the position of the highlight
and shade relative to the light source.

Filled shapes
Light and dark edges meet in corners which, to be
accurate, should
be sharply angled.
To create real
angles, objects must
rst be drawn, then
cut, joined, lled and
abutted (right), procedures which demand
forethought and concentration. The results are terric.

Raised
Highlight towards light source

Depressed
Shade towards light source

Light from a 45 angle above results in a natural place

to divide an object into light and darkat diagonals.
The width of an edge determines how raised or how
depressed an image appears.

Shallow 2 pts. wide

14

Medium 4 pts. wide

Deep 6 pts. wide

Lines with round ends

This way is easier. Up close, lines with round ends
(caps) have only the hint of an angle, but step back and
no one will notice. This technique is ideal for rendering
small images and details
and it is the only practical
way to outline
odd shapes.
Why round ends? Youll see:
They align perfectly when cut,
with no adjustment.

TM

How to draw angled edges

using filled shapes

Two-tone circles

This procedure is easier if you rst select a grid size in the Document setup
dialog (here its 3 points), then turn on Snap to grid and Snap to guides.
Before drawing, set both Fill and Line menus to None.

1. CRISSCROSS TWO RULER GUIDES

Deactivate Preview mode. Press
the option key to draw a rectangle
from the center out. Ungroup.

2. DRAW A SECOND RECTANGLE

From the same center, draw a
second rectangle 3 points
larger on each side. Ungroup.
A

(OUTLINES ARE FOR CLARITY ONLY)

1. DRAW 2 CIRCLES
Crisscross two ruler
guides. Press the
option + shift keys
to draw two circles
from the center out.
Fill the inner circle
with 40% black.

2. ROTATE THE OUTER

CIRCLE AND SPLIT
In the Rotate dialog,
Rotate the outer circle
45 from Center of
selection. Ungroup.
Select the diagonal
points shown and
choose Split element.

3. CLOSE EACH HALF

AND FILL
Use the Element
info dialog to close
each half. Fill top
half with 15% black
and bottom half
with 70% black.

2
3. SPLIT AT CORNER POINTS
Split rectangles at diagonal corners. Move lower lines horizontally 0p3 (use the Move dialog).

Transform plain circles into

buttons or knobs by adding
an edge of light and dark.

4. CONNECT ONE END OF EACH SET

1) Click to activate endpoint A.
2) With the pen tool, click on
endpoint B. 3) Marquee at B and
Join. Repeat this procedure with
the second set of lines.

Irregular curves
Use round-end lines to add the illusion of 3-D relief to objects made of irregular
curves. Note, however, that its usually impossible to divide an irregular curve into
discrete areas of light and darktwo shades just arent enough! The solution?
Fake it; adjust carefullyand consistently. Below, the right and bottom edges are
predominantly dark, the left and top edges mostly light.

1. DRAW AND FILL

Draw or trace a shape
and Fill with, oh, green.

5. CLOSE THE SHAPES AND FILL

Select one shape at a time; use
the Element info dialog to close
each. Fill 15% and 70% black.
Move lower shape back. Preview.

6. DRAW THE TOP RECTANGLE

Draw a rectangle directly atop
the orginal. Fill 50% black.

2. CLONE THE SHAPE

Set the Fill to None.
Select a line Weight
(here, 1 point) and
round ends (Cap);
color a lighter shade.

How to draw edges using lines

1. DRAW A BOX
Fill with 50% black.

2. CLONE THE BOX

Set the Fill to None.
Under the Line menu,
select a line Weight
(here, 3 points) and
round ends (Cap).

3. SPLIT AT CORNERS
Split the rectangle at
its diagonal corners.
Color the lines 15%
black and 70% black
as shown.

3. CUT EACH LINE where you want to

separate light from dark (use the knife
tool). Darken the segments that fall in
the shade.

15

JOHN McWADE

Success on the high wire

ith this issue, Before & After celebrates one full year. What an
exciting year it has been! I cant
help it; Im going to tell you about it.
Before & After is in-your-hands proof
that desktop publishing is for realnot
just the words-and-pictures part but the
publishing part as well. One year ago we
were a staff of two; we had no subscribers, no underwriters, no contributors, no
investment capital and no real cash. Our
marketing program consisted of a single
advertisement run in one magazine; we
had no direct mail campaign, no product
announcement, no public rollout, none of
the usual things. We were thoroughly experienced and well-connected, but there
was no back door; the moment real people began sending real money, we spent
it and were committed. The launch of
Before & After was an exercise in highwire tension and nothing less.
One year later, were news. Before &
After has attracted more than 12,000 subscribers from 50 states and 30 countries.
New subscriptions have soared to nearly

FREEHAND STEP-BY-STEP

Howd we weave the pencils?

I cant think of a single good use for this
procedure other than entertainment, but heres how to do it:
In any stack or set of
layers, one object is always
on the bottom . . .
1. Draw a box as
shown around
the bottommost pencil
2. Clone the pencil
3. While its still active,
Cut the clone
4. Select the box
5. Paste inside.
6. Then simply select
Bring to front. The illusion is complete
when you change the
Fill and Line to None.

16

2,000 per month. Our full-time staff has

grown to ve, each selected with the
greatest care. Weve been written about
(very attering) and emulated (equally
attering); readers write and telephone
regularly (most fun), and professional
writers and designers are calling us.
This success is not a mirage. It exists
because of the miracle of technology that
sits on the desk in front of you.
The computer has made it possible,
literally, to write, edit, typeset, design
and produce a magazine in full color on a
single desktop. The cost savings are
huge; by the time lm emerges ready for
printing from the Linotronic, a publisher
has escaped 75 percent of his normal
production expenses. Further, without
the need for complex prepress stripping,
printing costs are reduced to paper and
time, nothing compared to the old days.
And oh, the toys! I tried my rst accelerated big screen monitor last week.
Breathtaking! With 24-bit color our
pages leaped to life with plenty of out-ofthe-way space for palettes and dialogs; it
will increase our productivity out of proportion to its cost. Two months ago
Aldus sent FreeHand 3.0 for a look; the
program has been virtually reborn. It is
exquisite; smooth as glass and more useful than anything from the competition;
get in line now. Desktop color scanners
will revolutionize printing; by the year
2000 a quarter of all printed material
will be in full color. Accordingly, a
$10,000 color printer is worth more
than its price. Computers are fast
and getting faster; every two
years the speed increase becomes signicant. The result of these advances is
the coolest of all: An entire generation
of users is awakening to the untapped
power of visual communication.
We enter our second year at high
speed, full of excitement. The air is thick
with ideas; design is a classic discipline
of endless potential. Weve been thrilled
by your embrace; youve become friends
and colleagues, and we look forward to
the continued pleasure of your company.

How to design cool stuff

Editorial and subscription ofces
1830 Sierra Gardens Drive, Suite 30, Roseville, CA 95661
Telephone 916-784-3880 Fax 916-784-3995
For postal, copyright, subscription and back issue
information, please see the bottom of page 4.

Publisher and creative director: John McWade

Associate publisher and editor: Gaye McWade
Editorial and design assistant: Laura Zugzda
Subscriber services: Robbin Jellison
PRODUCTION NOTES
Before & After is totally desktop-published
with Aldus PageMaker 4.0 and FreeHand
2.02; every element on its pages can be built
using the most basic equipment upon which
the software will run. Youll be interested to
know that to prepare this issue we created
350 individual graphics documents (really)
which occupy 110 megabytes of disk space.
Our hardware: Apple Macintosh IIfx and IIx
computers with 8mb RAM, 13" Apple RGB
monitor with 8-24 GC video card; SuperMac
19" RGB monitor; MicroNet 644mb hard disk
and NuPort card; MicroNet 45mb hard disks
with removable Syquest cartridges (for transfer and backup). Laser printer: QMS PS800II.
B&W scanner: Agfa Focus II. For color proofing: QMS ColorScript 100. Plate-ready lm:
Linotronic 300 (RIP 4), 2540 dpi (usually),
150-line screen. Our service bureau is Lithographics in Sacramento. Before & After is
printed in Sacramento by W. W. Hobbs on a
manually adjusted Harris four-color press.
Colors are kiss-t (no traps).

ABOUT THE PUBLISHER

John McWade is the founder and voice of
Before & After, and its chief designer and
writer. Mr. McWade has been an awardwinning publication designer for 21 years.
He founded PageLab, the worlds rst desktop publishing
studio, in March 1985 and has since written and lectured exhaustively on this new industry. Clients include
Apple, Adobe and Aldus, for whom he created two Portfolio template packages. He often answers his own phone
because hed just as soon chat with readers as work.