If you want to make a fab
poster background like this and
you want to make it flexible,
so you could change it in just
moments. You're in the right
place. And that would be here,
in the
Work Smarter Not Harder Dojo
with me Tony harmer
AKA The Design Ninja
Alright, so here we are in
InDesign and I've got a new A3
document here, although your
document size doesn't really
matter, Whatever works for you.
Just modify the settings that I
use to meet your own needs.
Alright, so what I'm going to do
first of all here in my layers
panel is rename this layer to BG
just here for background. Then
I'm going to Tap M to get the
Rectangle Shape Tool. I'm going
to move up
to the top left hand
corner here and
then click and drag down to the
bottom right so that I'm
filling the entire area with
that shape. Now the default in
InDesign is no fill and a black
stroke. I'm going to swap those
over by holding down the SHIFT
key and tapping X to swap the
fill and stroke over. I'll then
go ahead and change the color
here. I think nice bright
magenta is going to work
very well for this, and then
I'll lock that layer.
Next I'll go ahead and add a
new layer and I'll rename this
layer headline like so and for
the purpose of visibility
because we're working on
magenta. I'll change the layer
color here to Green so we can
all see what I'm doing.
Next I'll tap T to get my Type
Tool and drag a frame across
like so. Zoom in on that just a
little bit, so it's easier for
you to see and actually I can
close the layers panel to. So
I'm going to go ahead and just
type here virtual reality,
like so and then with my cursor
in that text, I'm going to
create a new paragraph style.
Now in more recent versions
you can do this in the
properties panel on the right
hand side here. But if you're
using the control strip in an
older version, then you'll need
to use the paragraph controls
at the top here.
So to get this started what I'm
going to do is come across to
the plus icon here and click
for a new paragraph style. I'll
call this one headline. Like so
and hit return to apply that
and then I'll go down to this
small icon. This is actually
called a Pilcrow and i'll click
on that and access the style
options. So I can confirm here
that I'm in that style and it's
based on no paragraph style,
which is ideal. That's exactly
what you want. You don't want
to base it on basic paragraph
because if it goes to a
different machine and the basic
paragraph definition is
different, it could throw out
your entire design. Now just
having a quick check as well
that preview is on so we can
see what we're doing. We can go
ahead and get working on the
basic character formats. Now,
I've got a font in mind here
which is called bungee, but you
can use whatever you need to do
yours, and I'm going to change
the size here. Let's go bring
this up. So all I've done done
here is clicked in this field.
I'm holding down the SHIFT key
and using my UP ARROW until I
get pretty close. I think
that's not too far off there.
And now I've gone too far. So
I'll use just my DOWN ARROW
with no key held down to change
that size.
And I think that's pretty good
at 78 points just there. I
don't need to worry about the
leading or interlinear space
here because this is just going
to be a single line. And if
you're using a font that has
upper and lower case characters
and you want them all to be
upper case. You could always
change that here to all caps.
Okay, let's move on to the next
things that we need to work
with here. We can go to indents
and spacing I'm going to set
this to Center aligned like so,
and then I'm going to come down
here to character color. So
I've got two boxes the one on
top at the moment is the fill,
and the one underneath is the
stroke. I'm actually going to
turn the fill off for this one
then click on the stroke and
i'll make that black and I
think i'll increase the weight
here to two points. Of course,
you mix as you want for your
particular poster. Okay, that's
good. That's pretty much the
way i want it. No other
changes to make just here so
I'll hit OK, and that style
is applied. Now I am
going to drag across all of the
characters here, you don't need
to do that when you're doing a
paragraph style but a character
style you do. So I'm going to
click now on character styles
just here. If you're using the
control strip, then you can use
COMMAND or CONTROL, OPTION
7 to switch between those
two things, to get to the
character options like so. But
here in the properties panel,
it's just a click between
those two. So add a new
character style here and I'll
call this one solid fill, there
like so and hit return to apply
it and then once more go down
to the icon underneath and
choose style options. Just
checking that solid feel is on
just here, i'm going to turn on
preview so I can see it based
on, none is all good. I'll go
to character color here, and
what i'm going to do is just
with the fill, I'm going to
choose paper. They're like, so
although you could choose any
other color, of course. This is
just an override to the
paragraph style and you'll see
why i'm using that in a Moment.
So i'll hit Ok, that's all
set. And now what I'm going to
do is just remove that
character style or a moment. So
I'll just go to none here like
that. Okay, go back to the
Selection Tool here and now
what we can do is go ahead and
use the icon to fit the frame
to the content. Now, if you're
not seeing the control strip
and you're not seeing the
option available in the
properties panel. You can also
find that in the object menu as
well. You can go for fitting
just here and fit frame to
content, there like so,
perfect. I'm going to zoom out
so I can see the whole
document. So COMMAND 0 ,just
there like so, and I'm going to
drag this down to the bottom of
the margins just here. Now I've
got one final step to do before
we start making the main part
of the poster and that's to
turn this text
into a text variable.
To create the text variable.
I'm going to go up to the type
menu come down to text
variables and choose define and
from the list on the right hand
side, i'm going to choose new.
And from the type we'll do
custom text. we'll give it the
name 'my heading' just here like
so.
alright, you can call it
whatever you want it really
doesn't matter in there as long
as you can find it. And then in
the text field underneath I'm
going to type Virtual
Reality, there like so. All
done and hit OK, you can then
tap done on the text variables
panel.
Go ahead now and double click
on the text at the bottom here
and then click 1,2,3 times to
select that whole line.
Go up to the type menu, come
down to text variables and
choose insert variable 'My
Heading'. Now just so you know,
you can also do that with a
right click. You'll find insert
variable is available just
there and we'll use that in
just a little while. I'm just
goint to tap escape to make that
go away. Alright, now I'm going
to tap ESCAPE again to leave
this particular text frame and
then I'm going to go up to
the edit menu and choose Step
and Repeat. So from here, what
we're going to do is change the
number of copies. Now, I'm
going to create something crazy
here. So I'm going to go for
maybe 42 copies. Okay, and
I'll turn on preview.
And it's just telling me that
it can't go beyond the bounds
of the pasteboard, so i'll
start smaller with 10 copies,
there like so and turn on
preview and I should start to
see copies. Now at the moment
they are copying horizontally
as well, so I'll just clear
that and enter 0 in there.
So just type 0 then come
across to the vertical field
here and now we can just
change the interval. So change
that to whatever, you want
okay. So I'm for example,
going to make this maybe
-9 or 10,
I think you can
model that as you want. Then go
up to the count field and start
to increment that. You can do it
quicker by holding down the
SHIFT key and you'll see it
will jump up there in units of
5 and when you get close to the
top or you go too far, as I've
done, you can just step that off
just using the UP and DOWN
Arrow Keys, as desired. Once
you're happy with that hit OK
and you will have created a
whole bunch of copies of the
original. Select the one on the
top which should be pretty easy,
go to your character styles and
from there choose solid fill.
So now you'll see you've got
that whole solid fill on the
top and all of the lined copies
underneath. You can now use the
select all command, so that's
COMMAND A or CONTROL A on
Windows and group these
together COMMAND G or CONTROL G.
Now, what we're going to do is
fade these out as they go down.
And to do that we're going to
use the Gradient Feather Tool,
which you can access using the
shortcut SHIFT G. Once you've
got that, go up towards the top
here, so I'm going to go just
underneath the first copy
from the top and drag
downwards. I'm going to hold
down SHIFT so that I can strain
the angle. I'll go just beyond
the bottom just a little bit
and then release and now you
can see this is gradated
nicely. If you want to edit
that you can go to the control
strip or to the properties
panel and look for the FX icon.
On the control strip you'd
have to click and choose that
option just there in the
list. In the properties panel
you can simply click on
Gradient Feather there as a
link and this is where you can
change your gradient. So I'm
going to change the blend point
just here and step that off a
little bit. If you turn preview
on you can actually see what
you're doing. There you go and
you can see the effect that
that has. You can change that if
you want if you want to do
something crazy like go radial
on it then go ahead and do that
and you change the location of
that as well, to blend that out.
So whichever you like, but I'll
change one back to linear just
here, just settle that blend
like so and hit OK.
Alright, so now what we can do
is we can make a modification
and we actually don't even need
to select that type. We can
simply go to the type menu, come
down to text variables and
choose Define. Then if we go
ahead and go to our heading
here, we can tap edit and then
change that, so I'm going to
change this for Gradual Reality
like so and hit OK. Now that's
changed that quite a bit and
actually there's not that much
of a gap just there. So what
I'm going to do is tap done. I
can then go to my paragraph
styles, of course, if I go
ahead and double-click to
select any piece of text in
there and just clicking it. Go
to paragraph styles, headline
and then change that with style
options. I could go ahead and
modify the size here. So I'm
going to bring that down a bit
in size, like so and then I'm
going to increase the tracking,
so I've got a bit more gap
between the text. But you can
model whatever you want to
change in there, especially if
you're new text doesn't fit. And
there you are, that's how you
can create a quick, interesting
background like that using text
variables and paragraph and
character styles in moments.
There we are, That's it for
now. I'll see you next time
here in the
Work Smarter Not Harder Dojo.
See ya.
