MODULE 4: EXERCISE 4.1 STUDIO TUTORIAL VIDEOS

 

EXERCISE 4.1 TEXT AS IMAGE POSTER: INTRODUCTION

Text As Image Poster - Exercise 4.1 rules:

Only use a single font from the following options: Helvetica, Avenir, Futura, Franklin Gothic, Garamond or Arial, only if none of the other fonts are available. You may use any styles, such as bold, italic, heavy, condensed, light etc, of whichever of the above font you choose.

Use 4 colors total - Black, White, and 2 other colors of your choice, with no gradients.

The final Text As Image Poster cannot contain any other shapes, graphics or images (except for those constructed by letterforms or negative space).

STEP 1: SETTING UP DOCUMENT

Your Text Image Poster will be in the proportion of 11 x 17 (Tabloid Size) - it can either be Portrait (more traditional for text-based posters) or Landscape. To start, you can set it to 1100 x 1700 pixels, or, instead, 11 x 17 inches.

STEP 2: BASIC TEXT TOOLS

What’s Covered in this Tutorial Video:

  1. Basic text tools

  2. Inputting and entering text

  3. Changing text properties - font, style, size + color

  4. Transforming text - scale, position + rotation

STEP 3: AREA TYPE AND TYPE ON A PATH

What’s Covered in this Tutorial Video:

  1. Area type tool - basic box and polygonal + circular shapes

  2. Changing paragraph properties - justification, line height

  3. Text along a path

Step 4: Building complex shapes with letterforms

IMPORTANT NOTE - READ BEFORE CONTINUING THE PROJECT + VIDEOS

This step used to be a separate project. We decided to combine in order to save you setup time, but also because it actually works better as part of a larger artwork and these two projects were always very related. At this point in the process, be sure to save your work. You could make a new document just to test out these processes, then copy and paste the final complex forms into your Text as Image poster.

In the videos below, I might talk about selecting a different word than the one you used in the previous exercise, or I might talk about this being its own project - just remember this is no longer the case. This is now simply a part of the Text As Image poster that you will submit.

What’s Covered in This Video:

  1. Pathfinding processes on letter-forms

  2. Using the direct selection tool to further distort, transform and edit complex shapes

Reminder: Text As Image Poster must contain at least 2 distinct complex shapes built out of letter-forms

STEP 5: PROJECT EXAMPLE + EXPORTING

  • Export Settings Using CC versions: File > Export > Export As: JPG file format, Check "Use Artboards", Color Mode: RGB, Quality 10 (Maximum), Compression Method: Use Default Setting, Resolution: Screen 72 ppi

  • Export Settings Using CS6 or lower versions: File > Save for Web: JPG file format, Quality 100% / Maximum, Compression: Use Default Setting, Check "Clip to Artboard", hit "Save" not just "Done" in bottom right

Also, a few reminders of your options with this video format:

  1. Pop out of Canvas and watch in a new tab if any of the features aren't working

  2. There are fullscreen and CC (Sub-title) options available in the right hand corner. For being YouTube auto-captions, these are pretty clear. I think they must have improved their algorithm. Please email me with any accessibility needs.

  3. If you are feeling pressed for time, but don't want to miss anything, you can watch with audio in 1.5 speed by hitting that little gear icon.