On the Job: Brief Overview of My Handout Design Process

I'm not going to lie, I have a huge learning curve when it comes to graphic design. Not only did I barely get a formal education, but a lot of my workflows and processes took time to develop. And that entailed some heavy paid training, some online tutorials, and a lot of trial and error.

Still, when I conduct any graphic design or design project in general, the focus is always on branding. I want something to feel as balanced as it looks, and sometimes an initial sketch that seems balanced on paper, doesn't really translate in the actual design.

1. Developing the Mood Board

The design brief was simple. Make a handout with a circular focus and bullet points. Super easy to work off of right?

Nope. So to get a better idea of the direction to go in the design, I started off my process with Google. I did a typical search and looked around for handout designs that caught my eye and felt right. I assemble them into one big picture, and I call that my mood board.

Something similar to this below:

(Note: for copyright reasons I am giving you a example from something else that I can use)

2. Setting Up the Grid

So after some solidifying of the vision. I can start to build a grid to layout my design on.

I like to use Adobe Illustrator for this kind of job because it allows me the flexibility to create icons if I need to (more into that later).

So I made a project, drew the grid out on it's own layer, and now I can finally print out this grid and start to figure out what I'm going to do on paper.

3. Sketching the Layout

With my grid printed out on a piece of letter paper, I start using a non-photo blue pencil to draw out some ideas.

What is a non-photo blue pencil you ask?

Well its a pencil that when used on paper, the markings won't show up on a digital scanner. Awesome!

So I drafted my design in non-photo blue, outlined some stronger ideas in a brush marker, scribbled out some layout/shading thoughts, and then scanned that document onto my computer.

It ended up looking like this (right):

4. Develop the Base of the Design and Shade

Next, I place that document (jpg) into my Illustrator document, align it with my grid, and then build the base of my design right from my sketch.

I try to work this way as it minimizes some layout and sizing issues I may run into just building it from a blank canvas.

Also, I just really love workflows that force the designer to think through an idea more solidly. Because in my experience, if you don't force it, a designer will cut corners.

Typically.

So to practice what I preach, I do exactly what I encourage others to do.

The base of the design with accompanied shading it placed where I like it. So now I can add a new layer and add the icons and text.

5. Add the Text and Make Final Adjustments

So last but not least, I add the body text to my design. Since a lot of the layout and sizing decisions where done ahead of time, usually this step goes fairly quickly.

However, in this case I had to build some icons. Some I already designed in the past, or some we licensed and use in our work.

So those were built, saved, and placed in my document.

In no time I had a finished design that I was relatively happy with.

Time to prep it for review.

6. Generate a Mock-up

So after searching the internet for a license-free handout mock-up document. I placed my final design in the template, make some background adjustments, and now we are ready to send this for review! Finally!

So here's a question I'm guess some of you may have. Why bother taking the extra time to do a mock-up?

I do this for a couple of reasons. The main one being I think it looks super professional. Any designer that I admired had a process that included mock-ups. I wanted to learn how to do it, but I don't have the time necessarily. (Or that time could be used in other places). So I stumbled upon the concept of finding some free/paid for mock-up templates, and that is where this whole thing found its way into my workflow.

Another reason is I've seen other design firms that have massive clientele do this. I decided then that they must have major clients for a reason, and one of them is their ability to have the client see the design is as close to physical form as possible before print. A mock-up is the best way to do that without spending money printing them out.

Conclusion

There you have it! My deconstructed workflow.

If you have any questions or would like to inquire about design, feel free to reach out to me using one of my forms and I would love to chat!

That's all folks!

Final Design Below.