Magazine Design Training Course with InDesign

Last week saw a return to an old client – the department of life sciences at the University of Nottingham to deliver a two day training course using InDesign to create and layout magazines. As part of their course the MSc students on the Biological Photograpy and Imagine Course put together a magazine /book containing their work over the past year. This includes interviews, articles and, of course photography – which is where I come in to show them how to work with the InDesign software.

This particular InDesign Course has evolved over the years and today the students learn not only how to use InDesign but also how to build their magazine from scratch incorporating a brand (which they create during the two days), a typographical style and image placement among other things.

Steve Galloway - Life Sciences Photographer & Educator
Steve introducing the business side of the course explaining the practicalities behind magazine design. At this precise moment he is discussing ‘real estate’ advertorials on the page. He also explains the processes behind the design including budgets, the importance of gathering all design assets in good time and getting a firm structure in place.
InDesign Software Training

This part of the InDesign course takes two days. I work closely with the students and on day one we look at functions in the software which mainly takes the form of demonstration and hands on exercises covering:

These are:

  • Master Pages for Accurate Layout and Placement of Type & Images
  • The Adobe Typekit so students can select an appropriate typeface
  • Styles to establish consistent type throughout the magazine
  • Colour Sampling & use of Pantone colours
InDesign Students
On day two the students work in small groups of three working together to put a magazine together using all the software features covered on the previous day.
They also had time to work on their own magazines with guidance from me
And finally a tweet
from @photobyparallax, David McMahon shared on my Twitter feed @dtptraining
InDesign Course Testimonial

hank you for the two wonderful days training you did with the students. They learnt a lot and they really could not praise you enough.

David McMahon, Director of Photography & Imaging

Biological Photography & Imaging MSc & BSc, University of Nottingham

The Biological Photography & Imaging course runs at the University of Nottingham and for anyone interested in the course you can find out more at Biological Photography – Uni of Notts