I remember the first time I used Adobe InDesign professionally. I was fresh out of college, and I had already determined that Adobe Photoshop would be my go-to program. It is the most well-known program of the Adobe suite, and you can do the coolest  things….except typesetting; it doesn’t handle that too well. At the start of formal training for my first job at the Longview News-Journal, I was disappointed to learn that Adobe InDesign was to be the primary program we’d use. However, by the end of the week, Photoshop had a new rival. 

Learning your way around a good desktop publishing software and developing solid typesetting skills are some of the most important things any graphic designer can do. I was glad that I had accumulated that experience at my first job, because I put it to use when I was asked to create this 14”x14” mailer. 

Network Communications is a locally-owned and operated telecommunications provider, and at the time, they were looking to grow their consumer base by creating a greater awareness of their services. They had a large amount of information that they wanted to convey, but they didn’t want it to appear so. My task was to present that data in an attractive and creative way that was easily digestible.

After discussing the specifics with their leadership team, I gathered enough information to begin developing a design which would suit their needs. They wanted people to know that their service was fast, particularly in rural areas where people weren’t accustomed to high internet speeds. The also wanted to communicate that their technology was modern and accessing their services was simple. 

After gathering the word documents containing the information they wanted to include, I decided which sets of text were most important so that their respective levels of importance would be appropriately conveyed by their font color, font size and placement within the context of the mailer. I utilized a somewhat unrelated illustration of a speedometer to express the speed of their services and created some simple graphics to mimic fiber optic cables. 

In the end Network Communications was so pleased that they came back to me for another mailer design for their sister company, Mobinet Solutions.