Designing Amazing Newsletters and Magazines

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Designing newsletters, magazines and books for print and digital.

I am a photographer first and always and have been for 40+ years.

I started out as a wedding photographer back in the early 70’s but found out I had curiosity and ability to photograph many things on planet earth.

I have a library of images that I have taken on landscape, wildlife and close-up macro photo’s that I think are very good.

Through wedding photography, I learned people skills. My dad had this skill also so have much to thank him for. Photography also taught me how to look at the world in very creative ways.

Later in life I turned my creative bent to the graphic design world. I went back to college and received a graphic arts degree. Soon after starting school I learned many of the same basic artistic skills I learned in photography would help me in BIG ways in the area of graphics. They are so related like kissing cousins so to speak.

While still in school, one of the first projects I started working on was a newsletter for a prison ministry that was called “Inside Out” and was sponsored by Central Christian Church in Mesa, Arizona.

The program I use to design the newsletter was on a program by Adobe called InDesign. Adobe is also the maker of Photoshop, Illustrator, Premier Pro and many other visual programs for professional designers and photographers.

Designing Amazing Newsletters and Magazines

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InDesign is an amazing program that lets you design multiple page layouts that are used on books, magazines and newsletters for print but also can now be turned into a eBook.

It can be a complicated program if used to its full potential. I belong to a local InDesign user group in the Phoenix area that meets every other month to help keep professional designers up-to-date on the new features Adobe is always adding to its program.

I not only did the layout of the newsletter but I also designed its logo that sits at the top of first page but I made the graphics that you will find through out every page.

I was able to experiment with many types of font usage and “call outs” and tried to improve each issue over the years.

Our newsletter staff produced 20 issues over a 5-year period.

I do miss the editorial staff that helped me collaborate on this by-monthly project.

We did it all!

From article idea’s to the writing of these article’s to the layout and finally of the printing and mailing of the finished newsletter to individual prisoners.

Thank you to Kim, Nancy and Rosie whom made this project possible on every issue. I try and stay in touch with them on a regular basis.  

Designing Amazing Newsletters and Magazines