January 2024
Project brief
Students will design a whitepaper using Indesign for the online downloadable publication asset. This project emphasizes utilizing grids and page sequencing to enhance the reading experience for readers.
Utilizing Wikipedia’s definition of a whitepaper as a guide, I was tasked with creating a whitepaper of my own in Typographic Language, Writing, and Reading, which I took the spring of my sophomore year. I began the project by establishing a visual theme to guide my design approach. I then used this information to guide the grid, content structure, and visual aesthetic of my piece, which I created using InDesign. Reflecting on the outcome of my efforts, I realized I could have improved the piece by adhering more closely to a grid and refining the hierarchy of the content. Therefore, over a school break, I redesigned my whitepaper, which resulted in a stronger, more polished piece. This process taught me the importance of a well-defined hierarchy of visual components, especially when managing large amounts of information, and ensuring individual elements work together as a cohesive whole.
Below is a gallery of my project deliverables. Please read more about my process here.
One major thing I took away from this project had to do with my design process. I learned that I need to design the layout of the information before including any aesthetics such as images to the design. Although those parts are important, having the information in a way that’s easy to read and visually interesting comes before any of the aesthetics included. Any spacing issues stemmed from this, so it’s certainly something I’ll remember to start with for the next project.
Siena Rohrbach 