Find inspiration for your next publishing project with our pick of the most jaw-droppingly gorgeous cookery books out there…

1. Fäviken 

Swedish chef Magnus Nilsson shares some of the recipes that make his restaurant Fäviken Magasinet world-famous, and presents it in a wonderful ‘Skandi-chic’ format.

A simple, vintage-inspired fabric hardcover is adorned with quaint illustrations and minimal text. Inside, the layouts are traditional but unfailingly stylish, with photographs and type framed by putty-coloured borders and backgrounds.

More vintage-influenced book design.

Design: Phaidon Press

2. Classic Cookbooks by Juniper Books 

A well-judged spine design can really give the ‘wow’ factor to a cookbook, transforming them into decorative items you’ll cherish forever on your kitchen shelf.

These stunning cover designs from Juniper Books extends the spine theme across a series of cookbooks to create cookbooks that are as unique as they are beautiful.

Design: Juniper Books

3. Vefa’s Kitchen 

A contemporary book with a distinctively old-fashioned feel, Vefa’s Kitchen brings Greek chef Vefa Alexiadou’s extensive knowledge about authentic Greek cooking to a new audience.

The art-inspired cover is matched by equally pretty pages inside, which display Vefa’s lovingly prepared dishes via rustic photography with a homely feel.

Design: Phaidon Press

4. Book Design by Hieu Nguyen 

Australian-based art director Hieu Nguyen has a tried-and-tested approach to cookbook design that’s always accessible, on-trend and relevant.

His role as Creative Director for ACP Magazine’s book division has allowed him to foster a strong brand look for their cookbooks, which marries grungy type styles with rustic food photography.

Discover some equally awesome fonts to use in your print designs.

Design: Hieu Nguyen

5. Mexico: The Cookbook  

No doubt a future modern classic, Mexico: The Cookbook has a strikingly modern, funky cover that breaks the usual ‘rustic-is-best’ rule of contemporary cookbook design.

Inside, the layouts are just as vibrant, combining colourful, silhouetted graphics with street-style photography and collage-inspired typography.

Read our tutorial on how to use colour and swatch combinations effectively in your designs.

Design: Phaidon Press

Have these cookbook designs got you fired up for creating your own gourmet graphics and tastebud-tingling typography?

Find more inspiration for book design and discover the best mazing fonts for book covers. Develop your book design skills with our introduction to creating books in InDesign.

The post Cookbook Design Inspiration appeared first on InDesignSkills.

Here, discover 12 of the very best architecture portfolios for your inspiration, as well as a handy InDesign template kit to help you create a stylish portfolio in a fraction of the time. 

When it comes to print or web format, traditional print is still the industry-standard, but more architects are showcasing digital portfolios that allow them to connect with viewers instantly and incorporate interactive content such as video and UX elements. 

Scroll down for our edit of the best architect portfolios, from artfully minimal styles to unique and design-forward layouts that linger in the memory.

Print Portfolios

Printed portfolios, consisting of a series of simple sheets or bound into a book, are still a standard portfolio format for architecture students and interviewees. Established studios also often produce their own printed portfolios, which can be used as a client brochure…or simply as a treasured keepsake. Below, discover inspirational examples of printed portfolios that feature a range of layouts and styles. 

1. Angélica María Ruiz Forero

An architect from Bogotá, Colombia, Angélica María Ruiz Forero uses illustration to create immersive, beautifully presented visuals of her projects. Allowing detailed plans to fill whole spreads, and with a quirky embossed cover, this portfolio design balances architectural imagery with an illustrative approach.

2. Lilla Turi

Budapest-based illustrator Lilla Turi lends her colorful and atmospheric style to this portfolio magazine for a Motion Center Design in Budapest, designed by architect Akos Onodi Szabo.

Architecture portfolios are often lacking in color, with minimal neutral tones favoured instead. This portfolio design shows how colour can give life to illustrated visuals. Paired with minimally-presented plans and diagrams, it’s the perfect balancing act.

3. Architecture Template Kit: InDesignSkills

InDesignSkills’ new Architecture Template Kit contains a complete range of Adobe InDesign templates for architects and architecture students. 

Created by our team of in-house designers in consultation with architectural practices, the kit includes two portfolio template options, for comprehensive portfolios or condensed versions for attaching to emails. 

The layouts have a versatile and stylish design, allowing you to easily incorporate your own images and text. Take a look at the portfolio previews below, and find more details here.

4. Spasoje Radomilovic

A graphic approach in this architecture portfolio combines impactful typography and a stark black and white palette. This portfolio, which belongs to Spasoje Radomilovic, an architect based in Frankfurt, Germany, also uses a range of image types, from photography to isometric plans, to create a strong narrative throughout each project.

5. Rebecca Gaffiero

Soothing colour accents of buff, grey and khaki provide the earthy backdrop to the work of Rebecca Gaffiero, an interior and product designer from Malta. The warm tones of the 3D renders are echoed in the soft, rounded typography and carefully-considered diagrams. 

Rebecca’s layouts are often divided into three, with each element—whether photograph, render or plan—combining to create a complete account of the project. 

6. Ruxin Xie

While dark backgrounds might not be the obvious choice for portfolio layouts, this contrasting portfolio design from Ruxin Xie might persuade you to move to the dark side. 

Monochrome pages in subtle shades of olive and grey are followed by dark spreads, which feature chalk-white plans for dramatic impact. A visually interesting way to present plan-heavy portfolios.

7. Handoyo Lawiguna

Presented as a keepsake mini-book, the architecture portfolio of Handoyo Lawiguna is quietly beautiful. Pairing building visuals in a flat illustrated style with Swiss-inspired typography, the result is a portfolio that’s sure to be treasured for years to come.

8. Giovanni Franzini

Architectural photographer Giovanni Franzini uses rounded image frames and selective pops of colour to complement his elegant images of facades and architectural details. Serif typography adds to the refined and sophisticated style of the layouts, while a warm pink backdrop makes a refreshing alternative to paper white.

Portfolio Websites

The advantage of portfolio websites is that they can be instantly accessed with the click of a link. Convenient for sending over email, digital portfolios also have the capacity to have more interactivity, such as videos, animated illustrations or user-friendly hover effects. The portfolio websites below demonstrate how beautifully projects can be presented on-screen.

9. Kanstantsin Remez

Cool, calm and collected would be suitable adjectives to describe the online portfolio of Kanstantsin Remez, an architect and interior designer living in Minsk. Full-colour portrait photography sits alongside ultra-minimal webfonts on expansive layouts. This portfolio site is an artful exercise in less-is-more.

10. Norm Architects

With a website created by UX designer Denis Stekhin, Norm Architects are an established practice with a wide range of projects. In the case of numerous projects, online portfolios can help to create a sense of order and calm, categorising related projects together and allocating multiple images to each scrollable page. 

Despite its overall minimal appearance, the website design uses layered photos and different image dimensions to create visual interest. The occasional pop of bold orange, which highlights key statistics and dimensions, adds extra creative flair to portfolio pages. 

11. Saunders Architecture

The full-screen photography used on the website of Saunders Architecture helps to immerse the viewer completely in the Canadian Studio’s often nature-focussed projects. Dark-toned images emphasise the cosiness of cabin-inspired designs, while light backgrounds on project pages help to give an airy and expansive feel to photography shot in daylight hours.  

The website was created by digital designer Kirill Dubrovsky.

12. Kevin Krautgartner

A typographic approach is taken by UI/UX designer Karina Opanasyuk for the website of award-winning architecture and landscape photographer Kevin Krautgartner. Kevin’s photographs often focus on the intricate textures and colours of landscapes and buildings, with the black-and-white palette chosen for the website allowing the images to shine. Scrollable pages are filled with two columns of images, varying in size to bring interest to the layout.

Present and Brand Beautifully with the Architecture Template Kit for Adobe InDesign

InDesignSkills’ new Architecture Template Kit contains a complete range of InDesign templates for architects, practices and architecture students.

Included in the Architecture Template Kit are 4 presentation boards, full portfolio with 40 pro-designed pages, introductory portfolio template, 5 business card templates and 4 letterhead options for Adobe InDesign, sized to a wide range of US, European, UK and Australian standard sizes.

The post The Best Architecture Portfolios: 12 Examples to Inspire appeared first on InDesignSkills.

These are the styles which we think you’ll see everywhere across print and web design, so it pays to get ahead and tap into these trends while you can.

From the welcome return of serif fonts to rich blue palettes, these are the trends we’re tipping to be influential in 2019.

1. Circles

If you want an edgy, trend-forward look for your poster and flyer designs in 2019, the lesson for next year is to use circles as your starting point.

This simple shape looks fantastic paired with colored gradients, like in these poster designs for Trieste Estate Summer Festival by Studio Mut.

Be playful with splitting your circle designs and bringing in different colors and textures. In this cover design by Slanted Publishers, the designers team metallic foiling with inky black and photographic images to create a Seventies-inspired look.

2. Flexible Type Logos

2019 will see brands continue to demand more from their logo designs, mainly in response to digital platforms. Flexible type-based logos, in which letters can rotate and switch position, give brands more freedom with how a logo can be used.

Whether it’s creating an animated version or adapting to limited space on an app design, these flexible type logos are going to be big news next year because of the exciting options they present for brands.

2019 graphic design ‘flexible type’ trend examples: Look to the visual identities for Agora by Graphéine and 48North by Bloc Design for flexible logo inspiration.

3. 50 Shades of Blue

If there’s one colour that’s going to dominate graphic design in 2019 it’s blue. While any shade of blue, from pale sky to deep teal will hit the spot, it’s the very strong, rich shades of blue like cobalt and indigo which are going to look the most trend-forward.

Team with neons or metallics for beautiful contrast, or pair up with coral reds like in these brand designs for Tallinn Music Week by AKU, and poster designs for the 751 International Design Festival by Zhu Chao.

4. Pictogram Logos

Icon-based logos are nothing new, but in 2019 we’ll start to see more brands adopting pictogram-style logos which express a concept or theme more symbolically. These logos are designed to work in isolation from text, which means they have to be very strong visually.

Simple silhouettes are softened to create witty animal-based designs, like in these logo designs for Co. Means Coffee by Canape Agency and for NetEase Kaola by Plus X.

5. 1930s-Inspired Illustration

If you’re a fan of vintage design, you’ll love this 1930s-inspired trend for illustration. Inspired by Soviet-era and late Art Deco poster art, designers are starting to revisit the grainy gradients and strong, abstract shapes of this era of design.

Add extra noise to your illustrations to nail the look, and bring in richer, more modern color palettes to keep the designs feeling fresh.

These advertising illustrations by Mads Berg for Orangina and season identity for Le Cargö concert hall by Murmure show how gradients and noise textures combine to create beautiful graphics with a vintage edge.

2019 vintage design trend examples:

6. Curvy Serif Typefaces

Serifs are back, big time. After decades of sans serif dominance, serifs are starting to take back the limelight. The new incarnation of spot-on serif typefaces are curvier and more organic than traditional Didot and Garamond.

Look to Art Nouveau-inspired styles to tap into this 2019 trend. They work particularly beautifully for editorial design. This brand design for London-based photographer Agnes Lloyd-Platt by Seachange Studio and magazine design for Nido by Asís show how the new curvy serifs go hand-in-hand with gorgeous photography and pared-back color palettes.

7. Experimental Type

In line with the leaning towards all things maximalist, 2019 will be the year that designers continue to push the boundaries with typography. The lesson to take away is that anything goes. Good taste and/or legibility be damned.

Warp, stretch, distort and overlay your type, like in these poster designs for Nantes-based music campus Trempolino by Murmure, to tap into the trend.

8. Rainbow Gradients

Gradients have been a huge trend this year, and designers are still finding that multi-colored backgrounds and type looks fun and optimistic. in 2019 the trend takes on a retro spirit with a spectrum of rainbow colors. Be inspired by the rainbow iridescence of petrol to really nail this style.

For extra brownie points incorporate metallic print textures, like in this visual identity for Cadabra by byHAUS Studio.

9. Bauhaus Revisited

Germany is celebrating the 100-year anniversary of the founding of the world-famous Bauhaus school in 2019. While Berlin will be hosting a centenary event next year, graphic designers will also find fresh inspiration in the Bauhaus movement for their designs.

Look to primary color palettes, Brutalist-inspired styling and modernist fonts to give your layouts a Bauhaus-worthy look.

10. Margins Be Gone

Throw the grid rules you know out the window. Next year, experimental type (see Trend 7, above) goes hand-in-hand with a playful dismissal of margins.

Allow your type to overlap the trim edge, like in these business card designs for ArchitectsEAT by Hue Studio.

Or push your text to the very fringes of your poster layouts, like in these designs for Théâtre de Quat’Sous by Maxime David.

Hungry for more? Discover more graphic design inspiration here.

The post 2019 Graphic Design Trends You Need to Know appeared first on InDesignSkills.

These might once have been dull directories, but now designers are using the catalogue format to creative effect, enlivening layouts with artistic typography, zingy color and striking photography. Read on to find the inspiration for your next catalogue design…

1. Desigual Catalogue, Spring/Summer 2016

Colorful, fresh and completely in tune with fashion brand Desigual‘s youthful and joyful aesthetic, this catalogue design by Astrid Ortiz combines punchy background color with energetic photography for layouts that feel infectiously fun.

2. Sandro Desii Catalogue

Catering brands take note—food catalogues don’t need to be formulaic, they can be just as stylish as other product marketing media. This utterly minimal and chic take on a pasta salad catalogue by Spanish design agency Lo Siento shows the power of sticking with a strong and simple presentation style and color palette across all your pages.

3. Margaret Howell Catalogue

British fashion designer Margaret Howell‘s minimal, timeless style is translated to print by London-based agency Studio Small. The studio has collaborated with Howell for over ten years, and their print designs for the house’s seasonal look books are honed to perfection, with block color detailing, clean sans serif type and minimal product presentation. For fans of minimal catalogues, this is the perfect style to aspire to.

4. Saint Étienne Opera House Seasonal Programme

If you’re looking for inspiration for an events catalogue, you’ve come to the right place! This approachable, immersive design from French agency Graphéine shows how print media can create channels of communication between the arts programmer and potential new audiences. Zesty color, fun photography and quirky type keeps the design looking fresh and fun, and helps to give a feel for the experience of seeing the opera in person.

5. Shoe Guru Catalogue

Though admittedly designed for web, this striking presentation for Shoe Guru combining product shots with energetic dance photography would translate equally well to a print format. The diagonal dividers used to split the sections and create contrast between light and dark parts of the layout is a visual feast for the eyes, and would be simple to recreate on the pages of a print catalogue or look book.

6. Friend of Mine Catalogue

Minimal catalogue designs strip away clutter and help to showcase products in a clearer, simpler way. This is a great format for high fashion, where the products are often beautiful enough to command attention on their own without the distraction of busy type or color. This look book design by The Drop creative studio for fashion brand Friend of Mine is cool, sexy and effortless. We love the geometric graphics used to frame some of the photos.

Want more print design inspiration? Discover our edit of some of the best print ads, or drop-dead gorgeous stationery designs.

The post The Very Best Catalogue & Booklet Designs appeared first on InDesignSkills.

These traditionally printed designs will give you a taster of what can be achieved using ‘old-school’ print methods…

1. Pirrip Press Wedding Invitations

These silk screen printed designs from British designers Alexander Higlett and Georgina Hounsome of Pirrip Press demonstrate why screen printing is well overdue a popular revival. The beautifully crafted designs use only a limited palette of colors, but are incredibly impactful and romantic. Type styles inspired by 1940s and 1950s designs make each invitation feel like a much-treasured book cover.

Looking for more invitation inspiration? Our pick of modern wedding invites will get you inspired to create your own contemporary designs.

Design: Pirrip Press

 2. Galerie C Screen Printed Posters 

Swiss graphic design studio onlab creates these mesmerising posters for contemporary art gallery Galerie C each season. The digitally-created posters are overprinted with an image from the current season’s exhibition using a screen printing method. The result is ethereal, playing with conceal and reveal to create a multi-layered, complex image.

Design: olab for Galerie C

3. Print and Grain Stationery

If you’re looking to introduce more texture into your print designs, letterpress is a beautiful method for creating designs that have a tactile, vintage look and feel. These business card and invitation designs from Oregon-based print shop Print and Grain show the diversity of looks that can be achieved with letterpress, from true-to-vintage styles to bright and punchy modern designs.

Design: Print and Grain

4. Coco Rico Letterpress Designs

French print shop Coco Rico opt for the most traditional of printing methods, letterpress, to bring a unique and special quality to every invite, card or label they print. With an emphasis on modern styles with pin-sharp brand design, letterpress helps these already striking designs to feel even more luxurious.

Design: Coco Rico Letterpress

5. Ye Olde Studio Letterpress Designs

You know how a wine that’s older tends to taste better? Yup, sometimes in print design too the oldies are the goldies. These letterpress-style designs by Joe White of UK-based Ye Olde Studio don’t stray far from late 19th and early 20th century design styles.

Classic etching and cross-hatching add vintage detail to linocut-style illustrations. Keeping colors simple and striking makes sure the focus remains entirely on the wonderful detail of the designs across packaging, branding and cards.

Discover how vintage styles are enjoying a modern resurgence in graphic design, or why not delve into more fantastic stationery design inspiration?

Design: Ye Olde Studio

6. Equator Beer Branding

Design studio Equator were already experts in creating amazing brand and packaging design for food retailers, so it seemed only natural to create their own company-branded beer. The print method they chose for the task? Letterpress of course!

The unique impression letterpress imparts on the paper meant that the design didn’t even need to be embellished with color. It’s a great idea for creating an interactive product that people will want to pick up and touch.

If you can’t get enough of packaging design you won’t want to miss our curated selection of some of the most stylish wine bottle labels. Or get your creative juices flowing with our inspirational choice of beautiful food packaging designs.

Design: Equator Design

Explore even more fantastic designs on our Inspiration page or learn more about the print process by reading our quick-start guide to print finishes.

The post 30 Amazing Letterpress & Screen Printed Designs appeared first on InDesignSkills.

Be inspired by these beautiful, flora-adorned examples of packaging and print design…

1. Tealicious Branding

Designer Alfarez Juana created this botanical-inspired identity for Florence-based tea shop Tealicious. Teaming antique prints with slab text and a paper white backdrop allows the intricate illustrations to shine. We love how the style brings a delicate, old-world edge to sleek and modern packaging.

Love packaging design? So do we! These delectable food packaging designs will help to whet your appetite.

Design: Alvarez Juana for Tealicious

 2. Savon Stories Branding 

Mexican agency Menta created these pretty-as-a-picture packaging designs for organic soap brand Savon Stories. Hand-painted flowers and fruit help to emphasise the 100% certified organic nature of the products.

Teamed with sans serif typography with a subtly hand-drawn look, these designs are proof that beauty comes in artfully imperfect packages.

Design: Menta for Savon Stories

3. Save the Date Cards by Iaia Ioio Studio

What could be more romantic for wedding stationery than a generous dose of flora and fauna? These antique-inspired save the date cards let the images take center-stage, with minimal typography only serving to highlight the delicate beauty of the illustrations.

Design: Iaia Ioio Studio

4. Saxton Cider Packaging

New Zealand designer Bradley Rogerson used 18th Century botanical prints to create these bottle label and packaging designs for brewery McCashin’s latest product—a new range of apple and pear ciders.

These striking designs are a great example of how to make botanicals feel masculine and minimal—keep the illustrations strong and the colors muted.

Need more packaging inspo? Feast your eyes on our selection of the most stylish wine label designs.

Design: Bradley Rogerson for Saxton Cider

5. Brands in Full Bloom

Illustrator Daryl Feril brings an organic, home-spun look to well-known fashion brands for his series Brands in Full Bloom. The designs were drafted by hand, then edited digitally.

Design: Daryl Feril

6. Sweet Botanicals Packaging

Designer Miguel Yatco took a fresh approach to confectionary packaging for these hard candies by blending a classic illustrative style with zingy color.

Using illustrations by artist Natalia Tyulkina, these candies are individually wrapped in monochrome botanical prints, with beautifully color-coded labels revealing flavor.

Design: Miguel Yatco

7. Love Me, Possess Me

London-based designer Sidney Lim YX takes a closer look at the simple paper bag. Adorning the familiar brown paper with hand-drawn florals intertwining around ultra-modern sans serif type, these bags are designed to be treasured forever.

Design: Sidney Lim YX

Looking for even more inspiration? You’ve come to the right place! Visit our Inspiration page or lose yourself among some great examples of beautiful packaging design.

The post Inspiration: Botanical Print Design appeared first on InDesignSkills.

Luckily, we’ve put together five top tips for elevating your magazine designs and making sure they look as stylish as they are informative.

 1. Wrap Text Around Images in Unusual Ways

Feeling uninspired by the boxy limitations of a traditional text frame? Wrap text around images in unusual ways to create layouts that are less grid-like and more free-flowing. This is a great technique for better integrating photography with text to create a unified look.

Look for photos with plenty of white space to make this style work; and strong, simple outlines are easier to work with than complex or detailed ones.

Get to grips with the text wrap function in InDesign with this quick tutorial.

Design: Harper’s Bazaar US

 2. Take a Bird’s Eye View 

Make a drastic change to the angle of your photos for instant interest. Aerial shots are on-trend and utterly absorbing—they work particularly well for food and drinks titles, but travel and photo-journalism titles will also benefit from an aerial shot of a sweeping city view.

Aerial shots allow you to merge typography into the photo seamlessly—try filling those gaps with unusual headers and chunks of body text for an eclectic, creative style.

Design: Hieu Nguyen for Aww Food

See how the aerial trend is reaching new heights in the world of book cover design too.

Design: New York Times Magazine

Design: Caetano Calomino for Gloss Magazine

3. Go 3D (Psst! It’s easier than you think!)

Create multiple layers of text and images to build up a 3D look on your 2D layouts. Cut away the subject of a photo from the background and use this tried-and-tested layers formula to create a 3D look that jumps out of the page.

In InDesign, expand the Layers panel (Window > Layers) and create a series of layers in this order: Background of Photo, Text Behind, Subject of Photo, and, finally, Text in Front at the top of the pile. Splitting up your content in this way will help you to achieve the 3D look used in these Harper’s Bazaar UK layouts.

It’s a surprisingly simple technique to make your layouts appear instantly more vibrant and energetic. This tutorial shows you how to create a cool 3D look on your magazine designs using a simple frame and the Scissors Tool in InDesign.

Design: Harper’s Bazaar UK

4. Give Your Contents Page a Makeover

The cover might be the reason why someone initially picks your magazine off the shelf, but the contents page is the real anchor for the whole publication. The reader’s first port of call before they even get to articles and features, the contents page is an opportunity to create a style master for the rest of the magazine’s layouts, and it’s the perfect place to exercise some creativity too.

After all, nobody wants to read a long, dull list—introduce images, color, interesting typography and an unusual grid to give your contents page some life. You won’t regret spending the time perfecting this all-important spread.

Design: Matt Chase

Design: James Kape

Design: Aidan Stonehouse

5. Go Big or Go Home

The opening spread of an inside feature is crying out for big, bold typography. It makes a great pairing with dramatic photography, and choice of typeface and color can really set the mood for the whole feature.

Try an elegant sans serif like Didot for Vogue-esque appeal, or pick a rounded sans serif like in this example to make your layouts feel fun, childlike and bursting with energy.

Design: Matt Chase

Theme your typography around the subject of the article, and don’t be afraid to make it as bold, brash and loud as possible. It’s a sure-fire way to keep your readers engaged.

Design: Matt Chase

Design: Matt Chase

Discover even more pro tips for improving your magazine layouts in an instant, or teach yourself magazine design basics with our two-part magazine design tutorial.

The post Fresh Ideas for Improving Your Magazine Layouts appeared first on InDesignSkills.

These packaging designs for coffee, chocolate and groceries are works of art in themselves. Delve in and get inspired…

 1. Mast Brothers Chocolate by Mast Brothers 

The Mast Brothers have always had the most stylish and sophisticated packaging for their deluxe chocolate bars, but the recent update to their suite of chocolate wrappers, including new patterns and cleaner typography, takes the style-factor to new levels.

What makes this packaging so luxurious? Maintaining that matte, butcher-paper stock gives the chocolate an artisanal feel that combined with artistic patterns and uber-cool type makes the packaging even more desirable than the chocolate inside. Which is no mean feat!

Design: Mast Brothers

 2. Louis Charden by Backbone Branding 

This French-inspired brand identity for Armenian café and bakery, Louis Charden, is a lovely example of taking traditional styles (brown paper packaging, hand-written script logos) and making them feel instantly fresh and modern.

Bringing hand-drawn illustrations into the identity makes every packaging item unique and adds quirky charm to even the simplest brown paper bag.

Looking for even more packaging inspiration? Check out our pick of the most stylish wine label designs. 

Design: Backbone Branding for Louis Charden

 3. Loving Earth by Round

Australian agency Round were tasked with bringing organic chocolate brand Loving Earth to a wider audience, and help them to stand out in a sea of organic products.

The result? A complete packaging overhaul with an emphasis on zingy color combinations, flat-style illustration and strong, slab typography. We love how the packaging feels solid and chunky with a stronger paper stock.

Design: Round for Loving Earth

 4. Marmel by Diana Polar

Diana’s packaging designs for Marmel, a confectionery shop in France, are a positive feast of pattern and color. Copper-foil finishes add a luxurious and on-trend touch to candy-stripe patterns in shades of violet, lemon and black.

Perfect your typographic logos with our 10 great design tips.

Design: Diana Polar for Marmel

 5. Redesign for ASDA Basics Range by Beth Fox-Fuller 

This concept redesign for the basics range of British supermarket ASDA is a great lesson in simplicity. Stripping back color and distracting graphics from the labels and packaging allows the product itself to take center stage. A neutral color palette makes the food feel more luxurious and much less ‘basic’.

Design: Beth Fox-Fuller

Wanting even more design inspiration? Pay a visit to our Inspiration page to find the design that that will spark your next idea. 

The post Mouth-Watering Food Packaging appeared first on InDesignSkills.

These design-forward cover designs for classic stories bring out their themes and characters in completely unique ways…

1. Anna Bond In Bloom Cover Designs 

Anna Bond, lead designer of Rifle Paper Co, has lended her beautiful illustrative style to these redesigned covers for Puffin.

Bringing a contemporary floral look to much-loved titles including Little Women and Heidi, these covers are brought to life with punchy color combinations and gold metallic foiling.

Looking for more color inspiration for your designs? Discover our pick of the most stunning color combinations here.

Design: Anna Bond, Rifle Paper Co.

2. Manuja Waldia Covers for Pelican Shakespeare 

These digital-inspired covers are as modern as you can get. Flat-style line drawings rendered in bold brights highlight the strong symbolism of Shakespeare’s plays.

Replicate the look in your own designs with neon colors layered over stark black backgrounds, and keep your illustrations minimal and sparse.

Design: Manuja Waldia

3. Artist-Designed Covers for Penguin Essentials 

The Penguin Essentials series commissions a wide range of very different artists to redesign covers for vintage and modern classics. The aim is to introduce contemporary audiences to classic literary treasures, which may otherwise have been overlooked.

The result is a range of completely unique interpretations of the moods and themes of the novels, some with a pop art twist.

Design: Various Artists for Penguin Essentials

Wanting more? Browse more of our book cover inspiration, or brush up on your book design skills.

The post 12 Classic Covers Reimagined appeared first on InDesignSkills.

From monochrome stunners to die-cut beauties, prepare to get a serious case of invitation lust…

1. Celestial Starchart Invitations

These dreamlike invitations feature a vintage starchart on the reverse of the cards.

Designed by Colarado-based studio Ladyfingers Letterpress, these invites use the technique of blind debossing, where the design is printed without ink and leaves a deep impression on the paper.

Looking for more print design inspiration? Check out more inspiring card designs here.

Design: Ladyfingers Letterpress

2. Pale Blue and Gold Invitations

Designed by London-based designer Katie Szadziewska, these invitations are delicate and elegant, and the perfect example of the ‘wow’ effect well-set typography can bring to a design.

We particularly love the pale blue paired with gold foiling, and the lovely ampersand set in Caslon Italic.

Design: Katie Szadziewska

3. Monochrome Invitations

Monochrome is often underused on wedding invitations, in favor of pastels and metallics, but it really deserves more attention—these black and white invitations designed by Corina Nika (aka Cocorrina) prove how high-impact this simple color combination can be.

Discover more modern, high-impact color combinations for print design.

Design: Cocorrina

4. Black and Gold Invitations

With a very subtle nod to Art Deco design, these elegant black invitations with gold foiling are a perfect style for more formal weddings.

Take a tip from these designs and mix up classic serif typestyles with elegant scripts for a beautiful contrast.

Discover some of our favorite new free fonts for print design.

Design: Sandra Picco Design

5. Icelandic Invitations

These deep blue invitations with copper foiling were custom-designed by Lindsey of The Hunter Press for her own Icelandic wedding.

The attention to detail on these designs is breathtaking—a vintage-inspired letterpress map is enclosed within; and brown envelopes and leather ribbon make a lovely rustic contrast to the glamorous foiling.

Try out copper foiling, rather than silver or gold, for an invitation design that looks thoroughly modern and equal parts masculine and feminine.

Design: The Hunter Press

6. Die-Cut and Embossed Invitations

We had to come to a head with these amazingly unique invitations from Spanish print studio El Calotipo.

A series of die-cut circles are brought together into one compact swizel design. The embossed design is inspired by the engravings found on baroque lutes—a fitting tribute to the musician couple’s vocation.

Design: El Calotipo

Discover even more print design inspiration, or learn how to create your own documents for print in Adobe InDesign.

The post Modern Wedding Invitations Inspiration appeared first on InDesignSkills.

Breaking down these inspirational brochure, packaging and invitation designs, we’ve noticed they’re actually based on simple templates that you can easily recreate in InDesign. Read on to get inspired…

1. Omnom Chocolate Packaging 

Icelandic chocolate producers Omnom produce beautifully designed packaging for their sweet treats.

The design is based on a simple folded carton, with printed triangular edges that seals the fold and gives the design a mountain-inspired twist.

Like chocolate? Who doesn’t! Like wine too? Then check out these awesome wine bottle label designs.

Design: Omnom

2. Mitsuori Architects Business Cards 

Going hand-in-hand with a new brand identity for the architecture firm, Melbourne-based design studio Hunt & Co created these minimal yet marvellous business cards and stationery for staff.

Working with the fact that the firm’s name means ‘three folds’ in Japanese, the team set themselves the challenge of creating cards which prioritised a folded design. The result? A super simple design with a single 45-degree fold; a contemporary tribute to origami tradition.

Discover more beautiful business card designs.

Design: Hunt & Co for Mitsuori Architects

3. V&A and Me Maps 

Created by London agency johnson banks for the Victoria & Albert Museum, these intricately folded beauties open to reveal a personalized map of the museum put together by a celebrity figure, be it actress Judi Dench or designer Paul Smith.

The maps may look complicated, but the base template is a simple rectangular layout.

Design: johnson banks

4. Jefferson Cheng Wedding Invitations 

San Francisco-based designer Jefferson Cheng brings a whimsical touch to these origami-inspired wedding invitations.

Created as a folded envelope, containing multiple cards inside, the design is disarmingly simple and is made even more charming with Cheng’s romantically childlike illustrations.

Get inspired with more gorgeous greetings card designs.

Design: Jefferson Cheng

5. Maaemo Menus 

Norwegian design agency Bureau Bruneau put together these minimal folded menus for Oslo restaurant, Maaemo.

These menus are a great example of how folds don’t have to intricate to look fantastic. Staying true to a very Nordic aesthetic, the menus reveal an ice-blue interior when opened and prioritise minimal, functional type.

If you’re on the hunt for more foodie inspiration, check out more mouthwatering menu designs.

Design: Bureau Bruneau

6. Imperial War Museum Identity 

UK-based design consultancy hat-trick were tasked with giving the Imperial War Museum’s brand a face-lift in 2011.

The result? Designs built around fragmented block imagery, to emphasise how war fractures lives, were integrated across a range of media. Diagonally-folded brochures in color-block designs are a simple yet highly effective way of translating the brand imagery to print.

Design: hat-trick

7. Pocket Calendars by Studio Servaas

We love these quirky accordian-style pocket calendars by Studio Servaas.

Created with a diamond-based structure, and printed on one side with the dates and the other with vintage-inspired geometric patterns, these calendars show how folds can be fun!

Design: Studio Servaas

Hopefully these examples have shown you that folded designs don’t need to be complicated – sometimes the simplest designs work the best!

Learn how to create your own print design documents, ready for folding, with our selection of InDesign tutorials; or discover more inspiration for print design on our Inspiration page.

The post Designing for Folds Inspiration appeared first on InDesignSkills.

Check out our edit of the best and be inspired to create your own back-to-school stationery in InDesign…

1. Henten Stationery 

This oh-so-chic, autumnal colour combination used by designer Mikel Cans when he created stationery for Barcelona-based bag brand Henten really caught our eye here at InDesignSkills.

A preppy navy teamed with eye-popping mustard makes an elegant combination. Crisp white envelopes and simple, pared-back type set in upper-case letters make a calming contrast to the strong colours.

Read more about colour: Using Colour in Print Design

Design: Mikel Cans

2. Forest Design Week Identity 

Illustrative designs don’t always mean compromising on a strong, ‘graphic’ result. These beautiful envelopes, letterheads, cards and notebooks from Russian graphic designer Anastasia Kolesnikova for Forest Design Week are a fantastic example of how to make illustration and traditional floral patterns look modern and cutting-edge.

A strong logo rendered in black slab type modernises the vintage elements, like brown paper, wax seals and wallpaper patterns.

Read more about vintage styles: Modern Vintage Design Trend

Design: Anastasia Kolesnikova

3. A Panzer Corporate Stationery 

If you’re looking for stationery inspiration that would suit a more corporate brand, look to Münster-based studio Yagwyd’s designs for architectural firm A Panzer.

A simple, stamped logo and typewriter-style typography rendered on brown card and off-white paper gives the designs a subtly vintage feel.

Design: Yagwyd

4. Turnstyle Stationery 

Bringing the glamour back to corporate stationery, Seattle-based agency Turnstyle uses gold foil, elegant Art Deco-inspired type and geometric layouts on their own-brand business cards, letterheads, envelopes and journals.

A great lesson in how to use gold in a way that isn’t flashy or overbearing, but adds a pared-back luxurious touch to an otherwise formal corporate design.

Design: Turnstyle

5. Invitation Stationery for The Golden Camera 

Paperlux designed these simply stunning blue, white and gold stationery items for Die Goldene Kamera (an annual film and television awards event in Germany).

Thought has gone into every detail of the invitations—our favourite touch is the beautiful blue patterns inside the invitation envelopes.

Design: Paperlux

Have you got that back-to-school feeling yet? Get started with creating your own print designs with these InDesign tutorials; or find more inspiration for print design on our Inspiration page.

The post Stationery Design Inspiration appeared first on InDesignSkills.

Be inspired by the witty simplicity of these fantastic print ad designs, and be inspired to make your next advertising or marketing campaign a print-based one…

1. Save the Arctic by Mauro Gatti for Greenpeace

A simple, eye-catching design from illustrator Mauro Gatti shows how on-trend flat design can translate so well to print advertising.

The lesson to take here? Less is definitely more! Strip back text content to allow illustrated graphics to take centre-stage.

Design: Mauro Gatti

2. Stihl: Blower by Winsper for Stihl

Boston-based agency Winsper add a tongue-in-cheek outlook to the traditional print format; disturbing staid-looking articles with an efficient Stihl blower and trimmer.

This simple-to-achieve graphics effect gives the ads a unique and memorable design that integrates seamlessly with the newspaper medium.

Advertising Agency: Winsper; Creative Director: Steve Bautista

3. Noma Bar for IBM

Incredible graphic artist Noma Bar is treasured in the advertising world for one clear reason—his illustrations are super minimal and modern but still pack in a ton of humour and relevance. Just check out his series of print ads for IBM as an example…

Design: Noma Bar

4. Inhalt&Form for Black&Blaze

Developing further the new brand identity for coffee company Black&Blaze, Zurich-based agency Inhalt&Form created this superbly simple print ad.

Setting a strong image against a dark, moody background, and sticking to one clear and concise idea, gives this ad a well-deserved spot in our inspiration list.

Want to feel more confident working with images in your InDesign layouts? Check out our beginner’s guide to all things images here.

Design: Inhalt&Form

5. Hondamentalism by Wieden + Kennedy London

A modern classic of an ad campaign—Wieden + Kennedy London’s beautiful print artwork for Honda’s Hondamentalism campaign still looks just as fresh and outstanding as it did back in 2007.

Juxtaposing cropped photos with jaunty typography to create a modern collage effect, these ads demonstrate the simple power of a creative print layout.

The added bonus? These kinds of layouts are really easy to recreate using the tools immediately available to you in InDesign. Why not brush up on your print design skills with our tutorials today?

Design: Wieden + Kennedy London

We hope these examples have fired up your imagination and inspired you to have a go at designing your own creative layouts!

Develop your design skillset with some of our favourite tutorials: get started with creating your own book in InDesign and discover fantastic free fonts for print design. Or why not discover the inspiration for your next project here?

The post Beautiful Ads: Print Ads To Inspire appeared first on InDesignSkills.

The last few years have seen 2D designs go from strength to strength; and it’s showing no sign of slowing down. With no fancy 3D effects to hide behind, designers have to showcase beautiful, strong ideas. And boy, do they do it well…

1. Wilco Poster by Justin Froning

Flat design tends to give prints a lovely vintage-inspired look and feel.

Take as a prime example this gorgeous poster design for the band Wilco by owner of HouseBear Design, Justin Froning. Muted colours in blue, inky washes give a soft edge to the dramatic illustrative style of the poster, and 1950s-influenced fonts add to the nostalgic, children’s book quality of the design.

Design: Justin Froning

2. Book Covers by Oliver Munday

If you want to spend a few hours drooling over drop-dead-gorgeous book cover design, take a spin round Oliver’s website.

He works his magic making flat print design look contemporary and relevant, and is a master at fostering perfect harmony between flat graphics and classic typography.

Design: Oliver Munday

3. Brizz Branding

Australian designer Douglas Teo gives us a lesson in how to infuse flat design with energy using punchy colours and minimal layouts. All in all, a high-impact and hip brand identity for wi-fi company Brizz.

Design: Douglas Teo

4. Join the Hawks Poster by Lampson Yip

Flat design doesn’t necessarily need to look so…well…flat! Building up papery background textures, bold photography and flat text that appears to interact with the football players, this poster layout by designer Lampson Yip is a demonstration in creating a 3D impression from simple 2D elements.

Design: Lampson Yip, LYDP

5. Book Covers by Elena Giavaldi

Collage-inspired designs can tap into the flat design trend in a way that feels both nostalgic and current. Elena Giavaldi’s covers for Rebecca Mead’s books, My Life in Middlemarch and The Growing Good are a case in point. layering flat, vintage-inspired imagery and text makes the designs feel tactile and love-worn.

Try out the collage look to create print designs that have an old-world charm.

Design: Elena Giavaldi; Art Direction: Christopher Brand

Flat design is a beautiful print design style, and it’s also really simple to achieve!

Get started with creating your own stunning print designs with our free tutorials: learn how to create a book in InDesign and discover incredible free fonts for print design. Or why not find the inspiration for your next project here?

The post Print Design Trend: Sophisticated Flat Design appeared first on InDesignSkills.

This cover look is so easy to recreate in InDesign and you can get really creative with choosing pairings of striking photos and gorgeous fonts.

1. Healing Meals by Kyra de Vreeze

Cookbooks were some of the first to use aerial photos on covers, to showcase beautiful plates of food and colourful ingredients. Here, illustrator Anna Denise embellishes the author’s dramatic food photography with whimsical touch line art and hand-drawn typography.

Design: Anna Denise

2. Catch and Release by Mark Kingwell

Helen Yentus’ cover design for Catch and Release elevates a photo with an everyday feel and makes it feel special and personal to the viewer. Classic typography (try New Century Schoolbook to imitate the look of the text) that slots perfectly into the white space provided by the photo gives that finishing touch.

Design: Helen Yentus

3. Names for the Sea by Sarah Moss

Anna Green’s cover design for Icelandic study Names for the Sea makes a wonderful job of integrating an aerial photograph with the typography, with the human figure swimming over some of the letters that make up the title.

Try separating sections of your images into layers using Photoshop and place the images and text on separate Layers in InDesign to imitate this interactive design.

Design: Anna Green of Siulen Design

4. Gabriel Garcia Marquez: The Early Years by Ilan Stavans

This truly stunning cover design by Art Director Jason Ramirez demonstrates how aerial photography and simple type can make such a good pairing for a cover design.

Discover the typeface used to create this design by checking out our recommendations for book cover fonts.

Design: Jason Ramirez

5. Mighty Spice by John Gregory-Smith

Another cookbook makes our list, and it’s no surprise when its cover looks this good. The photo extends all the way across the layout and leaves plenty of ‘white space’ for creating a bold slab serif heading at the top. Adding some generous Tracking to the type gives the design a clean, minimal look.

Design: Duncan Baird Publishers

6. Best Friends by Thomas Berger

Another example that demonstrates how type and photo can interact, and feel more like a unified whole. Designer John Fulbrook III personalises the photo with a note reading ‘A Novel’; making the design instantly attention-grabbing and quirky.

Design: John Fulbrook III

7. The Real Doctor Will See You Shortly by Matt McCarthy

This cover design is so simple, using one strong image set on a bright background, and teaming it with super-minimal type. But it’s also incredibly effective, and surely the final proof that aerial photo + minimal typography = a winning book cover combination!

Design: Ben Wiseman

Looking for more book design inspiration? Discover our edit of covers that use fantastic fonts.

Have a great cover idea but not sure how to start creating it? Check out our selection of helpful InDesign tips and tutorials to get you started.

The post Book Cover Trend: An Aerial View appeared first on InDesignSkills.

Be inspired by these fantastic examples of beautiful cover design, and find out how to recreate the look for yourself quickly and easily in InDesign.

1. Easy 3D Effects to Make your Cover Jump off the Page…

…Most magazine covers have a 2D look that falls in line with the flat print format. But what if you could create a 3D effect simply by creating a trick-of-the-eye using typography or frames?

These covers, from new indie title Knit Wit and industry heavyweight V Magazine have done just that, giving the impression the photos are bursting out of the boundaries of the page.

It’s not as difficult to imitate as you might think. Check out this tutorial on creating a simple 3D effect for your InDesign layouts.

Design: Knit Wit and V Magazine

2. Layer up to Balance Typography and Images

Layering your cover design as you work allows you to bring elements forward or send others to the back of the page with ease. These simple, striking covers from Fabric Magazine stick to a strong layered order: header, then image, then smaller typography. It’s a simple formula, that’s easy to recreate in InDesign.

Make friends with the Layers panel in InDesign (Window > Layers) and have fun experimenting with the arrangement of items on your cover design.

Design: Fabric

3. Dare to Experiment with Type

Magazine covers are meant to be frivolous and fun, so why stick to formal design rules? These covers from Esquire US, Esquire Singapore and Esquire Malaysia show that a simple splash of handwritten typography can really lift a design and make it feel more youthful and fresh.

Check out some more font inspiration for magazines here.

Design: Esquire

4. Catch the Eye with a Bright Pop of Colour!

Introducing bold colour onto your cover design is one of the simplest and most effective ways to grab a reader’s attention.

Take inspiration from these colourful covers for Pulp Magazine (adorned with watercolour graphics by Iveta Ka) and Lula Magazine.

The effect used on Lula’s cover is really simple to achieve in InDesign with a coloured gradient. Get acquainted with out how to apply gradients to frames and shapes with this quick tutorial.

Design: Pulp Magazine and Lula

5. Integrate your Typography with Images

If you design your cover around a central image, try adapting your typography to merge seamlessly with the photo. Lifestyle supplement Eat (from Los Angeles Magazine) does a stellar job of integrating type creatively with strong images to create a holistic, unified cover design. Type is curved around the rim of a plate, and a striking sub-heading is positioned over the belly of a goose.

Learn how to create your own Foodie Magazine with our design tutorials.

Design: Los Angeles Magazine

6. And Finally…Sometimes Simple is Best

Arguably, it’s the image that should be the focal point of a magazine cover. Striking photography doesn’t always need much embellishment to make a cover appealing.

Just take these beautifully minimal magazine covers for Esquire Russia as an example. No bells and whistles here—just simple titles in monochrome, and a sparing amount of typography elsewhere. The lesson here? If in doubt, keep it simple and striking.

Design: Esquire Russia

We hope you can use these examples to make your magazine covers shine, if you’re short on time or just dipping a toe into magazine design. Learn how to create your very own magazine in Adobe InDesign with our series of tutorials. Or get your creative juices flowing by finding more InDesign inspiration from around the world.

The post Magazine Design: Essential Guide to Cover Design appeared first on InDesignSkills.

Here we take a look at poster designs which combine photography and typography for dramatic effect, and highlight techniques you can easily imitate using InDesign.

Be inspired by these stunning posters from the worlds of Opera, Theatre, Art and Hollywood (showcasing inspiring examples from leading design agency BLT)…

1. La Monnaie, The Belgian Royal Opera House

International creative agency Base was tasked with creating a new visual identity for La Monnaie/De Munt, the Belgian Royal Opera House. Incorporating dramatic, sensual images by Belgian photographer Pierre Debusschere, the Base-designed posters for the 2014/15 season are mesmerisingly emotive and challenging.

The layout is, however, disarmingly simple – strong typography set in white allows the image to take centre-stage, and a simple colour palette, executed with simple paint stroke effects, gives each poster its own unique identity.

Design: Base

2. American Hustle

A confident, retro-inspired series of poster designs from seasoned communications agency, BLT, for Hollywood release American Hustle.

Curvy typography (try ITC Bauhaus for a similar look) plays second fiddle to the strong character photography. The simple layout is pulled together by a thin-weight frame with rounded corners for an authentic Seventies feel.

Read our InDesign tutorial for creating a simple 3D effect with cut-away frames, to give a similar look to your own poster designs.

Design: BLT Communications

3. Secret Garden

Canadian graphic designer Darbi Nicole gives an elegant, ethereal look to her poster designs for a performance of musical Secret Garden. Creative typography is laid out on a loose grid, making each letter a part of a dynamic artwork, and giving the design a sense of ordered chaos.

Mixing up text weights, sizes and rotations is a simple but high-impact way of adding typographic drama to your poster designs.

Design: Darbi Nicole

4. Nightcrawler

Another series of poster designs which are right on the money from communications agency BLT, this time for the Open Road Films title Nightcrawler.

Slanted typography on an angled type-path evokes both the neon signs of a night-time Los Angeles and the unhinged personality of the film’s lead character. Text set in jarring yellow against moody, nostalgic images makes these poster designs achingly cool.

Design: BLT

5. Portrait de l’Artiste en Motocycliste

Swiss design studio onlab put together this graphic and eye-catching poster for the Museum of Fine Arts in La Chaux de-Fonds, Switzerland. Slab serif typography not only makes text ultra-readable, it also creates a frame for gradient-infused photography.

Learn how to place images inside text with InDesign, or check out how to create a gradient effect in InDesign.

Design: onlab

6. Jane Eyre

A final hit from BLT Communications to get your creative juices flowing – this beautifully pared-back series of posters for movie Jane Eyre showcases poster design at its simplest and loveliest.

Super light, spaced-out typography is laid over dreamy, gauzy imagery, creating a perfect balance between text and image.

Check out our movie poster InDesign tutorial to learn about using spaced-out typography.

Design: BLT

We hope these stunning poster design examples have inspired you for your next InDesign project!

The post Poster Design Inspiration appeared first on InDesignSkills.

Give your own business card designs an artistic touch! Recreate the look in InDesign with simple typography and placed hand-painted images.

1. Holli Thompson

These stunning business cards designed by Viewers Like You for health guru Holli Thompson are picture-perfect. Smudgy, colourful images of fruit and vegetables by illustrator Marta Spendowska make a pretty but modern pairing with a subtle thin typeface set in a pale grey. Simply gorgeous!

Design: Viewers Like You; Client: Holli Thompson

2. Tide Retreat

A quirky dip-dye paint effect gives these cards, by Bland Designs for Tide Retreat, a dreamy quality that evokes the away-from-it-all feeling of a luxury beach holiday. Simple sans serif text and a single dividing black stroke completes the look.

Design: Bland Designs; Client: Tide Retreat

3. Sycamore Street Press

American paper printing company Sycamore Street Press produce incredibly beautiful cards, prints and gifts that they sell through their online shop. So it seems fitting that their company business cards set the standard just as high. A foiled stamp in a vintage gold is layered over a simple, organic splash of watercolour.

Tip: Create your own designs in InDesign ready for foiling by separating your foil artwork onto a different layer to the rest of the artwork.

Sycamore Street Press

4. The Great Catering Co.

Strategy Design & Advertising created an incredibly strong brand for New Zealand catering firm, The Great Catering Co., using simple painterly elements. Each splash of paint represents a fruit or vegetable, giving the branding a fresh and fun feel. On business cards, single images are split across several cards, giving them an extra collectable edge. Straightforward, clear text set in no-fuss black reign back a serious, corporate slant to the cards.

Tip: Try the typeface P22 Underground for a similar look on your own card designs.

Design: Strategy Design & Advertising; Client: The Great Catering Co.

5. Mylène Poisson, Sommelière

Montreal-based agency Studio Caserne collaborated to create this creative and high-impact business card design for sommelière Mylène Poisson. Dipping the bottom of a wine glass into Indian Ink, minimal cards were adorned with a rustic ‘wine’ stain. (Like wine? Take a look at our wine bottle design ideas.)

Tip: Put together a minimal business card design using InDesign, and have the cards printed before applying artwork by hand for a truly unique design.

Design: Studio Caserne; Client: Mylène Poisson

Have you experimented with the painterly trend in your own designs? Please share your results with us in the comments below.

Find more design inspiration and ideas here.

The post Business Card Trend: Painterly Designs appeared first on InDesignSkills.

If you’re creating your own flyer, browse our pick of eye-catching designs for festivals, gigs, exhibitions and retail events to get your creative juices flowing…

1. Festival Karsh

A bold and modern series of flyer designs from designer Charley Massiera and Uniform creative consultancy for the 2009 Karsh Festival held at the Canada Science and Technology Museum in Ottawa. The anchor of the design – black-and-white portrait plus a brightly coloured overlay – gives the flyers flexibility and uniformity even with different images and colourways.

To mimic the look of these flyers in InDesign, try contrasting black-and-white photography against shapes set in a single bold colour. Paste simple coloured vectors directly into InDesign, or use the shape tools available in the Tools panel.

Design by Charley Massiera and Uniform

2. The Rolling Stones

The iconic band has an equally iconic logo, which they use across all promotional materials. This flyer, for their 2014 Zurich concert, gives the logo a letterpress-inspired, vintage revival. Chaotically placed stamped type gives the flyer a fun, informal feel.

If you’re designing a flyer for a music gig, try mixing up your typography for a carefree, exciting design. Pick up some typography tips and tricks here.

The Rolling Stones

3. Wellen Gentleman’s Pop Up Shop

Pop up shops are an increasingly popular way for a brand to showcase it’s retail offerings to a new audience, or to take advantage of increased footfall at a particular location or event. The marketing is especially important – how else are people going to know about the shop opening? This fashionable and simple flyer design for surfwear brand Wellen Gentleman’s really does the job. Clean, unfussy typography displays the essential information clearly, and the aspirational photo at the bottom of the layout is given space to breathe.

Don’t be afraid to give your flyer layout some space. Crowded flyers can look overwhelming and unattractive – a pared-back design communicates calm and elegance.

Pop Up Republic; Wellen Gentleman’s

4. The Garden Exhibition, Allan Nederpelt

Though technically a poster layout, this beautiful design for an art exhibition at Brooklyn-based gallery Allan Nederpelt follows the principles of high-impact flyer design – a single strong image paired with strong, legible typography. Contrasting a classical still-life painting with modern sans serif type and a trendy bracketed frame around the edges, this design is intellectual, modern and intriguing – everything you’d want for an exhibition flyer!

White text against darker images looks clean, modern and helps the text to demand attention from the reader. Experiment with white type on dark backgrounds to switch up the traditional black-on-white print format.

Allan Nederpelt

5. London Jazz Festival

Designed by Jonathan Akrofi, this beautiful flyer design for the 2014 London Jazz Festival instantly evokes the late-night feel of an atmospheric jazz club. Graphics edited in Photoshop have been incorporated into a layout and teamed with minimal white type. The core design extends onto more detailed posters and tickets to create a unified, moody feel across all the festival’s marketing materials.

A strong design is key to a flyer’s success. When creating your own flyer layouts, be sparing with images and text; and try to give your design a key focal point that draws the eye. Focus on highlighting the title of the event in a creative, unusual way.

Design by Jonathan Akrofi

6. LA Canvas M.F.A. Event

Again demonstrating how effective a black-and-white photo background with sparing splashes of colour can be, this flyer design for an LA Canvas event is eye-catching, modern and hip. Designed by Rachel Many of Shoot.Click.Wind, text set in both black and white divides up the information, creating an ordered layout.

When designing your own flyer in InDesign, flush different sections of text to the left and right of the page to visually separate large chunks of text and make it easier on the eye.

Design by Shoot.Click.Wind.; For LA Canvas

7. Scene on the Street Event

For this fashion event led by Elle Magazine at W Time Square Hotel in 2012, an elegant flyer design combining a single street style shot with clean white text and partially transparent overlays helped to raise awareness and give the event an upmarket feel.

Transparent overlays are a great way of partitioning off sections of your flyer, providing clean space for text to sit. Reduce the opacity of coloured sections on your InDesign layout by going to the Object menu and selecting Effects > Transparency. Learn more about working with images in our Images with InDesign Tutorial.

Elle Magazine

Have you spotted any flyer designs worth an honourable mention on InDesignSkills? Please share them with us in the comments below. Find more design inspiration here. 

The post Flyer Design: Eye-Catching Inspiration appeared first on InDesignSkills.

The following examples showcase playful type effects that are actually very simple to achieve. Be inspired to get more playful with your own typography efforts! Read ahead for tips on how to achieve the effects in InDesign.

1. Out of Eden Cover Design

A scientific report on contemporary ecology, the cover for Alan Burdick’s book is adorned with a long, curling snake. Looping across the front and back of the cover to make a dramatic wrap-around design, the cover designer has also arranged the type to complement the shape of the image. White space is filled with a classic serif typeface (try Janson Text Roman for a similar look) and a tight text wrap on the back gives the cover a unique edge. Recreate this effect in InDesign by using the Pen Tool (P) to draw organic shapes that fit uniquely to your images. Select the Type Tool (T) and click into the shapes to transform them into text frames. Publisher: Farrar Straus Giroux

2. Harper’s Bazaar España

Spanish Harper’s Bazaar should receive more attention for the experimental but ever-stylish way it pushes the conventional rules for magazine typography. Its archive is a wealth of beautifully designed covers that make subtle statements with their type choices. We couldn’t choose just one cover to share with you; and the magazine’s interior layouts are equally stunning. The images interact with the type to create dynamic, fun-filled designs, and well-judged experiments with sizing, rotation, color, shifting of the baseline, and tracking keep the designs elegant, not flashy. Using InDesign you can recreate most of the effects below quite easily. Set characters in separate text frames to maximise editing flexibility, and make good friends with the Type on a Path Tool (Shift + T) to set text along curved lines and shapes. Magazine: Harper’s Bazaar España; Publisher: SpainMedia

3. The Art of Immersion Cover Design

Frank Rose’s book speculates on a future world that is dominated by the internet, and how we are all becoming the media through the use of social networking websites. Justifiably so, the cover design is abstract and dreamy, a simple silhouetted head surrounded by mind-bending repetitions of lines. What we’re really interested in is the way the text very subtly interacts with the central image. A thin, tall sans serif typeface (try FF Scala) is set at small-scale in the centre of the head. A critic’s review cleverly winds it way along the top of the cover, wrapping closely against the edge of the image. To recreate the text wrapping effect in InDesign, use the Pen Tool (P) to trace a series of anchor points along the edge of your image. Then use the Type on a Path Tool (Shift+T) to transform the line into a text path. Designer: Jason Booher; Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company

4. Morberg Magazine (Magasin Morberg)

Swedish celebrity chef Per Morberg has launched his own lifestyle and foodie magazine, Magasin Morberg, which has a beautifully considered print design. True to the stylish and famously minimal Swedish aesthetic, white text (try Freight Big Pro Medium for a similar aesthetic) is set against high-definition photography. Layering text with transparency effects, and mixing up uppercase and lowercase styles, creates a layered, three-dimensional appearance. Go to Object > Effects > Transparency to reduce the Opacity of text in InDesign. Use the Swatches panel to pull out single characters in a bright, bold colour for contrast. Magazine: Magasin Morberg; Publisher: Spoon

5. The New Yorker Magazine

The February 2013 issue of The New Yorker has a decidedly vintage-inspired cover. The image of the skier ripping a trail across the front, revealing text beneath, is a bold and clever design that recalls the arguably more creative magazine designs of the 1920s and 1930s, which relied on the creativity of illustration alone. However, with the modern advances of publishing software, you can create this kind of effect easily, through careful building of layers in your designs. To create a similar effect in InDesign, create a sequence of two layers in the Layers panel (Window > Layers). Place a body of text on the bottom layer. On the top layer, place an image frame using the Rectangle Frame Tool (F), and File > Place an image with transparency (such as an EPS or PNG) that allows parts of the layer below to peek through. Add depth to the design by applying a Drop Shadow to the top image (Object > Effects > Drop Shadow). Magazine: The New Yorker; Publisher: Condé Nast We’ve explored how playful text can make a huge difference to your designs. Even better, complex-looking designs can often be achieved quickly and easily using tools and effects available in InDesign. Find more design inspiration here.

The post Typography: Playful & Creative Type in Print Design appeared first on InDesignSkills.

One trend we’re excited about is the gradual move towards a more subtle, and all round much fresher, take on vintage styles in print design.

The hipster-led, letterpress-inspired styles of previous years are starting to look frankly a little old-hat. Instead we’re seeing a move towards beautiful contemporary designs that pick and choose from the best design lessons of Art Deco, Mid-Century and Soviet posters, book covers and typography.

Feast your eyes on some of the best recent examples of the trend across print design.

1. The Grand Budapest Hotel, Movie Poster Artwork

Wes Anderson’s critically acclaimed 2014 movie was inspired by the work of early 20th Century Austrian author Stefan Zweig.

Appropriately for the plot, set in a fictional Eastern European hotel between the Wars, the poster artwork was inspired by styles from the period, referencing Art Nouveau and Art Deco.The design styles’ qualities were exaggerated to give a comic, fairytale-like appearance to the poster artwork.

Lead Designer: Annie Atkins; in collaboration with Director Wes Anderson and Production Designer Adam Stockhausen

2. Stefan Zweig Book Covers from Pushkin Press

Pushkin Press is a UK-based publishing house with a fantastic track-record for exceptional cover design.

Last year and in 2015 too, Pushkin focusses its efforts on bringing Stefan Zweig’s work to a larger audience. Supporting the release of The Grand Budapest Hotel (see above) in 2014, they published The Society of the Crossed Keys, a selection of Zweig’s work, with a fabulously kitsch cover to match. Shooting Stars and The World of Yesterday also have wonderfully retro covers, referencing mid-century design styles.

Find out more about Pushkin’s cover designs here

3. Cover Design: Marshlands by Matthew Olshan

This cover for Olshan’s experimental and hard-hitting novel is a collage of vintage-inspired textures and colours, giving the design a raw, almost map-like feel. The influence of 1960s and 1970s styles is evident, and draws comparisons to old exercise books, giving the cover a rough, worn look.

Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux

4. The Double, Movie Poster Artwork

An independent British film directed by Richard Ayoade, the cinematography for The Double stylishly nods to Film Noir and 1960s Brutalism.

The more commercial poster design is a fitting tribute to these styles, and a perfect example of the blend of vintage and modern graphic styles; but it’s the more interesting alternative poster that really captures our attention. A brutalist city-scape set in moody Soviet-style concrete, with a single lit figure, lends the artwork a sense of retro drama and foreboding.

Design by Empire Design; Check out The Double artwork and their other awesome movie poster designs here

5. Cover Design: The Letter for the King by Tonke Dragt

An English-language edition of the much-cherished 1960s Dutch childrens classic, the cover for The Letter for the King, in both its original layout and its special winter edition (see second image down, below), owes much to the design styles favoured in the decade of its first publication.

Sketchy illustrations and lovingly hand-drawn typography, teamed with muted colours, give the book a love-worn design.

Publisher: Pushkin Children’s Books; Illustrations by Tonke Dragt

6. Cover Design: Limonov by Emmanuel Carrère

A fantastic book cover design drawing inspiration from Soviet poster art and 1980s graphics.

Designer Richard Green demonstrates how vintage styles can still have relevance today, connecting the cover design with the Soviet-era setting of the book, while bringing the style bang up to date.

Designer: Richard Green; Publisher: Penguin UK; Allen Lane

2015 is shaping up to be an exciting year for print design. We’ll keep you updated on the modern vintage trend as it develops!

Find more print design inspiration here. You can also check out our selection of great InDesign tutorials to develop your own print design skills.

The post 2015 Design Trend: Modern Vintage appeared first on InDesignSkills.

Be inspired to create your own unique card designs this year…

1. Vaspur New Year Cards

Russian visual marketing agency Vaspur reimagined the subject of their company logo, a pomegranate, to create a luscious-looking greetings card for their clients. The cards really do look good enough to eat, with raspberry envelopes to match and restrained white sans serif typography adding modern, elegant appeal.

Corporate greetings cards don’t have to be dull. Using full colour across the design, teamed with sensual photography, makes designs tactile and exciting, and ultimately memorable.

Design by Vaspur

2. ‘Audace’ Cards by LaPlanche Design

These fun cards from New York- and Paris-based agency LaPlanche demand to be played with. The design invites the recipient to connect the dots, revealing a New Year’s message. White and red combine to create a festive palette, but it’s the introduction of black that keeps the designs stylish and business-appropriate.

Design your own cards with function in mind – can the card have an additional function that will keep the recipient engaged for longer than it takes to open an envelope?

Design by LaPlanche Design

3. ‘The Hidden Word’ Cards by LaPlanche Design

Also from LaPlanche Design are these equally fun word search-themed cards. Rendered in muted primary colours these push the envelope (no pun intended…) without shouting. LaPlanche’s consistent brand look applied to their greetings cards each year makes them recognisable from the envelopes alone. Their clients must look forward to receiving these at the end of the year!

Design by LaPlanche Design

4. Chase Christmas Cards

UK-based creative consultancy The Chase created these oh-so-simple but oh-so-clever cards to send out to their clients for Christmas. The tree design, made up of stamps that equate to the cost of the card’s first-class postage, is finished with a few festive-red ‘bauble’ stamps.

Complex designs aren’t always necessary to make your cards stand out. A simple design executed in a clever way can give your cards a unique feel.

Design by The Chase

5. Mikel Cans Studio Christmas Cards

Based in Barcelona, Mikel Kans has produced some fantastic print work showing a strong visual identity and a leaning towards a mid-century minimalist aesthetic. These minimal cards, designed for the Coll·legi d’Arquitectes de Catalunya, are loaded with coal-like texture and use airbrush-style silhouettes to create a stylish summary of the festive period.

Minimal designs and high-contrast monochrome can prove to be a winning choice for Christmas cards. They make a great antidote to the sickly sweet colours and styles of the majority of cards.

Design by Mikel Cans Studio for Coll·legi d’Arquitectes de Catalunya

6. Sanna Annukka Greetings Cards

Brighton-based designer and illustrator Sanna Annukka was inspired by Finnish decorations and the nature of the Northern hemisphere when she created these beautiful greetings cards. Printed on recycled paper and with embossed gold foiling, the cards are tactile, sensual and have a textile-like appeal.

Why not try using collage-inspired patterns on your own cards to create a visually playful layout?

Design by Sanna Annukka

7. Atipus Light-Up Christmas Cards

Atipus, a graphic design studio based in Barcelona, created these Christmas greetings cards with an illuminating twist. Designed for a hotel, the cards light up from the inside, passing a green glow through a die cut tree, made up of various festive silhouettes.

Cards are meant to be fun! If budget is not so much of an issue, think of ways to make your own cards think outside the box and revise the traditional print card.

Design by Atipus

Have you spotted any bold and beautiful card designs we’ve not mentioned here? Please share them with us below. Find more design inspiration here.

The post Card Design: Bold and Beautiful Greetings Cards appeared first on InDesignSkills.

From the minimal to the extravagantly ornate, there are all sorts of label styles here to inspire your next packaging design project.

1. Andevine Wines

This Australian wine brand showcases moody, vintage-style flora on their dark, dramatic labels. An absence of typography on the front of the label allows the illustrative design to shine, and reinforces the luxurious, mysterious feel of the brand.

Dark label designs don’t have to be boring. Borrow from old styles of painting and photography to give your packaging designs a grown-up, opulent look.

Andevine Wines; Design by Co-Partnership

 2. Mount Franklin Lightly Sparkling

A limited-edition design for the Australian drinks company, with illustrations by fashion designer Akira Isogawa. The intricate Japanese-inspired design wraps around the bottle in an organic, delicate way, allowing the typography and logo to be beautifully framed. The choice of colours also lends the product itself a fresh, summery feel.

This design shows how effective it can be to print designs directly onto the bottle, without being limited by the sizing restrictions of a standard bottle label. 

Mount Franklin; Design by Creative Platform and Akira Isogawa

 3. Mask Spirit New World Wines

Certainly not shy and retiring, these designs for limited edition New World wines showcase cartoonish illustrations alongside glamorous gold typography. A fun way of introducing perhaps less well-known wines to the consumer.

VinProdService LLC; Design by Brandiziac

 4. Karadag Wines

Beautifully illustrated label designs from Russian graphic designer Nadie Parshina. The monochrome artwork was intended to raise awareness about an endangered conservation area in Karadag, in Crimea. 

Karadag Wines; Design by Nadie Parshina

 5. El Grillo

Following the trend for black and white labels, this is an outstanding example of how minimal label designs can often be the most effective. The puritanical artwork for Spanish wine brand El Grillo (‘The Cricket’) doesn’t need to shout to hold attention.

The typography and logo reference digital, modernist styles, while maintaining a lively sense of humour and freshness.

El Grillo

 6. Janzen

These fantastic labels for Californian wine brand Janzen really take into account the printed texture of the wine label, resulting in a design that is tactile as well as visually pleasing. The branding is also flexible, working well across different colour palettes.

Janzen; Design by CF Napa Brand Design

 7. B Meadery and Vineyard

New York-based designer Joli Glantz has put together these simple yet striking labels for B Meadery and Vineyard, a Virginian company that produces mead (a drink made with fermented honey, rather than grapes). The label designs are accessible, rustic and look fantastic as part of a series of products.

The designs also reflect a less masculine aesthetic than some of the other designs we’ve featured here, using decorative typography and subtle colours, opening the product up to a broader consumer audience.

B Meadery and Vineyard; Design by Joli Glantz

The post Bottle Design: Beautiful Wine Label Designs appeared first on InDesignSkills.

Here at InDesignSkills we’ve noticed an influx of beautifully designed hardbacks, which use tactile textures and sensual, nostalgic designs to lure the bookshop-browser. Here’s our pick of the very best recent designs.

1. Reprinted Covers for Tolkien’s Fantasy Epics

These beautifully printed covers have a distinctive 1940s feel, making J. R. R. Tolkien’s works seem particularly nostalgic.  The cloth-bound texture of the hardbacks lends a tactile, homely feel, and also sits well with the fairytale-like genre of the novels. These certainly wouldn’t look out of place in Bilbo Baggin’s cottage in the Shire.

Publisher: HarperCollins; Books can be bought directly from the Official Tolkien Bookshop

 2. The Bone Clocks

David Mitchell’s latest novel is a sweeping epic spanning six different stories, beginning in 1980s England and finishing in a post-apocalyptic Ireland. The cover design for the UK market needed to encapsulate the time-travelling, disparate mood of the book, and Mitchell’s publisher, Sceptre, has achieved just that with this explosive, surrealist design. The trail of water rushing across the centre of the design is pulled out in a gloss finish, which adds a tactile element to the cover. The US cover, by designer Linnet Mattey, is more restrained, but makes full use of the weight and cloth-bound format of the hardback. Gold foil blocking adds an elegant, indulgent touch.

Publishers: Sceptre; Random House

 3. Fitzgerald’s Flapper Glamour

Breathing new life into classic graphic styles are Coralie Bickford-Smith’s redesigned hardbacks for F. Scott Fitzgerald’s 1920s-set classic novels. Metallic foiling and simple, graphic patterns which instantly conjure up the decadent Art Deco designs of the Jazz Age create books that could give Daisy Buchanan a run for her money in the glamour department.

Publisher: Penguin Classics; Designer: Coralie Bickford-Smith

 4. The Quick

Timely, given Halloween is just around the corner, is our praise for the gothic-inspired design for Lauren Owen’s vampire novel, The Quick, published by Jonathan Cape Ltd. With illustrations from brit illustrator Jim Kay, the dust jacket has a beautiful dusty matte finish, with accents in red pulled out in bright, graphic gloss. Inside the hard cover, stamped with a glossy masonic black owl, a wallpapered pattern transports the reader to a Victorian Yorkshire manor house, the setting of the first chapter.

Publisher: Jonathan Cape Ltd; Illustration: Jim Kay

 5. Grace: A Memoir

Nostalgic cover designs are very popular, and they work particularly well on hardcovers, which have a traditional, old-school feel. Suitable then, that Grace Coddington’s memoir, taking us back to her childhood in Anglesey in the 1960s before her induction into British, and then American, Vogue, should have a retro-inspired cover, complete with hand-drawn typography and a 1960s-inspired colour palette. Inside the hard cover, beautiful sketches made by Grace herself, depicting fashion personalities sitting front row, really give this book an extra personal touch.

Publisher: Chatto & Windus

 6. The Luminaries

Eleanor Catton’s The Luminaries, winner of the Man Booker Prize last year, is certainly a lengthy read. Though now released in paperback format as well, it’s the hardback version that really accommodates the lengthy text best and allows the cover design to shine. The wistful, vintage-inspired, feminine design creates a sense of mystery and concealment, key themes in the book. The cover was designed by Australian graphic designer Jenny Grigg. Old etchings of the colonial township described in the book also decorate the inside of the hard cover.

Publisher: Granta; Designer: Jenny Grigg

The post Book Cover Design: Return of the Hardback appeared first on InDesignSkills.

Be inspired by our edit of the very best menu designs.

1. Polpo

Polpo, a London-based restaurant serving Venetian food, commissioned beautiful menu designs from Richard Marazzi which blend old-world illustrations with a contemporary mix of typefaces for a high-impact, unique aesthetic.

Why not layer modern Sans Serif fonts over vintage-style illustrations for an individual, quirky look to your own menu designs?

 2. Ateneo Condesa

A strong minimal logo inspired by the jaguar takes centre stage on these menus for Mexican eatery Ateneo Condesa. The designs, by Cardumen 467, are graphic, simple and high-contrast, while maintaining a luxe feel with feline-print textures and wooden covers.

If the restaurant you’re designing a menu for already has a strong logo or brand identity, consider making this the focal point of your menu design. Or why not offer to design a new logo for them!

 3. El Burro

It’s great to see menus with a splash of colour, and these menu designs for El Burro show how introduction of just one strong shade can transform a menu from traditional to exciting and invigorating. Designed by Monday, these menus give a fresh update to Mexican-style illustrations and typefaces.

Try introducing just one stand-out colour in your own menu designs, contrasting against an otherwise monochrome palette. 

4. Royale Eatery

Also designed by Monday, the more restrained designs for Cape Town restaurant Royale Eatery showcase minimal, traditional designs printed on luxurious textures, with logos and text pulled out in gold foil. We love the vintage-style line illustrations, which give a homely, localised feel to the menu.

Some restaurants won’t suit a menu design that shouts; instead incorporate subtle design elements to create a harmonious, calming layout.

5. Cozmo Café

With a fun look and a nod to the industrial design trend the menus for Cozmo Café are young and lively, promising great food in a relaxed environment. Designed by W8, the menus give off a disposable vibe, which adds to the casual-cool feel of the restaurant.

Mix grungy fonts with casual textures, like brown paper and wood, to give a young, casual feel to your menu designs.

6. Fat Cow

Japanese beef restaurant Fat Cow turned to Singapore-based studio Foreign Policy to design their fantastic minimal menus. Lending a contemporary edge to the simplicity of the Japanese design aesthetic, the simple, four-column menus work in calm harmony with branded wooden covers.

Think about the final printed result when designing your menus. What will you print the menu on? Can you encase the printed menu in unusual materials, which will add to the sensory dining experience?

7. Kayaba Coffee

A cute and gorgeous menu design from Japanese coffee chain Kayaba Coffee. Tiny detailed illustrations of each item on the menu are a wonderful feature, earning this menu a spot on our ‘Delicious’ list.

Special, bespoke artwork can give your menu designs a truly individual feel, and can even double as a PR-friendly souvenir for customers to take away and treasure.

8. Café Kafka

An immersive, vintage-inspired menu design for Barcelona-based haunt Café Kafka earns the final spot on our menu edit. The branding carries over to business cards and table settings, and brings grand, formal designs bang up-to-date. Designed by Lo Siento.

Lift your own monochrome InDesign layouts with high-impact, vintage-style illustrations or photographs.

Want more inspiration? Check out more inspirational designs here.

The post Menu Design: Our Pick of the Most Delicious Designs appeared first on InDesignSkills.

Struggling to find a starting point for a cover you’re involved with? Why not try experimenting with this winning formula yourself?

1. H is for Hawk, Helen Macdonald

Chris Wormell’s illustration of a proud hawk is enhanced by bold, slightly irregular typography in a rich black. It reminded us of vintage educational posters. Publisher: Jonathan Cape

 2. The 10 P.M. Question, Kate de Goldi

Here a more scratchy text is beautifully matched with a vibrant, textured collage image. The grungy background ties it all together and adds a slightly edgy, sinister note. Illustration by Sarah Maxey. Publisher: Templar Publishing

 3. A Love Letter from a Stray Moon, Jay Griffiths

In this design the striking natural colours of the macaw pop against a plain background. We like the way three colours from the bird’s plumage are picked out for the text. Publisher: Text Publishing

 4. The Goldfinch, Donna Tartt

Designer Keith Hayes lets Carel Fabritius’s painting, The Goldfinch, take centre-stage on this cover. The little bird is framed with simple elements: white paper, masking tape and casually drawn charcoal text. Publisher: Little, Brown and Company

 5. Let’s Explore Diabetes with Owls, David Sedaris

This somewhat provocatively titled book caught our attention. The instantly recognisable silhouette of an owl (a long-eared owl to be precise) is paired with childlike handwriting. The playful composition suits the mix of upper and lower case characters. Publisher: Little, Brown and Company

If you have favourites of your own please share them with us below. We’ll also be publishing a book cover design tutorial very soon.

The post Cover Trend: Birds with Hand-Drawn Typography appeared first on InDesignSkills.

Discover ten books that showcase excellence in book design. Each project has its own individual character, and all of them demonstrate a strong aesthetic consistency throughout.

Perhaps you’ll pick up some inspiration for the next time you create a book.

1. Sydney Seafood School Cookbook

A playful, high impact cookbook designed by Arielle Gamble. Note that the hand-painted and contemporary typefaces marry perfectly with the big bold imagery.

 2. Three Men in a Boat

First published in 1889 this is a fresh take on Jerome K. Jerome’s classic English story, designed and illustrated by Sarah Ervine.

 3. Kim Clijsters Book

Only 400 copies were ever produced of this limited edition book. Tim Bisschop aces the design with beautifully crafted column-based layouts and attention to detail.

 4. Monumentos de Escrita

Generously margined single column layouts let the artwork do the talking in this catalogue design by Lisbon designer Rita Neves.

 5. Republica

Another project by Rita Neves combines ornate design with luxurious printing using metallic inks.

6. A Wine Book

This clean, simple design by Polish agency Luksemburk makes a big impact with a cleverly deployed colour scheme of orange, white and black.

7. The Liquor Book

A well balanced layout punctuated by thin black lines. Design by Yushan Cheng.

8. Maximilien Vox

A timeless look from master of typography, Maximilien Vox.

9. The Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm

Ornate illustrations matched by equally ornate font choices. Note the text wrapping around Laura Barrett’s silhouetted illustrations. Design by Taschen.

10. City of Refuge

A minimally-designed and moving 9/11 memorial book. It’s hard not to be affected by Johanna Bonnevier’s serious, heavyweight typesetting.

A single well designed page can be enough to set your imagination to action. Hopefully something from this collection will inspire you to create your own book. Check our awesome range of quick tips and tutorials for InDesign here.

The post Book Design Inspiration appeared first on InDesignSkills.

Get inspired for creating your own magazine designs with these creative and effective examples.

1. The Sanahunt Times

A fantastically-designed high-end newspaper/magazine for a Kiev-based fashion chain. Art Direction and Design from design studio Non-Format emphasises luxurious, monochromatic layouts with impactful introduction of rare bursts of color.

Why not contrast enlarged typography with dramatic photographs in your own designs?

 2. Influencia

Striking monthly trend magazine with designs from duo Violaine & Jeremy. Minimal layouts allow quirky illustrations to take center-stage, giving the whole publication a well-loved, notebook-like feel.

Try introducing illustrations as a focal point in your own magazine layouts.

 3. Lucky Peach

A quirky, hip, and above all, design-led foodie magazine. It’s the publication’s striking covers that blend photography with illustrative annotations that really catch the eye.

Learn how to create your own foodie magazine with our series of tutorials.

 4. iD

Probably best known for their winking-eye covers, iD Magazine is a brilliant source of inspiration for anyone wanting to create a high-concept but accessible fashion magazine. Their design ethos is simple, playful and strong. Though the covers take center-stage for their icon-status alone, the inside layouts are also well worth a look, with bold use of typography that still allows the photography to shine.

Why not contrast black-and-white photos against strong neon color in your next design project?

 5. Bloomberg Businessweek

This publication continues to lead the way in contemporary, fresh and audience appropriate design for the current affairs genre. Though it rarely shouts, Businessweek‘s aesthetic is direct and always in touch, mirroring its cutting edge editorial content.

If you’re creating a more formal magazine, try to introduce understated design quirks and editorial appropriate images, such as infographics.

6. Esquire

A heavyweight commercial title, Esquire has really upped their design game over the last few years. Their covers are crowded with text, yet utilise clever 3D effects to create a image-centric focal point. While most publications are sticking to flat design, Esquire embraces a dynamic, lively aesthetic. Their layouts are crowded yet restrained in use of color, creating an incredibly cool look and feel to the magazine.

Why not experiment with hand-written typography in your own magazine designs?

7. Port

Another mens’ title, but with a decidedly more classic look, Port Magazine is a lesson in restrained and timeless design. The covers are subtle but impactful, with equally minimal inside layouts to match.

If in doubt about your own design direction for a magazine you’re working on, it’s a great idea to stick to classic, minimal layouts. Try using a classical-inspired typeface, such as FF Quadraat.

Inspired to create a magazine of your own? Check out our tutorial for creating a foodie publication.

The post Magazine Design: Exceptional Layouts and Covers appeared first on InDesignSkills.