Art catalog design often requires both creative thinking and management oversight.
Ask a designer about creating a catalog featuring sports equipment or car parts. She might say these are easy compared to a fine art catalog. Here's the dilemma: art catalogs usually showcase myriad artists and each must receive equal emphasis while not getting lost in a layout that's too extreme or overwhelming. Add a cover design to attract discriminating buyers to the challenge. Sounds complicated, but a well-trained graphic designer can pull off this type of project with aplomb - and maybe just a few sleepless nights.
Instructions
1. Meet with all parties involved with the art catalog project to get input on the look, tone and design vision of upper management. Of particular importance is obtaining clarification on: ratio of art to copy, catalog dimension, paper stock and binding. Ask about the project budget and determine whether the art catalog is to be a self-mailer or if it requires an envelope design in addition to the booklet itself.
2. Photograph each piece of art if you have not been supplied with high-resolution images. Place the photos on your computer's desktop. Figure out creative ways to group pieces if you haven't been told which works are to appear on pages together. Assess the number of signatures - four-page sheets - required to compose the catalog so all of the art is given adequate display room. Don't forget to allocate space for a table of contents, letter from the gallery or company head, donor list, staff names and descriptive copy. Meet with a copywriter to discuss the art catalog's text.
3. Render three art catalog layout concepts after conceiving a dozen or so ideas. If you draw by hand, use a pencil and paper to sketch your layouts. You could also use a program such as Adobe Illustrator or Corel Draw to articulate your ideas if you're skilled at computer drawing. Output copies of the three best designs and circulate them to managers for feedback. Once you get their input, create a more detailed fourth and final version of the art catalog.
4. Color correct or otherwise fix the JPEGs, TIFFs, EPS or other file-formatted photography so every photo is crisp and sharp and the color pops, using an image-manipulation program such as Adobe Photoshop. Import all of the corrected photos into your QuarkXpress, InDesign or other layout program format. Make certain your centerfold is well appointed, fonts are limited to two or three nicely coordinated typefaces and that none of them clash with the corporate, gallery or studio logo you'll place on the art catalog cover.
5. Mock up dummies for the next review cycle. If your in-house printer can't produce the oversized page sizes you've selected for the art catalog, either reduce the document accordingly or send the file to a printer. Arrange and staple the signatures of the art catalog together to produce enough mockups for final approvals on the copy and layout, adding a deadline to the signoff sheet if you're up against a tight print deadline.
6. Make final revisions to the files, spell check and preflight everything to ready the art catalog for the printer. You may wish to output the entire catalog on the paper stock you've chosen and mail it to yourself to see how it holds up after being processed by the U.S. Postal Service. Upload the files to your printer's website. If you're a purist and the catalog is printing in the U.S., attend the press run to check pages as they come off the press to make sure everything looks perfect.
