Expert: Sean Trapani - 3/21/2008

Question
Hiya there Sean.

I'm a 23 year old Advertising and branding student, my interest is copywriter, i seem to good at strap lines and slogans..i'm i limited..i have a few ad specs for really strange reasons for more struggling brands....i now want to put together a book, of my ad and straplines how do i go about this..what is the first stage..also i want to learn graphic design just the basics to get through...

Can you advice what first steps i should take...i have a little pad full of ideas..but i dont know how to begin my Book.

Help.

Thanks

Pearl

Answer
Some suggestions, Pearl.

If your ideas are good, don't "just get through" with your design. That's the quickest road to disaster for your portfolio - even for potential copywriters.

One - (my recommended method) find a graphic designer to help with your layouts. You could pay her, take her to lunch or offer to provide some free writing services for her next job as "payment in trade."

Two - if you want to do it yourself (a riskier proposition), I recommend that you rip off - er, be inspired by - good layout that someone else has already done. Go to the library. Find a magazine called "Communication Arts." Find the last couple of Advertising Annuals of the  magazine. Then, base your layout on something award-winning.

Three - learn basic typography and page layout. Alex White's "Advertising Design & Typography" is a good starter for type. Robin Landa's "Advertising by Design" is a good start for theory and layout. Then, you'll want to at least learn how to use Quark Express or Adobe InDesign - there are plenty of tutorials for both on the web.