Layout Man

I've been plugging away at the new issue of the Tin Block Times (newsletter of the West Coast Crosley Club) and am just about done. I've been the editor of the TBT for over a decade, but I also started doing the layout a few issues back. I worked as a commercial artist for many years, so I have experience - but that was all back in the pre-computer era. Figuring out how to do in InDesign what I would be doing with cut-and-paste has been a project.

With this new issue I think I'm finally starting to get it.

My goal is to for the TBT to have the general look of the late fifties "little books," like Rod and Custom, Rods Illustrated, etc.  The biggest hurdle is that those books had 'trimmed' pages - the printer cut off the edges of the pages after printing, so the photos and text can go to the edge of the outer pages. I don't have that option (except on the cover) so the design has to be less ambitious.

Like most of us, I'm going a little bit stir crazy during quarantine, so it's been good to have something to learn. Now just hoping the printer is still printing....