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Our senior spring semester graphic design studio class, officially titled “Portfolio Design” encompasses more than repackaging of existing projects. While that is plenty for some to cover, we felt that we needed to add a senior project component as well. The senior project actually begins at the end of the Fall semester, with the presentation of three concepts for a project, from which one is selected. This allows some initial thought and research to begin before the Spring term begins. The project is carried out parallel to the creation of the portfolio and a poster presentation of it is a major feature of the Senior Portfolio Show in May. (see link here for a gallery of senior project panels from May, 2008)

Students have to display their senior project on two-four 20×30 inch panels. The project allows each student to select a project that complements their existing work, often exploring a direction they would like to pursue professionally. And the length of time on the project allows for process exploration and documentation.

I was at first skeptical about adding additional work onto the seniors that close to graduation. Yet, in the end, most students stated that the senior project was one of their best pieces and one they felt was one of the most enjoyable. So keeping creative projects going right up to the end of the term is probably a good idea. So we are continuing to include a senior project in the Portfolio class.

For all of you who are considering printing your own portfolio or process books as a saddle-stitched booklet, and have grappled with the problem of laying out your work in printers’ spreads (so when printed front and back, the pages appear in correct order, you will be glad to know that some help is available. This re-sequencing of the pages for printing, called “imposition,” can be accomplished through several means.

First, the built-in Print Booklet function in InDesign (File>Print Booklet) in CS3 has some major bugs. These are well-documented and you can read the rants from irate users at many nodes on the web. While CS4 may address some of the issues, for those of us who do not have that option, I wonderful third-party script is available for download (free, or if you are ethically-minded, you make a voluntary contribution) at http://products.carlsenenterprises.com/ Thank you Carlsen Enterprises. Called “Booklet CE” it is a script that overcomes most of the shortcomings of the imposition routine built into InDesign CS3. Download and follow the installation instructions. I prefer to run it from the Automate>Scripts window. It generates a new indesign document, and creates PDF files of each page, placing them in the correct spreads for several different types of booklet binding, including saddle stitched and perfect bound in multiple signatures.

Design your booklet as you normally would, with sequential pages, keeping in mind that proper imposition requires pages to be multiples of 4. Then run the script and save the resulting document for printing. It is wise to create bleeds for areas of tone or image that extend off the page, and to tell it to print crop marks to assist in trimming out.

Pretty simple! the one thing that might require a little explanation is the inside and outside creep settings. These account for the fact then in a signature, the outside spreads have to slightly wider to allow them to fold around the inside pages. The amount of creep depends on the thickness of the paper you are printing on. You can base it on the known thickness of the paper (caliper) or you can make a dummy folded booklet and measure the amount. In most situations, you will set the inner creep value to zero and the outer creep value to slightly more than that of the folded signature. The resulting page spreads will then be adjusted incrementally to between the two values, with the outermost spread receiving the full value and the innermost spread not being widened at all.