Indesign – University Marketing

Sometimes your design might call for the subject of your image to be cut out or layered: For example, Oregon State’s branding features contextual graphics, which can be integrated with your photos so they look like they’re behind the subject, or behind mountains, things like that.

I’ll show two methods today. One in photoshop that takes a lot more steps but is more precise, and another in Indesign that is quick but less precise.

The best and most precise way is to make a duplicate of your photo with a transparent background. I’ll start with opening photoshop.
-I’m using Photoshop 2021, and they’ve made it very easy to select your subject, as long as you don’t mind going in after to fix their mistakes.
-Go to Select>Subject and let it work its magic
-It did a pretty good job of guessing, so lets first refine the edge so it doesn’t have a harsh cut line
-Go to Select>modify>expand, and I like to use 2px
-Again, Select>modify>feather, and again 2 px. This gives it a softer outline so it’s not such a harsh cutout.
-At the bottom of the layers panel, select this black square with a circle to create a mask from our outline. This doesn’t delete anything, so if we make mistakes we don’t have to restart from scratch
-There’s some background that got included by accident, so let’s fix those
-Select the mask, make sure the color selected is white, and select the eraser tool
-Erase the bits of background that were included.
-Use the brush tool to bring back the bits of benny that were left out of the mask.
-Tip: Right click>disable layer mask to show the background again, and in Channels click the eye next to the mask to make it easier to see what needs fixed.
-When it’s where you like it, save as either a new Photoshop file or PNG, as those hold the transparency. A JPG will just fill in your transparent areas with white.
-Add both your original image and the one you just edited, add your contextual graphic and arrange accordingly.

Next we’ll use just InDesign with the pen tool.
-Insert your photo, decide where you want the contextual graphics to go
-select pen tool, begin going around the outline of your subject
-Close the shape
-With the selection tool, select the image and copy
-right click the new shape you just created, and paste into
-Add your contextual graphic and arrange accordingly.

And there you have it, hopefully one of these methods works well for you and gives you more freedom to make awesome designs. Thanks and good luck.

Graphs and charts have a specific look in the Oregon State Brand, and in this 10 minute video we discuss how to create those in Adobe Illustrator and Indesign:

From Adobe Illustrator:

Select Pie Graph Tool (under the Column Graph Tool) and make it the size you want.
A Data box will appear, allowing you to add your numbers.
Close the data box, select the stroke and choose ‘None’ as the color.
Select the Selection Tool (V), click on the pie chart and go to Object>Ungroup, say yes to the dialog box that appears (this warns you that you will no longer be able to edit the data, so make sure your numbers are final). Right click the pie chart and select ‘Ungroup’ again.
Select the Ellipse Tool (under the Rectangle Tool) and from the center of the pie graph click and hold Shift+Alt and drag to make your circle from the center. Select the fill of this circle and change it to white.
Edit>Copy the white circle and Shift+click one of the pie shapes. This should have the circle and one of the pies selected, with the white circle in front.
Go to Window>Pathfinder and select ‘Minus Front’ from the Shape Mode.
Go to Edit>Paste in Place (Shift+Ctrl+V). The white circle should have pasted in the exact same place as last time.
Shift+click on one of the pie shapes and repeat steps 7 and 8 until all of the pies have been cut.
To add gaps, select all of the shapes with the Selection Tool and go to Window>Stroke. Choose a weight that feels appropriate, and choose Rounded Corners.
With the shape selected, go to Object>Path>Outline Stroke. Right Click and Ungroup.
Select both the outlined stroke and the solid inside color and again select ‘Minus Front’ from the Shape Mode in the Pathfinder Window. Repeat for the remaining shapes.
Change the fill of each of the shapes to be the stroke by clicking on the double arrow next to the Fill and Stroke in the toolbar.
Select all and from the Stroke Window, choose Rounded Corners. Copy the entire shape.

From Adobe InDesign:

Edit>Paste the shape that was made in Adobe Illustrator. Right Click>Ungroup.
Select the Line Tool and draw a line down through the center of the circle. Make sure it’s the same weight as the outlines of the other shapes
Edit>Copy the line and then Edit>Paste in Place (Shift+Ctrl+Alt+V).
Hover over the end until the double arrows appear showing you can rotate it.
Hold Shift, click and drag to rotate it 90 degrees. Copy both the lines and Edit>Paste in Place. Repeat until you’ve made a star with many points and small space between each line.
Select the star only and Object>Group.
Edit>Cut, select one of the shapes and Right Click>Paste Into.
Select one of the shapes and go to Window>Swatches.
With the Stroke selected, choose one of Oregon State’s brand colors.
Hover over the shape until a circle appears. Your mouse will turn into a hand. Click to select the star shape within the container shape.
From the Swatches Window, select the same color. Repeat for each of the shapes.