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Why InDesign Should Be Your New Best Friend

June 21st, 2018 by Hilary Adorno


New career, new software

My transition from a career in commercial real estate development and accounting to my work as a Project Manager at Golden Egg involved a host of new software. One year ago, I embarked on a learning expedition, attempting to master InDesign, Photoshop, and Illustrator, all cloud-based software produced by Adobe Systems. These programs are widely used to design marketing collateral, edit images and create vector artwork. Ask any graphic designer, and he or she will confirm that these programs are the undisputed heavyweight champs in their field for these aforementioned purposes.

"Install InDesign", Lindsey said. "It'll be easy", she said.

I was scared. More like horrified...

Upon opening InDesign for the first time, I noticed an intimidating collection of editing windows and an intense toolbar packed with icons offering more options than imaginable. My first instinct was to call Lindsey to tell her I’d made a huge mistake. But with a little screen sharing and several instructional videos, I grew more confident. And my confidence was dramatically increasing each time I opened an .indd document!

Selecting the right tool for the task at hand

When it comes to client attempts at laying out Proposals/Statements of Qualification, flyers, brochures and ads, we've seen it all - the good, the bad and the downright ugly. Across they board, these materials were created utilizing a variety of non-Adobe software platforms - primarily Microsoft Word and PowerPoint. The underlying problem is that neither of these programs provide the precision, ease of editing and professional quality results like InDesign - largely because that's not what these programs were built to do. As the name implies, Word is a word processing software. PowerPoint is presentation software. 

But don't ask either Word or PowerPoint to do anything outside of their job description. That's when stuff gets wonky.

We've witnessed fonts getting unknowingly replaced and resized, text getting inexplicably relocated, and images getting disproportionately skewed. Despite good intentions, projects that were so painstakingly created barely resemble the original concept. Who wants to leave that impression with a potential client? It certainly won’t instill confidence or say, “we’re quality-driven professionals” and “we care about results”.

I would be remiss if I neglected to mention Publisher - Microsoft's best attempt at a page layout option. However, it truly pales in comparison to InDesign. Not to mention, it's not Mac-compatible.

Ready to make the switch?

By now you think I am receiving compensation from Adobe to write this and while I wish that was true, it isn’t. I’m writing this because InDesign is amazing, and I can’t imagine using anything else in my day-to-day ops at Golden Egg.

Don't be scared. We're here to help you refresh and convert your templates, as we have done for a number of clients. Future edits can be a breeze and your documents can retain consistency in colors, fonts and layout. The end result is a print-ready, fantastically professional product that conveys to your client “I care about you and the materials I put in front of you”.


Posted in the categories Design, Proposals, Tips & Advice, My Two Cents, Featured.