Postcard template, a few examples of possible designs.
Designing your Postcards
Designing Your Postcards.
The task of creating your postcards is essentially the designing and making of a panel of images (i.e. the three postcard fronts), each of which is a composite of two to five photographs. As in any panel presentation, all components need to work together to create a cohesive final product. In addition, you will need to design and create one postcard back, containing your statement of intent.
To unify the postcard panel, each postcard design must be variations on a single template.
You could choose a template and take the photographs to fit the spaces or alternatively choose the postcard template after you have selected the photographs for your final display. Work out what shapes and sizes are best for each photograph and then choose a single postcard format with variations which can accommodate them most effectively. This is one of the most challenging aspects of this project!
NB When you are taking your photographs, it is a good idea to make sure you have plenty of space around the subject so that you will have a degree of flexibility to crop your images to shapes that work well on your postcards.
Remember that the final postcard will be 14cm by 9cm so several individual spaces will be relatively small and unsuitable for distance shots or ones with lots of tiny detail.
To make the template, create a new file in Photoshop 14 x 9 cm (1654 x 1063px), add a background colour and – on a new layer - divide it into spaces with vertical and horizontal white lines. You can then insert the images between the background layer and the lines layer and resize and crop as necessary to fit into the spaces created.
Although there are many possible template designs, the simplest would be to divide the postcard into 4 equal spaces with two lines of the same width (25px width in these examples) and reducing the number of spaces to 3 or 2 by removing all or part of either line A 5th space can be created in the centre of any of them with a square OR rounded box (only one shape to be chosen). ROW A
It could be an asymmetrical division. ROW B
Some formats can be flipped horizontally and / or vertically to suit the images.
The templates can flipped vertically to create a portrait presentation. ROW C
Although the format variations of the individual templates are different, they are visually integrated by retaining the position of the dividing lines, by removing, not moving, part or all of some of them.
A white border can be included but it must be inside the frame.
On completion, a 1 pixel 50% grey keyline must be added on the outside of each postcard before submission.
NB We require the cards to be submitted with a grey keyline on the outside of each postcard and it should be at 50% grey. This is because the book pages will be white and the keyline will ensure that the cards will be completely defined even if there is white at the edges, either as a border or as part of the image.