January 15, 2017

TIME MANAGEMENT

Behind The Design Scenes

By Viktoria Dekany, Interior Architect

The next few months will be extremely busy at university, therefore I decided to make a learning guide (Gantt Chart) that can help me stay on track.

At this time I wanted to add some extra features to the regular chart's basic characteristics.

1. SET-UP

PhotoShop makes really easy to design a layout like this. I created a new document (size A4) and duplicated it - it allows us to see both pages of the booklet. As the page is included in my recent Research Report (more info coming soon), therefore I added the relevant page numbers and titles in the footnote area.

I have chosen a picture that was obvious for the theme of the report, but I also wanted to pick something with strong colours.

2. TEXTS

The next step was to insert the text details - tasks are projected for the following 4 months.

Obviously, I had to put a white box behind the texts to make it easily readable. The main titles' colours are matches with the image shades which allows the flowing of the layout.

3. TIMELINE

The next step was adding the dates and highlight their period of time. I simply drew some rectangles under each of the dates, and reduced their visibility, therefore the main image is still in the centre of our eye-focus.

4. PROJECTION

To display how many weeks I will spend on each tasks, I simply drew the suitable length of rectangles and highlighted the submission dates as well. As the timeline is the most important element of the layout, I used a vivid orange colour which allows easily read the project compilation from the beginning till the final submission.

5. FINISHING TOUCHES

I decided to cut out some part of the orange rectangles which enables the main image better appearance besides the visibility of projections. I also added some line-works to make the layout more easily followable, and hit the Multiply function on PhotoShop which displays a few extra shades of the orange. Furthermore, I added some instruction by adding 'week 1 and week 4' for under each dates.

I always like experimenting with different ideas and PhotoShop makes the design process really enjoyable with its numerous functions. The layout above took me approx. 2 hours to create.

As always, I am looking forward some feedback as it can improve my current knowledge. I would appreciate it if you leave a comment below!

#magazinelayout #timeline #ganttchart