It is super important to have a good design for a newsletter before just jumping right into creating because you will have an idea of what you want it to look like. You do not just want to start creating, you could forget something or flat out put something in the wrong spot. Designing before you create is important to get your thoughts in line, ideas onto paper and also just a way to create organization. If you do not organize your newsletter, it can look super messy. It is totally fine to have a messy and ugly design before creating your actual newsletter because it is a draft.
The process of creating a draft before the real things allows you to really decide what you want where and what you truly want in the newsletter. When you have a good foundation, the rest is way easier! It is like a house, when the foundation is good and steady, the rest of the building is WAY easier. If you go straight into InDesign without having this good foundation, you could get overwhelmed and that would just slow you down and be frustrating. You really need to go in steps to do your best creations.
Grids provide structure. Structure can be super important for a newsletter to create organization and consistency. InDesign is great for grids and makes a newsletter look impeccable. When creating a newsletter, the grids can sorta act like lines in a coloring book, these can be super helpful.
Important graphics in a newsletter are the photos, headlines, nameplate, bylines, subheads and pull quotes. The organization is very important in a newsletter. If messy a newsletter can confuse and even just make a reader stop reading, which is the WORST thing to happen when reading a newsletter.
This is a VERY rough sketch for an outline design for a newsletter. The final copy will be completed soon... and I will post.
Stay tuned!
-JMD
Hello Jordan-
I think you've made a lot of important points about newsletters. One that really stuck out to me was about how organization makes a newsletter readable, and lack thereof can make someone stop being interested altogether. This ties in well to what you were saying about why a draft is important. Good job! I feel like you have a good understanding of this subject.