Full Bleed Communication Design

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Who is it for? Artists, arts presenters and arts organizations

Whether you’re preparing to announce a new show, designing a brochure to help promote your art, or working with a designer on graphics for your website, you’ll discover techniques you can use right away in your own projects that will make your communication pieces stand out.

Using before and after examples and what steps you can take to vastly improve your graphic design skills you’ll learn how to see things differently. First you will look at four basic principles that are easy to implement whether you are creating communications yourself or for when you’re working with a designer. This is followed by an overview and explanation of the use of typefaces, fonts (and even punctuation!).

This workshop is not about computers, specific software or whether you have any experience with graphic design for print or web. It’s about improving your visual skills and making your communications more effective.

Engaging, fun and interactive.

John McLachlan has presented Communication Design at arts conferences in BC (Pacific Contact, Arts Summits in Prince Rupert, Smithers, Nanaimo, Nelson, Prince George and Fort St. John), in Banff and Red Deer at Alberta Showcase, in Washington State as well as privately for arts organizations.

John has a background in the arts. He was a touring singer/songwriter for 15 years (also handling promotion), has been the Executive Director of the BC Touring Council and the Creative City Network of Canada, run his own graphic and web design business for ten years and is currently Creative Director of Full Bleed Arts Marketing which is a non-profit society he started in order to develop tools and services for artists and arts organizations.
John lives on Hornby Island, British Columbia on the west coast of Canada.

Presenting the Workshop

The workshop can be customized for various settings but a maximum of about 25 people is ideal. A projection screen is required (John brings his own projector). Set up can be either theatre-style or classroom-style.

The full-workshop requires 2.5 hours. A condensed version is also available.

“Mini-Me” slides from the workshop