Type and Image ART 220 · Digital Illustration · Session 07
Workhorse Collective
NameAbraham GarciaEmailabe@wrkhrs.co
ART 220 · Fall 2026
MeetsTue + Thu, 12:30 to 3:20TodaySession 07 · 09.15.2026
meaninglayer.com/course/digital-illustration
Session 07
Where Project 1 stands, and what is due Thursday.
01 · The family
One hero at 16 by 9 inches that runs full width at the top of a web article, and two spots at 3 by 3 inches that sit inside the text. Vector only. Global swatches. One palette across all three.
02 · What the hero survives
The article at full width, the share card crop at 1.91:1 with a title bar over it, and a thumbnail around 200 px wide.
03 · What the spots survive
Run size at 3 inches, and the one-inch test. Check every spot at one inch.
04 · Thursday, Sep 17
One file, lastname-p1.ai, from the hand-in template: the three artboards, the proof, and your thumbnail sheets. On Blackboard by 1:30.
Handed out today
Two files. Both open in Illustrator. Both are on the class page now.
The layout/handouts/p1-editorial-layout.svg
A web article page at 16 inches wide. Masthead, headline, deck, byline, the 16 by 9 hero slot, two text columns with a 3 by 3 spot slot inline, and a share card at 1.91:1 with the safe zone marked. You place your family into it and see what the page does to it.
The proof sheet/handouts/p1-proof-sheet.svg
A tabloid sheet with labeled frames: the hero at 100 percent, the share crop, each spot at 3 inches and at 1 inch. This is the PDF proof you hand in Thursday. Fill the frames, export, done.
How to use themFile, Place
File, Place your .ai into the frame. Keep the link live. When you fix the drawing in your own file, the layout and the proof sheet update on their own.
OPEN BOTH FILES NOW. WE USE THEM AFTER THE TALK.
Type and Image
HOW A HEADLINE SITS WITH AN ILLUSTRATION.
01 · Lockups
Three places a headline can go next to a hero.
Over. The headline sits above the hero. The picture can be full. This is the layout you were handed, and it is the easy case.
Beside. The headline shares the frame. The drawing holds one side and leaves the other side calm.
Inside. The headline lands on the picture. The drawing needs a flat, low-contrast area big enough for two or three lines of type.
Which of the three does your hero allow right now?
02 · Clearance
Type needs empty space around it and behind it.
Clearance is the empty space type needs around it and behind it. Around: room so the words do not touch an edge of the drawing. Behind: a flat area with one value, so the letters are the only contrast in that patch.
Rule of thumb: the quiet zone is at least one third of the hero's width and a third of its height, in one corner or along one side.
Screenshot your hero. Draw a rectangle of two lines of type on it. Can you place it anywhere without covering a shape?
03 · The share crop
On a share card the hero is cropped to 1.91:1 and the title is laid over the bottom.
16:9 to 1.91:1 is a small crop off the top and bottom. The crop itself is small. The title bar is the real problem. Most platforms lay the article title across the bottom of the card, on top of your picture.
The layout file draws the safe zone for you: the upper two thirds, in from every edge. Whatever the picture is about has to live there.
If the main shape sits low in the frame, it is under the title on every phone that sees it.
04 · The thumbnail
At 200 pixels, only one large shape and a light-dark split survive.
A thumbnail is the article in a list. Around 200 pixels wide on a phone. Nobody zooms in on it.
What survives: one large shape, a light-dark split, and a color. What dies: line work, texture, faces smaller than a fingertip, and any word inside the drawing.
Export a 200 px PNG of your hero and put it on your phone. Can you tell what it is without knowing?
05 · The one-inch test
A spot is drawn at 3 inches and checked at 1 inch.
A spot lives inside the text column. On a phone that column is narrow, and the spot lands near one inch. At that size strokes merge, gaps close, and two shapes that touch read as one.
The test is mechanical: scale the artboard to one inch and print it, or view at actual size on a screen you trust. Do not zoom in to check.
The proof sheet has a one-inch frame for each spot. I grade the spot from that frame.
The designer places the illustration. Draw it so it can be placed.
Today in one line
Placeable
Four things a designer needs from your hero.
Bleed. The background runs past the artboard edge on every side. When the frame shifts a little, no white line shows. Half an inch past the edge is plenty.
Edges that can be cut. Nothing that matters touches the frame. If the crop takes a sliver off any side, the picture still works.
One clear focal point, in the upper two thirds, in from the edges. The thing the picture is about survives every crop and every size.
A quiet zone big enough for two lines of type, in one value. The headline has a place to land.
What Ships
THE PRODUCTION FILE, AND WHAT A DESIGNER CHECKS WHEN THEY OPEN IT.
01 · Named layers, global swatches
Someone who has never seen your file has to find their way around it.
Name every layer for what is on it: ground, figure, foreground, line. Delete empty layers. Nobody should have to click through Layer 1 through Layer 14 to find the sky.
Every fill and stroke points at a global swatch. The Swatches panel shows your palette plus black and white, and nothing else. A designer changes one swatch and the whole family follows.
Three artboards, named hero, spot-a, spot-b. Same order in every file you send.
02 · Stray points, live type
Two things that break a file on another machine.
Stray points. A single anchor with no path, left behind by the Pen tool or a bad delete. Invisible to you, and it throws off the bounding box, the export, and the crop. Select, Object, Stray Points, then Delete. Run it on every artboard before you save.
Live type. There is no type in this project, so this is for later. When a file carries text, the designer's machine needs the same font or the text reflows. Type, Create Outlines turns letters into shapes that travel anywhere. Send the live file too, so the words can still be edited.
Why designers ask. They are opening your file at 11 pm on a deadline. Anything that pops a dialog box means a phone call to you.
03 · Run size, links, RGB
Artboards at run size, no linked files, RGB.
Artboards at run size: 16 by 9 inches for the hero, 3 by 3 for each spot. A big artboard with the drawing floating somewhere on it is a crop nobody can use. The artboard edge is where the designer crops.
Embedded, for anything raster inside the .ai. A linked file is a path on your laptop. When the .ai leaves your laptop, the link breaks. In Project 1 there should be no raster at all, so just check the Links panel is empty.
Document Color Mode: RGB. This work goes to a screen. File, Document Color Mode, RGB Color. CMYK is for print, and a CMYK file on a web page goes dull.
04 · The PDF proof
The proof shows the family at every size, on one sheet.
Fill the proof artboard in the hand-in template. Place your art into each frame: hero at 100 percent, the share crop, each spot at 3 inches and at 1 inch. The frames are already the right size.
Look at it at actual size before you upload. View, Actual Size, and look hardest at the one-inch spots.
Hand in · Thursday, Sep 17
01
The three artboards
The hero and both spots at run sizeNamed layersGlobal swatchesNo stray points
In the fileRGB, built from the hand-in template
02
The proof artboard
The hero at run sizeThe hero as the share cropBoth spots at run sizeBoth spots at one inch
In the filethe frames are already the right size
03
The thumbnails artboard
PhotographedEvery sheet, in orderLegible in the photo
In the fileplaced on the thumbnails artboard
ONE FILE, LASTNAME-P1.AI, ON BLACKBOARD BY 1:30 THURSDAY, WITH ONE SENTENCE ON WHAT THE ARTICLE ARGUES AND HOW YOUR HERO CARRIES IT.
Today
WORK SESSION. I COME TO EACH DESK.
Work plan · the rest of class
01
Place
Open p1-editorial-layout.svg. File, Place your hero into the hero slot and one spot into the inline slot. Place the hero into the share card. Look at the title bar over it and the safe zone. Note what fails.
Time20 minutes
02
Proof
Open p1-proof-sheet.svg. Place the family into all five frames. Export the PDF. Open it at actual size and look at the one-inch spots and the share crop.
Time20 minutes
03
Clean
Back in your .ai. Rename layers. Count swatches. Select, Object, Stray Points. Artboards at run size. Document Color Mode RGB. Window, Links, empty. Save.
Time15 minutes
04
Desk visits
I come to each desk with the layout open. We look at the share crop and the one-inch spots together and decide what to fix tonight. Have your questions ready.
Timethe whole block
WHAT FAILS IN THE LAYOUT TODAY, YOU FIX TONIGHT.
Tonight and Thursday
Fix what failed in the layout, then export the proof again.
The share crop and the one-inch spot are the two checks that fail most. Bigger shapes, fewer of them, focal point up and in. Check the proof artboard after every change.
Photograph your thumbnail sheets in flat light, square to the page, and place them on the thumbnails artboard in order.
Thursday the 17th, Project 1 is handed in. One file on Blackboard by 1:30, after an hour in class to check it against the list.
meaninglayer.com/course/digital-illustration
