Design Project Tutorials Using Adobe InDesign

These projects help you learn the basics and explore advanced features of Adobe InDesign by creating the same type of projects you might tackle as an in-house or freelance graphic designer. The 12 categories of tutorials include business cards and letterhead, magazines, newsletters, and newspapers, and posters. In most cases, tutorials start with setting up your document (or some start with the initial sketches and planning) and go all the way to printing or saving as a PDF or a digital publication.

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Ads and Direct Mail

Woman having a Skype meeting — Gary Houlder / Getty Images

Perfectly Cropped Mailer: Designing a direct mail piece with custom crops and folds and a coupon. It's a 6:50-minute video tutorial at Layers Magazine by Jeff Witchel.
How to Create a Coupon in InDesign CS4: Beginner level tutorial with 32 steps at envato tuts+ by Simona Pfreundner.
Design a Print-ready Ad: 45-step tutorial by Jonathan at envato tuts+.
Drawing With Shapes in InDesign: Create a 60s-inspired illustration for an ad using rectangles, ellipses, polygons, and stars in this tutorial by Jacci Howard Bear.

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Brochures, Leaflets, Pamphlets

How to Make a Print Ready A5 Leaflet in InDesign CS5: Beginner level tutorial for creating a 4-page leaflet or brochure uses some of the typesetting features that were new in CS5. 22 steps. From Gavin Selby at envato tuts+.
Create and Print a Brochure with Photoshop, InDesign, and UPrinting.com: Part 1: (14 steps), Part 2: (9 steps), from Collis at envato tuts+, the artwork is created in Photoshop then placed into InDesign for further work.

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Business Cards and Letterhead

Tero Vesalainen / Pixabay

Designing a Business Card in InDesign: 7:24-minute Video tutorial by Christy Winter at Layers Magazine.
Designing a Business Card: Download the WL-OL244 template and use it to create a business card, bring it into an 8-up template. From Worldlabel.com
Design a Print Ready Business Card for Designers: Lengthy, detailed, illustrated tutorial from Chris Spooner.
Designing a Basic Letterhead With InDesign CS5: Beginner level 10-step tutorial by James Andrew at envato tuts+.
How to Design a Print Ready Letterhead & Comp Slip: From Chris Spooner, uses mostly Illustrator but uses InDesign for output.

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Digital Publications

Using InDesign CS5 to Publish Your iPad Magazine: Terry White at Layers Magazine uses CS5 and the Adobe Digital Publishing Suite.
Create an Interactive Magazine for the iPad: This DigitalArts tutorial uses CS5 or later, Photoshop, and the Mag+ plug-in.
Take a Design From Print to iPad: This DigitalArts tutorial uses CS5.5 and Adobe Digital Publishing Suite to take a printed magazine and make a digital version for the iPad.
Creating iBooks (EPUB) With InDesign CS5: Uses InDesign CS5 to design book, exports in EPUB format, and tests it in Adobe Digital Editions player. From Layers Magazine and Terry White.

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Invitations

Design a Halloween Invitation With InDesign CS5 by Gavin Selby from envato tuts+.
Invitation Design video tutorial from Layers Magazine by Aaron Westgate: Part 1: (9:14 min), Part 2: (9:11 min)

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Magazines, Newsletters, Newspapers

Magazine Design With InDesign: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3. At Layers Magazine, this basic 3 part tutorial by Chad Neuman includes master pages, auto page numbers, shapes, text import from a Word file, text wrap, and other features. Uses Illustrator for some steps. Downloadable files provided.
How to Create a Professional Magazine Layout: A envato tuts+ intermediate level tutorial for CS4/CS5 from Otto Coster.
Design a Multi-Page Mag Feature: Jo Gilliver of Computer Arts demonstrates how to set up a complex multi-page mag including grid setup, creating a template, and adding finishing touches. Downloadable support files. The tutorial is a PDF download as well.
Create a Newsprint Magazine: Download the PDF tutorial from Computer Arts which includes tips on designing a "complex, versatile grid system" and how to work with black and white images and cheap paper but get great results.
Magazine Cover Design in InDesign CS3: 13-step tutorial by Terry White at Layers Magazine includes techniques for making a cover that stands out on the magazine rack.
How to Create a Music Magazine Cover in InDesign: From envato tuts+ and Simona Pfreundner, this is an introductory or beginner level tutorial.
Create a Newsprint Publication: From Computer Arts, topics covered include grids, consistency, and use of two-color printing. For InDesign and Photoshop CS3 or later.

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Menus

Design a Coffee Shop Menu Layout From Scratch With Photoshop and InDesign CS5: Part 1: (24 steps), Part 2: (35 steps). Intermediate level tutorial by Alvaro Guzman at psd tuts+ using Photoshop to create the artwork to be imported into InDesign for the addition of more text and print to PDF.

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Photo Albums, Photobooks, Yearbooks

ATDSPHOTO/Pixabay

Create Photo Albums for Print: 14-step tutorial from Terry White at Layers Magazine.
Designing a Photobook in Adobe InDesign CS4: A Layers Magazine 11:49-minute Video tutorial by A.J. Wood.
Yearbook Project: Create a photo-heavy spread for a yearbook using Adobe InDesign. Tutorial from Shield Yearbook.

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Portfolios

Creating an Interactive Portfolio With InDesign CS3: 14 step tutorial by Mike Mchugh at Layers Magazine.
Create a Quick One-Page Portfolio in InDesign CS4: 24-step Beginner tutorial by Simona Pfreundner at envato tuts+.
Creating an Interactive Portfolio With InDesign CS5: 14 step tutorial by Terry White at Layers Magazine.

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Posters

Create a Striking Exhibition Poster: From Luke O'Neill at Computer Arts, uses InDesign, Illustrator, and Photoshop to create a logotype, create an Illustrator pattern, and work with a grid and type.
Designing an Event Poster: An 8:47-minute video tutorial by Christy Winter at Layers Magazine uses "Object Styles to add intensity to the headline."
Use Glyphs to Create a Striking Typographic Poster in InDesign: This Computer Arts tutorial by Jo Gulliver is for InDesign CS3 or later.

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Resumés or CVs

Using InDesign CS4 to Create a Designer Resumé: Lengthy, 32-step Intermediate level tutorial from Simona Pfreudner at envato tuts+.
Create a Grid-Based Resumé/CV Layout in InDesign: From Chris Spooner, detailed, illustrated tutorial.
How to Create a Modern CV/Resumé With InDesign: SpryeStudios provides a download of the InDesign files used in this tutorial.

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Other Miscellaneous Projects

InDesign CS3, In Good Form: The right way to build a form. Tutorial by Terry White at Layers Magazine.
Book Cover Design in InDesign CS5: 9:08-minute video tutorial by Jeff Witchel at Layers Magazine makes use of the CS5 feature allowing multiple size pages in a single document.
Create Numbered Tickets the Easy Way in InDesign: Simona Pfreundner uses InDesign and the Data Merge Tool in this tutorial at envato tuts+.
Designing a Basic Compliment Slip With InDesign CS5: Beginner level 11-step tutorial by James Andrew at envato tuts+.
Create a Pocket Folder Template in CS5: From Keith Gilbert at InDesignSecrets.com, the basic steps to create a pocket folder layout.

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Bear, Jacci Howard. "Design Projects Using Adobe InDesign." ThoughtCo, Sep. 8, 2021, thoughtco.com/design-projects-using-adobe-indesign-1078509. Bear, Jacci Howard. (2021, September 8). Design Projects Using Adobe InDesign. Retrieved from https://www.thoughtco.com/design-projects-using-adobe-indesign-1078509 Bear, Jacci Howard. "Design Projects Using Adobe InDesign." ThoughtCo. https://www.thoughtco.com/design-projects-using-adobe-indesign-1078509 (accessed March 21, 2023).