Low on the Go!

Random thought on translation.

You know, a lot of work goes into translating a booklet into a different language. I've never taken much notice of this, but I've been busy helping out with the conversion of this
booklet into French. I received the translation, and had to put it into the existing design. Sounds easy, right?

Wrong. French is a very verbose language (or so it seems!) and so once translated, there's twice as much text as the english version! This is a problem when you input something into a design that has already been custom made for something in English. Also, logos need to be redone, since they're done in English and need to be designed in French. Then comes all the text revision! I'm SO grateful for our team over in Quebec City. I don't even know how I wouldn't go crazy, editing over and over and over again. All the minute details that need to be checked out...insane. Last week, when I was inputting the French into InDesign, the program didn't recognize the hyphens from Microsoft Word..so I had to manually search 28 pages of text and input all the hyphens..and let me tell you, there are A MASSLOAD of hyphens in French!!!!

[edit: I just submitted the final revision *crosses fingers* of the booklet 2 minutes ago. You know, the reason why I love design so much is because the results are so tangible. Unlike working with people, you see the results of your work almost immediately, and when you're done, you're done. The quality of your work often correlates directly to how much time you spend working on the goods, tweaking and correcting. The one hour you spend choosing a font definitely pays off at the end. Anyways, it feels good to almost be done this project. Namely, because this means that the french ministry will have these in time for frosh week, AND because after spending a good 40 hours on this booklet, sometimes looking at it for a good 4-5 hours a day...it'll be nice to bid it farewell!]

and here's something i did for t-shirts this week... productivity feels so good.