Hi, there in this video, you got to learn to create a business letterhead and InDesign, so let's
get started.
Mostly letter heads of either letter size or A4 size, letter size is more popular in the US, whereas
A4 is more a European size.
So let's select a full size for this tutorial.
I'm going to change the units to MM and pages two two because we'll be designing the front as well as
the back of the letterhead.
In most cases, you won't find a letterhead to have a back page designed.
But these days, this concept is picking up fast.
We won't need of a pages to face each other, so let's uncheck the facing pages option.
Let's add four columns to have a document with a gutter of four mm.
Inserting columns might help you with placing text all elements, which is why I'm inserting the columns.
Otherwise, personally, I don't add columns while designing a letterhead.
Let's also add a three mm bleed and it create.
Let's close the layers panel here, and first of all, we need to establish the center of the page,
so let's make a rectangle and then drag a guide to the center of the rectangle.
Now delete the rectangle.
Also, close the info panel as we won't need it in this tutorial.
Now, grab a rectangle and make a rectangle covering the top of the page about this size.
Please ensure to include the bleed space in the rectangle.
Now, grab the direct selection tool and select the bottom right anchor point of the rectangle.
Hold shift and then click and drag the anchor point as illustrated.
Please ensure that you don't click first and then hold shift.
It should be the other way around.
Similarly, let us select the bottom left anchor points and drag it up a notch.
Now let's come down and make a rectangle at the bottom of the letterhead, as illustrated in to include
the bleed space.
I think we need to reduce the weight of this rectangle a notch with the rectangle selected hold option
on a Mac or old on APC and drag it up now to fill it with none.
Click the forward slash button once and the black fill should be gone.
Click the middle anchor points on the right and drag it to the center point of the page.
Now, grab the direct selection tool and select the top right anchor points of this rectangle.
Holding shift, drag this anchor point inward as illustrated.
Let's add a stroke to this shave from the panel above.
Next, go to edit and then copy and then edit once again and select the Paste in place option, which
will paste another copy of the shape right at the same location.
Now click the flip horizontal button, which sits at the top toolbar and your copied shape shall become
a mirror image of the existing shape holding shift.
Drag this mirror image to the right so as to touch the right side of this shape to the bleed, not click
flip vertical option on top.
Holding shift move it up slightly, about five mm.
Next, grab the rectangle tool and make a slim rectangle at the original position of the shape you just
moved up.
And let's fill it with black for now.
Let me zoom in.
With the selection to drag the rectangle to the left a notch because we need to align it with the slope
of the shape above, have the direct selection tool selected and then select the bottom left anchor
point of this black rectangle and holding shift.
Drag it to the right to align it to the slope of the shape above.
Perfect.
Now go to edit and then copy and then edit once again and paste it in place.
You can even use the shortcut command, see on a Mac or Control C on a PC to copy it and option shift
command V on a Mac or alter shift control V on a PC to paste it in place.
Click the flip horizontal button once to make it a mirror image and then click Flip Vertical Button
once to flip it vertically.
Now place this shape above the shape on the left and align it much like you aligned its counterpart
holding shift.
Select the shape and the big shape on the right, and then click once again the right shape to base
the alignment on and from the alignment options on top, click the Align Top Edges button, and now
these two shapes must be in perfect alignment.
Similarly, select the bottom two shapes and then click the bigger shape on the left do base the alignment
on and from the alignment options on top.
Click the aligned bottom edges button.
Now, all these shapes are in perfect alignment, so let's move to the top and fill the shape with black.
To check the preview hit the W key, and it's looking good so far.
Let's get back to the normal mode and then go to file and then place and locate the images from the
computer of place to images here.
One is the client's logo and the other one is the color reference sent by the client.
I'm going to select the top shape and using the eyedropper tool, pick a color from the color reference
image.
I think it's a nice color, but we need something much lighter than this, so I'm going to stick to
the same color, but change the opacity to about 25 percent.
Now, let's resize our logo here and place it on top left of the page within the set margins.
That's a W to check the preview and I guess it looks perfect.
Let's work on the bottom design of the letterhead, actually.
Let's drag this color reference image down.
Let's select the bottom rectangle and using the eyedropper tool, I'm going to steal the color from
the logo instead.
I'm going to pick the color of the letter G.
Holding shift, let's select the two big hollow shapes above and then using the eyedropper tool steel
the color from the letter C of the logo.
Now let's change the color of the two black shapes to the color of the big rectangle at the bottom.
I think it's not looking good because there are too many dark colors here, so let's change the color
of these two ships to the same base color we used with the shape on top with the shapes selected using
the eyedropper tool, click once on the base color of the shape on top and jobs done.
Now this looks a lot balanced.
Let's grab the text tool and make a text box and type in the mobile number and email.
I'll change the font to Roboto, bold and size to 10 points, and since we'll be placing it on top of
the bottom, rectangle will have to also change the font color to white.
Let's also send to align it now, place the text in the center of the rectangle.
Another thing to note here is that so far the text has been only horizontally aligned.
We need to align it vertically as well.
But since that rectangle is extended all the way to the bleed zone, we'll have to make sure to excluded
while centre aligning the text.
The best way to do that is to grab the rectangle tool and make a small rectangle stretching from the
top of the bottom rectangle until the mark from where the bleed zone begins.
Now, with the text selected, go to type menu and select create outlines to change your type to shape.
Select the text and the small rectangle and then click the rectangle once again to base the alignment
on and from the alignment options on top.
Select Align vertical centers, not delete the small rectangle as its job is done.
Now, when you hit the W key to check the preview, you'll find your text at the bottom is perfectly
aligned to the rectangle.
Let's grab the text tool and make a big text box to cover the content of the letterhead.
Right click the text box and fill it with some place.
Hold a text, shed the extra text and divide the text into paragraphs, like in an official letter.
Select the text and change the font to Roboto, a regular and font size to 10 points.
Also increase the leading to 15 points.
Let's make the name bowled in the air and then drag the text box down as it's too close to the colored
shape above.
Make another textbox on top right corner and type in the address and other details, and then write
a line it.
Select the text and change the fonts to robots regular and font size to 10 points, a letterhead or
even a business card should not have more than two fonts, so try to restrict the font usage to just
two unless you really have a valid reason to use more.
Let's add a space between the address and the website.
We have enough room here to add other details as well, like the Instagram address or Facebook or any
other social media address, etc..
Let's see W for a preview.
I think we need to move the content to the left just a tad.
Let's see how it looks now.
Perfect.
Another thing to note is that the left side of the content of the letter should always have more space
than the ride, because if a letter has to be filed, it needs to be a punch hold and that takes up
space on the left.
By the way, I've inserted the content just for an idea how the letterhead would look when the content
is filled, because otherwise, when you have to print blank letter heads, you'd obviously not include
the letter on it.
The front of the letterhead is ready, but we need to still fine tune it so big the direct selection
tool and select the bottom left and component of the shape and drag it down a bit because the space
on top and bottom should be same.
Let's hit the W key and pick the rectangle tool and make a rectangle on top as illustrated.
Now plays this rectangle on the bottom.
Let's come out of the preview mode.
Pick the direct selection tool once again and drag the bottom left corner further down to the point
it covers.
The rectangle I think will have to drag the bottom right anchor point down a tad as well.
Let's check the preview now.
The location of the logo is perfect now.
Let's also push the address to the top until the margin so it will have the same margins from top and
right.
All right.
The front is done.
Let's head to the second page of the document for the back of the letterhead.
Now grab the rectangle tool and make a big rectangle covering the entire page, including the blade.
We need to fill it with a gradient matching the color theme of the logo.
So with the rectangle still selected, click the swatches panel and then the burger menu and then select
new gradient swatch option.
We'll be adding a linear gradient to our rectangle.
So click the right color.
Stop the moment it's selected, the color stop option will be populated.
Change the stop color option to see and y k.
Let's change the value of science to 68 and magenta to sixty four.
Yellow and black should stay at zero.
Now let us click the color stop on the extreme left and values here are perfectly assigned.
Sign is at ninety one.
Magenta is a fall yellow 36 and black 31.
Let's add a color stop by clicking just below the gradient bar and update its location to 90.
Now, update the value of Scion to 41 and magenta to 62.
Yellow and black should get zero.
Time to add another stop and change its location to 65 percent.
Now, update, the value of sign to 31 and Magenta to 44.
Yellow and black should still be sitting at zero.
Add one last stop and update its location to 26 percent.
Now, change the values to 17:09 for Scion 18:9 form magenta.
Thirty three for yellow and 24 for black.
And then click the add button to add the gradients to our rectangle, and then it's done.
Now pick the gradient swatch tool and click and drag it onto the rectangle diagonally.
So what we need is to have the shine approximately in the center of the page.
Let's say W for a preview, I think this looks perfect.
Now let's go to file and then place and locate the watermark image that we're going to place here.
Let's pick the rectangle tool and make a rectangle horizontally and then place a guide to establish
the center.
Now delete the rectangle and then make another rectangle vertically and then drop another guide to establish
the center.
And then delete this rectangle as well using the two guides, a line, the watermark to the center of
the page.
With the watermarks selected, reduce the opacity to 25 percent.
Hits W for a preview, and the letterhead is ready.
All right, guys, that brings us to the close of the session, and it's time for a short break, so
I'll see you in just a bit.
Goodbye.