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Your client is a college art department that's asked you to design a 1-month activity schedule that meets the following requirements: It must convey the nobility of the school and the artistic spirit of the month's events. It must be handy to use, printable in-house, and inexpensive. Oh, and it must be done by tonight.

How do you turn in quality work on such a tight schedule? In the same way you do any job -- methodically. The difference is that you limit type and colors to the basics and your layout to a simple configuration.

Work with what you have. The page is a strong vertical line; the brush image is an even stronger line. Placed parallel, they work together; crossing, they have friction and energy, and in this case the brush becomes a header, too. The centerline is the point of highest contrast in the image.

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