Hectic

Critique: Travel Issue

This has been a pretty hectic week. Most of my time has gone toward designing for Vox's Travel Issue. It’s been quite the project. I knew from the beginning it would be a lot of work, but once we got started I realized it was even more time consuming than expected. We created templates for the department pages with our elements and type choices, and designed the TOC, calendar, film fare and two features. Tanya and I designed the six-page Day Trippers feature. It provides accounts of four Missouri trips for those interested in history, art, outdoors and food. The two of us served as art directors on Sunday as well, which was a neat experience. I think everything came together well, and I’m excited to finally see it in print on Thursday! Here is one of the most recent drafts of the opening feature spread.

Response: Portfolio

We’ve been doing portfolio critiques in class, and my work was critiqued yesterday. I brought recent designs from Vox, last semester’s magazine class and my summer internship at Cerner. It will be interesting to read everyone’s comments and suggestions. I know I’ll receive great advice, and it will help me decide what pieces I should keep as is, revise or get rid of when putting together my portfolio.

You Can’t Miss This:

On designverb this week, there is a "Help Japan" poster that James White made. All profits will be donated to help relief efforts in Japan. The poster is already sold old, which is awesome. This is a great way to take design and use it to help those in need. I think it has an impact with the cracks through the circle that represents the tsunami and only two words below it.

A lot of you have probably heard of Etsy. If not, it’s a site where you can buy and sell all sorts of things that are handmade, vintage, etc. There are categories such as accessories, art, clothing, furniture, jewelry and much more. I love looking through the paper goods because I plan to design invitations and cards for weddings and kids' birthday parties one day soon. This week I found neat bridal shower invitations and save the dates from a seller called Tints and Prints. Check out more of her designs!

 

Another Week

Critique: I’ve been working on designing logos for the Sports Journalism Institute. For the project, we created 20 different ideas. Yesterday we got feedback from everyone in class and narrowed our logos to the top five we each want to improve on. It was interesting to see the ones everybody chose. One of my favorites got the least amount of votes, but there were a few that received between seven and nine votes. For my second drafts/improvements that I'll work on this week, I'm going to focus on the typography. I need to spice them up overall. Here are some of the top picks and my personal favorites.

Response: This week Mizzou held an iPad conference that had presenters from National Geographic, ESPN, Wired, Popular Science, Better Homes & Gardens and Men’s Health. It was a great opportunity to hear from amazing people in the industry. I learned about each magazine’s experience with the iPad and the future they see with it. It’s so interesting to see how much the industry is evolving. ESPN already had a magazine, website, TV program and radio broadcast, and now 28 apps. It will be interesting to see how the apps advance. Rob King, Gary Hoenig and Wright Thompson from ESPN made me realize that I’m capable of surviving in this new world of journalism and that it will all work out.

You Can’t Miss This

This week, the blog I’m following has a post about a floating house. National Geographic Channel, scientists, engineers and balloon pilots successfully launched a house with weather balloons. It reached 10,000 feet and flew about an hour. How awesome! Read more and check out other pictures at designverb!

Helloo, March

Critique: Department #2, History Project

I designed my second spread for the music department last weekend. I assumed it would take me the same amount of time as the first, but it took about two hours longer. I’m glad I went in early, or I wouldn’t have finished in time. You never know what type of issues might come up with organizing the content. There was double the amount of text for one of the sidebars, so it was quite the task trying to arrange it nicely and fit in on the page. I think it turned out pretty well though. Check it out in this week’s issue! I've also been working on a historical perspectives project. I chose to study and critique Sports Illustrated from its first issue on August, 16 1954 to 1959. It's neat to see how much the content and design has changed throughout the years. This is one of my favorite spreads. I noticed how there is more of a focus on players and fans instead of the action of sports.

 

Week Six

Critique: Prototype2

This week we presented our magazine prototypes to the publishers on our team. For the second draft, my biggest focus was re-working my logo and sell lines. I think it looks cleaner and more professional. I added the dots to the i's and pulled one to use at the end of the tagline. I also cleaned up my feature spread. I reduced the number of photos and created a more appealing title. The personality I want to portray is geared toward young adults who want to entertain. It reveals that you don’t need to have a fancy, high-class party; a party can be casual and can even take place on the back porch. The personality is approachable and “doable” as well. I changed my color palette, which is not as limited.

 

Response: “The September Issue”

I saw “The September Issue” for the first time today, and I really liked it. It was neat to get a look inside Vogue and get a sense of what a typical day is like at the magazine. Anna Wintour, editor-in-chief, has such a huge impact on the fashion world. I didn’t know that she was the first to put celebrities on the cover or bring back fur in the ‘90s.

I enjoyed Grace Coddington, the creative director. She is a funny woman and amazing at what she does. The way she visualizes photos and designs is something that not many could do. She has many roles, such as styling and leading shoots, and each requires a lot of work. I loved the ‘20s feature that she directed. It’s a great idea that was executed really well. Even the lighting/tone of the photos matched the era. It’s beautiful. I couldn’t imagine putting all of the effort into that like she did and then getting parts pulled.

The documentary made me realize even more how intense the fashion world is. Pair it with a magazine, and there is a meticulous process with many steps that is involved. I think it’s incredible, but I could not work in that type of environment. I’m interested in fashion, but I do not live every second for it. I think that is what you have to do in order to survive in that particular industry.

You Can’t Miss This

On designverb this week, there is a post about photographer Natsumi Hayashi. She created a diary of self-portraits, in which she captured herself “floating” in the air throughout places in Tokyo. It’s really neat and shows a lot of creativity.

I came across Bangkok University Creative Center on Supermachine Studio’s Blog. It’s a beautiful center that includes a workshop, library, exhibition area, viewing room and an office. The design team did an amazing job. I haven’t seen interior design quite like it.

      

Week Five

Critique: Prototype

It was hard to get started on the magazine prototype for Shindig, but I had a lot of fun with it. Looking at my designs, I already see things that I would change, but I think I'm off to a pretty good start. It was challenging to make sure the personality was carried throughout. I’m not sure if the feature and department spreads work together. I think the feature is too structured, which is the kind of design my group wants to stay away from. I might need to re-work the feature to make it look less modern. It was tough choosing photos too because there are so many options. I’m sure I’ll have a better idea what I want to use after my design is critiqued. Here is my cover, color palette, feature spread and department spread. 

   

Response: Mag+

I was so excited to learn about Mag+. It’s awesome that you can work from InDesign to create an iPad App. I didn’t realize how different the app design is compared to the print form. I imagine it’s a meticulous and time-consuming process to put each element in the appropriate place. Being able to export the design to Mag+ and review it on the iPad plug in is a convenient tool. I’m looking forward to working with the program. It’s neat we have the opportunity to become iPad savvy and create apps.

You Can’t Miss This

On designverb this week, there is a post about fingerprint trails showing what you were last doing on your iPad or touch phone. I think it's pretty amusing. Here are the photos. Take a look at the post if they are hard to see.

I found logo inspirations, articles and tutorials when browsing AntsMagazine. They might come in handy when we’re working on our 20/10 projects. This logo is one of my favorites. I like how a chef's kitchen utensils are incorporated in each piece of the balloon.

                  

Moving Right Along

Critique: First Department Page

This past week I designed my first page for the music department at Vox. I enjoyed it so much that before I knew it I had been there for three hours and didn’t realize. Arranging and organizing elements in a design is something I love to do. I caught on pretty quick to PlanSystem and everything that goes along with designing. I wasn't sure what to expect, but it went well, and I feel more confident and prepared for future designing. There is a lot of design detail that needs to be executed that I didn’t realize. It took longer to make a single page than I expected.

Response: Modern Magazine Design

Last week I discussed the Modern Magazine Design by William Owen. As the book mentions, this "bonding of type and image" with a full-bleed photo was a common feature of the 1950s and early 60s. It was part of the new visual journalism. In 1953, Otto Storch came to McCall's as art director, and he was said to be ideal for implementation of the new visual. He created outstanding pictorial formats. He frequently designed around a bleed photo that was used as illustration and background. The text was carefully placed in an open space on the photo. The reading discusses Storch and his belief that we are a picture-minded country. I think this was true then and will always stay true.
Here is a spread from SELF I found that relates to a design in a 1959 issue of McCall’s. The layout centers on a single bleed photo. It’s used as both an illustration and background, and the text is placed in an open area, similar to Storch's spread. I see this design throughout many publications. The one bleed photo and minimal text has nice impact. It’s neat to find design today that is so closely related to design from more than 50 years ago.

You Can’t Miss This: Valentine’s Day

For the past two years, I have been crazy about cooking, and I’m always searching for recipes online. I usually look for main dishes or sides, but I enjoy checking out desserts as well. I came across these cute heart cupcakes on Martha Stewart’s site. They seem pretty simple to make compared to some of the other Valentine’s Day recipes. I also found this cute packaging idea for candy or treats. I've already put heart cookie cutters on my grocery list. I'm excited to try these out!

Designverb posted these little honeycomb cardboard chairs. I had never seen anything quite like it. I'm curious how much time it took to make them.

Swing of Things

Critique: Spring Preview

These first two weeks of design have been pretty intimidating. Sometimes I don’t feel up to par with everyone else in class, but I know I will improve each week. I'm finally getting back into the swing of classes though. The month-long break made it harder than usual to get going again. 

I was pleased with my Spring Preview cover design. I decided on fruit as my theme, so I think I accomplished staying away from the typical rain, tree and flower ideas. I designed the fruit in InDesign. I was impressed with myself, but it might be because I haven’t had much experience creating “art” like this. I would love to be an expert Illustrator user by the end of the semester.

Response: Design History Reading

It was neat to read about the history of magazine design and look at samples from the past 80-90 years. Finding recent covers and spreads that have similar design as those from so many years ago was neat. I found multiple examples from SELF magazine. One spread’s layout is around a single bleed photo that’s used as an illustration and background texture. This is like a McCall’s spread from 1959. In 1954, Harper’s Bazaar issue includes a spread of two women. The focus is on their body curvatures rather than their faces. This shows up in SELF on an exercising spread. The woman’s body takes up an entire page, and her head is not in the photo. Leslie’s Weekly in May 1903 has a single bleed photo on the cover with only the title and a handful of words. KCH&G’s February 2011 issue is very similar and has only two cover lines. Finding so many examples shows that certain design might go out of style or change, but not usually for good.

You Can’t Miss This:

I found this cool tape art on the blog I’m following. I had never seen anything quite like it. Check out more photos at designverb.

I came across this typography tutorial to create a splashing water text effect in Photoshop. The site has a bunch of other awesome tutorials. I haven’t yet, but I plan on trying some out.