In the Beginning

CRITIQUE:

This week we completed our first class competition for VOX. We were given a photo essay about a 2-year-old girl who competes in beauty pageants in mid-Missouri. The unique twist on the story is that her father, former NASCAR driver and now truck driver, is the one who participates most. He hopes the pageants will improve her confidence as she grows up and give her the skills for public speaking. Being a huge TLC fan (mostly for "Say Yes to the Dress"), I have seen the show "Toddlers & Tiaras". Sometimes this show blows me away because of the attitudes of the parents and the things they put their children through. Obviously this story was not on that level, but coming up with a unique content-driven design was a challenge.


I knew I wanted to use a photo on the cover, because we have learned that people are more interested in seeing other people. The close-up of the little girl sucking on her thumb in a tiara was the obvious choice: she's adorable, it's a great captured moment and it conveys the topic of the story. I found the colors hard to choose for the text. The colors in the photograph are so natural and subtle that I didn't want to put anything too bold or distracting. Since she is a little girl, I went with the maybe too obvious choice of using shades of pink.


For the opening spread I wanted to try to push my limits. I knew this photo essay would be a challenge because most of the photographs were horizontals. I worked with just one image for a long time on the the first spread, but felt that it wasn't eye-catching enough. I thought about all of the pieces of the story: her father, his previous NASCAR job, her outfits, the pageants, the process of getting ready etc., and wanted to create an element that mimicked how all those pieces came together for a story. That is where the boxes came from. I worked with the shades of pink because I felt that the little girl was so young and it really reflected her innocence.


I continued the boxes and then other detail elements onto the next three pages to keep the package fluid. I found the most difficult page to actually be the last one, because it was a single page and the photo I wanted to use for the end was a horizontal. I personally could not work two horizontals onto this spread that complimented each other and the design, so I decided to end the feature with the dominant horizontal and the quote from the father. 


Looking back there are definitely changes I would make. I notice there is no real dominant photo in the beginning of the feature package. I also cropped two of the photos for the boxes element, which I'm sure the photographer did not like. My defense for the cropping is that it did not take away from the image or eliminate anything that indicated what was going on in the picture. I don't necessarily agree with my decision now, though. I also would have made the dominant photo on the second spread larger, because there is some difficulty distinguishing between the hierarchy going on.


I'm proud of my first feature design, and ready to take any and all critiques so I can make the next one better.


Coming up this week we have our second competition for the Spring Preview package in VOX. Very excited for this!


RESPONSE:
This week I had the pleasure of meeting four professionals from one of the largest media companies in the world. I attended the casual lunch forum in the afternoon where each of the guests talked about the path it took them to get to where they are today, and advice for landing internships and jobs. Three of the four are Mizzou alums, which is always exciting. Everyday I feel more confident about the classes I am in and the professors I have because so many alumni come back and say the industry wants Mizzou grads.


This semester we will be working on a commissioned project for this company. We will be on a team of designers, publishers and "webbies" working to create a publication from scratch, targeting a younger generation. I am so excited for this opportunity and cannot wait to get started.


When the four professionals visited our class to discuss the project, I definitely learned a few new tricks. They talked a lot about photographing food and various color palettes that work well. They also encouraged ideas for online and other multimedia elements for our project. This is something almost every job posting I come across expresses interest in, so it will be very beneficial to work with.


YOU CAN'T MISS:
from the blog
Secretly (but obviously not anymore), one thing I look forward to most about getting a big girl job is getting my very own business cards. The great thing about being a designer is that no one would be appalled when being handed a business card with a fuzzy yellow creature on the back. blog.digitalroom.com

in the news:

I'm not sure if you have picked up a copy of the Feb. 2011 issue of Allure magazine, but a friend of mine brought it to our wine night on Tuesday, and we got to discussing the cover image of Jennifer Anniston. There have been comments all over the web about how she looks "over photoshopped," but we were more interested in the image inside of her pupil. If you look very closely, you can see the reflection of a person in her left pupil. We assumed the silhouette to be photographer. As all journalists though, we wondered whether this was a mistake or done on purpose? What do you think? As a designer this makes me realize just how important it is for us to not only pay attention to the design elements, but also to look at the package as a whole.