Week 5

CRITIQUE:


This week we presented our prototypes for our commission projects. Like I introduced last week, I will be working on the Plaid Dad team to create a one-shot magazine for the household heroes who cook for their families, whether it is on a regular basis or every once in awhile. After critiques last Thursday, I knew I needed to make some drastic changes if I wanted to have a publication that appealed to a variety of fathers.

A major change on the cover was incorporating the plaid from the New Cook Book. I felt that having a dominant amount of plaid did not flow well with the mood of my theme, so I placed a small rectangle in the upper left-hand corner. On the TOC this same rectangle would appear along with an explanation that this is a one-shot spin off from the New Cook Book, but for dads.

My departments page before was a bit cluttered. The original story featured nine kitchen appliances and a sidebar, which was a lot of incorporate. The publishers reduced it to five. We talked a lot about men prefer simple, de-cluttered designs with lots of charts. I arrange the department page as such and reduce my sidebar to include only three spices as well. 

The feature spread I chose to work on was the story about crazy kitchen gadgets that make cooking more fun, such as condiment guns and Pacman oven mitts. It is important to include people in your magazine, so I thought this would work the best. My intention for the entire feature package would be to use this opening spread, and on the next spread include only a bit more copy and place the gadgets into columns, with explanations under pictures. (Again, giving men more charts to read rather than a lengthy feature story.)

RESPONSE:

We watched a documentary about the Vogue's Editor in Chief, Anna Wintour, and Creative Director, Grace Coddington, called The September Issue in class today (thanks Jan!). I had actually seen it before on television, but it was great to watch it in a room full of designers and potential creative directors that knew exactly what was going on. 

My critique on the effectiveness of our magazine, based on the documentary:

1. Explain the creative director's role as represented in this documentary.

The creative director serves as the source for inspiration. Anna Wintour referred to Grace Coddington as a genius because she was so gifted at being able to have the vision and see the picture before a shoot was even set up. The creative director is also important in helping the editor maintain a consistent look in the magazine.

2. Critique one specific feature done by the creative director.

The second color block shoot was my favorite feature by Grace Coddington in the 2007 September issue. The fact that it was so simple, and she used the real documentary camera crew in the frames was brilliant and so real. It was refreshing to hear the creative director from the world's most fashion influential magazine want real, untouched people in their biggest issue. It also brought a humorous element - it's almost as if the frames are mocking celebrity life. It was just a nice change from the over-the-top features shot.

3. What is the relationship of the creative director to the editor?

The creative director is the liaison between the rest of the design staff and the editor. This person helps bring to life the vision of the editor and publishers, and assists the design staff in achieving that vision.

4. What did you learn about the job of the creative director?

The creative director is a huge part of a magazine and the success of that magazine. If the creative director doesn't know what's going on or believe in the magazine, it would be detrimental to the publications overall success. Creative directors have to make quick, big decisions and be able to come up with amazing ideas in a short amount of time. It's a very fast-paced job, and requires someone who is confident in their abilities, is stubborn but knows the limits and passionate.

YOU CAN'T MISS:

Of course, as I sit here sipping a glass of wine, I am also thinking about food. That led me to think about food menus and how I have seen some of the most interesting designs even in restaurants. Here are a few cool inspiring bar menus I found on in the Digital Room blog. The second one would probably be my favorite if we could see more of the inside. I can see a really elegant picture of a filled shot glass just inside on the first page. I am a fan of black, dramatic designs.

Week 4

CRITIQUE:


We have finally begun working on our prototypes for the big commission project! It is intense but exciting. This week we are turning in first drafts to critique in class. I am working on the Plaid Dad team. We will be creating a magazine for a "household hero." This publication is for the fathers who are kings of their kitchen, bringing them the latest trends in nutrition, flavor and convenience with the addition of humor and the subtraction of microwave dinners.

I had the most difficulty with my cover and feature spread. I know what I want to do with it, but finding the perfect photography posed a challenge. Since this is just a draft we just pulled images. I look forward to having more input on photo shoots. I wanted a cover that was edgy but manly. This publication is supposed to work as a spin-off to a very popular cookbook, but I did not want to use obvious colors. My color palette for the issue is very industrial. I am definitely having a hard time with the sell lines. Any suggestions would be much appreciated!

I am very happy with the way my department spread turned out. The tone of the magazine is similar to Esquire and GQ, so I wanted to continue with that edgy design that reflected a lighter mood. I was challenged with fitting nine gadgets and a side bar on the spread. My biggest issue is clutter - the first design was a lot more scattered, so I cleaned it up by adhering to a grid and aligning the numbers. I worked in a bit more white space, but I am still wondering if it could use more? Or if the sidebar could be downsized a bit?

The feature spread was the second most challenging. I chose to work with the story about fathers who have picky eaters and how they can sneak in vegetables and nutrition through foods that children like. Keeping with the manly, edgy theme but featuring a story about children is very dynamic. I know I want to improve upon my typography and work with that, but I was having difficulty with photography. A thought I had after I completed this design was adding cutouts of the vegetables, possibly on the lower right-hand corner. Thoughts?

RESPONSE:

Monday evening the magazine capstone courses skyped with a man in New York. He introduced us to Mag+, a new way to create applications for tablets by converting inDesign documents. With tablets such as the iPad on the rise, it is extremely valuable for me as a student to learn this world as I am about to graduate. Publications especially are trying to get their content and into an app to make it more mobile. I am currently in an application development course and am working on a team to create an iPhone app for a local company. We are also learning about iPad app development, so it was interesting to see this presentation. I look forward to looking into Mag+ more and to see if more publications utilize their program. 

YOU CAN'T MISS THIS:

Lipstick art? Oh yeah. A blog posting on Designmodo's website featured these photographs by digital photographer Paige Thompson. Just goes to show that art and inspiration are everywhere! Here are a few of my favorites...

Week 3

CRITIQUE:


This week I am competing for the cover for the 2/17 issue of VOX. There are a few feature stories in the issue; the editors decided to go with the social smoking story. Our goal as designers was to create a cover that related 18-22 year old who don't consider themselves chain smokers, but social smokers who only light up after having a few drinks or when around friends who smoke. These are the first two drafts of my top two covers:

On this cover I used a photograph from the story. I cropped it to just feature the one girl with a cigarette in her mouth, but multiple hands trying to help her light up. I liked the darker feel of this photo because it is not a bright, happy story. The girl is young and reflects the age group the story focuses on. I'm not sure if the photo is as eye-catching as I would like it to be. I also struggled with the placement of the headline and deck. This is the cover I will be working on revisions for so any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

This was the runner-up cover for me. My thought process in designing this cover was this: social smoking > makes me think of social networks > almost every young person has a Facebook > what other networks do a lot of people use? > how could I show these networks visually? > oh duh, ICONS!

My struggle with this design was creating an icon that people would be able to identify, and associate with social media. It was a difficult challenge, and in the initial critiques I was told that some people were confused if it was identifying a smoking group on Facebook, or if it was a real network. It is something that I could probably make work if I played with it a lot, but I'm not sure how I would be able to guarantee people would comprehend the message. Thoughts?

RESPONSE:

We recently read a hefty article, "Modern Magazine Design," by William Owens. It was a great read talking about how the designs of magazines have evolved and who the major innovators were in experimenting with such things as layout, cover illustrations, photography and typography.

This is the February 2010 cover of Wired magazine. This is an example of a cover art illustration created solely for this issue. In Owens article it is noted that conceptual cover art began in the 1930s, and Fortune was really into cover design in the 1940s. Wired often features special illustrations and photo illustrations for their covers when a photograph isn't possible or isn't enough. This cover is very strong and it also reminds me of the the famous Rosie Riveter revolution poster.

YOU CAN'T MISS THIS:

As we get farther and farther into advanced design, this column in the blog I am following really reminded me and inspired me with the basic concepts of design. Our amazingness can only improve with the improvement of the basics, and sometimes it's hard to remember that. Also "less is more" is completely true! Sometimes just sticking with the basics is the best way to go when you don't know what else to do. Here's a summary of the post and the pictures that went along with it.

 

1. Space - can be two or three dimensional; can be positive or negative; allows breathing room

2. Line - suggest motion, direction and orientation; lead the viewer's eye

3. Shape - can be geometric or organic

4. Color - gets the viewer's attention; can evoke emotion; can change the mood of an entire composition

5. Texture - can be tactile (you can actually touch it and feel it) or implied (you know how it feels by looking at it)

6. Form - refers to three dimensional objects; can be enhanced by color and texture; defined by light and dark

 

7. Light and Dark - provide contrast; can provide depth of field

Week 2

CRITIQUE:

Well, considering we have had two snow days and have now been informed we get a third, not much has been going on this week! I have been snowed in at my friends house since Monday without my computer so it's been impossible for me to get to do any designing.

This past Sunday was my first weekend of designing for my department at VOX. I am one of three designers for the music department and am very excited. This page below is for the 2/3 issue, and the only content for my page was a profile story on DJ Z. If you think looking at a blank page is challenging, try looking at a page with one quarter-age ad in the corner. This spread is very simple but it did take a little playing with until I was able to find a layout that worked well and allowed the story to flow smoothly.  Overall I am happy with the page!

Earlier last week we also had our second competition for the semester - the Spring Preview competition. We were challenged with developing a unique theme for the feature, along with a cover and splash page. I decided to go the literal route and use illustrations I created of actual springs. (And yes, I was very proud of myself for making these! It was my first time) The bright colors were lively and helped the pages come to life. The most challenging part of the competition was coming up with two designs for the cover and splash page that worked on the same theme. I also worked a lot with the top right corner of my spread. I couldn't decided if this was awkward white space or good breathing room for the page.

RESPONSE:


This week I would like to respond to this picture I found online on a website titled "Social Design Notes". The photograph is of a poster being held by a protester in Egypt; it is actually a chart the man created. Even though I can't read the language on the poster, the symbols indicate that it is a flowchart showing the results for different choices. Just goes to show that design is everywhere you look though!

A protester breaks down the algorithm: “Mubarak leaves. Yes: Parliament dissolves. No: Protests, disobedience. strikes.”

YOU CAN'T MISS THIS:

Labels are something you look at everyday, but sometimes we get so used to them we don't pay attention! Of course as a designer, I start to realize that I notice them way more. It's nice to see companies, especially food companies, incorporate fun designs on their labels. Not only are they pleasant to look at, but they're always something I want to keep. On the blog I follow each week there is a post about fruit juice labels. This one below is my favorite. I left it XL so you could see the detail on the fruit of each bottle. They appear to be squeezed! I thought it added a very unique perspective and added dimension to the gray label. Love it.

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.

Welcome!

Hello there!

My name is Ashley and I am a senior Magazine Design major at the University of Missouri. The past four years here in Columbia have absolutely flown by; I don't even know where to start but I supposed a little background info would be good. I am from Omaha, NE, and yes, Joe and I are Husker fans. I love traveling and do so often. I have recently become a bit obsessed with the city of Las Vegas, having been spoiled on two VIP trips in the last 9 months. I am one of those people who is constantly on the go, and likes to have a hand in everything I can.

I have known that I wanted to work in the magazine industry since my junior year of high school. We were fortunate enough to have lots of generous donors who made it possible for not only amazing facilities, sports and resources, but also a yearbook, weekly newspaper, spring literary art magazine and a monthly TV show. So I jumped into journalism very early on. When I first started applying to colleges I was hoping to go to school on one of the coasts. Although born a midwest girl, I am not one who wants to stay in the midwest. When I was told that the best journalism school was in Missouri, my heart sank a little bit. Obviously I would make the smart decision and apply, but moving 4.5 hours away didn't seem far enough. Once I made the move though, I never looked back.

Mizzou, and this college town dubbed "CoMo", turned my world upside down. I have met amazing friends, worked with unbelievable professors and have definitely made sure to experience college night life.

This semester is the most important ever. I am not only completing my capstone in magazine design, but I am also designing for the Columbia Missourian, completing my minor in Information Technology with an emphasis in Audio/Visual Editing, working with a group to develop a working iPhone application for a local company and taking a photo class (for non-majors). I hope to not only improve immensely upon my design skills, but to also walk away a very well-rounded journalist.

Let the journey begin!