You Can't Miss: Fire & Knives

magCulture.com recently posted a entry on a new quarterly food magazine - Fire & Knives. The point of this magazine is to reject the typical four-color glossy photos of food that are more or less food-porn and focus on the beautiful writing and illustration. The magazine is about 6.5x7 in., about the size of a half sheet of paper. The vision behind it and concept of having this raw design (it is printed on matte paper) is brilliant. I really want to find a copy of this magazine and check it out. Food magazine seem to fit into a certain framework, but Fire & Knives steps out of those boundaries.

(check it out here http://magculture.com/blog/?p=5452#more-5452 )

Response: Judging

It was an interesting experience judging for the City and Regional Magazine Design Competition. I did not know how a contest such as this worked. Seeing all of the spreads that people submitted was inspiring - not only for my bank of creative ideas but also for a sense of achievement and excellence. It is so subjective how judges work. Like Jan said, when judging competitions a lot of what goes into it is how the judges are feelings on that particular day, what interests him or her. There was one spread in particular that I absolutely loved because it features a pastry I recently enjoyed while traveling. Had I not taken the trip, would I have felt the same way toward the design?

Critique: Assignment 1

This week's design competition was exciting - a first run at designing for Vox. Navigating the style guide and making sure everything is just so helped me get a feel for the magazine. This first assignment was a cover and feature spread for the Jan. 28 issue. I selected the feature as the cover image because there was more to work with on the concept. The most difficult thing about this assignment was working in a vacuum. I had the story, I had the photos, but I didn't know what was brainstormed for art for this story. The upside to this challenge of not knowing is that I had freedom to create my own concept and trying something bold and daring.

I traced the provided photo illustration to have an edgy, one-color logo feel. This style ties in the "emotionless hard-as-steel" aspect of manhood. Not only does the design have a bold man feel to it, but also it suggests the dark waters of changing from boy to man.

As I revise my design for my portfolio, I'm going to have the bold impact of the cover continue on the two spreads. Although the images are carried throughout, they don't pack the same punch as the cover image.