You Can't Miss: Illustrations

This week I created an illustration for Short Talk's secondary. It was a really fun illustration...it was a really fun topic. I recently stumbled upon some info about an illustration show in Bristol (so if you just happen to be going there over break, check it out). Several illustrators came together for a art show of tea-time illustrations. It is interesting to see how different artists interpret a particular topic.

Response: Critiquing

I originally intended to respond to critiquing in class. We do it all the time, and I'm sure everyone in the class gets tired of it. It is helpful, but class after class it can be over whelming. The creative directors for all of our publishing projects did a great job presenting their designs. There was definitely a lot of critiquing going on in that room. I feel that Spring Break will be a much needed break; I know I'll take critiquing a litter better once I come back refreshed.

In response to my response from last week (wrap your head around that), Eye Magazine's new issue is out. You can check out some of the spread on their site. This issue is all about typography – illustrated typography in particular. Check it out here.

Critique: Short Talk and Cover Concepts

This past week I designed Short Talk for April 1. Vox had double production because next week is Spring Break (I'll post my design after the issue runs. I don't want to spoil any amazing illustrations that it might contain...) In addition to short talk, I designed three cover concepts for an issue that will run in mid April. It's another several-smaller-stories story. My favorite is the green one. It is so bright and refreshing – that is what the feature is trying to get across, the soothing feeling of being happy. The second one I completely agree that it is more of a celebratory piece. The idea for this concept is the more joyful side of being happy, less tranquility side. The photo is mainly a place holder for what I image to be a blast of a photoshoot involving balloons and confetti. This image was actually taken at a New Years Eve concert I went to. After the count down, hundreds (and I mean HUNDREDS) of theses balloons were set free in the convention center. It amazing. I was happy, haha. The third concept is, yes, extremely cliche – person running across the beach having been set free. The idea was more for the beach...the awful silhouette doesn't have to stay.

You Can't Miss: A lovely children's magazine

Anorak is a children's magazine out of the UK. Its tag line: the happy magazine for kids. The magazine launched in fall of 2006, and it is a quarterly magazine. There is a distinct visual style to the magazine, a lot of bright colors as well as colorful line drawings that could be used as color sheets. Within the distinct visual style, there is a variety of illustrations in the magazine. There are graphic elements and shapes that are brightly colored, realistic drawings created with a more muted color pallet, as well as beautiful hand drawn typography. This is a lovely children's magazine. There issues are all theme issues such as Chocolate Issue, Word Issue, Jungle Issue, Joke Issue and so much more. Covers and spreads are viewable on the magazine's website.

Response: Designer Magazines

I really enjoyed looking at the magazines for designers in class yesterday. I have seen magazines a bookstores that are design and graphic arts related, but I've never purchase one. Well, I purchased a copy of CMYK once. Design magazines expensive. They really do serve as a showcase of work but also a source of inspiration. I enjoyed hearing John Fennell's story about working for Step by Step; it was interesting to hear what the original mission of the magazine was and how it has since developed and established itself as a good, and more affordable, design magazine.

I'm fascinated with the differences in aesthetic sensibilities between American and European magazines. The layout and type choices are different, the illustrations and even the finish on the paper is vastly different. American magazines are great, but alot of the work I've found while following magculture blog comes form Europe, especially the UK, and is remarkable. After I traveled to Europe over Christmas break with a group from the Journalism School, I decided that I wanted to travel and even live abroad for some amount of time. Now that I've been exposed to European art and magazines, I think it would be fun and a great experience to work at a fun publication abroad.

Critique: Bits and Pieces

This is the landing page for the Eureka story. It is fairly simple, but it required mastery of a few action script. Each icon is for a different story. When the cursor is held over an icon, it changes color to yellow, shows the story title and then changes to black with a click just before the user is directed to a page with the individual story. The landing page uses the same design elements and typography as the feature spread.

Here are the two Short Talk department pages I've designed. The first is a single page from 2/4 and the other two are a spread from 3/4. The cut-out of the pothos turned out nice. I was really pleased with this department page. The anchor story for 3/4 was fun to work one, but the secondary and sidebar were a challenge. The images didn't come into until that Sunday. It was rather frustrating, but I was able to problem solve through the design process and get as much done as I could without the photos. The second page of this issue was switched up a bit for print because the sidebar seemed to carry the same weight, if not more, than the secondary.

You Can't Miss: Fantastic Man

Is you man in need of fantastic fashion know-how?
I discovered Fantastic Man, a mens online style journal. It's been around for a while and looks pretty cool. They us san serif typefaces throughout the magazine (aside from the masthead) and use a basic color of black and white. The images look brilliant in black and white. magculture posted a bit about the magazine and how it is launching a sister magazine – the gentlewoman. This looks to be pretty good. It hasn't made it to stores yet, but there is a sneak-peak online. It has a similar design style as Fantastic Man, but the design has a more delicate feel. I especially love the close up shots of the clutches. I'm sure Cara would love this magazine. I've included a link to the men's magazine. You can click through the pages and get a little preview of both magazines.

Response: Week in Review

March Madness has begun – and I don't mean basketball.
The past week and a half (or has it been two?) has been full of design work. Here's what I've been working on for magazine design alone: LBB logos, Eureka cover concepts, Eureka feature, Eureka multimedia landing page and designing Short Talk. While working on these things, lessons learned or reinforced include:

-Some logos work with texture, some don't.
-When working on features, discuss design concepts with the feature editors...they can help you flesh out your ideas.
-The reason your flash project isn't working is because of a very small, quick and easily fixable error. Kristin Kellogg is extremely helpful – she's a great resource.
-Make sure you use the most up-to-date template.
-Phone calls tend to work better than emails.
-You can be very productive in the Vox office in the wee hours of the night...and morning.
-And there are sweet temporary tattoos to be found :)

This is my final cover concept from the Eureka issue.

Oh! So much fun.


This is a wedding invitation I just finished designing for my best friend back in Oklahoma.

Critique: Eureka!

The past couple weeks I worked with the wonderful Kelly Pack on designing the Eureka! feature. The feature is a collection of stories about researchers in Columbia who have made discoveries or found innovative ways of doing things. It was a challenge to bring the stories together visually but keep them as free standing stories. The topics were so diverse; they couldn't even be categorized. Here is a brief history of our feature design.

Pre-draft: We wrestled hard with ideas for this feature. Eureka moments are very abstract, yet we had to visually represent them. It was tough to find a balance between something cliche and something too abstract for the reader. We finally had our own "aha!" moment when I came up with the idea of having the headline be the filament of the light bulb. Before we had any kind of working draft with the story elements, Kelly and I dialogued with Stephanie and Jenna about the story. We showed them what ideas we had been working with. They gave us their take on which stories were the more interesting ones, and we established a hierarchy for placement.

Draft 1: This is what Kelly and I showed the editors on Thursday, March 4. We got feedback and helpful critiques from them. The design was pretty sparse where photo were concerned (most of them had not been shot), but we had our concept down.


Draft 2: This draft came about later Thursday night and Friday afternoon. We had more of the photos in, and decided to ditch the boxes...they were too boxy. The light behind them wasn't working either. We did some rearranging of story elements, started placing photos and incorporated the light bulb throughout the spreads for cohesion.

Draft 3: At 4:00 p.m. on Saturday 3/6, this is how far we had come.

A few modifications were made to the final design once it was in PlanSystem such as the typeface on the bottom of the lightbulb, the shape of that text box, story placement and a few minor changes to the story lead-in detail. To see the real deal in its final form, check out the new issue of Vox tomorrow (3/11)!

And don't forget www.voxmagazine.com....I created the landing page for the story.

Fun Find

You Can't Miss: UK Esquire

The UK Esquire has a fashion zine that can be unfolded to a poster. It's innovative and fun. Here is a short video showing how it can be folded and refolded. This makes me think of the GOOD sheets that GOOD magazine came out with two years ago. They were large sheets of newsprint with big colorful infographics related to a social issue. Unique formats such as these are fun for the reader.

Response: TrueFalse

This past weekend was the TrueFalse Film Festival. Although I thoroughly enjoyed all three films I attended, I wish I could have seen more :(

During the weeks leading up to the event and the event weekend itself, the TrueFalse logo can be found all around downtown Columbia. It is on t-shirt, jackets, newspapers, magazine, and decals on store windows. It is successful branding. It is instantly recognizable. As I've been working on a top-secret logo project, I've given more thought to the logos that I encounter on a regular basis. Why is it that color? Why is it that shape? How to that be used in another situation? Is my loyalty to a product or service based on the logo? These are things that have come to mind as I think about the different types of logos I see.

LogoDesignLove has an archived post related to logo design that I've found helpful. There are ten logo design tips to consider as you work on any logo project.

Critique: Prototype

Here is my design for a prototype of a grilling magazine.

First – branding (top left: final logo; top right: a draft version of final logo; below top left: part of the development of final logo) The logo is unlike any other food magazine logo. It would pop off the shelf and grab readers. The colors represent the outdoors – the grass, the sky and the sun. "out" is positioned to come out of the black rectangle further suggesting that the magazine is about the outdoor life around the grill.

The magazine will be divided into three distinct sections: Eat, Play and Live. This is a break from traditional magazine structure because each section will have its own departments and features. Here is a thumbnail of the TOC, a department page and a feature spread.