Wednesday, May 4, 2011
You Can't Miss: Parlez Vous Design?
This week on Print Magazine's Imprint blog, I found a great book the site recommended on speaking the language of design. Being able to articulate your design choices is always necessary, so I think even taking time to read over some of the basic principles of design would definitely help you do so. I'm thinking this would make for a great summer read! Learn more about it here.
Advanced Design capstone comes to a close
It's hard to even fathom the amount of new portfolio pieces and published design work that has come out of just the past semester alone while in the advanced design capstone. Placing all of those pieces in addition to past work into my mini portfolio has been such a rewarding experience. This capstone is one unlike any other. Who else gets the opportunity to design for a city magazine, judge a design contest, conceptualize and design a magazine for a commission for a huge publishing corporation, learn to design for the iPad, learn to conceptualize and produce studio shoots, critique other students' work and receive feedback on a regular basis from 20 other expert designers all in one semester? Pretty great, huh? And that's not even half of it, I'm sure I've missed some things. I know for most of us the amount of designing and published work just seems like standard procedure at this point, but to outsiders, that amount of work and amount of professional experience done in just one course is quite impressive.
Danielle is absolutely right, separation anxiety is absolutely inevitable. Never again will we have the opportunity to work alongside each other in the design lab, critiquing and helping each other as we go, or be able to follow 18 other designers' and their work over the span of a semester.
To my fellow capstone designers, you all have done some pretty incredible things this semester – be proud of what you've done – I can't wait to sift through everyone's finished mini portfolios and websites next week and look back at a semester's worth of designing! Good luck to everyone in the upcoming months getting out there in the real world – and please keep blogging!
Danielle is absolutely right, separation anxiety is absolutely inevitable. Never again will we have the opportunity to work alongside each other in the design lab, critiquing and helping each other as we go, or be able to follow 18 other designers' and their work over the span of a semester.
To my fellow capstone designers, you all have done some pretty incredible things this semester – be proud of what you've done – I can't wait to sift through everyone's finished mini portfolios and websites next week and look back at a semester's worth of designing! Good luck to everyone in the upcoming months getting out there in the real world – and please keep blogging!
Critique: Shindig goes digital
Critique: Shindig Magazine's website wireframe design
The past few weeks I have been tackling some rather unfamiliar design territory – web design – for our magazine prototype Shindig. Although the purpose of creating the wireframe design was not to then make it a live website, but to show not only a representation of the magazine's digital content, but also how its design philosophy and personality is transferred to this platform – easier said than done for those of us who have spent so long studying and working in print design. After a few revisions to the design, which involved lots of scaling and adjusting space and the hierarchy of the various elements on the website pages – I constantly found myself going back to many of my print design habits – the home page and party planning page of Shindig's website were complete.
I do think that overall the finished product is able to not only able to capture the Shindig personality and design style, but displays the magazine's in a clear and cohesive way. Rachael Ray's new website was an influence of the homepage's rotating feature section, where the "Baking with Booze" story sits. I'm also quite happy with the way the "Party Mixer" app on the website has turned out as well. I think the way it's treated on the homepage – with its own teaser – is a great way to promote and preview the Party Mixer app.
The past few weeks I have been tackling some rather unfamiliar design territory – web design – for our magazine prototype Shindig. Although the purpose of creating the wireframe design was not to then make it a live website, but to show not only a representation of the magazine's digital content, but also how its design philosophy and personality is transferred to this platform – easier said than done for those of us who have spent so long studying and working in print design. After a few revisions to the design, which involved lots of scaling and adjusting space and the hierarchy of the various elements on the website pages – I constantly found myself going back to many of my print design habits – the home page and party planning page of Shindig's website were complete.
I do think that overall the finished product is able to not only able to capture the Shindig personality and design style, but displays the magazine's in a clear and cohesive way. Rachael Ray's new website was an influence of the homepage's rotating feature section, where the "Baking with Booze" story sits. I'm also quite happy with the way the "Party Mixer" app on the website has turned out as well. I think the way it's treated on the homepage – with its own teaser – is a great way to promote and preview the Party Mixer app.
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
This week: My mini portfolio design strategy, Shindig does studio shots and Rachael Ray's mag gets a makeover!
Response: Mini portfolio design strategy
Filing through Jan's baskets full of past advanced designers' mini-portfolios (even Professor Rowe's portfolio was among the bunch) was quite possibly one of the most encouraging and inspiring moments yet in the advanced magazine design capstone. Seeing so many graduates' early work from their time in the capstone and as designers for Vox – and hearing Jan tell us about their current positions at various magazines and publications as designers, art directors, etc. – put all of this semester's hard work into perspective for me. Who else but graduates of the Missouri School of Journalism (and those in the advanced magazine design capstone) get to not only leave with a resume full of publication design and commission experience, but have a professionally printed and bound book to prove it?
After sifting through more than a dozen of past students' mini-portfolios and discussing some of their design and layout pros and cons, I've come up with a strategy for my own mini-portfolio's design, contents and sequence and functionality.
It seems to me that the size of the mini-portfolio should really depend on the portfolio's purpose, functionality and the portfolio's design. It seemed like the mini-portfolios that were 7 1/2 x 8" or larger were a good size for these, with the larger ones being much more suitable for displaying both news and print designs and for including a resume. The most compelling and readable mini-portfolios of the group seemed to be ones that were designed with a clever and sophisticated style that showcased the designer's strength – those designers that clearly excelled with illustrations, for example, had an illustrated personal logo design on their cover. Some designers chose to add minimal design elements to their portfolio package to emphasize their portfolio's contents, rather than deterring from their work with a detailed portfolio design. I'm having a difficult time deciding where the draw the line between the two, but I think that decision will come with playing with both ideas as I begin designing the portfolio. I do, however, know that I would like create a compelling cover design for the portfolio and then use smaller, more minimal design elements within the portfolio to create a cohesive package design.
Although so many aspects of my mini-portfolio and its design are yet to be determined, I do know that I would like to create one that shows my versatility and dynamic skill sets. I think it's important that the portfolio shows employers my strength in creating a strong visual package, but one that's also functional and flexible. This will be quite an undertaking, but I'm incredibly eager to get going on it all.
Critique: Shindig does studio shots!
Over the past week, the Shindig design team – Nicole, Haleigh and I – completed our studio shoots for our magazine prototype. After scouring the internet for photos to use for various department designs, it became clear that in order to have the type of art we wanted, and in the Shindig style we were searching for, we'd have to take measures into our own hands and take to the camera.
We had quite a list of different set-ups and props that needed to be shot, so we began at my mom's home here in Columbia, where her pantry, basement and background became our top source for much of the Shindig-y items we were seeking to include in our various shoots. Lucky for us, Haleigh's part-time job has a mini photo studio, so additional photos were taken in a real photo shoot setting – complete with a clean white screen background and fancy flash lights. Here are some of our favorites...
I feel like overall the shoots were incredibly successful at capturing exactly what we had in mind, and with the Shindig vibe we were going for. However, finding just the right products to suit the magazine, and that are ones you're actually able to obtain for a photo shoot, proved to be just as difficult as we anticipated. Conceptualizing the idea for a studio shot is one thing, but actually making that concept something you can actually execute is another.
A word of advice to anyone attempting a photo shoot in the near future: be flexible; learn to work with what you've got, and work out multiple options to choose from. There were several times throughout each studio shoot where the designers and I felt like our initial plan or concept just wasn't going to work out, so we were forced to go back to the drawing board. In doing so, we found ways to simplify our initial, more complex studio shot concepts and dial them back into something more reasonable and of course, do-able. I think once we were able to get beyond the initial concept and see what was workable, we were able to come up with some very successful photographs for the magazine – the photo shoot with my mom is a great example of this. Another word of advice for future studio shooters is to provide options. Even after we thought we had gotten the shot, the Shindig designers and I made sure to keep shooting (when we remembered to do so), just to be sure we didn't miss a better angle to shoot from, get a chance to fix any missed camera mishaps or get plenty of horizontal and vertical shots that are usable – it's difficult to predict what type of photograph you'll need for the spread design, so give yourself plenty of flexibility.
So, what do you all think? Thoughts on how these particular shots turned out? Be sure to look out for these and more studio shots in the final print version of Shindig!
You Can't Miss: Rachael Ray's magazine gets a makeover!
Check it out! Everyday with Rachael Ray's re-design debuted in the magazine's May 2011 issue. Now, I have to admit, having not been a reader of the magazine prior to the magazine's re-design, I was pretty impressed overall with the fresher, more contemporary look to the magazine. With the addition of fresher fonts, textured pages and a new logo, this magazine (surprisingly) has become a new reference for design inspiration for me. See more of mediabistro.com's take on the re-design here.
Filing through Jan's baskets full of past advanced designers' mini-portfolios (even Professor Rowe's portfolio was among the bunch) was quite possibly one of the most encouraging and inspiring moments yet in the advanced magazine design capstone. Seeing so many graduates' early work from their time in the capstone and as designers for Vox – and hearing Jan tell us about their current positions at various magazines and publications as designers, art directors, etc. – put all of this semester's hard work into perspective for me. Who else but graduates of the Missouri School of Journalism (and those in the advanced magazine design capstone) get to not only leave with a resume full of publication design and commission experience, but have a professionally printed and bound book to prove it?
After sifting through more than a dozen of past students' mini-portfolios and discussing some of their design and layout pros and cons, I've come up with a strategy for my own mini-portfolio's design, contents and sequence and functionality.
It seems to me that the size of the mini-portfolio should really depend on the portfolio's purpose, functionality and the portfolio's design. It seemed like the mini-portfolios that were 7 1/2 x 8" or larger were a good size for these, with the larger ones being much more suitable for displaying both news and print designs and for including a resume. The most compelling and readable mini-portfolios of the group seemed to be ones that were designed with a clever and sophisticated style that showcased the designer's strength – those designers that clearly excelled with illustrations, for example, had an illustrated personal logo design on their cover. Some designers chose to add minimal design elements to their portfolio package to emphasize their portfolio's contents, rather than deterring from their work with a detailed portfolio design. I'm having a difficult time deciding where the draw the line between the two, but I think that decision will come with playing with both ideas as I begin designing the portfolio. I do, however, know that I would like create a compelling cover design for the portfolio and then use smaller, more minimal design elements within the portfolio to create a cohesive package design.
Although so many aspects of my mini-portfolio and its design are yet to be determined, I do know that I would like to create one that shows my versatility and dynamic skill sets. I think it's important that the portfolio shows employers my strength in creating a strong visual package, but one that's also functional and flexible. This will be quite an undertaking, but I'm incredibly eager to get going on it all.
Critique: Shindig does studio shots!
Over the past week, the Shindig design team – Nicole, Haleigh and I – completed our studio shoots for our magazine prototype. After scouring the internet for photos to use for various department designs, it became clear that in order to have the type of art we wanted, and in the Shindig style we were searching for, we'd have to take measures into our own hands and take to the camera.
We had quite a list of different set-ups and props that needed to be shot, so we began at my mom's home here in Columbia, where her pantry, basement and background became our top source for much of the Shindig-y items we were seeking to include in our various shoots. Lucky for us, Haleigh's part-time job has a mini photo studio, so additional photos were taken in a real photo shoot setting – complete with a clean white screen background and fancy flash lights. Here are some of our favorites...
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| Table setting for the "Centerpiece showdown" department page. (Psst: those "cocktails" are actually made of purely grapefruit juice.) |
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| Vintage floral arrangement for "Centerpiece showdown" department page. |
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| My mom in her backyard for the "Kiddie chow" department page. |
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| Candles on a cake stand for the "Centerpiece showdown" department page. |
I feel like overall the shoots were incredibly successful at capturing exactly what we had in mind, and with the Shindig vibe we were going for. However, finding just the right products to suit the magazine, and that are ones you're actually able to obtain for a photo shoot, proved to be just as difficult as we anticipated. Conceptualizing the idea for a studio shot is one thing, but actually making that concept something you can actually execute is another.
A word of advice to anyone attempting a photo shoot in the near future: be flexible; learn to work with what you've got, and work out multiple options to choose from. There were several times throughout each studio shoot where the designers and I felt like our initial plan or concept just wasn't going to work out, so we were forced to go back to the drawing board. In doing so, we found ways to simplify our initial, more complex studio shot concepts and dial them back into something more reasonable and of course, do-able. I think once we were able to get beyond the initial concept and see what was workable, we were able to come up with some very successful photographs for the magazine – the photo shoot with my mom is a great example of this. Another word of advice for future studio shooters is to provide options. Even after we thought we had gotten the shot, the Shindig designers and I made sure to keep shooting (when we remembered to do so), just to be sure we didn't miss a better angle to shoot from, get a chance to fix any missed camera mishaps or get plenty of horizontal and vertical shots that are usable – it's difficult to predict what type of photograph you'll need for the spread design, so give yourself plenty of flexibility.
So, what do you all think? Thoughts on how these particular shots turned out? Be sure to look out for these and more studio shots in the final print version of Shindig!
You Can't Miss: Rachael Ray's magazine gets a makeover!
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| Everyday with Rachael Ray cover, May 2011 |
Check it out! Everyday with Rachael Ray's re-design debuted in the magazine's May 2011 issue. Now, I have to admit, having not been a reader of the magazine prior to the magazine's re-design, I was pretty impressed overall with the fresher, more contemporary look to the magazine. With the addition of fresher fonts, textured pages and a new logo, this magazine (surprisingly) has become a new reference for design inspiration for me. See more of mediabistro.com's take on the re-design here.
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| Every Day with Rachael Ray department page, May 2011 |
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
You Can't Miss: Obama switches to serif & inspiring typography from Imprint
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| Photo courtesy of Imprint |
Check it out: Obama's making the move to a serif font. What do we think the motivation is here? See Imprint's blog post here.
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| Photo courtesy of Imprint |
And finally, in honor of our typography graffiti assignment, here's some inspirational typography art from Imprint. See the full blog post here.
Critique: Shindig prototype progress -- she's growing up!
Since being appointed Creative Director and presenting our beginning designs of the prototype to the capstone and faculty, Shindig has really begun to take shape. I spent much of my break taking critiques from both students and faculty, and really took the time to look at ways to better show the Shindig personality I was wanting to achieve in the overall design. I also noticed the need for breathing room and full-bleed photos in the magazine, so these added introduction pages for departments not only allow for that, but give an opportunity to add photos of people.
Because of the lower resolution of the wood/other textures I had wanted to include in departments, I've taken them out – it just would really look awful if those were even slightly pixelated because they run so large, but after taking it out and working on finding other ways to show the . But after really great feedback from Thursday's presentation, I've updated the templates and streamlined them, and I think you'll be happy with them. Let me know what you all think of the changes! I think they've transferring really nicely onto each department page design. I'm looking forward to see how this prototype shapes up with these new template items.
Because of the lower resolution of the wood/other textures I had wanted to include in departments, I've taken them out – it just would really look awful if those were even slightly pixelated because they run so large, but after taking it out and working on finding other ways to show the . But after really great feedback from Thursday's presentation, I've updated the templates and streamlined them, and I think you'll be happy with them. Let me know what you all think of the changes! I think they've transferring really nicely onto each department page design. I'm looking forward to see how this prototype shapes up with these new template items.
Response: Photo a Day Assignment
It was certainly a not-so-inspiring last Spring Break of college (it was spent it Columbia working on the magazine prototype project), so our capstone's assignment to take a photo a day during our break for inspriation provided an especially interesting challenge. Here are a few of my favorites from the week...
**Unfortunately, my photo card reader broke this week, so I don't have a way to get photos off of my CF card, so as soon as I get a new one, I'll post those photos. Stay tuned.
And here is my final graffiti assignment. Each letter was taken from signs in downtown Columbia.
**Unfortunately, my photo card reader broke this week, so I don't have a way to get photos off of my CF card, so as soon as I get a new one, I'll post those photos. Stay tuned.
And here is my final graffiti assignment. Each letter was taken from signs in downtown Columbia.
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
You Can't Miss: Charting your way to better design & typography
Who knew your text great typographic design decision can be determined in a chart? Check out this design chart designed to determine what type treatment to give your design. It uses the anatomy of a typeface to determine the type of design its best suitable for. Unfortunately, the chart doesn't give magazine design its own category, but I think we all know that creating a typeface chart for magazine design alone could be quite the undertaking. See what you think, visit the full blog here.
Response: The (harsh) reality of web design
Tuesday's lecture by Kristin Kellogg, digital editor for Vox magazine, caused me to except several true, but harsh realities on the limitations and decision-making when it comes to designing for the web, mobile and tablet. The reality is print, web, phone and tablet design are just not equivalent to one another. Sounds simple enough until you are faced with trying to design a web, mobile or tablet component based off of a print design, just as we are for our magazine prototypes in Advanced Magazine Design.
Kristin explains that as a design, you can't control the context people will be viewing your work in – an idea that designers sometime have a difficult time accepting. She says you must design for the optimum viewing experience and most importantly, "let print be print, and let a webpage be a webpage."
Kristin showed us how this concept plays out in GQ's March 2011 "The People V. Football" feature. See below how the feature design transfers from its beautiful print form into a simple, much less designed format on the website.
Here you have a compelling typography illustration contrasted with this engaging photograph to grab your attention. Kristin pointed that it wasn't the story topic that grabbed her attention, but the illustration, which is a great example of how powerful magazine design in print can be, and how magazine designers can use this to their advantage in print.
I think it's pretty clear looking at the web design of this feature that it is in fact lacking in design, however, Kristin explains that the decision was by no means accidental. Not only would specially design text not be read by a search engine like this text would be, but the website works off of a content management system, giving staff members at the magazine the ability to post content to the website without having to code or design the content and as Kristin puts it: does all of the heavy lifting for them. Although to a print designer, it might seem to be a lack of design, it's truly just designed for a completely separate purpose. People don't look for interesting content to read on a webpage the way they do in print. A compelling design will catch your attention in print, but the way a browser will find your content online will not always be through the same context, so it's the words that have to be flexible in order to optimize the chance that a browser will be interested in viewing the content.
In her lecture, Kristin went on to explain how GQ and several other major publications have adapted their design for both mobile and tablet apps to fit the demand from those platforms as well. After hearing so much from publications on tablet design from the recent iPad conference and from my Magazines Across Platforms course, I found her focus and angle on the subject to be incredibly refreshing. Kristin comes from a design background, so I truly appreciated hearing her perspective on making the leap from print to the less familiar web, mobile and tablet realm.
Kristin explains that as a design, you can't control the context people will be viewing your work in – an idea that designers sometime have a difficult time accepting. She says you must design for the optimum viewing experience and most importantly, "let print be print, and let a webpage be a webpage."
Kristin showed us how this concept plays out in GQ's March 2011 "The People V. Football" feature. See below how the feature design transfers from its beautiful print form into a simple, much less designed format on the website.
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| "The People V. Football," GQ March 2011 (print design) |
Here you have a compelling typography illustration contrasted with this engaging photograph to grab your attention. Kristin pointed that it wasn't the story topic that grabbed her attention, but the illustration, which is a great example of how powerful magazine design in print can be, and how magazine designers can use this to their advantage in print.
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| "The People V. Football," GQ March 2011 (web design) |
I think it's pretty clear looking at the web design of this feature that it is in fact lacking in design, however, Kristin explains that the decision was by no means accidental. Not only would specially design text not be read by a search engine like this text would be, but the website works off of a content management system, giving staff members at the magazine the ability to post content to the website without having to code or design the content and as Kristin puts it: does all of the heavy lifting for them. Although to a print designer, it might seem to be a lack of design, it's truly just designed for a completely separate purpose. People don't look for interesting content to read on a webpage the way they do in print. A compelling design will catch your attention in print, but the way a browser will find your content online will not always be through the same context, so it's the words that have to be flexible in order to optimize the chance that a browser will be interested in viewing the content.
In her lecture, Kristin went on to explain how GQ and several other major publications have adapted their design for both mobile and tablet apps to fit the demand from those platforms as well. After hearing so much from publications on tablet design from the recent iPad conference and from my Magazines Across Platforms course, I found her focus and angle on the subject to be incredibly refreshing. Kristin comes from a design background, so I truly appreciated hearing her perspective on making the leap from print to the less familiar web, mobile and tablet realm.
Critique: Protoype Progress
Our advanced design capstone has certainly come quite a ways since first being introduced to these magazine prototype concepts from the publishing capstone teams, and believe it or not, in just a matter of weeks each team will have completed a full 30-40 page printed magazine.
It was great to see how each team has evolved their chosen creative director's prototype in class on Tuesday. Seeing the evolved designs with the magazine's actual stories really brought these prototypes to life – you start to realize how big of an undertaking this truly is.
After seeing some of their work on Tuesday, here are some notes I have on some of the other teams' progress:
Nosh: Beautiful job with giving the magazine a distinct style and personality. It was great to see so much progress on your prototype, and to see how well the template is transferring to each department and feature page. I would want to suggest to be careful with using your arrow element too much, it's really a nice touch when used sparingly, and I would hate to see such a nice element get overused. Also, I loved seeing the additional cover options, it's really coming along. Theresa, I know you made a comment in class about how the color palette of the second Nosh cover option didn't seem to go over well with my publishers, but it seems like the only reason it's not working here is because the rust color for the nameplate seems to be bringing out the rust color from the sauce in the cover photo, which isn't the prettiest color of sauce. I think if you find a way to highlight the beautiful greens and orange tones in the spring rolls, you might find a nice way to focus less attention on the color of the sauce. Again, prototype is really coming along! Beautiful job.
Plaid Dad: Wow, what a transformation this prototype has made since you all began. I really like the way you all have collaborated on so much of this prototype's template design elements, the revisions you've made on ways to use the tool box icon, etc. are working nicely. This magazine audience is such a challenge to design for and you guys are finding really great ways to design in a way that would appeal to that type of reader.
Cupboard: You guys are really coming along in finding your magazine's distinct personality, I would just like to see the designs come together to make a more cohesive package. There are some really nice feature and department designs that are working well as individual pieces, I think Cupboard just needs to work on emphasizing the Cupboard brand and show us how that transfers from department to feature designs throughout the magazine.
Modern Midwest: I love how your team has been able to take this magazine's editorial mission and given its design a fresh, modern vision that appeals to this audience so nicely. This prototype is full of some very unique content and its great how you have found ways to unify the content which such a nice color palette and design template. The features are always difficult to keep cohesive with the rest of the magazine, so I think this is something that could be worked on, but has seemed to be a challenge most teams are facing.
Again, it's really incredible how much progress these teams have made already, and it's only a matter of weeks before they're all fully transformed into a printed publication. (Deep breathe, everyone...)
It was great to see how each team has evolved their chosen creative director's prototype in class on Tuesday. Seeing the evolved designs with the magazine's actual stories really brought these prototypes to life – you start to realize how big of an undertaking this truly is.
After seeing some of their work on Tuesday, here are some notes I have on some of the other teams' progress:
Nosh: Beautiful job with giving the magazine a distinct style and personality. It was great to see so much progress on your prototype, and to see how well the template is transferring to each department and feature page. I would want to suggest to be careful with using your arrow element too much, it's really a nice touch when used sparingly, and I would hate to see such a nice element get overused. Also, I loved seeing the additional cover options, it's really coming along. Theresa, I know you made a comment in class about how the color palette of the second Nosh cover option didn't seem to go over well with my publishers, but it seems like the only reason it's not working here is because the rust color for the nameplate seems to be bringing out the rust color from the sauce in the cover photo, which isn't the prettiest color of sauce. I think if you find a way to highlight the beautiful greens and orange tones in the spring rolls, you might find a nice way to focus less attention on the color of the sauce. Again, prototype is really coming along! Beautiful job.
Plaid Dad: Wow, what a transformation this prototype has made since you all began. I really like the way you all have collaborated on so much of this prototype's template design elements, the revisions you've made on ways to use the tool box icon, etc. are working nicely. This magazine audience is such a challenge to design for and you guys are finding really great ways to design in a way that would appeal to that type of reader.
Cupboard: You guys are really coming along in finding your magazine's distinct personality, I would just like to see the designs come together to make a more cohesive package. There are some really nice feature and department designs that are working well as individual pieces, I think Cupboard just needs to work on emphasizing the Cupboard brand and show us how that transfers from department to feature designs throughout the magazine.
Modern Midwest: I love how your team has been able to take this magazine's editorial mission and given its design a fresh, modern vision that appeals to this audience so nicely. This prototype is full of some very unique content and its great how you have found ways to unify the content which such a nice color palette and design template. The features are always difficult to keep cohesive with the rest of the magazine, so I think this is something that could be worked on, but has seemed to be a challenge most teams are facing.
Again, it's really incredible how much progress these teams have made already, and it's only a matter of weeks before they're all fully transformed into a printed publication. (Deep breathe, everyone...)
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
The Future of Typography & Mizzou Makes Cakes! [YOU CAN'T MISS]
YOU CAN'T MISS: The future of typography, according to Richard Rutter, Fontdeck
"I've seen the future and it's 326 ppi." – Richard Rutter, SXSW 2011
Print magazine's Imprint blog featured Rutter's presentation on the future of typography given at this year's SXSW complete with slides from his presentation. Follow the link and you can download his notes to keep in your library for future reference. What a great resource! Check it out here.
YOU CAN'T MISS: Mizzou Makes Cakes – and some great promotional designs!
I just had to give a shout-out to the beautiful flier, poster and banner designs created by the Student Design Center for Mizzou's latest event: the Mizzou Cake Challenge, featuring Duff Goldman of Charm City Cakes and Food Network's hit show Ace of Cakes. The designs are beautiful! A perfect fit for such a noteworthy event.
"I've seen the future and it's 326 ppi." – Richard Rutter, SXSW 2011
Print magazine's Imprint blog featured Rutter's presentation on the future of typography given at this year's SXSW complete with slides from his presentation. Follow the link and you can download his notes to keep in your library for future reference. What a great resource! Check it out here.
YOU CAN'T MISS: Mizzou Makes Cakes – and some great promotional designs!
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| Photo courtesy of Student Design Center |
I just had to give a shout-out to the beautiful flier, poster and banner designs created by the Student Design Center for Mizzou's latest event: the Mizzou Cake Challenge, featuring Duff Goldman of Charm City Cakes and Food Network's hit show Ace of Cakes. The designs are beautiful! A perfect fit for such a noteworthy event.
The Portfolio Panic [RESPONSE]
As taxing as it was to sift through everyone's entire portfolio in class over the past week, it's truly been one of the most valuable opportunities yet this semester. Not only were our portfolios reviewed by each and every other classmate, but it was the first chance I had all semester to really look at not only the amount of work I've done in the past few months alone, but also how far my work has come in the past four years. I can't wait to get the feedback from classmates and start looking at ways to condense and strengthen my portfolio, which will involve revising much of my past student work. The task is a bit daunting, yes, but when else will I ever get the opportunity to have my past work critiqued by 18 other people in the field?! Seeing how everyone's work evolves over the next several weeks when we regroup for our portfolio review will certainly be interesting – I can't wait to see how far everyone has come by the end of the semester.
Here are a few of the pieces currently in my portfolio, in addition to some of my work already posted in past blog posts. I'll be interested to see what makes the cut the next time around...
Starting with a few flier designs I did for the TOMS campus organization One for One, and then a feature photo essay design from the beginning magazine design class last semester.
Here are a few of the pieces currently in my portfolio, in addition to some of my work already posted in past blog posts. I'll be interested to see what makes the cut the next time around...
Starting with a few flier designs I did for the TOMS campus organization One for One, and then a feature photo essay design from the beginning magazine design class last semester.
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| One for One at Mizzou, Oct. 2009 |
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| One for One at Mizzou, April 2010 |
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| One for One at Mizzou, September 2010 |
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| Feature photo essay design, November 2010 |
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| Feature photo essay design, November 2010 |
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| Feature photo essay design, November 2010 |
SJI Logos [CRITIQUE]
During these past couple weeks, our capstone class took a big of a breather from magazine design – okay, not completely true – and switched gears for our 20-5 logo assignment. The task was to begin with 20 initial logo designs for the organization, and then narrow the number down to 5 and expand upon those 5 designs for the following week. The logos were for the Sports Journalism Institute – a national organization that aims to attract talented students to journalism through opportunities in sports reporting and editing, while enhancing racial and gender diversity in sports departments nationwide. Greg Bowers, sports editor at the Columbia Missourian, asked we design the logo with both the sports element and concept of diversity in mind. Easier said then done. This was quite an interesting challenge for someone that's spent the last year designing for pages and pages of story content – it was difficult for me to all of the sudden create a design that was so condense, but still just as content-driven. It had been awhile since I had done a logo design, so I have to say my first 20 are not exactly designs I am particularly proud of. However, having to create so many designs for the first round proved to be a valuable exercise. Once 5 were selected from your group of logo designs, it came down to two final designs for the competition.
Top: This logo design uses the mechanical aspect of sports to drive the design and to give it a very unique appeal. I think this logo incorporates the sports aspect of the institute without being too literal. The color choices were chosen because of its appeal to both genders.
Bottom: This logo design has a very collegiate feel, which not only speaks to the institute’s purpose, but it also a design style that doesn’t limit its appeal to a specific gender or type of student. The yellow stroke across the SJI resembles a highlighter, which adds some texture and depth to the logo and also ties the logo’s collegiate look.
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| Final five SJI logo designs |
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| Final two SJI logos submitted for competition |
Top: This logo design uses the mechanical aspect of sports to drive the design and to give it a very unique appeal. I think this logo incorporates the sports aspect of the institute without being too literal. The color choices were chosen because of its appeal to both genders.
Bottom: This logo design has a very collegiate feel, which not only speaks to the institute’s purpose, but it also a design style that doesn’t limit its appeal to a specific gender or type of student. The yellow stroke across the SJI resembles a highlighter, which adds some texture and depth to the logo and also ties the logo’s collegiate look.
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
ESPN at the iPad conference + A Life of Looking's mini-makeover and VoxTalk!
[RESPONSE]: ESPN The Magazine at Monday's iPad Conference
Monday's iPad conference was a day full of inventive, creative people in the magazine industry, but one of the more memorable panels for me was with the ESPN crew. The presentation was full of interesting perspectives on this new platform for magazines.
ESPN's Rob King compared the expectations of mobile and tablet apps to that of his young son's first experience with elevators. Even after his son returned home and was no longer able to use an elevator, the expectation to have one to use was still there because he had had it once before. King explained that the idea of an app is the time – when you can get it first somewhere, there is an expectation to get it anywhere.
The group also discussed the idea of "you selling you" when it comes to conceptualizing content for any platform. They explained that all of the successful apps stem from this idea. Many aspects of the ESPN brand are prime examples of this. Take, for example, ESPN's ScoreCenter mobile application. The app is all about customization and personalization to give you instant access to stats and up-to-date scores on your favorite teams and players, based on your settings. The same goes for Pandora, TweetDeck and Starbucks apps, for example – the app's content is all based on your likes and dislikes, favorites, suggestions based on those likes and dislikes, etc.
These two notions truly altered my perspective and thought process for conceptualizing an iPad app and its design.
Watch the recorded sessions from the iPad conference here.
[YOU CAN'T MISS]: A Life of Looking's mini-makeover
I decided it was time to give my blog a little TLC. I took out the busy, stock image as the background and opted for a cleaner, more reader-friendly design. I also recreated my blog's banner to add a little more context to my blog's content and purpose, and switched out the previous font for a more tailored and suitable font for the blog title. Ultimately, I'd like to take more time later on in the semester to add even more design elements and personality to my blog's design, but in the meantime, I thought it was in need of a change. What do you think?
[YOU CAN'T MISS]: Blog design of Vox magazine's VoxTalk
I thought I would give this opportunity to make sure you are becoming regulars on Vox magazine's new blog – I have to admit, it has exceeded my expectations. As a web producer for the scene department for the magazine, I spent my entire weekend posting movie reviews to the blog from the weekend's True/False Film Fest, so it's possible that my fondness for it grew simply through hours poured into it over that three-day period, however, its daily presence can't go unnoticed. Not only is their new content daily, but the variety of content and voices on the blog is impressive – so impressive, I thought it deserved a shout-out. But on more design-related note, not only is the blog's layout easy to navigate, but its logo and banner treatment serve as a great visual representation of the blog and its intended audience. The logo itself is very "Voxy" – clever and to the point. See it for yourself, visit VoxTalk here!
Monday's iPad conference was a day full of inventive, creative people in the magazine industry, but one of the more memorable panels for me was with the ESPN crew. The presentation was full of interesting perspectives on this new platform for magazines.
ESPN's Rob King compared the expectations of mobile and tablet apps to that of his young son's first experience with elevators. Even after his son returned home and was no longer able to use an elevator, the expectation to have one to use was still there because he had had it once before. King explained that the idea of an app is the time – when you can get it first somewhere, there is an expectation to get it anywhere.
The group also discussed the idea of "you selling you" when it comes to conceptualizing content for any platform. They explained that all of the successful apps stem from this idea. Many aspects of the ESPN brand are prime examples of this. Take, for example, ESPN's ScoreCenter mobile application. The app is all about customization and personalization to give you instant access to stats and up-to-date scores on your favorite teams and players, based on your settings. The same goes for Pandora, TweetDeck and Starbucks apps, for example – the app's content is all based on your likes and dislikes, favorites, suggestions based on those likes and dislikes, etc.
These two notions truly altered my perspective and thought process for conceptualizing an iPad app and its design.
Watch the recorded sessions from the iPad conference here.
[YOU CAN'T MISS]: A Life of Looking's mini-makeover
I decided it was time to give my blog a little TLC. I took out the busy, stock image as the background and opted for a cleaner, more reader-friendly design. I also recreated my blog's banner to add a little more context to my blog's content and purpose, and switched out the previous font for a more tailored and suitable font for the blog title. Ultimately, I'd like to take more time later on in the semester to add even more design elements and personality to my blog's design, but in the meantime, I thought it was in need of a change. What do you think?
[YOU CAN'T MISS]: Blog design of Vox magazine's VoxTalk
I thought I would give this opportunity to make sure you are becoming regulars on Vox magazine's new blog – I have to admit, it has exceeded my expectations. As a web producer for the scene department for the magazine, I spent my entire weekend posting movie reviews to the blog from the weekend's True/False Film Fest, so it's possible that my fondness for it grew simply through hours poured into it over that three-day period, however, its daily presence can't go unnoticed. Not only is their new content daily, but the variety of content and voices on the blog is impressive – so impressive, I thought it deserved a shout-out. But on more design-related note, not only is the blog's layout easy to navigate, but its logo and banner treatment serve as a great visual representation of the blog and its intended audience. The logo itself is very "Voxy" – clever and to the point. See it for yourself, visit VoxTalk here!
The True/False Takeover: Finishing the WHAT T/F Feature Design
The design for the 10-page True/False feature evolved from a retro space theme into a much more conceptual theme about the True/False Film Fest's invasion on Columbia. The text consisted of several individual pieces on varying aspects of the festival and a guide to take you through it. The theme for the feature was "What T/F," covering the who, what, when, where, why and how of the fest. My co-designer Allison and I worked to make this feature theme come to life with a strong, compelling visual theme, so we decided that the visual elements would give the text a somewhat retro comic, space theme to make this invasion concept come to life. The combination of font choices, color palette and illustrations created a style of design that was not only appropriate for Vox readers, but was a perfect fit for the quirky, hipster-like vibe of the festival.Tackling such a large feature with so many separate stories and story elements was certainly a challenge for the two of us. It was clear that we needed to use our visual theme in a way that would also successfully carry out the feature's "What T/F" theme. We eventually found visual elements to take from the splash page (pictured above) to apply to each of the feature pages to create a consistent visual package. I think the elements used like the comic-like headline treatment and the color palette used throughout helped to make this a successful package.
WHAT T/F: The evolution of the Vox cover design from start to finish
[Critique]: True/False Cover Designs, from beginning to end
Phew, what a last few weeks it has been, but wow, to see it all in print tomorrow morning will really make it all worthwhile. Balancing feature and cover designing was certainly a challenge, but no design challenge comes without plenty of learning experiences. I thought I'd go through the design process for the cover design, specifically, to look at how my initial concepts transformed into what you see in print. So, here we go...
As part of the requirement for submitting cover concepts for the first cover competition, I provided the editors with three very different takes on the True/False feature of Vox. I began with three cover options: an illustration, a studio concept and a concept that evolved from my Spring Preview cover design.
>> From this...
This cover was modeled after my Spring Preview cover concept, using a neon, nighttime theme. If fully executed, the cover would have used photos from actual True/False venues.
This cover concept was done to correlate with the retro space visual theme for the True/False feature that Allison and I were working on. I used the idea of a human invasion that the city of Columbia is faced with during the True/False festival. The city is full of people from all walks of life during this weekend so I thought this human invasion idea would be a nice way to play that up.
This preliminary cover design represented my studio concept. Concepts using a studio shot can be difficult to show in its initial form, so this one requires some explanation.
I wanted to play up the idea of the ultimate juggernaut, which is a term that the festival uses to describe their superstar volunteers – those that dedicate more than 40 hours to the festival. I wanted to create a relationship between the festivalgoers and the volunteers, so I took the juggernaut idea and made it into a festivalgoer – someone that's just as passionate and dedicated to the festival, but as an audience member. I would deck out the model to in their True/False gear, with a pass around their neck representing a festival pass that would contain the cover sell lines. This ended up being the concept that the editorial team wanted me to take a step further.
The studio concept was the favorite among editors (and here it's merely that, a concept, not a design), and I was asked to further explore the possibilities with this studio concept to create a final cover design with a real photo shoot to submit for a finalist for the True/False cover competition. The idea would be that doing an actual shoot would provide editors with more information on the shoot, and then would allow them to re-shoot if my cover concept was chosen for the issue.
>> To this...
I spent my next weekend finding all of the True/False gear for the shoot, the location and of course, the models. Lucky for me, The Butterfly Tattoo was more than willing to let me borrow a shopping bag full of True/False goodies for the shoot, even knowing the cover might have even run, and for that I will forever be a loyal customer. I decided to create two options for the editors to have when it came time to decide on a final design for the issue, so I convinced two friends of mine to agree to doing the shoot. Of course as you might expect, my models were late, however the outcome was truly worth the wait. The shoot took place just outside my house, with a few wardrobe changes and adjustments along the way. In the end, it was the red and black get-up photos that were really the most successful. The juggernaut idea, again, is used in the headline, and then the issue's theme for the feature "What True/False."
>> And finally... this.
So, here it is... the final cover! I think the most exciting part of it all was having a byline for not only designing, but for the photo as well (editors had a second photo shoot, but decided on my original photo for its more compelling composition). The fact that I had my hands in every aspect of the design made seeing the final product in print that much more rewarding.
Phew, what a last few weeks it has been, but wow, to see it all in print tomorrow morning will really make it all worthwhile. Balancing feature and cover designing was certainly a challenge, but no design challenge comes without plenty of learning experiences. I thought I'd go through the design process for the cover design, specifically, to look at how my initial concepts transformed into what you see in print. So, here we go...
As part of the requirement for submitting cover concepts for the first cover competition, I provided the editors with three very different takes on the True/False feature of Vox. I began with three cover options: an illustration, a studio concept and a concept that evolved from my Spring Preview cover design.
>> From this...
This cover was modeled after my Spring Preview cover concept, using a neon, nighttime theme. If fully executed, the cover would have used photos from actual True/False venues.
This cover concept was done to correlate with the retro space visual theme for the True/False feature that Allison and I were working on. I used the idea of a human invasion that the city of Columbia is faced with during the True/False festival. The city is full of people from all walks of life during this weekend so I thought this human invasion idea would be a nice way to play that up.
This preliminary cover design represented my studio concept. Concepts using a studio shot can be difficult to show in its initial form, so this one requires some explanation.
I wanted to play up the idea of the ultimate juggernaut, which is a term that the festival uses to describe their superstar volunteers – those that dedicate more than 40 hours to the festival. I wanted to create a relationship between the festivalgoers and the volunteers, so I took the juggernaut idea and made it into a festivalgoer – someone that's just as passionate and dedicated to the festival, but as an audience member. I would deck out the model to in their True/False gear, with a pass around their neck representing a festival pass that would contain the cover sell lines. This ended up being the concept that the editorial team wanted me to take a step further.
The studio concept was the favorite among editors (and here it's merely that, a concept, not a design), and I was asked to further explore the possibilities with this studio concept to create a final cover design with a real photo shoot to submit for a finalist for the True/False cover competition. The idea would be that doing an actual shoot would provide editors with more information on the shoot, and then would allow them to re-shoot if my cover concept was chosen for the issue.
>> To this...
I spent my next weekend finding all of the True/False gear for the shoot, the location and of course, the models. Lucky for me, The Butterfly Tattoo was more than willing to let me borrow a shopping bag full of True/False goodies for the shoot, even knowing the cover might have even run, and for that I will forever be a loyal customer. I decided to create two options for the editors to have when it came time to decide on a final design for the issue, so I convinced two friends of mine to agree to doing the shoot. Of course as you might expect, my models were late, however the outcome was truly worth the wait. The shoot took place just outside my house, with a few wardrobe changes and adjustments along the way. In the end, it was the red and black get-up photos that were really the most successful. The juggernaut idea, again, is used in the headline, and then the issue's theme for the feature "What True/False."
>> And finally... this.
So, here it is... the final cover! I think the most exciting part of it all was having a byline for not only designing, but for the photo as well (editors had a second photo shoot, but decided on my original photo for its more compelling composition). The fact that I had my hands in every aspect of the design made seeing the final product in print that much more rewarding.
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Creative Director, redefined
[Response]: "The September Issue"
Tuesday's design class was such a nice surprise - we spent those two hours watching one of my favorite movies, "The September Issue," as a group. Even after seeing this movie for possibly 12th time, I still find new things to learn from the film. This film helps to emphasize that, above all, the creative director fulfills the magazine's editorial vision through all creative and visual aspects: photography, fashion, art and all visual themes that stem from there. They are in charge of all visual interpretation/direction. The creative director of Vogue, Grace Coddington, did one particular feature on the 1920s. The fashion, the setting and even the type of photography and the style of photos were based on a particular designer – John Galliano – and his couture, 1920s-inspired pieces.
The editor takes the creative director's editorial vision and inspiration and edits it in several ways, but particularly to fit the magazine and its mission and also to git the magazine as a particular way as well (size, degree, etc.), and also to put them in check. The creative director, however, shows the editor how to visualize an idea or concept as part of the magazine.
[Critique]: Shindig final prototype for publishing presentation
I wanted the design overall to appear stylish, modern and fresh, but above all, make the magazine’s content appear “do-able” and attainable to a wider audience, grabbing the attention of more than just the readers who already have an invested interest in learning more about entertaining; This particular type of magazine deserves its own unique and apparent style and in creating a clear sense of style and consistent vision for each issue, the magazine is better able to establish the Shindig brand; Adding textural elements to the design is just one example of ways to make the magazine feel more relateable and attainable to its readers, rather than sticking with the structured, static design of many of its potential competitors.
For the logo, I wanted a young, fresh and inviting for this young professional audience – its casual, playful script help to emphasize this; its design helps to appeal to a large part of the magazine’s mission: to be “for the entertainer in all of us.”
I wanted the cover shots to be fresh and stylish to reflect the type of parties/entertaining concepts that our readers would aspire to have but more importantly, that don’t seem out of their reach; cover is both inviting and appealing; design is stylish and chic without being stuffy – we want to attract even those who might not necessarily be looking to read something on entertaining, but also appear relevant to those readers who do already entertain and want a magazine that serves their needs as well.
Overall, I was pretty satisfied with my final prototype design that I presented to the publishing group (maybe sans the green bar on the top of my feature spread – I realize now that is more of a distraction than an effective design element). In the end, I was chosen as the publishing group's creative director to lead the editorial vision for this magazine prototype. I'm eager to begin work on our prototype's design and work with my fellow Shindig designers to create a strong visual personality and brand for the magazine.
[You Can't Miss]: Paste magazine's digital issues
Designers: Ever feel stuck when trying to find great feature or department design inspiration? Sometimes I struggle to find ways to transfer some of the graphic design inspiration I found when scouring some of my favorite blogs onto my work in magazine spreads. Well, look no further, because Paste magazines allows you to skim through entire issues at a time with their digital issues available at pastemagazine.com. Paste has recently become a favorite for me to find new ways to organize and align text as well as ways to add interesting visual elements to marry with the text arrangement on spreads. This magazine is also a great example of a magazine that truly has a personality and maintains its unique style throughout each spread.
Here's an example of a digital issue of the magazine from June/July 2010.
Tuesday's design class was such a nice surprise - we spent those two hours watching one of my favorite movies, "The September Issue," as a group. Even after seeing this movie for possibly 12th time, I still find new things to learn from the film. This film helps to emphasize that, above all, the creative director fulfills the magazine's editorial vision through all creative and visual aspects: photography, fashion, art and all visual themes that stem from there. They are in charge of all visual interpretation/direction. The creative director of Vogue, Grace Coddington, did one particular feature on the 1920s. The fashion, the setting and even the type of photography and the style of photos were based on a particular designer – John Galliano – and his couture, 1920s-inspired pieces.
The editor takes the creative director's editorial vision and inspiration and edits it in several ways, but particularly to fit the magazine and its mission and also to git the magazine as a particular way as well (size, degree, etc.), and also to put them in check. The creative director, however, shows the editor how to visualize an idea or concept as part of the magazine.
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| Vogue Creative Director Grace Coddington and Editor in Chief Anna Wintour |
[Critique]: Shindig final prototype for publishing presentation
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| Shindig prototype cover |
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| Shindig prototype department page |
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| Shindig prototype feature spread |
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| Shindig prototype color palette |
I wanted the design overall to appear stylish, modern and fresh, but above all, make the magazine’s content appear “do-able” and attainable to a wider audience, grabbing the attention of more than just the readers who already have an invested interest in learning more about entertaining; This particular type of magazine deserves its own unique and apparent style and in creating a clear sense of style and consistent vision for each issue, the magazine is better able to establish the Shindig brand; Adding textural elements to the design is just one example of ways to make the magazine feel more relateable and attainable to its readers, rather than sticking with the structured, static design of many of its potential competitors.
For the logo, I wanted a young, fresh and inviting for this young professional audience – its casual, playful script help to emphasize this; its design helps to appeal to a large part of the magazine’s mission: to be “for the entertainer in all of us.”
I wanted the cover shots to be fresh and stylish to reflect the type of parties/entertaining concepts that our readers would aspire to have but more importantly, that don’t seem out of their reach; cover is both inviting and appealing; design is stylish and chic without being stuffy – we want to attract even those who might not necessarily be looking to read something on entertaining, but also appear relevant to those readers who do already entertain and want a magazine that serves their needs as well.
Overall, I was pretty satisfied with my final prototype design that I presented to the publishing group (maybe sans the green bar on the top of my feature spread – I realize now that is more of a distraction than an effective design element). In the end, I was chosen as the publishing group's creative director to lead the editorial vision for this magazine prototype. I'm eager to begin work on our prototype's design and work with my fellow Shindig designers to create a strong visual personality and brand for the magazine.
[You Can't Miss]: Paste magazine's digital issues
Designers: Ever feel stuck when trying to find great feature or department design inspiration? Sometimes I struggle to find ways to transfer some of the graphic design inspiration I found when scouring some of my favorite blogs onto my work in magazine spreads. Well, look no further, because Paste magazines allows you to skim through entire issues at a time with their digital issues available at pastemagazine.com. Paste has recently become a favorite for me to find new ways to organize and align text as well as ways to add interesting visual elements to marry with the text arrangement on spreads. This magazine is also a great example of a magazine that truly has a personality and maintains its unique style throughout each spread.
Here's an example of a digital issue of the magazine from June/July 2010.
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| Paste magazine cover, June/July 2010 |
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
You Can't Miss: Mag+ iPad design video & illustration blogger
More on Mag+:
I wanted to be sure to include a video on the Mag+ software so that those of you who weren't at the staff meeting to see the live demo could look at some of the Mag+ features and take a deeper look at how Popular Science has been able to reach its reachers on an entirely new level with their iPad work using Mag+.
Illustration Blogger:
Lately I've been wanting to work more on improving upon my illustration skills with my recent designs, so seeing this particular blog seemed to bring on inspiration for doing so. It's a bit quirky, and her style is certainly not similar to my own, but I do think it's nice to venture out of your design comfort zone to find new inspiration.
See the full blog here.
I wanted to be sure to include a video on the Mag+ software so that those of you who weren't at the staff meeting to see the live demo could look at some of the Mag+ features and take a deeper look at how Popular Science has been able to reach its reachers on an entirely new level with their iPad work using Mag+.
Illustration Blogger:
Lately I've been wanting to work more on improving upon my illustration skills with my recent designs, so seeing this particular blog seemed to bring on inspiration for doing so. It's a bit quirky, and her style is certainly not similar to my own, but I do think it's nice to venture out of your design comfort zone to find new inspiration.
See the full blog here.
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