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.

Vogue Creative Director Grace Coddington and Editor in Chief Anna Wintour

[Critique]: Shindig final prototype for publishing presentation

Shindig prototype cover

Shindig prototype department page

Shindig prototype feature spread

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.

Paste magazine cover, June/July 2010

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.

Mag+ iPad Design [RESPONSE]

 Mike Haney joined us via Skype at our weekly Vox staff meeting on Monday to show the staff how Mag+ uses Adobe InDesign to create magazine layouts for the iPad. Haney is the deputy director of research and development for Popular Science and who oversees iPad work for both Popular Science and other Bonnier titles. Essentially, Mag+ allows you to not only use what is designed directly in InDesign for your iPad app, but it also uses a technique called "pinning," which allows you to have your design automatically reorient itself based on the way the tablet is oriented, rather than having to design for both orientations. His demonstration took us through the entire process of designing the app, with even a preview in InDesign of what the final design will look like on the iPad.

Although the idea seems so foreign to me now, the idea of being able to design magazine spread for the iPad is fascinating to me, and something I could see myself eventually designing exclusively at a publication. Haney pointed out during his presentation that with these tablets, you are reading with your hands just as much as you are with your eyes, and designers are given the challenge to find ways to engage their readers on an entirely new level. The possibilities are truly endless with tablet design, and I'm realizing the degree to which this is true the more I take the time to explore them.

Magazine Publishing Prototype Project [CRITIQUE]

One of the bigger design projects from this week (although it's hard to choose, there are quite a few in the works this week) is a design for a magazine prototype for our project for a large magazine publishing corporation in which we present them with a concept for a brand new magazine. For this project, the designers are divided into groups to collaborate with the publishing capstone to create a magazine, an iPad app and any other elements or platforms for the magazine deemed necessary by the group.

The publishing group I am working with has come up with a concept for a magazine they call Shindig. This magazine is described by them as "for the entertainer in all of us." It's about believing that anyone, anywhere and with any budget can entertain. Shindig would represent that cool friend of yours who always throws the best parties – they know what to do, when to do it and how to do it so that you're time is spent enjoying the party, rather than stressing about any of those last-minute details. The magazine is an all-inclusive party planning guide that includes menus, gift ideas, product reviews and expert advice with inspiration on every page.

I wanted the magazine's design to reflect that "cool best friend" vibe, by creating a look that was chic and clever, but not too much so as to turn away readers that are hesitant to learning to entertain, etc. I look forward to seeing how my design evolves over the next several days before presenting it to the publishing team and faculty members involved in the project next week. As we began critiques on these magazine prototypes in class on Tuesday, I realize how much work I have ahead in narrowing down my overall design concept (and color palette) and deciding how to carry out my concept throughout the magazine.

Here are some of my beginning designs and color palette for the magazine prototype...

Looking Back [CRITIQUE]

Looking Back [CRITIQUE]

It's been a week of brainstorming and researching as I prepare for a number of design undertakings up ahead, including a cover competition and feature design for Columbia's True/False Film Festival issue of Vox, a design prototype for the semester-long Meredith Corporation publishing project (much more on this soon!) and finally, a logo design competition among the other advanced design students to create the Sports Journalism Institute's very own logo. So as the ideas begin brewing for each of these looming, and somewhat daunting, design ventures, I thought it would be a good opportunity to look at some of my past design work from the previous semester – specifically my final project for the Magazine Design course – to not only critique, but also to find areas in my work that could have been expanded on and pushed even further. My personal design style has certainly taken shape over the past year especially, but I think it's good to look at how that style can be expanded upon, particularly as I begin such a diverse group of design projects in the next several weeks.

Here I have my final design from last semester's Magazine Design course. The project was to create a magazine protoype for a Midwest magazine, complete with cover, table of contents, department page and feature stories. Below is the cover, table of contents and department page from my magazine prototype I called "Brink," meaning "verge" or "on the edge." I decided to apply this term to a magazine that would provide readers with the most fresh, cutting-edge information for the city of Chicago, a city on the brink. (Disclaimer: I didn't purchase the photograph on the cover from Getty images, so yes, the image is unfortunately stretched and very pixelated, but you get the idea.)

Brink magazine prototype: cover

Brink magazine prototype: table of contents

Brink magazine prototype: department page (story text was provided)

Although there are specifics that I could critique about these designs, I can't help but look at how much of my own personal design style shows through in these. I think I had the most fun designing my department page – I truly love the challenge of finding ways to organize a diverse set of stories and try to find ways to unify them on a single spread. Although the font and color choices were chosen to reflect the content and audience of this magazine, all of them are also ones that I'm very often drawn to and find myself using often. Varying font styles and making sure that they are truly content-driven is something I would like to continue to do in future designs. Although I think the geometric graphic elements and shapes I've used on these designs seem to work well here and work to unify the magazine's design style, I notice that I tend to use similar shapes and design elements in my other work. I think I would like to see more illustration in my future designs, and I would like to see new shapes and design elements in my upcoming work. Finally, looking back at these designs reminds me of how much agonizing went on to make these as neat, clean and as structured as possible. I realize now that I could have further succeed with these designs by further pushing my creativity in the area of text layout and overall organization of the spread content. I find myself often seeking ways to to organize the material logically, but I would like to see myself take that desire to be structured and sensical, and find creative ways to organize the information and content.

Well I think now it's time to trudge on and look to my many upcoming design endeavors, but I'd love to hear advice from any of you on ways to further push my future designs. I enjoy seeing each of our own personal design style and finding those elements and styles that are common in our work.


Thanks for taking a look back with me!

Tova


Looking Back: Part Deux [RESPONSE]

Harper's Bazaar, August 1940 – Alexey Brodovitch, art director

Now, it's time to look back at the work of some of the magazine industry's revolutionary art directors and how their design focus is still prominent in the work of today's magazine art direction.

William Owens' Modern Magazine Design allows us to look specifically at the work of Alexey Brodovitch (1898-1971), the notable art director of Harper's Bazaar, and how he came to become the most influential editorial designer of his time. During his time at Harper's Bazaar, Brodovitch can be attributed to many design elements and techniques of modern magazine design. Owens calls Brodovitch an "undogmatic and instinctive rather than rational designer" who strived to modernize his designs and to always "make it new." Owens points out Brodovitch's use of typography and fashion photography in particular. He explains that Brodovtich's typography was about "precision and lyricism," and his layouts were full of vibrancy, drama and movement. The fashion photography was impressionistic, where Owen says "the model carried as much weight as the clothing she wore."

Harper's Bazaar, March 1954 – Alexey Brodovitch, art director

Brodovitch's revolutionary design style has seemed to seamlessly transfer to the work of today's art direction at Harper's Bazaar. Here is a look at the award-winning cover with Demi Moore. As you look through the fashion photography in these designs, it's clear that the magazine still achieve the same level of demure and drama as Brodovitch did. The focus in this design is just as it was for Brodovitch: to allow the model to carry as much weight as the extravagant fashion – and in this case, be able to stand up against an 18-foot-tall giraffe as a co-cover model.













YOU CAN'T MISS: Elegant, organized blog design

From following the Designers Who Blog site regularly, I've found a number of magazine designers' blogs and portfolio sites to use as inspiration. Recently, I found a design blog called Uppercase. The screen shot doesn't do this site justice because the blog is beautifully done. Blog and web-page design has intrigued me for some time and I've constantly been bookmarking some of my favorites hoping that I might some day be able to create a blog or web-page design of my own that could possibly measure up to them. I think in this particular blog I was attracted by its layout organization combined with its elegant design. It's nice to see a blog that has been organized and designed with such care.


YOU CAN'T MISS: SPD's student design contest

I've fallen behind on my Google Reader lately, so in efforts to get caught up again with some of my favorite design blogs and tutorial sites, I stumbled upon an announcement from SPD (Society of Publication Designers) about this year's student design contest held in March. Winners of the contest receive an internship, prizes and are featured on the organization's blog and SPD Annual. The contest is divided into five categories: Entertainment, City/Regional, How-To, Business Trend and Green.

You can find out more about the contest and how to enter here. Entries are due March 7!

[Response]: Can graphic design really be summarized into just three styles?

 Victor Ginsburg Muller of Print Magazine's Imprint blog dares to try and sum of graphic design into just three distinct styles. He calls them "Swiss-style," "Grunge" and "Book." Mullers says that design has come full circle back to the "Grunge" style. He also points out that lately we're missing a "personal and unique touch" as well as "the feeling of something genuine and true" in most of today's design. Here he shows us an example of a graphic designer – Lowe Steiner – who stays true to his style and maintains that personal touch.
 

He also shows how a web designer also achieves this...

See more from Mike Kus here.

I have to say after getting lost in Mike Kus' website for quite some time, I began to wander to other graphic designer portfolio sites and blogs to find that yes, there are many designers out their who seem to have lost the personal, homemade touch or creating work that is "sweetly naive" as Muller puts it. The designs however that did seem to achieve this (like the ones above), I truly found inspiring. Everything from the color usage, to the type treatment, to the quirky patterns and shapes make the design so much more genuine. I look forward to see how this valued aspect of graphic design will transfer to my future designs.

See the full Imprint blog post here.


[You Can't Miss]: A type-tastic gift for your designer friends (Ahem...)

Imprint shows us that typography can be even more fun that we realized! (Sorry, last post on something from the Imprint blog for awhile after this one, I just couldn't resist.) This flashcard game has you guess the font, gives you interesting information about the letters and even gives a general history of each font. See the Imprint blog entry here, and purchase the game here... your designer friends will thank you.

[You Can't Miss]: Speaking of type...

 "You look like the right type." This blog is great, I found it off of the design blog I'm closely following this semester, designers-who-blog.com. I've enjoyed exploring this blog for typographic inspiration, obviously, but also to learn how to add a little quirkiness to my designs. The typography and illustrations on this blog are perfect examples of the success of designing the way Muller describes above in his "Back to Grunge?" post on Imprint.

Spring is in Sight [CRITIQUE]

Spring Preview Cover/Feature Contest

Last week's Spring Preview contest posed an interesting challenge for me, but one that I found to really enjoy. Vox Magazine's annual Spring Preview issue poses somewhat of an organizational and creative challenge for designers. The issue calls for a theme without the stereotypical spring themes (i.e. umbrellas, rain boots, flowers, baby chicks and so on), but instead with a clever and refreshing non-spring theme. In addition to coming up with a clever theme to execute into a cover and splash page, the design must also be incorporated into several text-heavy "feature" spreads and have enough readability and functionality for this type of feature.

My theme for the issue was neon. Although, it's clear on the cover with the Vox logo, in the finished product, the neon is not as apparent on the rest of the pages. The photos of downtown Columbia business signs were meant to help push the theme. If my design had been chosen, my plan was to add the effect used on the Vox logo to much of the other neon-colored text on the splash page and feature spreads. (If my design had been chosen, I would have worked to find photographs that would fit the cover.) My biggest challenge ended up being the execution of the neon effect. Finding a tutorial for creating neon in Photoshop that I could easily transfer to InDesign was surprisingly tricky. In the end, I was happy with the type treatment I decided to use and the way I decided to organize and lay the text on the feature spread, however, I do think the design and its theme could have been pushed much further.