03.24.10

you can't miss...SXSW

This week, I was inspired by the awards and discussions about South by Southwest 2010 Conference. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the conference, it is a major conference (this year held in Austin, TX) about new and upcoming 'music', 'film', and 'interactive' people and resources that are quickly changing the way we look at our culture and how we interact. I know that m a few of our j-school professors went to the conference (held from March 12-21) specifically for the interactive portion, and learned about social media, networking, and other new media forms that are being developed and used.

As I explored the 'Interactive' division of the site, I was drawn to the awards section. I just had to see what the newest developments are that will soon be affecting my affecting me as a journalist! In the spirit of our most recent class discussions about building websites, I was eager to see what SXSW conference awarded as the best. I linked to a page with the Web Award Winners, and those were broken down into categories of their own. At the top of the list, I found that there was a category for an 'Art' site...how perfect!

And that is how I fell upon this week's inspiration. A website...which the main focus on art...and it won a SXSW interactive award! Here are some screen shots. Maybe you can use them for inspiration in your own website? Enjoy!

critique...department page, round five/vox cover

This weekend, I went into the Vox office to design my fifth department page. I am forming a pretty big portfolio of department pages already! This is both exciting and rewarding, because it is a tangible reminder of the time spent working on the publication. I am also having a good time finding new solutions to the 'puzzle' of the department page each week. The most recent design will appear in the Spring Break issue, which will run on 04/01. It feels great to have this done a few weeks early!

Here is the department (my fourth department) that ran in the 03/18 issue, which was last week.

I also had revisions due this week for my "Dialogues" story cover pitch, which is slated to run 04/08. Cassie won the competition this week, which was great. I like how fearless she is in her ability to scrap her original ideas when something doesn't work and start from scratch. I have such a hard time letting go! Here is what I presented.

response...meredith

Yesterday in class, we presented a more developed version of our Meredith designs. It was hard to know how much to present to the class as well as to our publishing group, since they seem to have new ideas each time we meet with them. I am really enjoying working with Cassie and Cara, and we are discovering that we are allowed to either embrace or veto the publishing group's ideas. At the beginning, I was feeling overwhelmed with the publishing group's expectations, but it has been much less daunting since we have been determining our own set of rules. Group projects are always a challenging, but it is very rewarding presenting designs that make our group smile. It is almost as if our group is our 'client' and we are creating work for them, much like our logo project for LBB.

I really loved seeing the other group's presentations. It is amazing to see the different tastes within each of the different groups, and I really like the original creations that were presented. Over break, I will develop my own feature designs and publish them here. Jan keeps encouraging my group to work together more closely so that each of our styles come through, and I think that will be my main focus for the remainder of the project. I can't wait to get together again once we all return from break to compare and converge styles throughout a more completed version of the project, and I am really looking forward to that stage.

03.17.2010

response...design mags

Yesterday in class, we had a group discussion about design magazines. We were able to talk about the typography, story selections, and even paper choice and art decisions made within the pages of the magazines. We all had different magazines, and I read STEP inside design. Here is an example of what STEP looks like.

My issue was a typography issue, and I had fun thinking about potential reasons for the letters and fonts that were chosen throughout the magazine. The beautiful designs were showcased in many different ways in the different magazines, and it really made me think about what innovative design. How do you create innovative design? So much of what I create comes from inspirations or ideas that I have seen in other places, and I love thinking about where the designs in the design magazines came from.

We discussed elements Lupton's Thinking with Type book, and created connections between the letters, text, and grids that we saw in the magazines to the examples in the book, and how each magazine used these items in their own ways. I loved opening the text and the magazine side by side, and identifying specific examples of the fundamental elements of design. It was a great discussion!

critique...department number four

This week, I designed my fourth ARTS department page for Vox. It's awesome to see how the process get quicker and easier each week. The biggest struggle I had when designing this Sunday was trying to fit all of the text onto my single department page. I had an anchor story, a lengthy sidebar, and a recurring section - all with photographs - to fit on the page. I have never had a sidebar on my page, so that was a new challenge. Luckily, my editor happened to be in the Vox office, and she was able to see firsthand how tight everything was. It was great that she was able to see it then, rather than days later with an attached page of overflow text. We are starting to see the struggles that each role within Vox has, and it is enabling us to work together more closely.

you can't miss...typography in adverting

There are some awesome new things going on in Veer, the blog that I follow weekly. The newest post is about typography in advertising, and the creativity behind these designs are incredible.

Once I clicked on this image on the Veer site, I was linked to a page with hundreds of typography designs! Here are a few of my favorite, all of which I pulled from this amazing blog. See if you can identify what the design is advertising. Some use food, some use paint, and others just remind me of incredible installation fibers art projects that I spent a semester learning about last year.

Have a great week!

03.10.2010

response…the september issue

I have been obsessed with this movie ever since it came to Columbia a few months ago! I was so glad we watched it in class. It is hard to believe that the inside offices of Vogue are actually similar to what I remember from The Devil Wears Prada. Although it looks intimidating, it makes me that much more excited about entering the Magazine world as soon as possible! Here is the trailer.

Stepping inside the world of Anna Wintour took me to another time and place...a time and place that exists, but also one that I have never been exposed to. It gave me a sneak peek into the couture, makeup, photography, and direction of the magazine. I was amazed to see how intertwined the fashion industry and magazine industry are - at least in terms of Vogue magazine.

critique…LBB

This week, we introduced our final designs for LBB to the class. We talked about our designs, and it was fun to compare ideas and look at the functionality of the designs. Here is what I presented, with my favorite design on top.

I loved the details that many of the logos had in their design. There were some great color palates, interesting use of texture, and great use of typography. My favorites were the logos that combined a country-western color scheme with more feminine fonts or images (like the horseshoe). THe class did an awesome job and I can't wait to see which logo LLB chooses.

...you can't miss...Grammy artwork

In spirit of the recent award shows, I came across some interesting artwork that gives a creative spin on celebrity images. In each of these, the celebrity is made up almost completely of typography. These are from last year's Grammy awards. The below image of Rihanna is courtesy of this site. These images are an amazing mix of color and type, and the attention to detail is incredible.

The blog that I pulled the above image from also gave this link, which is the blog that originally hosted the images. Check out this site if you want to see more. Below is Stevie Wonder, followed by Radiohead's Thom Yorke. Enjoy!

03.03.2010

you can't miss...home typogrpahy

Since I have been spending so much time looking at home design recently (thanks of my home magazine prototype pitch), I have found some really cool ways typography is used in the home. Here are a few awesome things I found.

This furniture site is courtesy of Human Resources. I would just love to see this in someone's home! Who knew typography could also be so functional?

Here is also a doormat that says "Come in" one way and "Go away" if you flip it the other way. I could see this on my doorstep. Thanks to this blog for the image.

And if you're interested, here's the matching door hanger! Of course, you just can't have one without the other. This image is courtesy of this site.

response...magazine prototype

This week's major project was pitching a magazine prototype to members of the Publishing capstone class. At first glance at the assignment, I felt overwhelmed. However, the more time I put into the project, the more excited I became...I just kept finding things to tweak and improve for my presentation!

The magazine I was assigned is called "Boost", and it is about maximizing and improving home value by making worthwhile and timeless investments in your home. It is a fresh way to think about home and definitely is different then the traditional "Better Homes & Gardens" home magazine that I think of when I imagine a home magazine. I am very excited to see what this project has in store. Here is my prototype pitch!

I wanted to create a creative, elegant, ad timeless way to represent the audience and contributors to this magazine. I wanted it to be classy and classic, while still inviting. I wanted to keep in mind the 'flash value' of the cover, remembering that someone passing by a newsstand will only have a second or two to glance and the cover and decide whether or not they want to pick it up. I kept in mind that this magazine was one that emphasized movement, both in increasing home value and in investment return (for the long run). Keeping this idea in ming, I wanted the beauty of the cover to pull people in and the feature and department to pull readers from page to page, wanting to learn more about their home and how they can make their home more of a timeless reflection of themselves.

What does the magazine say to you?

critique...cover, feature, and department

This week, I had the privilege of learning the true meaning of "production" for Vox. I worked on the cover, feature, and my ARTS department, which all went to press just a few hours ago. It took a few long nights and lots of coffee, but I am really excited to have so much of my own work inside of Vox this week.

I was also pleased with the variety of stories I was able to work with. My cover was based on the main feature about Medieval Warriors here in Peace Park, and I was lucky to work with some very talented and fun editors working on this piece. I was also able to talk to Cara throughout the creation of the project, since she was working on the feature. Although she had a different concept for her feature than I did for my cover, I think we were able to create a package that compliments each others' ideas. Here's a look.

The feature that I designed was about human trafficking, and how it occurs right here in Mid-Missouri. It was a 2-page spread, and there were no photos in the original design. We were able to get a single photo of the man that the story was profiling on Monday and place it, but I designed the piece as a typography layout since we were unsure about what we would be able to et in terms of photos. The editor that I worked with was very accessible, which made it convenient when I needed to communicate with her. The piece has a very strong message, which was that human trafficking is very real in areas that we don't normally expect - so I was thankful to have the opportunity to be able to work with this kind of content. It pushed me to create a design where the visuals were based on the shocking statistics and emotions from the story. Here are the pages of the two-page spread.

Finally, I also worked on my Arts department. Aimee mentioned to me that my past 2 department pages looked very similar, which you can see if you scroll down to the images of the pages that I put up last week. This week, I moved the recurring section into vertical spaces rather then the horizontal space at the bottom, where I was previously placing it. It was rewarding to find new ways to fit together sections that I work with every week, and it was almost like a puzzle fitting everything together. Hopefully, you'll immediately see a difference from last week's page.