You can't miss: these logos

Design is not strictly limited to making magazines look pretty, it is an aspect of all parts of life. That's why, for our blogs to follow this semester, I have chose LogoDesignLove. I wanted to not only look at how magazines are created, but also how other forms of design come about and how elements of each of these could be used when it comes time to design a magazine page.
One post that really intrigued me on this website was from January 24. The post is entitled "15 wonderfully simple logo designs" and incase you couldn't tell form the name, it featured great, yet simple, logos. Most of the logos dealt with a simple image or typography that seemed very simple because it was created flawlessly.
One logo that stuck out to me right away was this one:

I thought this logo did a great job encompassing the theme of family. The recurring "i" of different heights can be seen as family members of different heights standing next to one another (at least that's how I see it). While extremely simple, it still has a great impact.
This semester I really want to work on my typography skills and be able to create simple things like this typography. I feel that logos are a great way to look at this, because they have to say a lot and usually within a small space. I hope that by following this blog throughout the semester I can embrace new ways of thinking and push myself to be more creative with my magazine work.

Response: CRMA comment

Like many designers in the class, I have chosen to respond to our work as the Preliminary Design Judges for the City and Regional Magazine Association. I, however, do not want to comment on the judging experience (although I must say, it was amazing), rather on a comment made by a fellow designer.
When we were talking about one of the magazine covers, Andrea H. pointed out that the cover (I won't name the specific title) used typography that made it look like a magazine right out of Las Vegas. This magazine, however, had no connection with Vegas, or a city that someone may consider to be similar to Vegas.
As designers we are always told that typography is extremely important, and we read books upon books about type. In our books for this capstone, almost every one mentions the power of typography and how little differences in font, style, size or placement can change the entire feel of the page. This was no exception. This typography choice just did not work for me.
In the book Graphic Style, every single page has designs from different eras and locations. One major difference in each design is the font choice. This just reinforces how type can change everything.
From this experience, I have realized that I need to be more careful in my font choices. This semester one of my goals is to work with typography and try to expand my techniques with editing type.

Critique- Roll On, Columbia photo story

This week I worked on my first assignment for my capstone. This assignment was a cover and 5 page photo essay from a story about a shop in Columbia where people can come to roll their own smokes.
I was a bit nervous to start this project seeing as I was not familiar with VOX formatting and most of my design experience comes from a class where I did not publish my work. I started by choosing a photo edit that I thought best fit the story. I also chose my cover image.

I chose my cover image because I found it to be intriguing, it informed the audience that the story had to do with smoking, and it worked nicely with the size of the cover and where the VOX logo goes on the cover page.

Then I worked on my story edit. I knew that I wanted to make the first spread of my story a large photo with limited text. I made this decision based on the fact that this was a photo story and the focus did not necessarily need to be the text. Therefore, I only used the title and dek on the opening spread. I used the image of the smokes to emphasize that the story was about a smoke shop.



My second spread began the story. I used the dominant image of the shop owner smoking so that I could introduce him into the story. I also used the image of the shop so that people could see what the store looked like. The third image on this spread was a difficult decision. I love the photo, but it worried me to show a child inside of a smoke shop. In the end, I decided that since the child was just standing by a counter and not buying, rolling or smoking any smokes it was alright to use. I had space that would have been great to use a vertical image, but unfortunately we were only given horizontal images. Therefore, I used a pull quote that I thought represented the story.



On my final page I wanted to show both what the shop sells and a look at the smokes being created. That is how I chose the final two images. The dominate image had a lot of detail in the glass counter and showed what was sold in the shop, therefore I chose it to be the dominant image on the page.


Overall I think I did a good job on my first project. I wish I had been a little more creative and played with my typography more. In this next project, our Spring Preview issue competition, I hope to come up with a more creative concept.

JR ink.

Welcome to my new blog, JR ink.
I am in my last semester at the University of Missouri-Columbia. In my final semester I am learning more about design and working for Vox magazine. This blog will look at not only my work and experiences, but also inspiration from fellow designers. I hope you enjoy.