You can't miss: Sharing Coke logo

This week on logodesignlove I found a logo that struck me as very interesting, probably because I am addicted to drinking diet Coke. This logo, called "Sharing a Coke" was created by a 19-year-old designer at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. The logo is an adaptation of the Coke logo. Here it is:

I am obsessed with this logo. I love it because it is so recognizable with the Coke white, wavy line in front of the red background, but the designer has turned it into two hands holding a Coke bottle together. It's so simple, yet says a lot. I wish I'd thought of it. What do you guys think?

Response: Book Covers

So I know my critique this week is also about book covers, but I found the in class critique yesterday interesting so I want to respond to it as well. It was definitely interesting hearing design things from book publishers. For instance, I was surprised by their reaction to white covers and how they were not desirable. When they first said how dark books get scuffed up easily I thought they would definitely want lighter and even white books. While they wanted lighter books, they absolutely did not want white (unless it had a border). This was because when the sleeve is uploaded to Amazon and other online sites they do not put a border around the image. Therefore, a white cover looks like awkward floating text. I would have never even thought twice about that. Overall the experience was really cool. I definitely never though it would be that hard or time consuming for book covers to be selected. There was a lot of debate over some sets of designs while others (like mine) were unanymously voted on and selected easily. I'm glad that's how mine went, because I definitely liked their choice.

Critique: Book Covers

This week I finally got my book covers together. As beautiful as my hand drawn covers were (not!), I finally put them together on the computer. Of the three covers that I made this one definitely has to be my favorite, not to mention the one that took the most time:

I had a lot of fun getting to draw the pinup girl. I haven't had much work with illustrating people, and I really wanted to try it out for this. I definitely want to go back and fix up her facial features for next week. I also need to fix a bit of the type placement and will probably choose another typeface. Overall, I think this is a solid start. For tomorrow, I will also have potential radio show covers. I have chosen the photos I want to use but will be putting the covers together today. I also will add more to my online portfolio so that it can be critiqued next week.

Critique: Prototype Q&A spread

This week my biggest accomplishment was figuring out a way to make my Home Canvas Q&A spread work. I think I finally nailed it down, although I have a few more tweaks and touches to add. Here's how the spread looks now:

I am really liking how the two images look on the right page of the spread. I think it really helps contrast all the text in the Q&A. It also helps draw the focus instead of the headshot. While I want to showcase the woman who the Q&A is with, that image is so paling and boring. I wanted to use the two images on the right to really bring color into the spread. I also like how the inset photo looks. I was worried it might look disjointed, but I think the two images pair well together and make it work.
What do you guys think? Hopefully I'm headed on the right track!

You can't miss: Zebra inspired logo

Who would have guessed that of all animals the zebra could inspire a logo? Not this girl, but I was wrong.
This week on logodesignlove I found a post about a logo inspired by a zebra. How freaking cool right?
Here it is:

To see how it came about check out this full post. What do you think? Are there any animals that you want to see inspiring a logo? Personally, I'd love to see someone try to make a kangaroo inspired logo, but I also just love kangaroos. I think it's safe to say LeeAnn would like to see a cat inspired logo but that's just a guess.

Response: Prototype critiques

This week we showed our M-word prototypes again. I was pretty pleased with the response to my pages. The Q&A is especially coming along nicely. I'll talk about that in my critique for the week.
Through this process I am definitely learning about how I design. While I have good initial ideas, when I have the chance to sit back, look at something again and then have an even more brilliant idea then I started with. This is really helpful since I tend to multitask while working on projects. I can do a draft of one project, then a draft of another and so on and so on. And then after finishing all my first drafts I can move back through to look at how I can make each draft better. I really hope I am able to implement this process more in the next few weeks.

You can't miss: a classic design combo

This week on LogoDesignLove they posted about the classic design idea: the hand-dove idea. They showed a ton of different ways to use it. While simple, it shows us how we can take strange pairs of things (hands and doves) to create something unexpected.
This is my favorite one. The shadow looks so cool:


Which ones do you guys like?

Response: Book covers

This week we had to do our 20/10 assignment of 20 books covers. Unfortunately I don't have an image for this, but for the class just re-visualize my fantastic drawings from class on Tuesday.
Overall, I learned that I am definitely one of those people who has two good ideas, hits a few just so-so designs, then achieves greatness. I definitely need to brainstorm a lot of ideas in order to come across a final product.
This is reflective in the classes votes for my designs. I am going to be redesigning things from all different ideas. Some on the more patriotic designs were chosen, but at the same time a lot of people liked some of my pin-up girl ideas. I'm really happy with this because I want to be able to come in with a lot of different possibilities for the publishers. I feel like with more variety I will bring more potential covers for the publishers. I just hope I am able to execute all of my ideas on Illustrator. This will definitely give me a lot of practice with illustrations.

Critique: Spring Preview Cover redone and Tiger Hotel feature

Hey all! I have some exciting news. I have a job interview on Monday! I'm really stoked, and I also am freaking out trying to perfect the portfolio I am going to bring. In order to do so, I redid my Spring Preview cover. Incase you don't remember, there was a teaser to the (then) upcoming Eli Young Band concert. So I took a media photo from their website, as suggested by Jan and Theresa during my portfolio review before break, to create a new cover. Here's how it looks:

I'm pretty satisfied with it, although I would like to play with the typography a bit more. If you have any suggestions feel free to let me know!
I also have a second draft of my Tiger Hotel feature for tomorrow. Last time they suggest adding more photos, especially of the inside of rooms. They also gave me another page to work with which is greatly needed and appreciated. I am still loving my huge photo spread to open the feature, although I know it was a concern last time since it took up so much space for other potential photos. I'm hoping that with the amount of photos I added and the addition of the extra page I will be able to keep this spread intact. Let me know what you think!

You can't Miss: this sweet typography

Hey all. As you may have noticed, I love sharing cool typography. I just happened to stumble across this site that I thought I'd share.
This is my favorite design, although I am in a bit of a Star Wars nerd kind of mood:

I love how in this, as well as the other designs on the website, they are able to create entire images just using letters and numbers. It's crazy! Which is your favorite?

Response: Portfolio review

The week before break we had a portfolio reviews. It was pretty interesting. I was a little nervous going into the reviews because I didn't know what to expect. Overall, I think that the review went well. I definitely need to do more work with illustrations and photoshop. I also want to redo my Spring Preview cover.
I think that I'm in good shape for consumer magazines which is what I want to work in when I graduate. Overall this is how portfolio reviews made me feel:

Critique: Home Canvas Prototype

This week I worked a lot on my Home Canvas department prototypes. I think they're coming along really well now. I want to play a bit more with some of the color choices and maybe adding a few more visuals, but I definitely think they make more sense and are more cohesive now. Here's how they look:






My biggest issue so far is just playing with the Q&A. I really want a different photo (preferably an environmental shot) but I don't think that is going to be possible. The photo just does not work well with the Q&A. I also am still working on the organization of the page. I'm hoping that my publishing group tomorrow will have some suggestions.

For tomorrow I am also creating a masthead/editor's letter page for Home Canvas. I also am creating a first draft of the Tiger Hotel feature for Vox and a potential cover for the ROTC and Fire feature issue on 4/12. I should probably get off the blog and get back to work. Wish me luck!