Response: Prototype presentation

This week we finally went to Des Moines to present our magazine prototypes. While Home Canvas had some constructive criticism, we were told that we "hit a home run with our magazine." I almost cried I was so happy. Overall I was really interested in the types of criticisms they gave to groups in general. Since I was on the design side and not the publishing side, I was shocked by some of the questions they asked about publishing such as how they would get people to add them on Facebook and how Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest are not actually free media when you need to hire someone to run them 24/7. It's one of those things that I overlook when thinking about what goes in to making a magazine because I have gotten so caught up in making sure it looks good. I definitely need to take those kinds of things into consideration when I'm thinking about the costs of magazine in the future.

Response: Online Portfolio Critiques

On Tuesday, I showed my online portfolio website to the class. I got some really good feedback with it. For one, I am working on looking for a new layout. I just don't think that I picked the best possible layout for the work I had to present. I've already started looking for new layouts. I also need to go bad and put a stroke around my pages. The pages that are white just bleed off the page and into the background, which does not highlight the use of white space on the pages. I also want to play with text. I tried messing with it a bit, but I want to get my layout set before I edit any coding. Overall, I think sharing my portfolio was a good experience. I got a lot of feedback that I would not have even thought about on my own. Since I'm so familiar with my work, it's nice to get a pair of fresh eyes to look at it and give me their opinions. If you want to check my site out again feel free! (It will probably be changing around quite a bit in the next week, so keep checking to watch it evolve!)

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.

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.

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.

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:

Response: Double production

Due to meeting this week, I do not have much to respond to. My portfolio review is tomorrow and therefore have nothing to talk about from class Tuesday. Instead I would like to talk about double production week(end).
This weekend I was working on two issues. First, I had the departments from the 3/22 issue. That was a whole mess in itself seeing as a story that was supposed to be a secondary was written as an anchor, but I'll spare you the details. At the same time, I had to produce the cover for the 3/29 issue. It was definitely interesting to keep track of everything. I must admit that I got lost in PlanJob a few times because I was under the wrong issue. I can't even begin to imagine how the editors felt this past week. I must say though, I really did enjoy it.

Response: Helvetica and Just My Type

Helvetica...

Where do I begin? I didn't hate the documentary. I found it to be interesting and enlightening. I never actually paid attention to how often this typeface is used. I mean yes, I have noticed many uses for it, but it wasn't until they had one man point out different places where Helvetica was used on the streets until I actually realized that the font was all over. It has definitely given me a new appreciation for Helvetica and, at the same time, made me want to avoid using it whenever possible to avoid becoming just another overlooked designer with boring, basic type choices.

Just My Type...

I have actually found this book to be quite enjoyable. At first I thought I would be bored while reading it, but I found it to be a quick read with some interesting ideas. As requested, I will be talking about three chapters that I particularly found interesting.
12: What the font? I found this chapter interesting for its mention of an iPhone application that can identify fonts. While this chapter also admits that the app has its issues, I still had no idea it even existed. Needless to say I put the book down and picked up my phone the second i saw this and downloaded the application instantly. I still have yet to try it out, but when I do I will let you know how it goes.
2: Capital Offence I didn't necessarily learn much from this chapter seeing as I already understood the connotation of capital letters, but I found the chapter to be very entertaining. It is also refreshing to hear someone else speak of (or write about) type etiquette. As designers we must evaluate our type choices and use fonts that are relevant to the message we are trying to convey. Therefore, this chapter is a very important lesson for us.
3: Legibility vs. Readability This is an important concept for all designers. We have to make sure it is possible to read what we create. It doesn't matter how great something looks if no one can understand what it says. This also relates to a post I made a few weeks ago in a "You Can't Miss" section where the bottom of a logo was cut off and the entire meaning was lost. One problem I run into is that I know what I mean for something to say so I'll assume everyone can read it. It is important for us to let a fresh pair of eyes see our work so that we know it is legible.

Response: In class critique

This week we looked at one another's work to give feedback. I received feedback that was pretty much what I expected. Nothing too spectacular (I'm still learning after all) but still marks above just a standard "good."
One comment that many designers had about my portfolio was that a lot of the pieces seemed very clean, but at the same time very safe. I do agree that I need to push my boundaries a little more, especially with typography. I want to start branching out and exploring what more I can do with page layouts. But at the same time I was glad to hear these comments that my work was simple (while still impactful).
My current dream jobs are at a magazine like Real Simple or Martha Stewart Living. In these magazine the goal is to be simple, yet with an impact. I mean let's face it, that's pretty much the whole reason behind the magazine Real Simple's title.
So while I do agree that I need to touch up some work and play with bigger, bolder choices, I'm glad to see I'm at least on the right track for these kinds of magazines.

Response: History presentations

This week we each did a short presentation on a magazine before the '70s. I ended up with Vogue from 1910-1919.
This project was very interesting for me. I had never looked at such an old magazine, in fact I had no clue Vogue had been around for so long. The biggest thing I found was how they used illustration covers and hired different artists to do different covers. This is very similar to how a magazine would hire a photographer to do a specific cover shoot for them. It was also interesting to see how they did not have a "branded" logo yet. On many covers, the title of the magazine was drawn differently. In current times, magazines would never do that. They have a specific typeface that they use on each cover so that they have a recognizable identity. This was not the case for Vogue at the time, and it was not the case for many other magazines that my fellow designers studied. It goes to show that a magazine can be successful even if they do not want to keep one typeface for their name. As long as the title is legible, a reader will know what they are buying and still want to read the magazine. In fact, I would probably be more drawn to a cover with a clever, integrated title that showed a lot of thought went into how to write the title. But that could just be because I love typography and am a designer.
Anyways, here are some covers for you to check out:

Response: Magazine Prototype Presentations

This week we presented our magazine prototypes to our publishing teams. I was extremely nervous. You remember the prototype I posted last week? Well, my laptop's logic board crashed on Wednesday evening and I had no laptop until Monday morning. This meant that I lost my entire prototype, and due to other obligations I could not start to remake it until Sunday afternoon. Fortunately, minus the cover, I liked everything about this new version better than the original. My publishing group changed their feature for the publication, causing my cover concept to change, and while I am not upset with the way it came out I do prefer the cover from last week a bit better. I had some trouble placing my sell lines on the new cover. Here is my new prototype:






I ended up choosing to use the canvas box on all of my pages. I made this decision based on feedback from my fellow designers. I realized that it would be a good way to brand the magazine. I also kept the same concept for the department page, although I tweaked it by finding a better image.
My main focus was making everything "user-friendly" so that someone could skim it for quick information or read it thoroughly if they chose to do so. That's why the feature had many pull out info sections along with space for real body copy. I also tried to keep things consistent with how I pulled out information in the department and the feature. I thought this would make it more efficient for a reader. Despite not being chosen as creative director for the project I am still very happy with the work I produced. I am going to tweak the cover and play with the sell lines a bit though. And after seeing Krista's work I am excited to work on the project.

I think the toughest thing for me was having to present this to the publishing group. It was tough to have to explain every single decision I made. While I just explained a few of my decisions on here, it's hard to think of everything as you're going and make sure you explain everything so that the publishers, some of whom have no design experience, can understand the concepts. For example, they wanted a bright color palette. This sounds great in theory, but bright to a designer can be a lot different than bright to a non-designer because we know that too bright will look cheesy. They were also worried about over-using photos, which I think are great to use.

All in all this was a great experience and has me a little bit less nervous for our final magazine presentations in May. Now it's just time to get to work!

Response: Prototype Critique

This week in class we started critiquing our magazine prototypes. I showed my cover and a feature design along with a potential logo for my home decor magazine, Home Canvas. I wanted to respond to something I found interesting with my critique. To begin, here are the two pages:


While I have many things to continue working on, I want to focus on one comment made by my fellow designers. When I exported the PDF files, purple boxes showed up around the pages, about an inch from each edge. (When I exported the files as blogger-supported images the boxes were lost). The original plan was not to have the boxes, but the class seemed to like them. I am now considering putting them back in for when I show the work next week. Or I might make my masthead have the canvas box around it. I plan on playing with this concept as I work on my prototype more.
I also need to use another color other than purple. My department page is covered in purple, which while I enjoy this color, is overwhelming and was mentioned several times during my in-class critique. There are a few other things that I am going to continue to play with this weekend, but overall my biggest surprise was the idea of the canvas-like boxes on my pages. I can't believe designers thought it was a good idea. I would have never thought to do that.

Response: iPad discussion

This past week in class Theresa told us how while a friend was looking over her design portfolio, the friend's boss saw that she had iPad experience. The boss was shocked that a college student could have experience with iPad application production. This goes to show how valuable our iPad experience will be. While I may be frustrated with the work now, it will pay off in the future when it comes time to apply for jobs. Being able to show the ability to design not only magazine pages, but also iPad pages, is extremely valuable in this industry and can set us apart from other job applicants. I am so excited to work more with the iPad and see what other opportunities it can offer.

Response: The September Issue

This week in class we watched "The September Issue." This movie follows the making of the 2007 September issue of Vogue, the largest issue of Vogue created. While watching the movie we were able to see the role of the creative director in the making of the magazine.
It was very interesting to see a behind-the-scenes look at the making of the Vogue September issue. I have never really seen the full production process of a magazine before. It was a really great experience for me, especially because of something that happened to me two days ago.
On Monday I had a huge decision to make. I was offered a job with Teach For America, a two-year commitment to teach elementary education in Kansas City. While this would be a great experience for me, I didn't want to take two years off from working in the journalism field. Watching "The September Issue" solidified that I made the right choice. While I do not dream of working at Vogue, I hope to one day become a creative director for a magazine. Becoming a creative director takes a lot of work, as they explained in the movie, Grace was a model, then worked at British Vogue before becoming the creative director of American Vogue. If I want to become a creative director I can't take two years off doing something unrelated to journalism.
Now I just have to hope that I made the right choice and find a career in journalism after graduation.

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.