Critique Week 14

So this post is going to have a lot of designs. I totally forgot to add my department designs over the semester, so those will be included here. I will also have my final draft of Global Journalist, as well as the brochure I designed for the "theatre company" I was a part of for my final project in the journalism school's theatre class. 

Response

I am writing this in the final week of classes, and I can't believe it. Two weeks from today I will be starting my new temporary job as a summer communications intern for the city government of Maryland Heights, Missouri. While not all of my work will be design related, I will get the opportunity to design various things for the city, including the city newsletter. The last four years have been a wonderful experience for me, and I want to thank every one of my professors for the help and guidance I have received along the way. Thank you. 

You can't miss... an interesting ad campaign

A post on Alan Formby-Jackson's blog on Visual Editors caught my eye today. He posted the ad campaign that London's Evening Standard just launched in an effort to apologize to its readers for being "complacent, negative, predictable, for losing touch and for taking readers for granted." It caught my eye because of its interesting use of typography. Laurence Green, chairman of the ad agency Fallon, commented that the move is a "massive role of the dice," because "The first rule of advertising is to get noticed and I think this campaign will." I agree with Green that it will be noticed, but I'm not sure the bold way they did it was exactly a right choice. It seems to me that information like that should be discussed with readers through a letter, not an ad campaign. 

This week on UnBeige

Well Shepard Fairey is in the news again... but this time it's for a really cool reason. UnBeige reported yesterday (May 5) that Fairey, along with fellow artist Kenny Scharf, is designing the aesthetic look for two of Lance Armstrong's bikes that Lance will ride in the Giro d'Italia race in Italy this summer. The two bikes, each uniquely designed by each artist, are part of the upcoming Nike-backed "Stages" art show that will benefit Armstrong's Livestrong foundation. While Scharf took a sleek, modern approach, I really love Fairey's approach that pays tribute to Italy's architectural history, according to the blog SuperTouch that provided the first glimpse of these extraordinary bikes. Check them out at SuperTouch!

Critique Week 13

Over the last week I worked on three things: my Web site, my mini-portfolio and Global Journalist. 

I managed to learn the basic knowledge of creating rollover graphics in Flash, so I was able to convert my Web site from tables to flash. It still needs tweaking, but is in much better shape than it was before. Click here to view in browser. 

My mini-portfolio is coming along nicely. A couple weeks ago I bought six-inch by six inch photo albums at Hobby Lobby so I just have to cut out my clips and place them into the plastic sleeves on each page. I have decided on all of my clips and I just finished my redesign, so it is all set and ready to go. I just have to cut the clips to fit in the pages accordingly. As for the process so far I am very pleased with it. 

Finally I have been working over the past couple of days on the upcoming issue of Global Journalist. I was assigned a fascinating story on the ethics of photoshopping news photos. I won't spoil the story here, so you will just have to go and read it for yourself. At first I struggled with the three-page design, but going off the advice of Aimee I have finished my first draft and eagerly look forward to hearing from the editors on Friday before the first round of revisions. I will put up the final pages once all corrections are done, but I have also added my first draft here.

Response to class and such

Boy has it been an interesting semester so far. I have been fortunate to get my hands into a lot of things over the last couple of weeks and months, and have been given the opportunity to work with some pretty amazing people. I believe some of the most interesting work I have gotten to do was the Global Journalist design and the trends assignment. I really liked the Global Journalist because it is an international news magazine focusing on international journalism, and the topics, especially my article on photoshopping, was really interesting. I knew that Global Journalist was on campus as I was here over the last couple of years, but I never really paid too much attention to it until now. And I wish I had. I think it's the political science minor in me that attracts me to this type of publication. 

I also liked the trends assignment because it was interesting to see how different individuals within the industry had vastly different looks on the future of the journalism industry. While some urged us to stay in school, others didn't talk about grad school but rather wished us luck on finding jobs. Overall it was a grim outlook, but interesting to learn about, nonetheless. 

You can't miss... chalk animation!

So I couldn't get the video to load onto here, but I wanted to share a video I saw posted on Desiree Perry's blog on Visual Editors. She showed a really cool chalk animation video from Lucinda Schreiber called "Firekites - AUTUMN STORY - chalk animation." In the comments on Schreiber's Vimeo.com page, Schreiber writes that she shot nearly 1,900 frames for the video. It's pretty amazing stuff. What I want to know is if they really drew the figures every single time on the chalkboards. Check it out here.  

This week on UnBeige... the new creative director of Maxim

Well the news specifically pertaining to magazine and magazine design has been a little sparse lately on UnBeige, so I went with this UnBeige news blurb published today, April 29: Dirk Barnett Named Creative Director of Maxim. UnBeige reports that Barnett is known for redesigning Blender Magazine before it recently folded, and it was announced today that he had been hired by the Alpha Media Group to be Maxim's new creative director. Before Blender, Barnett worked for the spin-offs of New York Times Magazine - Key and Play - where UnBeige reports that he oversaw art direction and design. Finally, Barnett has won 9 medals and 93 merits from the Society of Publication Designers, so it will be interesting to see if Barnett brings any type of redesign to Maxim.  

Response: Week 12

Week 12? Really? Where has time gone? Even though I didn't do a lot of design work over this past weekend, I did get the opportunity to interview for two jobs: one of which happened today and one that will occur on Wednesday. Today's interview went very well, and I hope Wednesday's interview goes as well as today. But as I seem to write every week on here in this section of my blog, it was another stark reminder of how the real world is now only a step away. And for anyone that has trouble or feels nervous in interviews, I would highly recommend going to the MU Student Success Center and scheduling a mock interview. I did that today and boy did it make me feel more confident for my interview on Wednesday. 

Critique: Week 12

Man, I can't believe it's week 12 already. Another four weeks and I will be walking across the stage at graduation. Slight shudder. But I still have a ton of classes, papers, tests, projects and job interviews before the end is finally in sight. Which brings me to my weekly critique.

So this week I didn't do as much as last week, and it's hard to show what I've done on here. I worked on getting my mini-portfolio ready, and put together the pages for one of them to see how it would look. I like it. I can't really show that on here, but that was one of the main things I did this weekend.

Last week I also added elements onto the pages of CountryHome.com, the Meredith Corp. commissioned project I am a part of. Unfortunately I don't have any pictures of that on here yet as it is in the final tweaking stages. Hopefully I will have pictures of that up here soon.

I also worked on my website, http://web.missouri.edu/~emsc37/index.html. I incorporated many of the suggestions made by my classmates and professor, and I like how it turned out. Once I get time after graduation to learn Adobe Flash, I plan on redesigning it completely using flash. But that is a goal right now. What I can show besides this link to my website is the picture of my newly redesigned logo, seen above. It's still a work in progress now that we have an extra week to work on it, but this is what I have now.

On deck for next week:

1) Mini portfolio

2) Website

You can't miss... the NYT's Brian Stelter on the future of journalism

So as the class of 2009 inches ever closer to graduation (now only four weeks away, counting finals), I thought this was an appropriate find. In "J-Schools Play Catchup," Stelter takes a pretty good look at the future of journalism, now dubbed the "new journalism." It talks about how journalism schools across the country are changing their courses to anticipate the changes to a mostly web format for journalism. It attempts to answer the question of what the "new journalism" will look like, but appropriately ends on the answer of we don't know. It seems fitting as every senior I know in the journalism school is stressing out about graduation and the future of journalism. Stelter's article is definitely a must-read. 

This week on UnBeige... small type!

The following news post surfaced on UnBeige last Friday, April 17, and caught my eye tonight: For New York's Adam Moss, Good Things Come in Small Point Sizes. According to the post, New York magazine has started printing really small headlines on its cover. They cite this week's New York Observer, in which John Koblin comments that the type is so tiny, "The letters weigh in somewhere between the size of a grain of sugar and a grain of kosher salt."  The cover, seen here, features a red starburst where this tiny type is located. It is currently under a magnifying glass in this picture. One of the reasons for this unique conceptual design, says its editor-in-chief, Adam Moss, is that most of their magazines are sold by subscription  - only 4 percent are sold on newsstands - so it allows the magazine, Moss believes, to experiment like this. After the cover line, everything else is considered "garnish," Moss adds. 

“There’s a certain texturing,” Moss said in an interview with Koblin. “Texturing? Is that a word? A texture object that has to do with the design of the cover. We have very large type and very small type. It’s impossible to describe graphic design, but you want to create a visual tension on the cover. We want you to see a big word that excites you. And then it’s like someone who speaks very softly and you lean in to hear them.”

Now I could not see all the tiny type Koblin describes in his article. But it really makes me want to go find this on the newsstand and see for myself. UnBeige claims this is the secret to survive "in the rapidly shrinking world of print media." 

Just some food for thought. It's pretty fascinating stuff.

Critique: Week 11

This week I had two major assignments to work on: the CountryHome.com designs for my Meredith Corp. project and the design (and subsequent redesign) of covers for the Criminal Justice Issue of Vox Magazine. 

The CountryHome.com project is slowly coming along, as we are working as a design team to make the pages look similar to each other. It's a lot of work, but I believe I will be much more knowledgeable about web design in the end than I would if I had chosen one of the print projects for Meredith Corp. My inspiration for my department pages was NYTimes.com. However, I am a very methodical, straightforward designer, learning to expand my creative box. It has shown in my print work for this class and Vox Magazine, and that struggle has unfortunately made its way over to the web design work as well with this Meredith Corp. project. But in the end, like everything else, it will be a good learning experience for me. Unfortunately I can't post screenshots of my pages since they are on the server and I don't have access to them right now.

But I will post my covers for Vox Magazine's Criminal Justice Issue. I will briefly explain each one. The one with the caution tape and body outline in chalk was trying to recreate a crime scene where each of the three individuals profiled in the story would have a hand in figuring out the crime. The black cover with the three picture boxes was modeled after a t-shirt I have which depicts three different aspects of the organization. So since there are three profiles, I decided to make each profile have its own picture box. And the font for the words "Criminal Justice" was modeled after Law & Order. Finally, the cover with the arm in a chain was my least favorite. I kind of ran out of ideas at this point, but I was trying to show in this cover a "criminal" being locked up awaiting "justice."

After I presented these three ideas to the class this past Thursday, they suggested I redesign the cover with the picture boxes, which is shown here. I changed the picture for the medical examiner and tried to make each box look like it had a brass nameplate attached to it. I'll see how the class reacts to it on Thursday.

On deck:

1) Continuing working on CountryHome.com

2) Multimedia for Vox

3) Present the redesigned cover at Thursday's lab

4) Work on mini-portfolio and Web site if I have time

Response: Week 11

This week in Magazine Editing, one of our homework assignments is to plan a theme issue for the August issue of Esquire. It was easy for me to come up with a theme but way harder to come up with 8-12 feature ideas and four department ideas based off of that theme. Even though this assignment is much easier for me to complete than proofreading or copyediting, it showed just how much I need to work on thinking like an editor. Because in the second round of presentations in Advanced Magazine Design, as students presented their findings from interviews with various art directors from across the country, the suggestion of being a designer and thinking like an editor at the same time came up. It's definitely helpful to be strong in both areas simultaneously because I believe a designer is more marketable if he or she possesses both traits and can use them at the same time. Again it was another week of identifying my weak points and now I have just over 30 days to work and polish them before I graduate from MU.

You can't miss... Stephen Colbert's interview with Biz Stone!

This hilarious interview was posted by Robb Montgomery, CEO of the blog Visual Editors, a blog which I follow regularly. In it, Colbert is interviewing the co-founder of Twitter, Biz Stone. For me, the seven minute interview was actually informational because I've heard so much about Twitter yet I still don't know much about it. And Stephen's funny, yet informational interview gave me just enough of a glimpse into the world of Twitter for me to understand its intentions. And for the record, I still do not Tweet on Twitter. Maybe that explains my ignorance on the subject. See the video on Montgomery's blog by clicking here.

This week on UnBeige... Damien Hirst!

UnBeige is reporting that beginning on April 25, Kiev, Ukraine's PinchukArtCentre will be hosting "Requiem," an exhibition of about 100 works by the artist Damien Hirst. I was introduced to Damien's work during my art class two years ago as my professor showed a photo of his diamond incrusted human skull entitled "For the Love of God." Another cool piece of his, one that will be on display in Kiev, is "Death Explained," a dissected shark suspended in formaldehyde. As a designer, I am inspired by Hirst because he always seems to be testing the limits of what is acceptable in the art industry. His works are new, innovative and exciting. That's what I want my designs to be, while also contributing to the journalism first and foremost. 

Critique: Week 10

This week has been very busy for me in terms of all of my classes. My latest round of testing has come and gone, and now I have more time to work on my design stuff. I don't have much to show today other than my CountryHome.com redesigns for the Meredith Corp. project. My covers will be added tomorrow after I get a chance to sit down and work on them. 

Anyways, the redesigns are a result of the meeting I had last week with the publishers. It's been a struggle to learn Dreamweaver and it's intricacies, but I feel I will be way more knowledgeable about the subject of web design after this project is over in less than one month. I based my redesigns off of NYTimes.com, which has a very structured Web site in terms of design for both departments as well as features. 

On deck:

1) Working on the CountryHome.com pages with the art director as well as the publishers

2) My covers for the 4.23 issue of VOX, otherwise known as the Criminal Justice Issue

3) Design the front-of-book department, Short Talk, in VOX this weekend, including a multimedia piece (which should help with my jitters about Flash).

4) Work on my website and mini-portfolio assignments if time allows. 

Whew, another busy week! Have a great day!

Response: Week 10

Today in class several people presented their findings from an interview with an art director at a magazine of his or her choice. Many of the interviews had job advice for the students, which ranged from how to make your portfolio stand out to advice to stay in school and not graduate. Ironically, when I came home this evening to catch the end of NBC Nightly News, Brian Williams and company showed a short piece entitled, "Hard times facing class of '09." It's an interesting, but sobering piece of news for the 1.5 million to-be graduates like us. One line that stood out to me the most was the fact that graduates will be making less money than their peers before them because of the current economic crisis, and history shows that the wages will never catch up. And in case you aren't counting, graduation for MU is t-minus 38 days from now. 

You can't miss... front pages from select newspapers covering the NCAA Men's Basketball National Championship Game

So last night the University of North Carolina Tar Heels destroyed Michigan State in the NCAA Men's Basketball National Championship Game en route to their fifth NCAA title. Being the sports junkie, I couldn't resist posting this link to Charles Apple's blog on VisualEditors, which highlights A1 design choices for select newspapers in Michigan and North Carolina for this morning's edition. 

My favorite is The Sanford Herald, a small North Carolina newspaper with a circulation of just under 11,000. They decided to go with the poster treatment, and an interview with the Herald's editor, Billy Liggett, who designed the page in question, reveals that he created this page, minus the picture, seven hours before tip-off. It was sent to the printer 45 minutes before the game had ended. Luckily for them, Liggett says, the game was won by the Tar Heels. He says he did this poster format in order to give his readers a "keep-sake front." 

I know in the newspaper world the use of poster fronts is sometimes overdone, but in this case I think it fits. It's not gaudy or overdone, but actually quite classy. 

This week on UnBeige: American Design!

A short, but interesting news blurb appeared on UnBeige yesterday, April 6. Next week on Tax Day, April 15, UnBeige and D-Crit will be celebrating the publication of American Design by Russell Flinchum. Flinchum's book traces the development of American design from the early American machinists to the present day. Interested in getting a signed copy of the book and visiting NYC at the same time? Then you can join UnBeige at Highbar in Manhattan on the night of April 15. 

It might be a good graduation gift, because like Carolyn Preul, creative director of Inside Columbia, said in an e-mail interview, "inspiration is everywhere." 

Critique Week #9

Last week I worked on the designs of the Living and Decorating department pages for the CountryHome.com prototype, which I presented this morning along with the rest of the website. Like I said in my response for this week, it was an uncomfortable hour as we were grilled constantly on our choices. Here are some screenshots of parts of the pages I presented this morning. But after our second meeting with the publishers earlier this afternoon, I am set and ready to go with the changes to be made to my pages. I designed these department pages with a modern feel in mind by trying to be simplistic and compartmental. The pages were pretty bare in terms of content because I did not have much direction from the two publishers in charge of my two pages. But my redesigns should look a lot better than this. Stay tuned! 

On deck:

-Working on CountryHome.com redesigns

-My trends assignment

-gathering art for Short Talk in VOX for the 4.16 issue

Response to the CountryHome.com meeting

This morning I was part of the team of three designers working on the CountyHome.com prototype who met with our publishing team and the two professors overseeing the project. We presented our prototype and were grilled on our choices for our designs. It was an uncomfortable hour, but I would rather be grilled by them than the representatives of Meredith Corp. The experience was a real eye-opener for me by serving as an example of how fast the industry is changing from print to online, and how I need to keep up with this change in the industry. In terms of web design I am a novice compared to print design, and I need to learn a lot about web design in the coming weeks.  

You can't miss... Graphic Design Forum!

In light that most of the members of the advanced magazine design class are graduating in a little over a month from now, I decided to share a post on Graphic Design Forum that is geared toward future graduates. I found this blog in the list of large list of sites of interest on UnBeige. Graphic Design Forum does not have an About Us tab, but it looks very similar to other visual journalism blog sites I have visited such as Visual Editors. 

Anyways, this article on Graphic Deisgn is by Bob Nicholl, titled, "The Business Side of Design Part 1, Starting Out." For the many of us who are graduating soon, he attempts to answer the question of "Now What?" In this article, Nicholl looks at the route of working as a freelancer, and offers some helpful tips. Check it out.  

This week on UnBeige... a YouTube redesign?

So out of yesterday's UnBeige newsfeed came an interesting news blurb about the planned redesign of YouTube (which I didn't know about). This blurb was linked to an article from ClickZ titled, "YouTube Plans Redesign to Highlight Premium Content." 

The article explains that the first part of the new design will clearly separate the "premium and long-form programming" from the "user-posted videos" and "will offer four tabs: Movies, Music, Shows, and Videos." The first three tabs will feature the premium content, while the fourth tab will house the user-generated content. According to the executive interviewed in the ClickZ article, the move is generated to separate the content that YouTube's advertisers would rather not be associated with from the content they don't mind having placed next to their ads. 

The second part of the redesign will be a redesigned video player that closely resembles the one on Hulu that will allow users to "dim the lights," or reduce the brightness of the browser window outside the video. 

The scheduled launch of this redesign is April 16. 

I find this article particularly fascinating in that even with the rise of user-generated content on the Internet, YouTube in particular, that advertisers look like they are shying away from potentially questionable user-generated content in the hopes that their image will not be tarnished by the content on the screen. YouTube seems to be taking the first step and responding to that concern. 

Critique Week #8

This week's amount of work was relatively lighter than I've had over the past couple of weeks, but I know it will pick back up after spring break. 

I'll start with my redesigned cover for the caffeine issue. I wasn't completely happy with how this turned out. Going off the suggestions from the previous week's critiques in lab, I decided to play around with the "Caution" cover by putting those words on a coffee cup. I did just that, but now that I look back at it I wish I had changed the wording of the headline, because I don't think it exactly fits a coffee cup. However, it may have worked if I had put this particular headline on an energy drink. I think I was struggling since the word "caffeine" covers such a broad topic. 

But moving on, I will take this moment to show my redesigned logos for the "Eat for Life" program as part of our 20/10 class assignment. I picked the top three logos with the most votes and then another that I felt would work if I just redesigned it a bit. The biggest changes were adding different colors and slightly tweaking the illustrations. I'm happy with how it turned out.

On deck for spring break:

1) Starting to put together my mini-portfolio

2) Working on the CountryHome.com prototype Web site 

Response to this entire semester so far

In a little less than two months, I will be walking across the stage at Mizzou Arena as a graduate of the University of Missouri. Therefore, since the end is (almost) in sight, I want to take a moment before I go on my final spring break to reflect on the last four years of my life here in Columbia, Missouri and look forward into the uncertain future. It's been a fun but arduous four years. I've been granted the opportunity to work on a variety of publications, from daily and weekly newspapers to weekly and monthly magazines. And I've learned a great deal as a result. 

At the beginning of my journey here at the University of Missouri, I was filled with hope and optimism for the journalism industry, even in the print journalism world. But now, as I come closer to stepping across that stage, I begin to wonder how journalism will look over the next five years and where I will end up. As major newspapers begin laying off workers, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer moves to a completely digital format and the nation's economy worsens, I wonder what will happen to the world of journalism. But I know that there will always be a need for news and for journalists to report that news. Now how that information will look in the next five years may be completely different than how it is presented today. But I believe my work as a journalist will still be needed sometime, somewhere down the road post-graduation. 

You can't miss... Design with Reason by Ron Reason

Ron Reason is a Chicago-based newspaper designer, educator, consultant and Poynter visiting faculty member. I stumbled upon his blog through Charles Apple's blog, which I visit frequently. Reason explains that Design with Reason, "relays observations about the about the clients who fascinate and challenge me, the places I visit, the people I meet, and the things I see along the way." 

One of his observations caught my eye today. Yesterday (March 17) was the last day for the print edition of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. The Seattle P-I printed from 1863-2009 and now only survives in an online format, found here. If all the talk about the journalism industry going completely to an online format hasn't hit home yet for you, this may do it - when a 146-year-old newspaper goes completely digital. 

This week on UnBeige... Fine Cooking!

One of yesterday's postings on UnBeige caught my eye today. It was a small comment about the redesign of Fine Cooking magazine, starting with their February/March issue (seen here at left). On this cover, the close-up of the stew is an example of the magazine's mission to make food the celebrity, editor-in-chief Laurie Buckle told UnBeige. "How our food looks is a reflection of our passion for cooking. Our goal is to feature real-world, deliciously gorgeous images for every recipe - the kind of photography that makes the reader want to pick up the magazine, take it to the kitchen, and get cooking," says Buckle. 

The man behind the redesign was Don Morris, who also redesigned the magazines of PC World and Bloomberg Markets. Buckle also spoke to UnBeige of the new changes in design within the magazine: "Structural changes along with new features and columns are helping us better tell a story each month - one that speaks to cooks of all kinds." 

In a time where magazines all across the board are hurting, it's interesting to see the type of approach Fine Cooking is taking to rebound during this down economy. I think it's interesting how Buckle's approach to the redesign is centered on the use of photography, as she hopes it will drive potential readers to pick up this magazine. It seems to me that this is a way to boost newsstand sales, not subscribers. What do you think?

Critique Week #7

This week I had three major design projects. The 20/10 logo assignment, the 3.12 VOX feature on groceries, and a small illustration for the Short Talk Department of the upcoming 3.19 issue of VOX. 

The bulk of that work centered around the feature on groceries, which went from its original two-page length to six-pages (trimmed at the last minute to five pages). My original sketch was pretty dull compared to the final product, using just the colors of black, white, blue and green. I also had a very large text box that took up the entire second page of the spread, so I was partly glad that the feature was given more pages. But that also meant more work. When I came into the office last Friday and Sunday, I worked with Meredith on the feature, and the final product is a collaboration between the two of us. One of the biggest things she had me do during the first revision was to come up with a color palette. I'll admit one of my biggest fears or clamps on my work is being afraid to think outside of the box. Having a long history from high school until now as a newspaper designer, I wasn't allowed to use my creative mind as much as I am doing this semester for this class as well as VOX. And I think my creative mind is slowly being let free, and this feature really helped me step out of the box. When I talk about being inside the box, I mean not using creative typefaces or many colors, and always designing inside a grid. After at least 10 hours of work on this, it's finally complete! I'm really excited to see how it comes out on Thursday. But here's a sneak peak of what the six-page spread looks like (it will be slightly different on Thursday because of the added full page ad.)

I had a lot of fun with the 20/10 logo assignment, since I really like designing advertising logos. Again my fear of thinking outside the box limited a lot of what I did, and I am slowly getting over that fear as this semester progresses. Even though the logo is for a food program, I remember the organization's representative telling us that she would like to have us not include food in the logos, since the program is about much more than food. I still did a couple with food, although I tried to work with things that weren't food. I began by researching the words "Eat for Life" and then each word separately in a Google images search to see what others have done to spark my creativity. And I have included in the "Response post" what I have come up with for that assignment (there were too many images to load on this post). 

Finally, I have included the illustration I did for the Short Talk department in the upcoming 3.19 issue. The story it is illustrating is about Internet dating, mainly on Craigslist.org, an online classifieds Web site. It will be slightly tweaked later this week, and I will include it in next week's critique. I will also include the redesigned VOX cover I am doing next week, since I have not done it yet.

For next week:

1) Redesign the VOX cover for caffeine 

2) Design the Short Talk Dept. this weekend for the 3.19 issue

3) Continue tweaking my existing portfolio Web site

Response to class (3/10)

So today's class was pretty interesting, as one by one each person (except for six of us, myself included) went up to the front of the room to not only explain the designs he or she created for the logo assignment, but to also enlighten the class on his or her particular thought process while designing. I found that most people came up with their designs through a variety of methods, from getting it done all in one setting to tackling it over a span of a couple days. Many people also designed to music, and not as many people as I thought sketched thumbnails before sitting down at a computer. The last point I thought was very interesting, because last semester as a designer at the Columbia Missourian, I seemed to be the only designer on staff that did not sketch thumbnails before tackling the page, especially when it came to blank feature pages for the Weekend Missourian. At least in this class I'm not alone in using that method. 

Now I do a combination of both methods - sketching thumbnails or starting directly on the computer. I guess it really depends on what I'm designing to determine the method of madness I use. But I often design by feel - just see what works and constantly tweak on the computer until I feel good about the design. 

You can't miss... Apple's journey to get a D.C. store

This particular story has been chronicled on UnBeige for at least the last couple of weeks, and now that it is over, I decided to try UnBeige's final link to the story to check out what would be a CNNMoney.com article looking back at the whole messy process. Like what has been drilled into our heads from day one, you often have to redesign a couple times before the final product is approved. Well in this case, Georgetown's architectural board make Apple redesign their new store front four times before they finally approved of the design. Some people think the board just gave Apple the approval because they were tired of talking about it. But this article takes a look back at the whole process from day one, complete with illustrations at every level. I think it's a pretty cool insight to potential roadblocks preventing Apple from taking over every corner of the world. 

This week on UnBeige... Lance Armstrong!

Hi everyone,

In this week's installment of news and notes from UnBeige, one story in particular stood out to me, posted yesterday on UnBeige. This past Saturday, Lance led a group of about 700 cyclists through Hollywood to launch a new program called "Stages," a "global art exhibition, sponsored by Nike, that will support the Lance Armstrong Foundation and its LIVESTRONG campaign. The project has commissioned 22 artists and designers to create original works of art for the exhibition, which the foundation says will be inspired by Armstrong and his work for cancer awareness. The work will go on display for the first time in Paris on July 16, then go on sale with proceeds benefiting the Lance Armstrong Foundation. The exhibition will also travel to three U.S. cities after Paris as well: New York, Los Angeles, and Portland, Oregon. Now an interesting part of all of this is that one of those commissioned artists is Shepard Fairey. Yes, he's in the news again. But this time its for a mural he made for the project. Click here to read the article and see the mural. (I'm not sure if I have the rights to re-post that picture, unfortunately.) 

Critique Week #6

In terms of designing, this is a very busy week. Not only did I have three cover ideas due tomorrow in lab, but I also had to continue to work on the feature story I'm designing for the March 19 issue. 

I had a lot of trouble coming up with ideas that were not cliche for the topic of caffeine. I have posted my first two designs here which the class will see tomorrow in lab, and later tonight I hope to come up with a good idea for the third one.

The feature story is looking at the seven grocery stores in Columbia, and went from being the secondary feature in the March 19 issue to being the only one in the issue, and was expanded to five pages in length as well. So I will have plenty of room for the charts, text and pictures. My first draft of the design was pretty boring, and was scratched completely last Sunday as I worked with Meredith, our teaching assistant. Meredith and I came up with a color palette and the use of grocery tags to represent each store in the non-narrative story. It's now a very colorful piece of work and should be a great addition to my portfolio after it is completed by Sunday evening. 

On top of all that, I am designing logos for the 20/10 assignment. 

On deck:

1) Designing the final cover idea for caffeine.

2) Working on the March 12 feature.

3) Working on the 20/10 assignment. 

4) Attending MAP on Friday.

That's it! Happy designing!

You can't miss... Smashing Magazine.com

I found this Web site, Smashing Magazine, through Desiree Perry's blog on VisualEditors. Since all of us are creating Web sites to host our portfolios, and a portion of the class is working on creating Web sites for the Meredith Corp. project, I thought I would share this specific article with you all from Smashing: 9 Common Usability Mistakes in Web Design, by Dmitry Fadeyev. Many of the points are obvious ones, but good things to check on before publishing the site. For example, duplicate page titles on each page of the Web page. Each page's title needs to be different. 

Another good article on Smashing is "10 Steps To the Perfect Portfolio Website," by Lee Munroe. 

Happy designing everyone!

Response

Over the weekend I attended the True/False Film Festival, a documentary film festival that returned to Columbia this year for its sixth straight year. I attended the film "Reporter," where director Eric Daniel Metzgar followed the New York Times op-ed columnist Nicholas Kristof and a couple of college students into the Congo, as Kristof hoped to connect the Congo's ongoing humanitarian crisis to his western readers, mostly in the continental United States. 

As Metzgar cites phycological studies that show that the human brain cannot comprehend giving aid to more than one person in a difficult situation, Kristof set foot in the Congo to find a person who will illustrate the problems of that country, which has been a successful method he has used in previous columns. He finds his story in a 41-year old woman, Yohanita, who was dying of starvation and weighed no more than 60 pounds. Kristof pays out of his own pocket to have Yohanita transported out of the jungle to the nearest hospital, where she would, unfortunately, later die of complications. Yohanita never got to see her family before she died, and that raises some ethical problems, namely using a single person as the symbol of the Congo, as well as uprooting her from her family so she could possibly live longer than she would had she stayed at home. What do you think about that?

It was a great film for young, aspiring journalists, because it makes you believe that no matter what happens, you can make a difference as a journalist if you just set your mind to getting the story right and focus on reporting on people and places that might otherwise be overlooked.  

This week on UnBeige... Jobs!

This week, UnBeige rolled out a job site in addition to their blog. Check it out by clicking here. While looking through that new Web site, which is set up in a similar fashion to UnBeige, I found an interesting post titled, "The Legal Concerns When Googling Applicants." As social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace increase in membership, companies are starting to look at the legality of gathering information about potential employees through these sites. 

Since it is a topic that concerns soon-to-be college graduates such as myself, I thought I would share a Law Review Note  that David Greenspan, a member of the Labor and Employment group at McGuireWoods LLP, discussed on his blog, Suits in the Work, linked through UnBeige. In "The Newest Way to Screen Job Applicants: A Social Networker's Nightmare," Greenspan talks about the issues of privacy, credibility and hiring discrimination when it comes to screening job candidates through social networking Web sites. I encourage you do take a look at Greenspan's thoughts. His main points can be seen on the UnBeige posting, but if you would like to see the post on his blog, type in "Facebook" in the search engine on Suits in the Work.

I would suggest to everyone graduating in May to take a look at this because the issue of Facebook or other social networking sites may come up in a future job interview.

Critique Week #5

Currently I have two ongoing projects for the capstone class. First I am designing the Feature #2 for the 3.19 issue of VOX, which is a story about the grocery stores in Columbia. That is not quite done yet so I will be posting that design later this week. Check back to see.

The second project is the design/publishing project that we have been slowly working on all semester. I presented my ideas to the publishing students on Monday along with the other two designers from my group, and while the design from one of the other designers was ultimately chosen as the design we will work from, I am in charge of all the web technical stuff (of which I know some, but not all. I have these grand ideas but I'm not good with the technical side of doing such things). Oh well. Anyways I have posted my designs that I presented on Monday. I had a lot of fun with this. My ideas for the web pages were based off of ESPN.com, because I am a sports junkie and really enjoy the way ESPN.com is set up as a website. Most of the images and boxes on the pages are hyperlinks to pages that have not been created yet, kind of like showing the surface of a very complex machine but not seeing the layers inside. It's really hard to design a web page on a program such as InDesign, because you can't show most of the features that come with a web site such as the one I proposed, such as the use of pop-up thumbnails and flash slideshows. But anyways here are the designs. 

On deck for next week:

1) Attend a T/F film and a session of judging for POYI

2) Work on the Feature #2 on groceries

3) Work on the publishing/design group project

Response to today's class (2/24)

I thought today's class was very useful because I got my design portfolio critiqued by the rest of my capstone class. I've been designing for a while and have a lot of clips, mostly of newspaper design. It's hard to narrow down what I would want to put in a mini-portfolio, something I have to do later on this semester, so it was good that I got some outside opinions on what I should put in the portfolio. I think this was a great opportunity to see what clips I should focus on getting copies of to send out to employers for employment opportunities as graduation is now only about two and a half months away. Job hunting is tough, so any help I can get to make that road easier is greatly appreciated. And today was one of those help sessions I needed. Thanks class.

You can't miss... free tutorials on Flash!

On the blog Visual Editors, Desiree Perry posted information about free tutorials on Flash from Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne, Australia. They can be downloaded onto the computer or even the iPod. She wrote that she considers the exercises, "a good beginner's guide." Click here to go straight to Swinburne's page. This will help those in the class that are designing their websites, want Flash, but do not have a membership on Lynda.com. 

This week on UnBeige... Tropicana!

A great story surfaced on UnBeige today that I also heard on CNN's American Morning this morning: Tropicana, under a frenzied firestorm from consumers over their OJ carton redesign, is returning to their old logo. The redesign by Arnell, on the left, was introduced in late January and did away with the iconic orange and straw. But the original image will be back next month, according to Tropicana. Neil Campbell, president of Tropicana North America, explained that while the complaints, which came in the form of e-mails, letters and phone calls to the company, only represented a fraction of a percent of their consumers, most of the criticism came from "our most loyal consumers."

Many of the complaining consumers called the new packaging, "ugly," "generic" or a "store brand," which made it "difficult to distinguish from other brands." I just find this fascinating. I mean its orange juice, and I personally felt it was a refreshing, modern redesign. But I guess a large amount of people cherished the orange with the straw sticking out of it. 

CNN's American Morning reported that the redesign campaign cost Tropicana $35 million, and I find that astounding, because in less than one month, the entire plan has been scrapped. Tropicana's move was a smart decision, however, since they listened to consumer complaints and responded quickly. But one thing from the redesign will stay when the old product design hits the shelves again: the bright orange cap. 

I agree with the CNN's American Morning contributor who suggested that the complaints may be due to the current state of the economy, as people lose their grip on more and more things in their daily lives. As people become more paranoid about losing their jobs, they don't want to also lose the things they take for granted every day: orange juice. I know the absurdity of this statement, but think about it. It's the same tasting Tropicana orange juice, regardless of what carton its packaged in. Really how hard is it to find a redesigned carton if you are a consumer that always buys Tropicana. You see the word and you grab a carton. 

I personally liked the new redesign of the old carton: it is hip, new and modern. I just wish people would grow up and embrace the same orange juice in a different carton. The taste has not changed. What do you think of the new redesign and Tropicana's 180 degree move as a result of angry consumers? 

Critique Week #4: Redesigning the cover

At last Thursday's lab, a group of students, including myself, presented possible designs for the February 26 issue of VOX, which will highlight the True/False Film Festival, starting that day and continuing until March 1. The editors and students wanted me to work on the design I made with the black background. They thought that particular cover spoke too much with the Hollywood theme, since I was trying to mimic the Oscars in that design. True/False prides itself in not being in Hollywood or attached to it, so I had to go back to the drawing table. Looking through clip art, I found a movie clapboard, and thought I could incorporate some of VOX's witty voice into the cover using the clapboard. And the word "Hollywood" on the board led to a lot of fun as I crossed it out in red pen, like editing, and replaced it with the words True/False next to it, also in that editing red, which is also one of the colors in the T/F logo. I kept with the the lines on the clapboard and answered them in a fun way. I hope everyone likes it! 

On deck:

Working on designs for the publishing project; ideas for the secondary feature on March 12, which is on "groceries." Check back for more of my designs next week!

Response: my research on Sports Illustrated

I found the historical perspectives assignment to be a lot of fun. I critiqued Sports Illustrated in the 1960s, which the class will hear about next Tuesday, and one of the most interesting things about SI during that time was their innovations in color sports photography. At the start of the 1960s, color sports photography was still an experiment, and mostly everything that ended up in SI at that time was black and white. But by the mid-1960s, however, SI began to look into faster printing processes, and that allowed developments in sports photography, because at the time costs could run upwards of a quarter of a million dollars per page to process a color photo 36 hours or less after it was taken so it could run timely in the magazine! That is a lot of money now, and it was even more then. It's interesting to look back at that because today all a photographer has to do is plug his or her camera into a computer and the images are downloaded instantly. And they were struggling with color photos only about 40 years ago! It's amazing how far sports photography, and photography in general, has come.   

You can't miss... NewsDesigner.com

So one of my friends pointed me to NewsDesigner.com, a blog by Mark Friesen, a news designer at The Oregonian in Portland, Oregon. It's a cool blog, with links down the left side to front pages from various newspapers across the world, including the Hartford Courant, seen above. I really enjoy the Courant's front page designs, including this one, because they have a lot more white space than other newspapers, and their front page is designed differently than others. I think it's just a little breath of fresh air in the newspaper design world. But I would recommend checking out Mark's site. He went to Mizzou in the '80s!

This week on UnBeige... The One Show Contest

A posting on UnBeige caught my eye today, and it was because of this pencil, promoting The One Club for Art and Copy's annual awards show, The One Show. According to The One Club for Art and Copy's Web site, The One Show is, "the premiere international advertising award show" which "sets the industry standard for creative advertising in print, television, radio, outdoor, innovative marketing, integrated branding and branded content."

Designers would be more interested in the One Show Design aspect of it, which according to its Web site, is in its ninth year and "rewards innovation and celebrates excellence in design in advertising, branding, and other forms of visual communication." Anyone can register a design for this contest, and the deadline for completing the online registration form has been extended to February 27, 2009, in case anyone reading this has advertising design they would like to submit. More details are available by clicking here. The awards are the large gold, silver, or bronze pencils given out on May 4, as seen above. Last year's winner was HBO's Voyeur. Click here to see the design and all the winners here.

All of last year's winners were very creative, and it's just interesting to look and see all the different designs people have made for the advertising and branding of products. I would highly recommend to check it out!

You can't miss... Visual Editors!

Some of you may have been introduced to this blog already through other classes, but for those of you who haven't, I would like to introduce you to Visual Editors: "graphics, photo, video and design-skilled journalists who share best practices online and through offline training events like Camp VJ." It has a mix of online, newspaper, and magazine based content, much like UnBeige, (which I am also following) but with a broader look at the design industry within the media. 

One of my favorite bloggers on here is Charles Apple, a free-lance visual journalist and former graphics director of the Virginian Pilot and the Des Moines Register. He posts a lot of news of the industry. One of his recent posts is about a designer, Kelley Shaffer, who is a senior at Ohio University and did two covers of the New York Times Magazine as a class assignment. Click here to read the post on Apple's blog and see her designs, which are eye-catching, inspiring and very conceptual.  

Response to class presentations

After listening to the historical presentations in class, one thing stood out to me that was interesting. By 1955, Esquire had developed four-color printing and it featured more photography in the magazine. Since I am researching Sports Illustrated, I thought it was interesting how, when the first issue came out on August 16, 1954, SI had already used a color photo for its cover, and featured a couple color photographs inside the magazine as well, along with color advertisements. Otherwise, in the editorial content, SI did not do much with color in its design other than the color picture front cover and feature articles with color photographs. SI did not include more color photography inside its magazine until the late 1960s, because color photography at that time took longer to develop than black and white. Therefore, color was only used on feature articles, not news articles, such as the NFL's NFC Championship Game recap, which appeared in the magazine just days after it took place.