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.