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.