Critique April 11

This week I will just be doing a critique. I used this week to edit some past entries and update my blog with some of the work examples I have been promising I would post. Hopefully Jan will like my blog better now that it has more images and updated links.

This week I was responsible for the cover. I am really excited for Thursday because I am so happy with the way the cover turned out. It was a collaborative effort with the photo editors, Vox editors, a photographer and myself. We all did a great job communicating and I think it shows. We came up with a concept and everyone worked to get a photoshoot together and make it happen. The photographer captured great images of everyone and the photo editors did a great job piecing everyone together and taking the musicians best looks. I made sure we were designing to fit the page and we worked out all the kinks pretty easily.
For the text on the cover, I wanted the headline to be incorporated into the environment and not take away from the great photo of the musicians lined up. So I went for a sidewalk chalk look. I drew the letter individually in Illustrator and I liked the effect I got. I think it works great and I worked with the editors to get "special 12-page issue" on there to really capture the significance of the issue. There is a dynamite music package inside and I wanted to make sure people pick this issue up. I hope the cover will be enticing enough. But be sure to check it out because wraparound covers don't happen very often and this is a special issue.
Hopefully one of the best ever as a whole.

Vox science feature3-16; p14-15

Vox science feature3-16; p14-15
Originally uploaded by tigerkingpin.

This is the opening spread to the six page feature I did with Katie. Katie ultimately designed this spread, but we had collaborative conceptual ideas and I helped with lots of the edits.

Vox Science feature published 3-16, p16

Vox Science feature published 3-16, p16
Originally uploaded by tigerkingpin.

The following my specifically my two pages of the feature well.

Vox Science feature published 3-16, page 17

Vox Science feature published 3-16, page 17
Originally uploaded by tigerkingpin.

website coverpage

website coverpage
Originally uploaded by tigerkingpin.

Here is the simple redesign of my spash page. There is no longer an MU logo; just school of journalism. What do you think of this?

Goatsbeard solutions

Goatsbeard solutions
Originally uploaded by tigerkingpin.

Here are a couple of my Goatsbeard Farm logos I created. I went for earthy colors and even tried a see-through whole on the second one.

Response

I wanted to take this week to respond to the spring break release of Vox- "under the virtual knife" executed by Heather. I thought this was a great solution once again by our design team. What I like the most is the attention to detail placed on her face and with the cursor/tabs. The cover also has great depth to it with the three dimensional boxes. It has a very virtual feel to it and I understand what is going on right away. If I had to come up with some sort of criticism it would just be editorially with the subject matter. I don't think this topic really appeals to our readership we've discussed. I know our editors were still trying to come up with what was going on the cover this issue up until break. Heather was in the dark and she did a real good job with what they gave her. So editors dropped the ball it seams, and the designer was there for the rescue. What else is new? Haha.


You Can't Miss

www.designobserver.com

There is a really relevant notion discussed on this website this week. It is about website design, which we are all trying to become good at. It actually discussed that ugly design sells on websites. It is a cute, but serious look at why this is,
Check it out.

http://www.site-reference.com/articles/Website-Development/The-Surprising-Truth-About-Ugly-Websites.html

Critique April 4

Well spring break was fun; short, but fun. I designed a short talk page over break and did my calendar shift as well. Short talk was pretty uneventful. I had a scene and heard about skating with a picture. I tried to vary the headlines on the page by running the headline below the photo. Calendar wasn't as bad as I've heard, but it did get tedious at times. There was a lot of formatting to be done.
For this week I am working on executing our plans for the music issue cover. We've come up with the grand scheme to do a photo cover reminiscent of the indulgence issue circa 2000. We want to get some of these musicians together and shoot a studio-like shot outside the blue note. We wouldn't be shooting the marquee, but I envision the musicians waiting wrapped around the corner to get in like so many fans of the past. The cover is set to be a wrap around, so this has potential to be pretty awesome. I am excited. We have photo shoots set up for Wednesday and Friday.
So with this excitement, creating my mini portfolio and trying to figure out my website things are crazy as usual.