WEEK 3

CRITIQUE
Over the past week I have been working on the cover designs for a bed and breakfast feature that will run in next week's issue of VOX. Last thursday I presented these three ideas (not fully executed)




Through the course of the last week I have been working on finalizing one design for the cover. My goal has been to combine the first and last design as to create something that is surrealistic-looking, but also incorporate the "B" beds that I illustrated in my first design.
Since we were required to submit three designs last Thursday, I worked to make sure mine were all diverse. This ended up posing as a huge challenge to me. Since VOX is known as being a more alternative magazine geared towards a demographic such as myself, I also had trouble coming up with a solution on how to make a story about bed and breakfasts look like something people would want to pick up and read. No offense to bed and breakfasts, but they do not exactly always make for the most visually appealing story.
For the first spread, I thought that going with a "night" theme would work well because it seems fitting when trying to illustrate a bed and breakfast. I do not think that this is the best way to showcase the story however, although I do like my "B" beds. Also, when this printed, the background was extremely too dark to even see anything I had designed - now that's a problem. I hope to mess with this one the most in order to make it work better.
My second spread is very generic. I did not realize it until I was told in my class critique, but this headline could run for most stories. Therefore, I will hang onto it for when I am in a design crisis and need something to fall back on. Bottom line - not good for this feature.
For my third spread I decided to open up illustrator. The story is all about going and seeing these quirky, different things in quirky, different places. I attempted to make the scene as different as possible; blue grass, green sky, pink clouds....etc. I like this concept and the surrealist look of it, but it definitely needs alot of work and tweaking.
I will post my next round of redesigns for this story as soon as I get them (or it) finished! Other than that, next up on my list is a feature story that will run on March 5th.


RESPONSE
It has been a common theme in our editing lecture lately to talk about magazines that have been folding recently. Before last week it was unknown to me that there are web sites dedicated to the death of magazines. Twitter has an ongoing forum entitled, "The media is dying." Updates on everything and everyone are posted here, including job cuts and magazine deaths (R.I.P. Domino....we still miss you).
So should we be scared;? all of us who have dedicated at least the last four years of our lives to bettering our journalism and design skills in order to prosper when we finally make it out in the real world? Is the magazine industry really dying? Even though the economy is not the greatest at the moment, I am choosing to be optimistic about the situation at hand. The economy is bound to rebound at some point in time. All of us are bound to get jobs at some point in time (I have been told that Mizzou grads who are actively searching for employment will find it within 6 months to a year after graduation - something to look forward to!).
While it is interesting to track the death toll on the magazine industry, maybe it is not something we should be looking at every day. To me, that seems like watching a countdown to something inevitably awful. It may be naive, but I will continue to be optimistic about my future in the magazine industry.

"YOU CAN'T MISS!" BLOG.EYEMAGAZINE.COM


This week features an article entitled, "Advertisers in the dock. Again," and deals with the issue of advertising to children. Should it be banned? If it was banned than what would be left? After all, isn't all advertising aiming at our "childish" side at least a bit?
The reasoning behind a ban for ads geared towards children is that according to studies, young children do not know the difference between advertisements and television programs and can learn brand loyalty from the age of two. It is no discovery that ads get stuck in our heads; children are no exception.
The article suggests, however, that this type of ban would be impractical for two reasons:

1) Kids are going to have to be exposed to the world at some point in their lives, so banning them from Ads is not really saving them from much.

"you can’t ever hope to shield your children from them – not without withdrawing into Amish seclusion"

2) Ads are directed at our inner-child.

"Abolish ads that appeal to children, and the only weapons left in the advertisers’ arsenal will be bald price comparison and barefaced sex."

This made me start thinking about ads that I was exposed to as a child and have never really forgotten. For some reason "Skip-It" is sticking out in my mind. (this is not me)

I would be curious to know what advertisements everyone else remembers seeing or hearing from their childhood.


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Have a great day!
~Christy