WEEK 9

CRITIQUE
Let me just begin by saying: 4 WEEKS LEFT! + a finals week (but that doesn't really count).

Phew, Ok..now I feel better. By the way, for the entirety of this blog post I am listening to "The Format." Don't ask why - it is just on my itunes and I am going to be throughly enjoying it for the next hour. Feel free to listen along with me: http://www.myspace.com/theformat

Last week I presented my ideas for the April 16th cover of VOX. As of last week, the story had not been chosen yet. Therefore, I designed two covers based on School Safety and one based on Earth Day. The final decision fell on School Safety, which is what I am redesigning to present tomorrow. Here were my initial ideas:

Look! The trees want to be hugged....some things in life actually ARE free....The execution needs work, but I do like the concept of this design. I created the tree in illustrator and then came up with the head and dek.

I really enjoyed playing with the "VOX" logo on two of these. I have never been entirely positive if this is allowed, but I figure it is better to try it out, think outside of the box, and have some fun.



The concept that I have been working on for tomorrow is the one with the scribbles on paper. What I am working on doing, however, is making it look more "high school" and less "small child first learning to write and color." I initially designed this without having acess to the story. After reading the text, it is actually a pretty serious story and topic (dealing with issues of violence and touching on the 10 year "anniversary" of the Columbine shootings). I feel weird using the word "anniversary" for such a horrific event, but other words are slipping my mind momentarily.
Stay tuned for my redesign! I'll give you a hint: I am drawing the entire cover with pen.

Oh yeah, one more thing - I also designed a little logo for a Cinco De Mayo pub crawl that some students on campus are organizing to raise money for a mission trip. I like to think of it as a good clean mix of a party font and sunburst color, which always equal a good time. You can now see it on Facebook (woop woop!)

RESPONSE
This week and next week in lab are dedicated to presenting our Trends assignment. Basically, the assignment consists of speaking with an art director or graphic designer (or wonderful art teacher) and gain insight into the industry. I spoke with Karla King, a freelance graphic designer from Kansas City, MO. She said that when she began designing she drew everything out with markers! It is hard for me to imagine doing the type of work I have been doing without my computer. She also had some great insight into what it is like working with editors and some pros and cons to working at home as opposed to the office. Here is an excerpt from my transcript:

"One reason I like magazine design is because there is the editorial design part of it and the ad design part of it, so you do have that difference. And I have discovered that I really like working with editors as well. And with the printing company where I was just doing design, specifically design, it was extremely fast-paced and demanding. To me it was overwhelming, but that was just with my personality – it was overwhelming. It was fine in that I was able to do well – it is just that it was really demanding, because of the market."

Do you have a specific process that you go through whenever you get an assignment?

"Everything I do is on the computer now. I don’t sketch ahead. I gather all of the elements and place them on the page, and then arrange them from there. I usually look at advertisers websites, or whoever I am designing for to see if they use a dominant color. If the elements just aren’t working, or something like that, I’ll put it aside and come back to it. I’ll go work on something else for a bit and them come back to it. Many times too you have to listen to an editor or the company and listen to what they would like to see and try to fit it in as much as you can, while obviously also giving several suggestions. Sometimes there is a lot of going back and forth, and sometimes there isn’t – they will say, “I love it, change that one word and we are good to go.'"

What are some of the pros and cons to doing freelance work and being in an office setting everyday?

"Pros of being in an office is the camaraderie and the interaction of learning. That is one thing I really miss – I don’t have somebody who gets the new InDesign program to say, Hey, they changed this, look how you work this part of it now.
Another benefit would be a constant paycheck, hopefully. And insurance, things like that."

Do you have any tips for college graduates trying to find jobs?

"I would say to put together a great portfolio that shows varied examples and a lot of versatility. A little goes a long way. You want to show that you are really versatile. I have never had the opportunity to learn anything with web design, I would love to learn it, but I would say to definitely include web design examples. Many times designers now are designing not only for print, but for the web as well."

It was wonderful to be able to speak with someone who has been in the design field for years and could give me a glimpse into what here experiences have been. Some of my classmates who presented on Tuesday spoke with people who had some truly inspiring and uplifting things to say. Abbey spoke with an art teacher from her high school that said (and yes, I am copying this from your blog), "...more than anything, believe people are good and only want the best for everyone so that if or when something happens that makes you question motives, you can forgive, learn and move on."
I am thinking about plastering that on my wall later tonight.

YOU CAN'T MISS! www.blog.eyemagazine.com
Jan - you stole my blog! (just kidding).
Jan did send us an awesome link to eye magazine's blog that talks about the typefaces of the moment.
Here is the link: http://blog.eyemagazine.com/?p=181
Good news for VOX: One of the art directors on the panel nominated Frutiger!

My favorite font nominated, SOLELY because of it's name however, was "Sweepy." Hilarious.

Eye Magazine wants to hear more suggestions. If you are like me, you probably have an attachment to certain typefaces and would like to see them on the list. I may just have to send them an email about adding Comic Sans to the list.... (thats a joke, it's ok to laugh).
I was also struck my the massive amount of "tweets" that have been made about this post. Am I the only person who is not signed up for Twitter? I kind of want to tweet.

Finally, how cool is this?:
I would highly encourage you to go to http://endosymbiotic.tumblr.com/
Click on "Archive" and you can see a different picture, quote, drawing, etc for alomost every day of the year. Many of them actually have multiple entries for each day. I'm a "quote mixed with picture" lover...so this site has the potential to keep me occupied for days. I am going to keep this one in mind until graduation:
Have a great day!
~Christy