-| Week No. 6 |-

-| Critique |-

This week, as I finalized my prototype designs and had them critiqued, I realize just how much revision is really required of me as I prepare to make it a final product. I think I like the direction I'm taking with my designs. I know see how there is a disconnect between the cover and the inside pages. They don't quite work together as a unit. I got the general impression today that my logo has to change. I will definitely try some other alternatives, but I want to be careful not to lose that quirkiness/uniqeness that I want.

-| React |-

I saw a lot of really cool stuff today. I loved seeing the graffiti. It was fun to recognize all the different letters from around town.

And the magazines were looking really good. It's so cool to see how each person had their own ideas for how the topic should be presented. (Yay tubers!, :-D ) Now that I'm into the process a bit, I'm glad I'm with the Fresh Life team. It really is a good topic and it seems like it's very visually geared. I guess that means that at least in the prototype stages, I don't think coming up with content is going to be a huge issue.

-| You can't miss. . . |-

This week on newsdesigner.com they cover POY and some SND awards.

Of course you should ALL know about POY becuause it's taking place right under your noses! This is a big deal for any photographer and it's so cool that it's happening right here. Go in anytime to sit in on their judging process. You'll be amazed at how fast they go. It's all so subjective and fast. But I guess once you see THE picture you know you're looking at it. Or you at least know not to vote it out.

Here's some of the stuff that got the SND gold awards. Of course, El Mundo graphics won a few. They are AMAZING. They take up entire pages and can be pieced together to form a single, huge graphic. So cool!


This graphic is on fashion (in Spanish: Moda). Those are all seperate pages pieced together! Spectacular work!


Dejá Vu? It's all over the place. Gold, gold, gold.


More fabulous work from the NYT Magazine. This is their idea issue. Golden!

-| Week No. 5 |-

-| Critique |-

So my cover will run this Thursday. I like the way it turned out. It’s not too literal, but I think it still speaks to the point of the story. I was at first surprised when I read in the design edits that work was still needed on the hands. I thought they were good. But when I went in and had another look, I really saw what they were talking about. It just wasn’t spot on. I stayed and worked a few more hours on it and I think I got to where they needed to be.

Fresh Life is a strange thing for me. I don’t feel like I can take it to crazy levels with crazy design because the content doesn’t seem to allow it. I guess if I think about it in different terms that could help. Right now I’m picturing the audience as mostly women, some men, some with families. Maybe if I design for a different audience that will change how I design. This all makes sense in my head. I’m not sure how it’s translating “on paper.”


My cover as it stands right now. The sell lines are a work in progress. The logo is colorized, obviously. I think I like it, but I'm not sure I'm in love with it. I like the colors, but I'm still trying to decide if it works for me.


My TOC. I'm going to add more pages to it instead of having just one. I need to fix my personal problem. (Hehe. Thanks, Jan!) I guess these will be my "safe" designs. I can't promise that I'll have the "not safe" designs by the time we're to present our work, but here's hoping.

-| React |-

Judging all those portfolios was hard! I saw a lot of good stuff, but it all makes me think real hard about mine and it kind of makes me nervous. I'll be happy for the feedback, though. I probably shouldn't pick favorites, but I really liked all of the posters Hannah presented. That would be a fun vein of design to tap into. It seems like it would lend itself to great, creative and brilliant design. Screw editorial work! :-D

-| You Can't Miss |-

This week on newsdesigner.com, more redesigns were announced. This time, the New York Observer. It switched to a tabloid format. Not actually that surprising, since tabs are easier to approach as a reader and every newspaper and their brother want to appeal to anyone they can get!

SND's tentative top ten newspaper designs were announced. A lot of them aren't really surprising, but in case you're curious:

1. The New York Times (and its magazines)
2. Los Angeles Times (and its magazine)
3. Excelsior [Mexico]
4. Hartford Courant
5. San Jose Mercury News (Yeah!)
6. The Boston Globe (and its magazine)
7. The South Florida Sun-Sentinel
8. La Presse [Montreal]
9. The (Cleveland) Plain-Dealer
10. El Mundo (and its magazines) [Spain]

-| Week No. 4 |-

-| Critique |-

Still working on my cover for the interracial dating. I've made some progress on it and I think I'm liking it thus far.

This is what it started as:



I think I'm going to get rid of the football per Kristin's recommendation. Jen suggested wondered about my color usage and thought that the blots looked rather reminiscent of blood. I hadn't even thought of that, but I can see how someone might see that. She also felt a disconnect between the top half of the cover and the bottom half. I was going for a more of a design method for my cover; controlled chaos. I think I felt that kind of leaving the bottom a little less crazy than the top was just one way for me to control the chaos, but now that I think about it, I'm going to try switching the chaos; that is, put the less busy stuff on top so it doesn't interfere too much with the flag and try the chaos on the bottom.

This is the state it's in now. But after tonight, it should be drastically different, or I'll at least have a couple working versions of it.


The hands were meant to be jagged and rough but some are concerned that If I leave it like that it will just look like I don't know how to draw hands. Hmm. . . please opine. Can you tell that it's artistically motivated or does it look amateur?

And color. . . oy. I like the red. I really do. It's powerful, and paired with the black, lends itself to a very serious subject matter. I'm going to try some different colors, but I don't know if I'll like any quite as much as I do the red. Any thoughts? Does anyone else get a bloody feel from it? I definitely do not want that on this interracial cover.

-| React |-

The Pantone Guide to Communicating With Color is a great book. So great, in fact, that I bought it five years ago when I was designing stuff in high school! I use that book all the time when I just don't know what color I should use. That book is the reason I chose the red for my interracial dating cover. Red is an exciting and dynamic color, according to the book. It's such a great resource to just be able to flip through the pages and read up on each color; it's not like we don't know what the book says, we just need to be reminded! Love it.

-| You Can't Miss. . . Stephanie Grace Lim! |-

Stephanie Grace Lim is a great designer. Newsdesigner.com reported that Lim has announced she is leaving the San Jose Mercury News to take a position with Pay Pal. The Merc must be heartbroken. I had the opportunity to hear her speak at the Society of News Design conference in Orlando this past fall. She's great. Here's some of her best work:











I'm curious to see what will come out of her working with Pay Pal. Their website has to be changing or something. For them to have attracted such a creative genius, there must be something spectacular their for her to work on. Keep an eye on her work here.


CLICK TO SEE LARGER VIEW! This front page blew my mind. It's very dramatic, very cutting edge. I don't know if I've ever seen a newspaper throw an actual documentary image behind the flag. I think it's entirely appropriate. It IS Kansas City. When an image like that is run so large, the impact just gains so much for the reader. How bad was the smoke from the fire? Oh, well if you saw the paper you'd know exactly how bad it was! I LOVE it. (Sorry it had to happen, but way to work it, KC Star!)

-| Week No. 3 |-

-| Critique |-

This week I've been working on coming up with an idea for the interracial dating cover. When I first heard the description of the feature, it was described solely as "interracial dating." OK, what does that mean? I can't really know how to illustrate that until I actually got to see the story to see what was actually going on. It turns out it's about athletes dating outside their race. It's an interesting take on the idea. So I've come up with some ideas. Keep it simple. Kind of inspired by the abortion cover in my last post. Also, some of the covers I LOVE the most are so simple and clean and perfect. That's what I'm going to try for. I picture sillhouettes reversed on a black or white background. The athlete will be holding a football, looking huge, wearing all the gear. The female will be. . . smaller and not a huge football player. Maybe play with some people looming in the background (the family that often has an opinion on the matter.) I've also played with the chalkboard Xs and Os. Not quite simple, but maybe effective. There is still some refining to do before I present on Thursday.

(I'll try to see if I can get a scanned image of my sketches in here)

-| React |-

(I'm watching the Super Bowl. . . How has Prince not aged? And whoa, he's flaunting a double-popped collar. Only Prince. And, I so wish I could be in that marching band. It looks insanely fun! AMAZING halftime show.)

Back to reality. . . LIFE Magazine circa the 1940s. . . wow. I'm not seeing much in the way of design. It's mostly huge pictures or a ton of little pictures slapped on a page and a script font as a hed. I'm definitely looking in the ads for design style and I'm seeing a lot of heroic realism, for obvious reasons. It's really amazing to see how far the magazine world has come in the way of creative efforts. It's a completely different world.

-| You Can't Miss. . . Newspaper Design! |-

This week on newsdesigner.com, Garcia Media designed a financial daily in India called Mint. (Garcia Media: see Week No. 1, KC Star, Wall Street Journal. . . )





It looks like a Garcia Media product. Very modern. Very colorful. He definitely has a branded style in his design. You can just tell he had something to do with it.


Great cover. You know exactly what it's about. Fantastic and simple.


Such a great design! Again, from the BGlobe (I went to the SND conference in Orlando and their art directors/Creative AMEs gave an awesome powerpoint presentation that they shared with everyone!). You can do this in a newspaper features department!

Nothing spectacular here, but look at their main art! A huge head and Aqua Teen Hunger Force! It's all a part of the VP's visual culture that they've created. At every paper it's different. Someone there decided that running huge mugs and un-original illustrations was A-OK.