You Can't Miss - Seed's Phylotaxis

I would think I was pretty hot stuff if I came up with this interactive site. Jonathan Harris created it in conjunction with Seed, a "science is culture" magazine you can find on the newsstand (it actually has some pretty neat design for a science magazine!). The site is an aggregate of science news, and I think it may be updated on a daily basis, which is especially impressive considering the complexity of the sites animation. The site is one of those that you want to learn how to do the animation and tricks so you can use some in your own work. The intereactivity is great. When you move the slider along the bottom along the continuum of science and culture, it's neat to watch how the organizations of the images/stories change. It is definitely worth a quick perusal. http://phylotaxis.com/phylotaxis.html

response - Meredith's Visit

It was refreshing to see that after a plane ride and listening to 4 hours of presentations, the folks from Meredith still had energy to take the time to look at our ideas and designs and give productive feedback. Their thoughts were insightful and gives you even more idea of their tastes. I was particularly happy to have a short chat with Melissa Inman, who is the editor in cheif at Meredith's Scrapbooks, etc. magazine. This was the first scrapbooking magazines I got a subscription to several years ago and is still in the top two in my list for scrapbook magazines. I hope I can get beyond my shy Minnesota-ness and keep in contact with her so that I may someday intern/work there. That would be a dream job, I think, as I love magazines and I love paper crafts (I'm sure Kate C. has similar feelings!) Overall, I think it was really great that John R. and group took the time to see what we came up with.

Critique - Web Rants Illustration

The top image, which I found I istockphoto.com, was the inspiration for my illustration for the web rants (mypetpeeves.com, dontdatethis.com, etc) story. I originally intended my illustration to have a lot of texture and layers like my inspiration image. I found, however, that it was not so easy to achieve this look (even though I went into it thinking it would be a piece of cake). My illustration still looks too flat/2-dimensional, and I wasn't able to achieve a variety of textures between the different layers. Looks like I have a lot more to learn about working with illustrator! I'm going to work on it more to see if I can achieve more layers and texture by this weekend.

Blog Update (AceJet): Found-Type Friday

AceJet continues his Friday tradition of showcasing typography from signs, books, produce stickers, etc., that either he or his blog readers find. These image examples are from matchbooks, which essentially became tiny advertisements for products or causes (the one that says "You're no match.....For V.D." is an interesting public awareness slogan). Because there is not much room for illustrations on such small canvasses, the designs really play up contrasting types of fonts (pairing scripts with romans and caps with lower case). I love the flat color and geometric designs. It would be fun to know what types of art/messages matchbooks would have on them now if they were still popular.

You Can't Miss - Conflicting Messages

I was searching the web and came across a website for a webdesigner: www.trinachow.com. Although the webdesigns within the portfolio looked promising, the design of the portfolio website is extremely amatuer. How would a client react to this? Should they look solely at the portfolio pieces as examples of the webdesigner's potential, or should they take into consideration the designer's own web page? Even though I like some of the portfolio pieces, I would not choose this designer based on her own website. Goes to show you that your webdesign (although more important for webdesigners) is crucial to how clients/potential employers may view you and your work.

Critique - Web site revisions

Old or New? There are lots of things I like about both versions of my website. Now I think the task is to combine them. I really like the opening of my old site, but I am much happier with the portfolio section of the new site. I continue to be amazed at how much time creating websites take. Even if you have a clear idea and knowledge about what you are doing, making sure all the details/links/colors/rollovers are correct is a long process. I hope that I can find the time to take all the positives out of my two sites and combine them into one great site.

Response - Website Critiques

It's always fun to see how everyone's creativity contributes to their websites. I think the sites, more than a business card or logo, can show your personality, probably because there are so many opportunities to express this personality (splash page, navigation, portfolio set-up, etc). The down side of having so many various elements is, however, that there are so many details we want to perfect. We spend hours and hours creating every nook and cranny of the site, and oftentimes are disappointed with the results. Then another problem arises: unlike an InDesign layout, you can't just go in a tweak one or two things and be done with it. These tweaks on a website can interrupt usability and consistency, and therefore lead to a whole host of changes. I think we should all be happy with what we have created so far. In my experience, each website you create is better than the next. So, just keep practicing webdesign and eventually we'll all come up with something we're happy with.

Blog Update (AceJet): The more you learn...

...the less you know. My blog following this week made me realize this. AceJet talked about the Mac classes he and his firm have been taking. They just switched to InDesign, and figured it would be a good idea to learn the ins and outs by taking a course. He posted these recommended settings (as shown in the image) for the justification. When I saw this, I had no idea what these settings meant. So, I went to experiment. I played around with these settings in InDesign. Honestly, I barely noticed the difference between my "control" text and the text I manipulated, even when I made the numbers REALLY extreme. It is times like these that remind me that I have a lot more to learn about typography and design.

Critique - Earth Day art

The earth day story in short talk was a "tips to tack" story, which in the past has been designed as a plain piece of paper (usually grey) with a grey tack holding it up. Since we now have the use of color, I thought I would make it look more like notebook paper and use a colored tack. Following this theme, I wanted the illustrations to look like someone had doodled on the paper. I'm afraid my doodles look more like sketches than actual doodles, though. Perhaps there should be more non-content driven doodles, like random geometric patterns or scribbles that one might find in their notebooks. I didn't want to distract readers from the content, though, so I stuck with mainly content-driven doodles. I scanned in my drawings/doodles and used photoshop to compile the notebook paper with the doodles. I was pretty happy that this art, plus the paper cutouts I used for the hemp story, break out of the practice of using illustrator to create the art. It's fun to experiment with different styles and media for the illustrations.

Class Response - SND Contest

Watching the judging for the design contest provided more insight to how these contests work. The cup and token system was interesting. It took me a while to figure out that the different colors meant different things, but once I had determined this it was even more interesting to watch (and try to see what color they were dropping in even though they were trying to hide it). I was slightly frustrated by their heavy focus on photography. This is all well and good when you're talking about the photography spreads, but in the other categories they seemed to prefer spread with photography. They also were attracted to unique typography; illustrations were either rare or ignored...I couldn't tell. It was interesting to see how the order of categories may have affected the results. The judging for my subway feature design took place immediately after they had judged the covers (Elisa's Subway cover won second place- congrats Elisa!). When they were looking at my feature design, they noted that it went along with Elisa's winning cover, but didn't like that it didn't directly relate to the cover's content. I am not disagreeing with the judges decision, but I would just be curious to know how they might have thought differently had they not just judged Elisa's cover. Overall, though, I thought the judging was well-organized and fair, and it taught me not to be affected by the results because so many factors come into play.

Blog Update (AceJet): unconventional websites

This week on his blog, AceJet points to Miranda July's promotional website for her upcoming book release. The site is a great example of breaking out of the norms of website structures. Although most websites aim to be nonlinear in structure so that the viewer can jump to whatever page on the site he/she chooses, Miranda's site is very linear. You click the next or the previous buttons to go to adjacent pages. I found this structural design to be a nice change of pace. The conversational storytelling style made you want to know what was coming next, and you never felt as though you were missing something. It also provided insight into the author's personality. She made the site using photos taken in her own kitchen, where she wrote on her fridge and oven using a dry-erase marker. Check it out to see an interesting website structure: http://noonebelongsheremorethanyou.com/00001

Hemp Illustration

The Short Talk story about Hemp only has half of a page to work with, so it is a challenge to come up with an art solution that won't take away too much of the space. The story talks about different products made from hemp, and the editor and I discussed illustrations of each of the products. I thought about the different ways I could conceptualize the story, and I knew that I wanted to really show that the products came from the resources of a plant. So, I want to show them literally growing off of a hemp stalk. At first I was just going to draw them in illustrator, but then decided that the digital medium was not the best choice in meshing with the content. Because the focus is on an organic resource and organic products, I wanted the art to be more organic, so I used paper cutouts to illustrate the products. This was also a good way to add more variety to my illustrations.

Class Response - VOX critiques

A fairly common response during the VOX critique today was that in hindsight people didn't really like their design. I can totally relate to that. Sometimes things seem like good ideas when you are in the midst of them and when you have a design due in a few days. When you have time to look back and ruminate, however, you think of all the little things that would make the art or design. I'm guessing that this type of hindsight will never really disappear (unless you develop a huge ego and think everything you do is the best) ... even the designers LaRue interviewed mentioned something about looking back at old designs and thinking of things we would change. The feelings may not go away, but in time it may even out that we have the same (or hopefully a larger) number of designs that we are really proud of as we have of those that we wish we would have done better.

Blog Update (AceJet): thumbnail strategy

This week on AceJet's blog, mentions that although the Mac as made the overall process of desktop publishing and advertising much easier than pre-Mac times, the computers have actually made one step of the process more complicated: brainstorming. Now, instead of presenting sketches of thumbnails to clients or colleagues, designers and advertisers spend time making sketches on the computer. Oftentimes when these thumbnails are done on the computer, we still try to make them look polished and finished even though they are just sketches. AceJet recommends returning to the old protocol, where sketches were done with paper and markers. This means less time wasted perfecting things on the computer (only to have clients nix the ideas) and more time to come up with several great options to choose from. I agree with AceJet. Good old pencil and paper is sometimes the best brainstorming too.

you can't miss - marimekko

If you've never heard of marimekko, you should check out the website: http://www.marimekko.com/eng. Marimekko is a Finnish (yay Scandinavia!) designer that makes home decor, bags and clothing. When in was in high school, my friend brought back one of the bags for me from Finland. The bags are really quirky and colorful, and their clothes are even more so. The products are a little on the expensive side, but I think they're worth it in terms of quality.

Class Response - Trends project

As I was working on my Trends presentation, I inevitably looked through several issues of Utne Reader many times. What strikes me most about the art in Utne is the great variety in the types of illustrations. Sometimes I feel like our illustrations in VOX rely too much on the use of illustrator, and, because many of us are new to the program, the illustrations end up looking a lot alike: simplistic drawings with flat color. The illustrations in Utne really reflect the artistic styles of the artists, and these styles are often quite different from one another. It is sometimes hard to tell whether the art is created digitally or by hand - either way I think it is refreshing to see hand-drawn or handmade art (or at least art that looks handmade!) I think anyone who wants to be an illustrator (or an art director, for that matter) would be served well by spending some time with Utne. Although the magazine is illustration heavy, it does not fail to include images with diverse aesthetics. (plus, if you go to the websites listed in the illustration credits, you may get some ideas for your own portfolios!)

Critique - Shiloh Illustration

For the 3/22 issue of VOX, I made an illustration for a story about the possible relocation of Shiloh. When the story was pitched, it made it seem like MU expansion was going to force Shiloh off its property. So, I illustrated to represent this idea. When I finally read the story, however, it was determined that Shiloh was not going to be moving any time soon. Thus, I was faced with a dilemma: my old illustration didn't fit the new focus of the story. I tried to brainstorm other ideas, but I couldn't think of any (and I had spent time on the old illustration and rather liked it). I finally decided just to add a red "rumor" stamp to the illustration to show that the gossip was not true. Maybe I took the easy way out, but I think it was still successful in getting the idea across.

Blog Update (AceJet): Pelican Book Covers

Ace Jet 170 created his blog so that he could have an outlet for sharing all the design examples he has stashed in every nook and cranny of his home. One of his most treasured collections is the Pelican Book collection. The modern designs are geometric and playful. I think this is definitely a style I want to play with. I don't experiment with historical styles as much as I should! Next time I find myself designing for a story that would fit well with the modern style, I will try to use the collage-like layering of geometric shapes. If you want to see larger images of the book covers, go to: www.acejet170.typepad.com.

You can't Miss - Indexcard generator

I just think things like this are neat, so I thought I would share. It would also be fun to learn how to create this type of generator - is this in flash? or some other crazy program that we should all be learning? ;) check it out: http://www.blyberg.net/card-generator/

Critique - Summer Camp Illustration

Here are the two drafts of an illustration I designed for short talk this week. The image with the flamingo on top was my first draft, which was drawn before I (or the editor) knew which camps would be in the story. Once I saw the final text, however, I discovered that the items I drew weren't necessary content driven (no flamingos at the veterinary camp and no chess, video game or cooking camps were still included in the final version). SO, I redrew it. The editor requested a zany illustration á la Dr. Seuss to reflect the wacky camps. I checked out some Dr. Seuss books from the library, and decided that a tall stack of the different camp motifs would be just the ticket. I also like the fact that most illustrations aren't vertical, so this adds some variety to the mix. Sometimes I worry that my illustrations are too amateurish, but I hope that my work with VOX will help me improve my drawing skills.

Class Response - Web Critiques

Here is my inspiration for the design of my website. Each page is incrementally longer than the next to create the layered/tab format. The blue vellum sheets contain a couple sentences about the design that follows it.

It was fun to see how everybody's websites are evolving, and helpful to receive feedback from people who aren't married (in other words, didn't spend hours mapping out how all the flash and navigation elements would work together) to my website. I think I because I spent so much time on it and thought extensively about (most of) my decisions, I found it hard to accept others feedback for some reason. Perhaps it is because I know that a critique on a layout just means I need to correct things on a few pages, whearas the though of making changes to a flash file with tweens and movie clips and buttons sounds so daunting! It's also hard when you have very thought through reasons for your choices, and then someone just happens to disagree or have a different preferance than you. The most consistent complaint I received in my critiques were about the black M behind the portfolio pieces, so that will DEFINITELY be revised. As for typography choices? What if I like them even though nobody else does? Is it wrong to not change it? I will decide as I continue working on it.

PS> for those of you who thought I needed to change the typography on the splash page, if you would like to provide more detailed suggestions (perhaps with specific font types or names) I would appreciate it.

Ace Jet 170 Blog Report - Uncommon Knowledge

In addition to his regular blog section called "Found Type Fridays," AceJet is planning to start a new series called "Uncommon Knowledge." It is based on the book A Technique for Producing Ideas by James Webb-Young (according to AceJet, this book is "ace" and a must-read). James Webb-Young gives tips on how to collect examples of designs you like and use them to inspire your own original and creative work. Perhaps it is worth the read!

P.S. This index card images contains one of James Webb-Young's principles.

Critique - Restaurant Issue Cover

If you go here: http://flickr.com/photos/mmmappingdesign

you can see all the different background styles I played with for the restaurant issue cover. In the end, I'm glad I decided to keep the background in. While the solid color backgrounds had a clean, crisp appearance, the context of the background gives the photo a elegant, relaxed mood. The back cover was kind of a last-minute addition to the book. You can see the different arrangments that I played with for the back cover photos, as well. In case you were wondering, the food on the fork is peanut butter. It was late at night and I didn't know how to make my fork look like someone had used it, so peanut butter is the first thing I though of. Katherine Reeds comment in the critique about the photo illustration being staged is an interesting point. This may be more of an issue, because as we saw at Meredith, the photo studio has more props than a theater to help them present their photos.

You can't Miss - Knowledge Maps

NOTE: I'll upload images when Blogspot works again.

At the University of Minnesota (where I went for undergrad), they have a special program called the Design Institute. One of the projects they worked on was making knowledge maps (of scents of Mpls/St. Paul, spirituality, restaurants/gathering places,etc) of the Twin Cities. There are only small images of the maps on the website, but they might give you an idea for an infograph-y layout. Tonight in lab we talked about possible visual features for VOX, and a map like these could be an option. Check them out: http://design.umn.edu/go/document/TCDC.03.KMap.mappage

Warning: sometimes there server is really slow, so you might have to visit during an off-peak hour.

Response - 20/10

I think what is so great about the 20/10 assignment is that it forces you to brainstorm and at least attempt to take your thinking in new directions. Without having to come up with 20 ideas first, I probably would have brainstormed the minimum amount that was required for the final product. In class we talked about people who work best under deadline. Oftentimes I think I am one of these people, but being like this sometimes means that you don't take the proper time to brainstorm. For me, sketching with a pencil and paper allowed for more freedom of thought. Plus, a sketch on a piece of paper looks like it has more potential (maybe because it is more "rough") to me than a "sketch" done on the computer. Pencil and paper also has a faster response rate - I can get my ideas down instantaneously, whereas if I were on the computer I would have to make sure I had the right tool and the right tool properties. These adjustments take time and may prohibit the quick, free thinking that brainstorming should inspire. I'm all for pencil and paper.

Blog Update (AceJet): Content-Driven Ads

This week, www.AceJet170.typepad.com displays an advertisement that is an excellent example of content driven design. The real genius of this ad, however, is that not only is the street sign a content driven symbol for the service advertisement, but the psychological experience of consuming the ad mimics the experience that they want you to avoid. This experential component of the ad sends the message out loud and clear. I don't know if this would be applicable to any design work, but if we could somehow create an experience, that would be ideal.

You can't Miss - Ads of the World

I think advertisements can be some of the best inspiration for magazine design. So can travelling to different countries. Well, combine those two sources and you've got: http://adsoftheworld.com/. There are some pretty neat ads from around the world. Check it out and get some fun ideas.

Ace Jet 170 Blog Report

This week AceJet talks about how you don't need to stick to design conventions in advertisements. Specifically, he points to the text-heavy ads by Philco televisions. Although the text is used as a means to show what you are missing when you don't have a widescreen television rather than being directly persuasive text, it goes against the idea that you need mainly images in ads. The highlighted text makes you want to understand why it is highlighted, and then you figure out how that serves the purpose of the product....pretty clever because of the intrigue factor. AceJet also points to advertisements for History Files, which use small, stick-figure like sketches on a plain background rather than lavish photographs. He's right that the little sketches are just as (if not more) successful in relaying the message "history in brief."

Poise Meredith Prototype 2

While a solution on one end of the spectrum in creating a magazine for busy women is to give the book a relaxing feel to counteract the chaos, this design was intended to embrace the chaos. I want to use bold, bright colors and include illustrations that were less refined than in my other prototype, which sends the message that imperfections and slight imbalances are OK and normal. I had trouble finding typography that went well with this bold and active design scheme, so perhaps I will have to search around and download some fonts that fit the feel better.

Poise Meredith Prototype 1

For this prototype of Poise — the magazine for the busy woman — I wanted to use elements that would lead to a relaxing break from the chaos of life. Thus, I used a pastel palette and included plenty of whitespace (or green space, depending on the spread!). On my cover and in the photos of the contents page, I tried to include images of diversity. This wasn't intentional at first, but I found many photos of women of all backgrounds that I really like and thought fit the tone of Poise. I think diversity is lacking in many magazines, but I can't understand why. Perhaps if more people start increasing the visibility of diversity, it will catch on within the industry. I like how my typographic choices of a lighter sans serif and a script mesh with the tone of the design.

Critique - Restaurant Issue Cover - PLEASE COMMENT!

I WOULD GREATLY APPRECIATE ANY SUGGESTIONS ON THIS!
After the first critique session with Jen, Jan, Kristin, et. al., on the restaurant issue cover, I created another draft. I bought a cloth napkin (at Target on clearance, of course ;) and set up a scene in my apartment and took the photo with my little point-and-shoot camera. Then in photoshop I created the embroidered text to go on the napkin (I made an oval shape, added texture to it, and copied and pasted to form the letters).

My task now is to find a way to make this look more restauranty. Any suggestions? Menu? Wine list? bread basket? candles? let me know.

You Can't Miss - Best Flash Animations Site

For more inspiration for using flash, check out the websites on www.bestflashanimationsite.com. "Dubois Meets Fugger" is a VERY unconvential format for a portfolio - it's worth a look. (OK, so maybe these won't inspire you so much as make you feel overwhelmed by how much you don't know. BUT, it might be good to take one tiny element and learn how to incorporate it into your flash site.)

Response - Meredith Prototypes

It was a lot of fun to see everyone's ideas for the Meredith magazines. It was interesting to see not only the different design styles, but also the different strategies in approaching the task: some people had a few pages each of 5 different styles, while others concentrated on one style but had substantial examples. I think both have their merit, as the former is really sufficient in presenting a personality while the latter gives thorough examples of the stylistic treatments. I'm looking forward to seeing everyone else's projects on Thursday.

Blog Update (AceJet): The life of a Logo

An entry on AceJet's blog this week is very appropriate for our upcoming 20/10 assignment. Note the picture of the original sketch of the citi logo on a napkin (I love that people save the napkins with these sorts of things on them). If you want to read more about the logos and how they play a part in the merging of companies, go here: http://blog.pentagram.com/archives/2007/02/moving_to_the_big_citi.php#more.

Maybe working on our 20/10 assignments at a restaurant on napkins might be helpful. When you're sitting in your usual homework location trying to think up logo ideas, you might feel more pressure to perform well. When you're doodling on a napkin, however, you might be less like to self censor and therefore your uninhibited brainstorming may lead to a winning idea.

Critique - Tortilla Chip Design

The tortilla chip story was so extensive that I almost felt like I was designing a feature this week! There were a lot of elements to the story, so it was fortunate that 2 pages were budgeted for it. I have to admit that I was skeptical at first about how the results grid would turn out (the event and photo shoots were a tad unorganized for my taste) but I think the end result was a very fun look.

Because there were so elements to this story, the challenge was creating the right flow so people knew where to start reading. My drafts showed this improvement, I think. I also had the chip brands in the grid in the order the editor gave them to me, but upon suggestion I changed them so they were in ranked order from highest score to lowest and designated the winner with a light yellow bar. I'm looking forward to seeing how it looks in print.

Blog Update: Wouldn't it be nice if ... ?

This week AceJet posted an example of promotional material for a British design company. The promotional product really gives you a feel for the aesthetic and personalities of the designers at the company. I imagine that the same would occur with our portfolios, but instead of promoting the companies we are promoting ourselves. The key will be able to think up a means of displaying our work that represents who we are. Promotional materials might be a good place to search for inspiration for portfolios.

Response- graffiti

I was just browsing through Kate LaRue's blog and was impressed by her graffiti. The collage-feel featured many dimensions, which was very cool. I was originally envisioning a simple very 2-dimensional design - ransom-note style. Now I think it would be fun to explore with multiple layers and transparencies and other effects. I'm looking forward to seeing eveyone's graffiti!

You Can't Miss - Web Portfolio Idea

I came across this UK design firms website and was instantly intrigued by the sites organization. It doesn't have the tradtional menu bar, but rather a funny paragraph with certain phrases acting as buttons. The interactivity of the site is great (and probably challenging to design). Nevertheless, it might provide you with some inspiration. Check it out: http://www.johnsonbanks.co.uk/jbsite.php.