Response - Meredith Trip

We talked a lot about our impressions of Meredith today in class, and it was fun to hear from everyone. A lot of people seemed to feel like creativity is stifled and that risks are avoided in favor of assured financial gain. I agree that their core publications are very formatted, and I think it is OK for them to be consistent. With all the success of these publications, I think they could stand to be a little more adventurous with other publications just to test the waters.

It was neat to meet with Jill Waage, who is part of the team that came up with Balance. I agree with my group members that it seems like they're trying to recreate Real Simple. I think it is fine and dandy to have the same sort of goals as Real Simple, but the protype layouts they created were a little too close in feel and style (I realize they had to put these together quickly and probably worked on them in addition to many other work responsibilities, so I can't be too hard on them!) Real Simple is very clean, very organized, which is aesthetically pleasing but I never feel like I could attain that level of clarity and order. Jill talked about how these busy women need to find balance by picking and choosing what they need to invest the most time in and what can be lower on the to do-list. I think this acceptance of imperfection (the idea that no one has time to be the perfect everything) should be reflected in the design. In other words, having the clean, pristine feel might not be what balance readers need. To reflect their lives, perhaps give them a little bit of the Real Simple style as something to attain to, but also give them a a more honest depiction of the busy, varied, and eventful lives they have.