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.

YOU CAN'T MISS!!! Color Palette Generator!

TRY THIS!!!! http://www.degraeve.com/color-palette/

Just enter the URL of an image on the web, and this "color-palette-ify" the image! It will give you a color palette with the hexadecimal color codes. It's so easy! I tried it on a photo of breakfast, and it worked great!

Try it for your next design.

Blog Update (AceJet)

The blog I follow (www.acejet170.typepad.com) is great at pointing to other artists' or designers' blog. One that he points to this week has a very quirky style. Gwen shares her experiences through short descriptions and through child-like drawings. Individually, they seem amateurish; together they are an impressive collection. Check it out: http://gwenyip.blogspot.com/

Color Reading

Even though the pantone color book contained some obvious information (green is calming, red captures attention), it did get me thinking about colors. I've never really thought about palette when I design. I know that many people do, but I've never found it necessary I guess. When thinking about my online and mini portfolios, however, I think a color palette will be a must to keep the packages consistent. It seems like so much pressure, though, to pick a color palette that represents me. (Should it represent me? Should it simply match the majority of my designs?) Anyways, I hope to experiment more with intentional color palettes in the design process.

The Magazine Formerly Known as Balance

Turns out finding cover art for a magazine is tough! It felt like I searched forever before finding photos that would work well on a cover. I still don't think I succeeded (or maybe I'm just not skilled enough at picked font colors that help the sell lines stand out!) As I was creating the cover, I thought about all the concerns that were raised during the cover meeting at Meredith and some of them started to become more clear.

I hope to get started on more prototype pages this weekend. I also need to brainstorm for VOX cover ideas for the restaurant issue. I need to dig back in the archives and see how other theme issues approached the covers. If you have any suggestions, let me know!

You Can't Miss

Wanna see what MU's website looked like in 1996? Check out archive.org. Near the top center, you'll see an entry field by the "Wayback Machine." Type in www.missouri.edu, and you'll be taken to a page of web archives starting in 1996. Some of them are a little slow to load, but it is often worth the wait. Try others, too, like mcdonalds.com or target.com. Surprisingly, amazon.com doesn't look much different.

Blog Update (AceJet)

At the end of every week, AceJet features "Found Type Friday" on his blog. The posts included photos of cool typography found in the travels of himself or others contributing to his collection. This week, AceJet points us to a flickr site of a guy who does the same. This reminds me of the graffiti assignment we have coming up. I think it will be fun to go around town to find type to make logos. Go here to see some of the cool fonts found on signs, buildings, bags and wrappers: www.flickr.com/groups/thedesigndisease/pool/

Response - magazine history

This is the funniest layout I found during my study of Holiday, a travel magazine, for the historical perspectives project. It's funny in itself (why is the guy sitting on the ampersand several an inch above it rather than right on it) but even more so considering the rest of the magazine at the time was very stagnant and mainly focused on photographs of travel sites. At first the project of looking through a decades worth of a magazine seen tedious (even after I decided to just look at Jan-June in 1960, 63, 66 and 69!), but then after a while I started to feel like an expert who could make substantial observations.

It was neat to hear about everyone else's observations. Don't you just wish you had spare time to browse through all the old issues of magazines? Maybe someday....

Subway Feature Drafts - Commentary

I am pleased with the way my subway design has progressed since my brainstorming ideas and the first draft. The copy changed quite a bit, which actually allowed for better design. The two sidebars were a nice addition to both the copy and the design. In the bottom draft posted here, Kristin suggested that I make the sub shapes more obvious. Before I set out to make this revision, I thought it would look cheesy, but I am actually happy with the way it turned out. I included a detail image of the update "sub" subheads - I think they are a great improvement. It just goes to show you that someone else's eyes and ideas can make all the difference in your design. Thanks to Kristin and the art crew for the comments.

Subway Feature Drafts - Images