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.