Cant Miss 9 Amazing Info Graphs

It is amazing what you can come across when you are on design websites. I don't know if it is just the fact that I am a designer (not sure if I can really call me self that yet but what what the heck) and I just the art I find on their websites or if everyone who sees them would love them.

I came across this article that talks about the amazing info graphs and a book called Information Graphics by Taschen that will come out next month. The book will contain some of the best info graphics of all time in its massive 480 page volume. 

The website gives a preview of some of there favorite graphics they have featured on their website.

My Favs:

The one about how much your body parts are worth is by far my favorite but the other two are pretty amazing as well. 

Here is the link to the website, so you all can get on and see the rest of the them and maybe get some info on the book coming out next month.

Response: Just My Type and Helvatica

Just a small town boy LIVINNNG  in a Helvatica World.....
I know that the reference is slightly off but didn't want to confuse anyone by putting just a small town girl. I mean I am one of the only boys in the class so I have to make sure to represent that tiny demography.

Enjoyable Read:

(I actually prefer this cover to the one at the book store)

I really enjoyed Just My Type by Simon Garfield for a number of reasons. One the way the book uses humor and just sort of flows makes it an incredibly easy read. I was kind of dreading reading the book not because I wasn't interested just for the sake that I didn't know when I would have time to read it.
I am glad that Jan made it a mandatory read though so I actually had to sit down and read it. I really enjoyed the chapters that talked about the worst fonts. I thought it was really funny because they are considered at least be Garfield to be the worst fonts and you see the used all the time.
In case you didn't make it all the way to this chapter (21 I think) here are some examples: Papyrus, Comic Sans and Neuland Incline. I am sure you have all see Comic Sans because it is the laughing stock of the font world and used primarily by 5th graders and people to point out how awful something else is with the font. I also but you have seen Papyrus if you have ever done a 7th grade report on Egypt.
I didn't recognize the name of Neuland Incline, but you have seen it all over the place.

Some examples:

It actually became a pretty basic font when people were designing with Africa in mind. It like Papyrus got pin holed into once category.

Now lets talk about the movie that we watched in class. Usually documents are pretty hit or miss with me. They are usually amazing and I am sitting on the edge of my seat the whole time of they are really slow to start and I turn them off int he first 15 min.

Helvatica was definitely the first of these two reactions. I think what I enjoyed so much about the movie was the fact that the people they interviewed were some of the bigger names in the font world, but also just how passionate everyone was about fonts in the movie. I found it hard to not get sucked into the movie when the people were talking with such enthusiasm about this font that half a century ago sweep the commercial  world and became the new "It" girl of the font world. 

Also not only did they find people that were passionate about fonts and type, but they did a really good job of finding people who either really loved and praised the use of Helvatica or saw it as not that great of a font. 

Anthony Cahalan did a study in 2007 where he sent a questionnaire to over 100 of the top designers in the world and asked them to give there most used and least favorite fonts.  Helvatica was on both of those list it actually ranked second on both of those list. It is just interesting to see a font the is used so widely and so revered to be so disliked at the same time. 

I would recommend this movie to anyone not just type lovers but anyone. It is interesting to see how this one font is used so widely throughout the world. You probably couldn't go a day if you wanted to without seeing Helvatica somewhere. 

I know that after I saw the movie I went out and got this:

Well maybe I didn't like the movie that much or the typeface that much, but still a great movie and font.

Critique: iPad

So finally it was my turn to do the iPad Vox app. Luckily for me it was all the the same week that I had to redesign a feature and redesign a cover. I just recently finished my iPad work so that is why this is getting on here a little late. I still have to do revisions on my cover and feature.
It has been a pretty bust week for me so far but I have an easy week next week—only two test. It is funny how my freshmen year two test in a week was not terrible but something I was not excited for and now I love week where I only have a test or two. Test only take an hour where as you can spend hours upon hours in the design lab if you aren't really focused on getting something done.
I actually didn't mind working on the iPad App it was really time consuming but other than that it wasn't to terrible. You just moved things around and made them fit. It kind of reminded me of working on a department. You do get more creative freedom with the iPad app than you do with the departments, but it is structured and you have some guidance.
I am happy that it is over, but now that I have to move on to free thinking design I wish I could just do more iPad work. My brain is a little to worn out to work on stuff like this now. I guess I just have to think that spring break is a week away.

Some pages from the app:

As you can see we made a few small changes to the cover and splash page of the issue. We wanted to use the icons from the cover to allow users to jump to certain sections of the feature story. I think that it turned out nice.
I enjoyed the design of the print edition, but we decided to make a few little tweaks to just make the iPad version slightly different.
This is what has consumed the majority of my week, so I hope you all at least slightly enjoy it.

Cant Miss

Even though we didn't get to experience much of a winter here in Missouri there was plenty of snow in other parts of the country. I found these pictures and a video on my designated blog swissmiss. They are temporary art created by Sonja Hinrichsen and five other volunteers. I think the thing the most interesting things about them are how huge they are and how good they look. I also think it is kinda amazing to think that one random snowmobile or skier could come through this area and ruin its symmetry and simplistic beauty.

I know that I would never have the patience to do something like this, but it is pretty impressive.

Here is a video of them making it.

Response: Portfolio Reviews

I have really enjoyed the portfolio reviews so far. I have only been looking at other peoples work, but it is nice to see all the work your classmates have done and how they have improved of the year. I am slightly nervous for my review since a lot of work isn't completely revised and print ready. The few things that I really enjoy are pieces that have been done completely and went to print. 

I also have seen all the different skins people are using in their work and realize I need to expand my skill level. It is not so much that I need to go and learn specific things, but I just need to spend more time on the computer designing. A really good exercise when and if I ever get free time and can make myself sit down and work would be to practice my skill by revising my older works. I could kill two birds with one stone. 

I feel that after the summer where I hope to intern and have more free time to focus on putting my portfolio together I could have a decent portfolio to show potential employers. This who situation has also made me realize that I graduate very soon and will be out in the real world trying to make a living with the skill I have learned here at Mizzou. It is an exciting thing to think about but also a pretty nerve racking experience. 

The semester is already halfway over and I know I still have plenty to learn.

Critique: Cover March 8

As you all know by now I was selected to create the March 8th Cover. It was an interesting process getting here though for one with all the feature stories being rearranged we didn't always know what story was going to be on the cover. Once we were assigned the softball story Timmy wanted to a special photo shoot with Chelsea for the cover. I think it worked out for the best because us designers got some great action photos to work with on this cover. The photo shoot was not until Friday so we only had 4 days to design the cover compared to the regular 14. I was out of town all weekend so I actually did my entire concept design in about 4 hours before they were due.
I did run into a few technical problems with moving the file, fonts and printing, but after I talked to Jan, Jen and Teresa I think they had a basic idea of how I wanted the final project to look.
I wanted to use the Mizzou colors as the pallet and then I just used a great photo by Timmy.

Original Concept:

The redesign was relatively painless. We decided to move the sell lies to the bottom of the page and put them in a gold box so they wouldn't blend into the background words. Also we added a swosh to the title font. The font in the original is not what was on the turned in copy—tech problems. Also we decided to lighten the background words so she would pop more. There were other editorial changes, but for the most part it was pretty smooth and easy.

Redesigned Cover:

This is what it looks like after we fiddled with it and made some changes. I liked the concept and design the whole way through, but it is nice to see what a design can look like after it has been edited and redesigned with others help. It makes such big difference to get a fresh pair of eyes to loo at something.

There are actually a few other small things that were changed for the final cover, but I want everyone to go and grab a copy tomorrow so I don't feel I can share all facts. This is my first complete cover design and I hope any in the future go as smooth and pain free. Heck I just hope there are more in the future.

I am currently working on the first draft for the March 22 issue. I am still not sure on the direction that it will take, but it is the design I will be giving all my attention for the next few days.

Cant Miss Cats as Fonts and Dropmark

Seeing how cats have taken the title of rulers of the internet, I thought that I would share this site that I found the combines cats with fonts. You really don't get anything educational out of it, but it is pretty cute and I am sure that you all will love it. Here is the website with a more http://www.sadanduseless.com/2012/02/cats-as-fonts/

Here are some of my fav:

While checking out swissmiss this week I stumbled across this website they are promoting. It was designed Skylar Challand. It was a collaboration tool that allows you to easily share photos and files and videos while working on projects. The thing that it interesting and nice about this tool though is that it allows you to go and see where they photos were originally taken from. It allows you to look around on that site to see if there is other things you like. 

Seeing how we are getting ready to go out into the professional world this would be a great tool to use when working on new projects with people. It is just a beta as of right now but will officially launch on March 1. 

Screen Shots:

Critique: Meredith Project

While preparing my prototype for the Meredith project I was constantly struggling with my design because I wasn't exactly sure what my group wanted. I know that they wanted something young and fresh and would apple to a wide range of readers. This isn't the easiest task when you are creating a magazine about home remodeling. Most younger people don't have the skills or finances to remodel.

I went with a more modern and minimalist approach for my prototype. I felt that it was something that my publication team wanted. I tried to use very clean line and few little frill for my typography and such.

My Cover:

The logo is something I spent a little bit of time on. I used multiple different fonts and spacing and ended up using this one because it is clean and simple and has that modern minimalist look I was going for. I decided to capitalize the letters M Y so it would play well with the slogan of the magazine. My House My Passion. I also used the photo I did because I felt this is the style of housing and people we wanted to reach. After talking to the publication group I feel we will need so I can get a better idea of the target audience they want to reach.

Department Page and Feature:

I used the same minimalist and simple design for the feature and department page. I think that it was to simple and now that I have talked to my group slightly more I know that it will be a lot easier to design for what they want. 

My color pallet will maybe look familiar to some of you since it was inspired by the old Coach purse pattern. I was making the pallet and realized it was similar, so from there I just used it as inspiration.

Cant Miss 79 Short Essays on Design and Beautiful Illustrations

This week while reading through the post in the Swiss-Miss Blog I saw this book. I have not seen it at any local book stores, but I know that I will be looking for it the next time I am out shopping. It was written by Michael Bierut who is a designer himself. I think that any designer out there who is still looking for some guidance in this industry would learn at least one or two things that could help them.

Cover of the Book

I don't know about anyone else in my class, but I am obsessed with illustrations right now. I am not sure if it is the fact that I am not very good at them and would love to learn more or the fact that they can be gorgeous art. I found this article on smashingmagzine.com and it is just a large collection of great illustrations. This is really fun to look at and can give your idea on things to try when doing your next design. I hope that you all enjoy look at it as much as I did. Click here to see the whole article.

Here are some of my favs:

Raiders of the Lost Ark poster by Tom Whalen

Flow by Nick La

Response: Working on Meredith

I don't know if anyone else in the class is having a little trouble with their prototype magazines, but I am struggling on mine. First I have like always been fighting sickness these last few days, so no fun there. I also feel like the idea that I have for the magazine might be slightly different than the idea my publishing group has. I just feel there is almost a language barrier between us because they can't really explain exactly what they want the magazine to look like. It might be they just can't put it in terms of visual representation so I have a feeling of how it will actually look. I think the best way to get through this issue is just wait until we show them our designs and then we can actually talk about the things that they want to be done with the magazine to give off the feeling they want it to. Right now thought it is slightly frustrating, but what isn't frustrating about design. You can never get something to look exactly how you want it.

Critique: Cover Comp Simplicity

Here are my covers from the Simplicity competition. I didn't put them up last week when I was working on them, and figured I could put them up now. I hope I can get some more feedback on them since the second critique for them was pushed back a few weeks. I don't know which one I will try and redo since I didn't receive a ton of feedback on any single one.
I think the one the the editors and Jan liked the most was the cover with all the lines. They really liked the concept or idea of this cover, but since it is a photo feature they felt it wasn't complete enough to be the cover.
I really like the one with the wine glass because it is such a great picture and just looks really clean, crisp and simple, but the editors felt that it might confuse the readers and make then think that the story is about a restaurant or drinking. I can understand where the editors are coming from, but I just really like the picture.
The last cover is one where I edited the photograph heavily. I made the picture black and white and then used a paint brush to blur out the entire background. I wanted to show the woman separated from her environment. Since the story was about simplicity, I feel it expressed her separating herself from the chaotic and hectic life of today's society. She is surrounding herself with simplicity. That is what I was trying to convey with the cover at least. I feel like I might have slightly missed my mark or the editors were just not super thrilled to see the heavy photo edit.

Here are my original covers:

My art director suggested trying to incorporate the idea of the lines into the cover with the women but leave the photo in color. I am not sure how to combine these two photos and will most likely just have to spend this weekend messing around with ideas and hope that I hit a stroke of genius. I have time to work on it since the redesigns are not due for another week or two. 

I also have the choice of trying to design a complete new concept for a second feature we are running in this issue. It is about a pitcher for Mizzou's softball team. I think that I will at least try to come up with one idea so that the editors will have more than one option to chose from. 

I hope I can get a little feedback from all your designers I am open for ideas or critiques. I know you all have talent, so share a little with me.

I am also going need to redesign my magazine concept for the prototype magazine we are showing the publishing class next Wednesday.

Response: iPad and Meredith Project

I feel I have been been playing catch up since the beginning of this semester in advance magazine design. I don't know about all you other designers out there but I think after this week in class I feel I another full lap behind.
We finally got put into our groups for our Meredith projects this week and got to the students from the publishing class to discuss our magazine designs. I don't wanna give many details since this is a competition and everything needs to be kept under lock and key. I can say the group that I am part of is planning on creating a home remodeling magazine. That is all the detail you get at this time sorry peeps.
What this all means for me is that I have to design a pre-prototype magazine this weekend everything from the fonts we will regularly use to the over all color pallet for the magazine. I have tons of research to do and I don't foresee much other than this getting accomplished this weekend.
On top of this we also talked about the iPad Vox Magazine App we are in charge of this weekend. I am really excited to work on this because it is something not a lot of other design students are going to get the chance to do at journalism school. I am sure we are one of the first student magazine who are publishing an entire iPad based magazine.
It is really exciting and I am sure it will be a lot of work, but what would a capstone class be if it wasn't a lot of work. I know I am learning a ton from the creative designer, my art directors, and my professor already in this class. I just need to get caught up with all the work I have to do.
The pace is good though it always keeps my thinking and always keeps my on my toes when it comes to designing.

You Cant Miss 40 Creative Logos and V-Day Pixel Card

So since we are all working on our prototype magazines this weekend I thought I would share a section from designm.ag I came upon. It has 40 creative and interesting logo designs and since Jan has talked about how important a logo is to a magazine I thought it would be an fun educational break from all the work we are doing. I will just put up a few of my favorite, but make sure you take the time to look at the actual site and look at them all. Yes yes I know that last week my can't miss also was about logos.

Few of my favorite:

I also thought I would share this cute card that I found on the swiss-miss blog I am following. There are two reasons I thought it was relevant. One, I am currently obsessed with 8-bit and pixelated pictures. Two, Valentines Day is right around the corner and the website has a link on how to make your own. I know its not extremely design based but here it is all the same. 

Cant miss a five your old's interpretation of logos and

After looking at a couple of other people's blogs for this week I guess the "it" thing for this week is videos, so here is a video that I saw on the blog I am following for the semester. It was made by Adam Ladd who is an identity designer. He asked his five your old daughter to look at iconic brand marks from our generation and describe what they are or what company they are from. It is really interesting to see this fresh and innocent take on logos each one of us know so well.

You have to watch it to understand but I was completely blown away when he instantly new the GE logo.

I also was looking through a graphic design blog and came across the work of a 3-D graphic designer by the name of Chris Labrooy. Here is his website http://www.chrislabrooy.com/index.html. He made a bunch of typography for the New York Summer Streets festival. These are just a few of the things he has on his website but they are all amazing.

Response: The September Issue

I had seen The September Issue before we watched it in class because, I am from the semi-small group of men who love fashion. Also as a subscriber to Vogue I felt it would be an interesting to see how the years most important magazine actually comes to fruition. I was actually surprised how the whole operation took place. I think this movie really focuses on the creative aspect of creating the magazine though. You don't get to see a lot of the nitty gritty parts just the big overlaying themes put together. I do love the intimate scenes where Grace Coddington is working so closely with the girls at the photo shots and how each shoot becomes like her child she feels she has to protect. She really has a complete vision of these spreads and shoots and fights to see them stay whole.
I also didn't realize how much of Anne Wintour was in every page of the magazine. You might think that somethings would be decided on by higher ups, but she looks at every single page and approves everything single little detail. I think it was amazing to see how involved she is with the entire magazine. It is almost scary to think how much of your life would revolve around your magazine if you were the editor-n-chief. I think thought the sacrifices that she has made is what has given her the god like power that she has at Vogue and in the fashion industry. It reminds me of in the movie when the Neiman Marcus people are trying to get Wintour to push the designers to get there merchandise to the stores quicker. The best part is she could probably make that happen.
The movie if for nothing else shows you the passion someone can have for their work. Wintour and Coddington are two people who truly show what it means to love your job. It is real love though where you cannot be without it but at other times you wanna beat your head against the wall because of it. It's not that fake fairy tale love.

Critique: Spring Preview Comp

First off I will say this was a pretty interesting design session, because I actually designed the entire package while sick with the flu. Since I was sick I would work on the design for an hour or two, then sleep for an hour or two. The process went like that for pretty much the whole design.
I have considered doing this with all my future designs as well....not the whole getting sick and designing because that was just miserable, but making sure that I take time away from the design every few hours. Doing something else between design sessions can help me come back and look at the design from a different perspective. I know I might not always have time to use this design style, but I think it can be beneficial.
Okay now lets talk about spring preview, I was really excited to do spring preview because I was able to use bright colors in my design. When I think spring I think bright and sunny almost more then summer. For my cover I wanted to have a scene that was easy and light and had nice colors. I went with the font that I used because it reminded me of vines and vegetation growing. Since spring is when everything comes back to life I thought it worked perfectly. I used the yellow for the headline because it added some brightness to the cover. Since the color is so bright I had to run the cover headline large so you wouldn't have trouble reading it. Then of course what kind of spring would it be if there wasn't any rain. I think that by adding the rain it made the headline pop a little more and gave the whole cover a little bit of texture.

Spring Preview Cover:

I also added the umbrella as just something solid that wasn't bright and colorful and it is also another iconic image of the spring. 

For my splash page and spread I came up with the idea of "shredding layers for the spring." I basically got the idea from thinking about how as the spring starts and goes on you just take off layer after layer of clothes until summer is here and we are all wearing shorts, tank tops and sandals. I originally wanted to have a border that ran throughout the entire spread that had a guy and girl walking across the top of the pages leaving a trail of sweaters, jackets and pants. I didn't know if that would be considered to risky for Vox magazine and I couldn't figure out how to execute the idea.

I had a splash page the was a giant pile of sweaters and coats and then just stacked the headline, dek and things that would be featured in the spread on top of it. I also added the foil sticker to let people know that this was the Spring Preview since I renamed the spread.

Spring Preview Splash:

When it came to my actually spread I wanted to reflect the cover slightly and have the grass and the blue of the sky. I lost the rain, but added a tree that would become fuller as the months changed. It would represent the life coming back to the trees as spring went on. Eventually the last month headline would have a tree that was in full bloom.  

For the markers I used icons that had items of clothing that would be worn during spring. Now that I look at them they are more summer than spring, but I guess I was just excited for the warm weather. I also chose to in close them in circles of bright colors to just brighten the page as much as I could.

I think my spread is my favorite part of my spring preview package. I just like the color and the warm feeling that I get from it. 

There are things that I would change about me pages if I was to redo them, but isn't that the curse of a designer. We are never completely satisfied with our designs. I look at my splash page now a few days after I finished it and can't help but see a pile of trash and not a pile of sweaters and coats. 

Anyways this is my spring preview package and hope that if nothing else it makes to think of one thing you could use on your next spread.

You can't miss Art Spire

Since I, like every good magazine design, want to be the best designer that I can possibly be. I have been looking around on the internet lately for blogs or just great website that offer great examples of designs.
I recently stumbled across Art-Spire which is a basically just a mass collection of designs in all different categories. It covers typography, illustration, photography, graphic designs and more. I only warn you to make sure you have some free time, because this site will take the little free time us college students have left. A recent group of illustrations I enjoyed were by Canadian designer Laura Bifano. It was a project called "Menagerie," which uses large cube pixels to depict animals natural environments.

Personal Fav:

Other Examples:

Response: First Exp in Judging

I have been in many competitions were I was judged, but today was the first time I was on the other side of the judges table. In class today we got to be the preliminary judges for the City and Regional Magazine Association magazine design award. It was an interesting experience for many reasons.

1. I was judging the work of people who have much more experience than me and have been involved in the industry for many years longer.

2. I had never judged a magazine competition before and was way under prepared for how fast it guess. I looked at a total of 30 magazines in less than an hour and had to decided on what was my 1st, 2nd and 3rd place magazines. 

3. It was exciting to just be exposed to so many different varieties of magazine since they were from all over the nation. I was able to see how the West Coast designs differ slightly from the the East Coast. 

4. I was able to get so many ideas and inspiration from just looking at the sheer number of issues. 

I really enjoyed the experience and my first and second favorites were voted first and second, so I guess I am not completely off when it comes to having good taste in magazine design. 

I think little things like this will really help me develop as a designer, because you don't get a chance to take part in these experiences everyday. I have to make sure to constantly be looking for new things to learn in this class. I feel like this class is me cramming for a final weeks before the test only the test will be me trying to get a job in the industry.

Critique: First Design Competition

The first design for advance design is over and done with and it feels nice to have the experience — however small it may be — under my belt. Just getting a feel for the way the class runs really helps. The design competition was for the feature story running in this week's Vox magazine. It is a story about a self rolling smokes shop in Columbia, Mo named Roll On. The designers tasks included creating a cover and 5 page photo essay spread.
While I was looking at the templets for Vox magazine I noticed on that had a yellowish orange color to it which made me think of a cigarette filter. I decide I would do something a little different from what I guessed most of the other students in the class would do. I wanted to turn the entire left side of the cover into a lit cigarette.
I wanted to make the words of the headline on the cover look like they were made of smoke, but I had to read a tutorial or two on how to get this effect in photoshop. Mine didn't look quite as good as the example I was working from, but I was able to get something remotely close.

My Cover:

I think that the ashes could have been a little cleaner and the cigarette in general could have had a more 3-D look to it, but I think that it turned out solid over all and was an interesting idea.

My photo essay spread was not as much of a creative success. It was passible at best. I didn't add many design elements in the way of color splashes or typography. My photo selection as good I believe and I tried to keep from adding to many design elements that would take away from the photos, but I could have put in more thought to the design. I chose the blue and yellow colors since they were the stores colors and the outline of my photo essay is sectioned off. The opening spread gives you the setting of the story and I wanted to add the box of rolled cigarettes to let the audience know what the story was about.

The second spread is divided into people at the store and the supplies they use to make the cigarettes, and the owner of the story interacting with the customers and keeping the story running. The final page of the package is a closer that shows the owner closing up.

Photo Essay Spread:

This was a good start to the semester because it was challenging to find a way to present this story in a creative and new way, but since we had such a short time to turn it around it really got the class going. I also discovered that there is usually a tutorial for almost any effect you would want to use in illustrator or photoshop.
For the rest of the week I still need to design for our second class competition. It is the a cover, splash page, and single spread for Vox's spring preview issue. I am excited about this competition because I feel it will give a lot of room for creative expression. I also have to design my first department page this Sunday. I was a little nervous since I got the first page for my department, but after talking to my artistic director and professor I think it will be fine.

And It Starts With A Bang

My final semester of college has started and for all of you who were lucky enough to stumble across this blog will get the chance to see all of its ups and downs or all its stress and excitement. I will be using this blog primarily to discuss my work and the works of others pertaining to magazine design and other forms of design. Hopefully I will be able to use enough witty banter to keep you entertained throughout  my post or at the least keep you reading. Its my first post, so I just wanted to say hello and welcome all. If you make the effort to stop by once in a while to read, I will make the effort to write a few new post a week.