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.