Critique: Cover Stuff

This is going to be more of a nontraditional critique because I didn't present covers on Thursday (not all of the materials were in yet).

The class has gotten some feedback about not having enough variation of ideas. It's important to have distinctively different ideas that way we can get as many options to choose from as possible. So here is some brainstorming inspiration:

Here's one person's take on brainstorming for a magazine cover.

Here are a bunch of cool/weird/different conceptual magazine covers.

Here are the nominees for SPD's magazine of the year award, all of which had conceptual covers.

And finally, here are Ellen DeGeneres' ideas for her "O Magazine" cover.

You Can't Miss: Teaching Designers to Write

At the University of Missouri J School, magazine designers have to go through rigorous writing classes in addition to design classes. Eye Magazine's blog featured a post about incorporating more writing into design education.

"Blunt: Explicit and Graphic Design Criticism Now" is a design conference held in Norfolk, Va., beginning April 12. Here is an excerpt from the Eye Magazine blog post:

‘We feel that criticism and writing have played vital roles throughout education, and design is past due’, says FitzGerald. His aim for the conference is to ‘gauge the state of writing and criticism, and to put it in the foreground of the design discipline. We hope attendees will be gratified at what is being accomplished and be hungry for more either by actively promoting critical writing or performing it.’

If you are interested in writing and design, be sure to check out the work of John Jennings and Eric Benson called "DeZombies and the Coming Design Apocalypse."

"DeZombies" cover. Courtesy of http://www.academia.edu/3063216/DeZombies_and_the_Coming_Design_Apocalypse

Response: Trends Assignment

When I did my interview with Inside Columbia for the trends assignment, I gained some insights into the city magazine industry. One of the most telling moments was when I asked Carolyn Preul, creative director of Inside Columbia, if she spends a lot of her off-hours brainstorming for work. She quickly replied that she absolutely does spend a lot of her free time working and thinking of solutions to problems, design and otherwise.

It's a fair assumption that most people in the magazine industry – city magazines, nonprofit magazines, hyperlocal magazines, and national consumer magazines – all devote a good chunk of free time to work-related stuff. At my last internship, I worked at a nonprofit, where it wasn't uncommon to see one person completing tasks that were completed by several employees in easier times. I guess the takeaway here is to work at a publication that you really love and enjoy because it's likely you'll need to devote more than just the day hours to it.

Inspiration: The Designer's Color Guide

If you still struggle with complements and such, check out this site.

In addition to showing the wheel, the site gives fun facts about colors (ex: George Washington's favorite color was green).

Facts about blue. Credit: http://visual.ly/color-guide-designers 

Response: Jack. Presentations

Yesterday the Jack. group presented to the publishers. I think the publishers were really excited about the outcome, and that is due in large part to the formatted, unified look that Will came up with. Everyone in the group has put in great effort to decide the style and personality of Jack., and I think we are off to a great start. Because we have such a nice product to start off, I think our finished product will  be that much better.

Jack. was designed in an iPad edition, a website, and a cookbook supplement. I don't have pdf's or links right now, but I will be adding them later so you can check out our progress so far.

Critique: Martini Covers round 1

The first round of the "Three Martini Lunch" covers were due on Monday. I haven't gotten feedback on them yet, but I thought I would talk about the process and show two of the ones I submitted.

I didn't really mess with the typography very much, so that would obviously need some work. We were told to focus on photography ideas so we can do a shoot, so both of these ideas would be for the studio.

The first would be at a restaurant booth, just seeing the back of some people as they enjoy a Three Martini Lunch. We don't usually use studio shots of people on the cover (I can't think of any except for T/F and one winter issue with a girl modeling a scarf) so this would be out of the ordinary. The second one is a combination of several photos. The idea there would be that there are several more martinis on the table/sort of a decadent, indulgent vibe.

Here they are:

You Can't Miss: Typography from Melbourne

Stephen Banham, an Australian typographer and writer, recently released a book called "Characters:
Cultural stories revealed through typography." The book is photo-rich with details about Melbourne's typographical past and heritage.

Here is a highlight from Eye Magazine's post about the book:

"Though many of the pleasures the book delivers are specifically Melburnian, it will not be hard for city dwellers in other parts of the world to come up with their own counterparts to the decayed subterranean arcades pictured here, to the buildings with carved Edwardian lettering peeking from behind modern plastic details, to the factories whose industrial iconography has been co-opted by property developers as post-industrial retro-chic."

As someone interested in visiting Australia, it seems there's one more reason to make the trip: beautiful typography and design.

Here is a photo from Eye Magazine's post. This sign was made in 1950.