Response: Historical Vogue

This week we had to do a presentation on a historical magazine of our choice. I chose Vogue, a longtime magazine favorite of mine, from the 1950s. Vogue was being done a lot so I was worried about how it would differ from everyone else's other decades, but there were quite a few differences. I found the visible changing in the covers and spreads through the work of Alex Liberman very interesting to see and liked learning about his influence on the direction the magazine took. I think the 1950s showed a move from the past to the future with the move from modernist covers to the use of up-close models on the covers, which is where the magazine was directed from the late 1950s on.

You can't miss: wall designs and moving type

On typegoodness.com this week I found another awesome video integrating type into it. This one is a music video and I really enjoyed watching it. I hope after our flash tutorials I can make something like this:

Kinetic Type: You Could Be Happy by Snow Patrol from Kuan Luo on Vimeo.

I also found something I just had to share on designspongeonline.com. Looking through all their posts always gives me such inspiration and fills me with some sort weird design happiness. This week I saw a post about some amazing wall designs and after looking through them I cannot wait to get my own place. Check it out:

I found this on designsponge's website but more of these awesome designs can be found at http://www.domestic.fr/ and it is definitely worth checking out.

Response: Helvetica

Yesterday in class we got to watch Helvetica, the movie. I had never gotten to see the movie the whole way through so I was really excited to watch it in class and I really enjoyed it. I loved getting to see all the type designers talk about their perspectives and even though I knew Helvetica was all over the place, I did not realize quite how far its expanse reached. Even though I think Helvetica is sometimes overused, it is a beautiful typeface and perfect for so many different expressions.

In class we also talked about how magazines from past decades still influence magazines today. I chose Vogue in the 50s for my historical design paper and keynote presentation so I think I'll have a good bit to show.

Critique: Department page, round one

This weekend was my first time to design my department page and it is definitely something I think I will get better at. I had one page to design the arts section on and I didn't have enough text to fill the page. This is definitely not a problem I've ever encountered before, at least not where I didn't have extra copy I could stick in. Even though I had an ad on my page, I felt I was struggling to make things fit well. I'm hoping this is my weakest department page this semester because looking back on it there are probably some changes I could have made to it but just didn't think about at the time.  Next time I would like to make a somewhat more dynamic or interesting design even though I'm working within a limited amount of space, which is also new to me.
I'm also working on my final cover pitch for the 2/18 issue and my feature design. I'm feeling newly inspired with a sudden kick of energy this week and hopefully will be able to pull off the design I have in mind. I don't want to give anything away incase it doesn't happen the way I want it to, especially since I'm still working on my Illustrator skills.

You can't miss: Type Video

So I switched my blog to typegoodness.com because I read it regularly anyways and love it and they usually have some pretty awesome stuff on there, like this awesome intro to the Danish Music Awards.

Danish Music Awards 2009 - DMA09 from Stupid Studio on Vimeo.

This was an opening animation created by Stupid Studio for the award show and I just think it is so awesome to watch as well as a great inspiration for a side project. If I was more practiced at the program I would be doing stuff like this on the side(when not in school of course) just to show off my skills. I bet there would even be a way to put them into portfolios, although I'd have to brainstorm on that one. If you have suggestions, I'm open to those.

Response: getting going

We finished week two and are going strong into week three. This class is giving me way more experience than I ever expected and is a lot more work than I thought, but that's okay because at least we'll have some packed portfolios.
Today in class we got to talk to an up and coming country singer about a logo we could possibly be designing for her. I am so excited about this opportunity. If our logo gets picked it will be used nationally for her items. I've never designed a logo so this will be a new experience for me, but an exciting one. I can't wait to start working on 20 new ideas, which we then have to narrow down to 10 and make into really great ones. I'm going to try and start noticing logos all around me when I am out and hopefully this will give me some inspiration.
The cover that Cassie made was different than all the others and definitely popped against the others. I like that included a couple different elements but in a way that the other covers didn't. I think Lauren's calendar design was very well put together and organized and separated the months by colors like Vox wanted and left enough space for the event briefs.

Critique: Spring Preview

The second week's competition I think was a bit more enjoyable because we were allowed to some up with the images on our own and got the opportunity to design a calendar with an interesting design. I had fun with this and actually really liked my design, my calendar much more than my cover though. Even though I went wit the traditional 'springy', floral cover, I tried to do it in a way that made it a little different by making the months look like they were flowers springing out of the ground. I think I definitely could have worked a lot with the color scheme and agree that I needed to bolden the words on the bottom portion of my cover. The plan with the calendar was the separate each month by color and then have opacities of that color separating the section. I definitely think yellow was the wrong color to pick all around since you can't really see the difference and it's difficult to read on the page. I did make my calendar to be organized by date and section though, which I though was handy. I plan on re-doing both of these things for my portfolio, making the changes that were suggested in class.