Critique: Lonnie Barker Cover

Last week, I worked on my Lonnie Barker covers, Wilderness feature spread and my magazine prototype. For News Design, I designed a photo essay and the front page of Thursday's Sports page... in other words: overload of design.

So I've decided to include all of the design I did.

For the final revision of my Lonnie Barker cover, I couldn't decide what direction I wanted to take, so I made three different versions. My favorite would have to be the first one, because it is simplistic and gets the message across. I listened to my classmates about how important it was to include his face, so I photoshopped his face into the second cover. With the third cover, I decided to go with a graphic/illustration route and use a CD image to highlight the teaser (probably my least favorite).

Here they are:

In addition, Jordin and I have been working on the Wilderness feature spread this past week and last weekend. It was actually pretty easy and fun to work with the photos. The collaboration part was interesting, because we could critique each others ideas at the same time. I thought working with two designers would be difficult, but thankfully it was a breeze! (Thanks Jordin) So this week we worked on making the design less "girly" and more masculine. We also reworked the photo selection and tried to make the layout less top-heavy. Let us know your thoughts!

So here's the second edit to the feature:

Opening Spread

Second Spread

  

Third Spread

Fourth Page

ANOTHER thing I've worked on this week was the magazine prototype for the magazine: "Eat Now"

Since this is only my first draft, it still needs lots of work. I'd like to fine tune the logo and adjust the department page with the critiques from class. Right now, I think my design is pretty boring and just needs some more spice to it. So we will see what I come up with this week/weekend! 

Here it is:

Cover

 

Sample Department Page 

And for fun-sies, I decided to include what I did in News Design. Please don't judge too hard... I completely forgot about the assignment and made the three pages in an hour and a half. 

Well I think that's enough of my design. Until next week!

You Can't Miss: Functional Design

This week I bring to you more product design.... but this one has to do with a smoke detector shaped as a bird.

In a blog post made by Unbeige, they featured "Cheep and Chic: A Bird-Shaped Smoke Detector."

 

Designed by Dutch designer Louise van der Veld, this cute, plastic bird is able to detect smoke with an impressive 85-decibel-alarm. Not only is this bird completely functional, but it "also bring(s) a new and dynamic approach to design." This little design wonder has traveled all the way from Europe and was introduced last week at the New York International Gift Fair.

The smoke detector will be offered for $75 with a battery that lasts about 1.5 years.

I don't know what it is about these past couple of weeks, but I've been intrigued by design that both aesthetically-pleasing and resourceful. I love the idea that design doesn't have to be restricted to just painting or layouts, but that it can be completely functional. I feel like functional design would attract a wider range of audience; and in the end, would sell better than just a painting that decorates a wall.

This post reminded me of one of my favorite stores, Speranza Design Gallery, back in my hometown of Dallas, TX. Although the products tend to be on the expensive side, they are very well-designed and use high quality materials. Created by real designers, the products are completely functional and designed to be completely different from anything you have ever seen before.

I've included a few of my favorite products:

David Weeks Gorilla Pink Ashtray, $28

 

Alessi Anna G. Corkscrew Blue, $60

 

"Tape" Tape Dispenser, $24

Haha. So as you can see, this store offers completely cute and functional designs too. With May just around the corner, they make great graduation presents for designers. Just saying!

Response: Vox 5 App

I'm pretty pumped for working on the Vox 5 App. I think the whole concept is really innovative and potentially helpful in my future career. It's a new challenge that I can't wait to participate in. I think the trickiest part for me would be to create the design in both a horizontal and vertical format.

Right now, I think the Vox 5 App is at a great start. However, I would like to see more out of it. I looked at Esquire's innovative app and I pulled a few ideas that I thought Vox could eventually adapt from. I think Vox could eventually have interactive animations that the user could have more fun with than stagnant pages.

First idea is that Esquire uses illustrations in their app to explain different stories.
For example, in this certain issue, Esquire uses an interactive animation to show the future reproduction of the World Trade Center.

In this animation, they had an illustrator draw the blueprint of the building and the user could touch different parts of it to show exactly what that is.


In another issue, Esquire uses a 360 animation to show men's fashion.

I feel like this animation would be easier to accomplish because it uses photos, rather than an illustration, to give the app a little more oomph.

Esquire also uses videos as stories, such as the one David Granger showed us of Ryan Gosling when he came to visit the journalism school.

I think the combination of animation, interaction and videos would give the Vox 5 App a little more excitement and attract more users. I understand that this is probably easier said than done, but hey, we could always use a little challenge, right?

Critique: Lonnie Barker Cover

Happy ALMOST Friday! Geez. This week flew by with all the designing I had to do.


So let me recap for you all the craziness that has been my past week. For my magazine design capstone class, it was my turn to compete designing the three different covers for the February 16th issue. The cover featured Lonnie Barker, a gospel rapper.

I planned way in advance for this project because I wanted to make sure that I had the right focus this time and to take risks. I can proudly say that I'm pretty sure I achieved that with these covers. They are definitely not complete yet, but I think I got to a good start.

Here's what I came up with:

"Rapper of Reason"

For this cover, I tried to personalize the story by featuring his albums. At the same time, I wanted the cover to be ambiguous to who exactly Lonnie Barker is with the exclusion of his picture and the headline "Rapper of Reason." That way, the reader is enticed to pick up the magazine and figure out who exactly this man is.

This is probably my favorite of the covers. I thought that not a lot of designers would think to feature the albums and music is a key element to the story. It still has a lot of work to do, such as throwing on a catchy deck, spicing up the headline and playing with the color palette.

"Hopeful Hip Hop"

I really did like this cover, but from the responses today... I'm assuming others didn't.
At first, I wanted to manipulate the image by leaving just Lonnie in color and the rest in black and white to make him stick out from behind the crossed bars. I didn't like how that turned out because the photo was already pretty dull in color. Then, I tried to go for neon to resemble grafitti and the hip hop culture that includes bright colors in wardrobe. 

I played a lot with the color palette until everything was spaced well. I also created a grungy border in photoshop to further emphasize on Lonnie. The grungy border was made to dull the bright colors to show the roughness and struggles of Lonnie.

Overall, still love this cover... probably more on the computer than how it came out printed.

"Hip-Hop Music with Meaning"

I made this cover into an illustration. Not going to lie it could've used a lot more work. I wanted the text, "Hip Hop Music," on a classical music sheet to show the contradictory of how Lonnie raps about the gospel, as opposed to the obscenities of other rappers. The cover could have been executed better if I took more time on the concept and showed more contradiction other than just the headline. Originally, I wanted to put words that described him in the placement of lyrics, but it just looked like the song was written in fragments. I'm still going to play around with it when I have time because I know I could make it look so much better than how it does now.


Anyways...  I also designed the front page of Sports for the Columbia Missourian's Thursday issue (Feb. 2). Pretty proud of that because I had more leeway to be creative. Not to mention that the design and stories are based around DGB and the national signing day. I'll try to upload that design, as well as my other newspaper designs on here once I can get them scanned. Either way, check it out and tell me what you think!

You Can't Miss: Event Design with David Stark

Anyone who knows me really well, knows how much I love wedding planning and decorations. 

This week on Media Bistro's blog, Unbeige, contributor Stephanie Murg talks about "Seven Questions for Event Design Master David Stark" and his unique style in event design. The post goes on to discuss David's latest creation, WOOD SHOP. For this production, he combined with Nina Freudenberger's Haus Interior in New York.

David has taken things such as "Post-Its, paint chips, bundled newspapers" and recreated them into  masterpieces that brides can use as in their weddings or others can use as decoration pieces for events and around the home.

Here is a sample of his reused and wooden wonders:

Personally, I didn't know that there was such a thing as "event design," but apparently it's just as intricate as designing a layout spread or making a painting.
 
This is one of David's responses that stood out to me the most and described the process of "event design":
"We make sure that the planning process, the logistics, and the flow are as buttoned up as possible so that our clients don’t need to worry about a thing, and at the same time, we create environments that elevate party décor to the realm of installation art. Thus, my art background really does inform my work today. I don’t see any real difference between making a painting, creating an event, or designing products. My approach is always the same: make art."

This blog shows how a designer can take a simple material and turn it into true pieces of art.  His designs are all very playful and cutesy and would make any event's decorations look unique and original. I loved that these decorations were created and designed out of things you would never expect. Personally, I'm a huge fan of recycling and reusing items to make into something else.

If you are interested at all in event planning or even decorations, this blog post is a must-see.

Response: The September Issue

So in class Tuesday, we began watching the movie, "The September Issue." The documentary featured Vogue's hectic and crazy journey to publishing their biggest issue of the year in 2007. The movie starred the fashion queen and editor-in-chief of Vogue, Anna Wintours.

I've never seen the movie, but I'm glad I did. I found it personally interesting because my aunt and godmother was a former fashion stylist of Vogue back in the late 1990s. My aunt used to tell me stories about her experience with Vogue, but seeing it in the documentary made it more real. I knew that working in the fashion world was crazy, but I never realized HOW crazy it was.

As for the design aspect, wow. I think Vogue takes design on a much more personal and intense level. Anna had the complete and last say over the photographs, tone, design and layout order. It made the journalism world more realistic after seeing the staff and editors put their heart and entire soul into the production of the issue and then just to have their vision slaughtered. Anna had a high standard for design and made sure that the every aspect followed suit.

My favorite part of the documentary was seeing all of the factors that Anna took into mind with the design and photograph choices. For me, the documentary was a huge eye-opener. It showed me the hectic day-to-day routine and how the process of designing for a magazine actually works.

Loved the documentary and I hope to see the rest of it!

Critique: Spring Preview

Hello blog followers!

So this week in my capstone class, we had another competition to design Spring Preview.  I really did have a lot of fun playing with Illustrator and Photoshop for this assignment. Overall, pretty pleased with how it came out.

So here's how I came up with the design. I had been stumped all week, even asking my roommates for ideas. I had played around with a music/blues theme, but I wasn't satisfied at all with the outcome. Last Wednesday, I was sitting outside on my deck searching for theme inspiration. I was starving and really wanted a freshly grilled burger. My thought process then went like this: burger, grill, barbeque, outside... picnic! I then decided on a picnic theme, complete with the trademark red plaid table cloths and marching ants.


Here's what I came up with:

Cover

 

Splash Page

Sample Layout

I had checked out other Vox Magazine previews and I decided that I wanted my entire design to match. In my opinion, I think having a unified design makes it easier for the reader to find certain stories and packages. This is why I utilized the plaid pattern and ants throughout the spread.

For the cover, I decided to go for a magnified, large illustration of a plate and fork to show the picnic theme. I think the picnic theme exemplifies spring perfectly; it shows the outdoors, games, family gatherings and most of all, it's fun.


With the Splash page, I depicted as if the page were sitting on top of a rustic picnic table. I included some teasers to the spring preview on a napkin (typical picnic accessory). My favorite design would have to be the splash page.

Lastly, for the actual inside layout, I wanted to have a clean design that adapted the theme as well. I wish I could have been more creative with the text and if I could do it again, I would do it differently.


Overall, my biggest regret is not taking more risk. After seeing the other designs my classmates came up with, I realized that all of my designs are safe and predictable. I believe that will be the one thing I will strive to work on. This class and my peers are constantly pushing me to make better designs— and I love it.

As for new designs, I have been working on the cover competition for Feb. 16 featuring Lonnie Barker that you all will get to see tomorrow! I'm also working on some other design projects out of the class, such as the front page of the Columbia Missourian's Sports section tonight and I'm redesigning the Wellness Ambassador packet for my internship with Healthy for Life. Whew. Talk about a lot of design.

Keep up the good work y'all.