You Can't Miss #9

I was searching around on netdiver.net today and found of course about a billion things that I absolutely loved. The images I posted above are all from the site www.ravenconcepts.com
The two that look similar are collages. I would love to try that sometime. Just decoupage the crap out of something. Maybe then I could get it out of my system. But seriously, how beautiful? Also, the illustrations were so unique! I love that they are bright but still have an incredible amount of whitespace -- very interestingly placed, too. She has some great logo design as well. I was trying to get ideas for my portfolio b/c I would really love to have an actual logo, but I've not come up with anything worth noting yet. Let's hope by tuesday!

Response

Time management ... I think I've effectively managed to waste a ridiculous amount of time today. It must be a case of senioritis starting to really creep in, but I'm finding it harder and harder to tackle anything in advance. I was really happy that I was able to make it through everything so far, managing to get everything turned in on time, but now that I don't have anything immediately due, I'm realizing that I'm not taking full advantage of this time that i do have in order to get a head start. I guess that is the exact stuff that is important but not urgent ... but it's really hard to want to delve right in again after being so crazed and go go go for so long. I'm not going to lie, my roomate and I have decided that this is marathon week ... but that doesn't pertain to school ... or running ... or anything healthy for that matter. I think you get the idea.

Critique #?

This week I had the feature for VOX. I think everyone caught a glimpse of my anxiety over it in class last week ... I wanted it to be slightly subtle and sleek (very unlike most of my other work), but I don't know how well I pulled that off. Kristin usually helps me out in that department, so I was really glad to get any suggestions. I was surpised at how just a few small tweaks, such as reducing the size of lines and text, made such a big difference. I was talking to Paula about this in class the other day, about how my idea of design is STILL to throw as much crap on the page as possible! I think that I must think it won't be appealing unless there is a lot going on ... but anyway, any tips on how to get over that would be much appreciated. If anyone truly does get the chance, I would seriously be interested in comments about your process and whether or not you have to tone yourself down or vice versa and how you do it.

You Can't Miss #11

I've discovered a surefire way to get a job. If you can read Wingdings, you're golden. Ok, so maybe this wouldn't work for just any job, but I did find this article about a London based design firm that actually did use this as a creative way to decipher just who was worthy enough to join their team. Their (beautifully designed) want ads were in WingDings, so unless you took the time to work it out, you would have no freakin clue what it said. When I saw the first one, I kept trying to figure out if the Wingding characters were supposed to make a larger pic, but I don't think they do ...
anyway, go here to see the posters. For the answers, go here.

Response/Critique #11

Whew! I cannot believe we are here! For everything that we've talked about and how stressed we've been, it is amazing to have the Meredith project checked off the list. I never thought the day would come. Granted, I've had a great time doing it (and my group was completely awesome!). In terms of a critique, I'm actually very nervous about how Flux will be recieved. I found it relatively easy to put a voice/overall tone to the design, but at the same time, I hope my interpretation isn't too off. I worry that it's too childish, too crazy, too this or too that. I also feel like I learned a ton from the experience. I thought the critiques w/ John were incredibly insightful. I was just amazed at how much he caught even the slightest of detail, but it really made sense. I was actually really excited to go back in and make the changes he was talking about because I know it just made Flux come together even more. (But i'm totally w/ you Meredith, it was hard to hear parts of your baby getting picked on!) I don't envy Kristin at all ... I just can't imagine what it must take to organize quadruple the designers for weekly (weekly!) issues. I would die. Ok, maybe I wouldn't die, but I definitely feel like Meredith was super exhausting. At the same time, it has taught me so much. I was telling my mom actually that I will probably never have as much creative freedom again in my life, so I tried to enjoy every last bit of it. Unfortunately though, that means I've neglected my feature on the normalcy of gay life quite a bit in this last week. That is something that I think I've blogged about before, the not always being able to balance everything. Meredith just had to take top priority this past week.Now I've got to really buckly down and concentrate on this for the next week because I really want this to be a great feature. I want people to want to read it so that they can learn as much as I have.

You Can't Miss #10

For a while there, I had been neglecting the blog I've been tracking for class, panopticist.com, in terms of posting a you can't miss. I saw something there today though that caught my eye. Not sure how much the actual post has to do with design, but you'll see why I decided to talk about it in a bit. First of all, the actual post was about this photagrapher that you can hire (if you live in New York) who will take your photo paparazzi style. You give him your schedule for the week in advance and then he will show up and take your photo, totally unannounced. Creeper style. I think a lot of the people don't even know he's ever taken their photo until they actually see them or get them back from him or whatever. Although it is really creepy, I think it's kind of cool b/c its a way to document yourself and your life how it actually is, not some cheesy studio portrait. Especially if you've got NY as your backdrop. But, I decided to talk about it for this post because I was linked to the photographers Web site portfolio through my blog, and the site is actually very much like a portfolio that any one of us could have. The layout is very simple, but elegant, and it gets the job done. It was very easy to navigate, so in the coming weeks, I might like to try and update my site to look a bit more like this one. If only flash wasn't so confusing to me! Oh well, for now you guys can check it out here.

Critique & Response #10

I thought I would talk about my Katy logos since I hadn't done that yet in a sort of combined critique/response. Was anyone else incredibly nervous when presenting? For some reason, I was terrified! I was still kind of shaky when I sat down. (haha, but maybe that was from lack of sleep ... ) I'm pretty sure whatever I said ( which I can't even remember now) was absolutely ridiculous. And I realized when I went to sit down that I was standing right in front of the lady who was sitting on the right side of the projector (if you were facing it). Awesome. I guess I should have been more prepared to describe my logos, but you would think it would just come naturally, yeah? I But design-wise, I thought everyone's looked really awesome up there on the projetor! I really liked the ones that looked like a complete package, like the lady was saying, because you could easily see those on other promotional material, etc. I'm not sure that my designs really made it to that level. The vertical/architectural was my favorite of the three I presented, just because it seems really different, but I'm kind of realizing that I could have done more to complete the package. I'm not sure what though ... I liked the clean lines of it, and I usually have the tendency to add too much additonal crap that I dont need, anyway.

RESPONSE #9

This is the craziest design week of my life! (And I'm sure it probably is for you, too!) I feel like I've got to type it all out here, just so I can make sure I'm not forgetting something. So let's see, we've got the Katy/Columbia Home logos for tomorrow, book covers due monday, Meredith prototypes due tuesday, art due on the server by tuesday at 11 and then our Web sites for Tuesday as well. I'm praying that's all, but I'm sure I'm forgetting something! (haha, what happened to this class being front-loaded?) But seriously, even though I'm designing like mad, I'm not sure I've ever liked design more than I do right now. (maybe not all the deadline pressure, but design itself.) I can't get over how exciting it is to try my hand at new areas of design, such as logos, book covers and Web design. Unfortunately, though, with all the deadlines flying about, there are definitely some areas where I feel like I simply can't find enough time. For instance, I've really devoted a lot of my time to the Meredith prototype at the expense of my Web site. A lot of that has to do with the fact that I'm still pretty intimidated by dreamweaver, but especially by flash. I've got my concept going and I feel like I've made quite a bit of headway, but I know it probably wont be near as cool as other people's in the class. Right now, I'm gunning for getting it done, but then really fine-tuning after the prototype is even more under control. That said, I can't wait to see everyone's prototypes and Web sites! We're almost there!

CRITIQUE #9

I was in the cover group for the story in white collar crime. I don't know that I've ever had a harder time with any assignment than this one! You can see an example of one of the three covers that I had created before we decided to get images. I wanted to kind of blend the idea of a white collar business man with a criminal by using a combination of symbols associated w/ both, hence the tie and the orange-jumpsuit colored background. In later renditions of the cover, I kept the whole orange theme going strong. (I think I have a thing for orange covers b/c I did the same thing w/ that crazy T/F tree!) Designing these covers was also a bit crazy because of spring break. You wouldn't think so, but internet it ridiculously hard to come by in Vegas. At least at the Luxor hotel. Haha! But seriously, they wanted either $15 a day, which would have come to about $45 for the few days I was there, or they wanted $100 up front if you knew you would want it the whole time (they would later reimburse you if your daily total would not have been greater than that ... but still!) So without that, it was hard to get the neccessary info/feedback from Kristin, which accounts for the sort of lack of inspiration as well as my complete ignorance about who the heck was in the photos that I was trying to manipulate so dutifully. I don't know why I thought this, but I just sort of assumed the guy in the photos was a criminal who had been caught. Haha, how stupid! Needless to say, I did NOT get picked! Oh well, maybe next time. Until then, go Paula!

YOU CAN'T MISS #9

I know this is kind of random, but I'm obsessed with J.crew's catalogue. My roomate gets them every so often, and they just keep getting better and better! Somehow it blends the completely classic with a great sort of modern twist (which is probably how they see their clothes...). Their photography and layouts are really stunning. I especially liked the section for their new line of little kids clothes because of the way they made entire pages out of a series of crops of photos taken from the same scene. Check it out above ... don't you just want to squish her?! too cute.