You Can't Miss: Voiceprints and New York Mag Covers

Cool post on designverb.com about "Voiceprints." It's an experiement by a man named Pierre Proske. He records a persons voice and then translates it into a design. How cool is that? I think this is a great example of how influencial our senses can and should be on design.



New York Magazine's cover archive is worth taking a peek at. You can find a cover gallery of issues since the beginning of the year on their website at www.nymag.com. I think some of the covers are a bit blah, but they do some interesting things in terms of photo illustrations. It's worth taking a look!

Critique: 5/3 Screen

Oh screen. There were a few mishaps on this one...mainly the fact that it was designed in a day...but I think it works. I like how the channel surfing illustration turned out, though I wish i could have made it look a little bit edgier. I feel like a lot of my illustrations end up looking very cartoon-ish. I think I need to be more experimental with my brushes and color choices.

Critique: the NEW website

Here's a preview of my updated website. I decided I wanted it to have a little more punch and spunk. I changed up the colors to make it a little more fun. My apologies...I haven't yet gotten it onto my bengal...but should be good to go for all to take a look at on Thursday.

Let me know what you think in the meantime!

Response: More Trends

It was great hearing the rest of the trends presentations this past week. Something I found comforting was the fact that we were all able to find designers who are diverse and represent incredibly different aspects of the design world. Sometimes I get anxious about graduating and trying to find a job in what seems like such a niche career field of magazine designing. What we've been trained for at MU can take us in a number of directions...not necessarily to New York to design for Martha Stewart (which hey, wouldn't be too bad). I think it's just so important to be flexible in the skills we've learned. There are designers all over, doing some really cool and different work. Hearing about the designers from cool magazines I've never even heard of, like Paste and Relevant, to designers who own their own firms, to more big name designers. There are hundreds of areas out there to become designers.

You Can't Miss: Crazy Cool Chair Set

From the fabulous designverb.com - I think these chairs are so cool! They are The Obelisk Chairs by designer Janus et Cie. And you can purchase them for only $9,000! What a steal. Ha. I think its a great example of when designers can create something both art and functional. For yet more cool items, check out http://www.janusetcie.com/.

You Can't Miss: Scrabble Pillows

I love these pillows! Hooray for something fun and inventive this week on designverb. I love interior design, and I think these pillows are so unique and unexpected. I love the way some designers can take such ordinary objects and look at them in a different light!

Critique: 4.19 Screen

Glad this one's over with...this was the bane of my existence this weekend. I had to work with an infographic and the info was so scattered and random that it made creating a cohesive graphic horribly difficult. I'm content with what I ended up with. If I had more time, I would have gone back and tweaked the film reel...I think it could look a lot cooler and not so cartoony.

I'm pretty happy about the way the super trooper illustration turned out, though. Again, that took me a freaking long time to do, and I wish I could have given him some more depth, but I'm happy with the style of it.

Response: Judging

I was really glad that we were able to attend the SND judging last week. I'm always curious to know the thought process that goes on when they're making these decisions, so to see it all was really helpful. Something I always have to keep in mind is that judging is incredibly subjective. Sometimes designs don't do well that I think are amazing, and sometimes designs that I think are dismal end up getting all of the awards. I've even seen this with my own work. I feel like often the designs that I'm not all that wild about are the most liked by others. It's just interesting to see how your work compares in the eyes of those on the outside...

You Can't Miss: AIGA Design Archives and Manufactured Landscapes

A great resource to check out is the AIGA Design Archives. If you go to http://designarchives.aiga.org/index.html, you can check out their selection of excellence in design. Categories include editorial design, package design, illustration, corporate communications design...check it out there's some really cool stuff to get you inspired!



This week on designverb.com, there was an interesting post on Manufactured Landscapes. After reading through dozens of April editions of magazines over the past week, I've discovered something interesting...just about every single magazine has some sort of "green" special - whether it was the whole magazine (like Domino) or a special section (like SELF). So I thought this post was quite timely. The photography in the film looks pretty incredible, and especially in the climate (no pun intended) of the environmentally concious world these days, it seems like something we designers should take note of.

Critique: Tapes 'n Tapes

Here's my cover for 4.12. It was a cover for a department story, so I found it a bit challenging. First of all, I'm not much of a music afficianado, so the brainstorming was a bit difficult in terms of coming up with a strong concept.

Overall, I'm satisfied though not incredibly thrilled by the way it turned out. I tried to incorporate a quirky line drawing of the tapes so reflect the group's indi-pop style. I think it works, though it seems a little unfinished. For the title I used Eurostyle for the type face because I think it reflects the groups modern style.

I think more than anything it was tough having to work with a show preview for the cover's concept. I went with a pub still, which I think was the best thing, but doing anything too interesting with it made things a bit difficult.

Response: Trends Assignment

I'm so excited for my interview with Blueprint's Debra Bishop. Blueprint is one of my very favorite magazines, so having the chance to talk with her is truly like talking to a celebrity for me! It's such an interesting magazine, and after a slow start (publishing just two issues over the past year and a half), the magazine recently kicked into gear with six issues coming out this year. I'm a huge Martha Stewart magazine fan, so this assignment is quite the treat.

It was really interesting hearing what Christine, Kate and Melissa found from their interviews. I was especially interested in Kate's interview with the founder of Simple Scrapbooks. As an scrapbooker myself, I've always thought about working for a scrapbooking magazine, so it was cool to hear more about it. Something I really took away from Kate's presentation was this woman's ability to be successful by doing what she was passionate about. She had an idea and passion and stuck with it to create an amazingly successful product. That's something I really admire and hope I am able to do the same with my career.

Response: My website

My website is still very much under construction, but I was very pleased with all the the feedback I received from the critique. It was interesting to see what people liked about my website...especially because I had so many reservations about it. After looking at everyone else's sites, I know there are some changes I need to make to make it ahve a little more personality and punch. I'm thinking about adding a background instead of the banner at the top so the pages doesn't look so block-y. I'd also like to spruce up the splash page. Like someone commented, it just feels like it's missing something. I might tweak the palette a bit and play around with some different design elements...maybe use what I incorporated in my mini portfolio. This will definitely be the big project of the next few weeks...

You Can't Miss: Step Magzine and Florence Sites

I've never seen Step Inside Design on newsstands, but I stumbled upon it online and found some really cool things on their site. They have some cool articles on the Interview/Profiles section (I actually was looking at this when researching for my trends project) and definitely check out the Design 100. The editorial section has some really inspiring designs and they have other cool categories like posters and product design. You can check it all out at www.stepinsidedesign.com



This week on designverb, my blogger friend is in Florence (ahhh) at a food conference (double ahhhh). I'm so jealous. But my blogger friend is still managing to keep us updated... above is a series of cool signs found in the city. You can check out designverb.com for more cool street findings and photos of yummy italian cuisine!

Critique: Mini Portfolio...the first version

Over break I was semi productive and managed to create the first version of my mini portfolio, which I sent out to Meredith and Martha Stewart Living. I think what took me the longest was just the production of it all. I used a cardstock for the inside pages, which I folded over, whole punched and secured with a ribbon at the top. For my next versions, I think I'll use the cardstock for the cover and then a thinner, maybe glossier paper on the inside.

For the design, I chose a palette of blue and green with a punch of bright pink. On the inside pages, I kept the simple design of the dashed line to carry the design through. I really tried to be simple in my page designs so that I showcased the design pieces first. I'm pretty happy about they way it turned out. I'm even thinking about changing my website to have the same look so that I have a cohesive portfolio package...what do you all think?