Discovering NYC

I spent most of last week visiting New York City with the Magazine Club. It was my first time in the city, so there was a lot to take in. I wish we would have had more free time to explore the city, but the time was well spent. We had the chance to sit down with editors of different magazines in the city and saw how many of them operated. Some of my favorite visits were GQ, Real Simple, Gourmet and Spin.

That whole world seems daunting to break into. I was surprised to learn that most of the editorial assistants we spoke to had actually majored in English. I still wonder how pertinent a journalism degree actually is, especially when all these non-journalism majors have gotten jobs without one. On the other hand, I have to wonder what they really knew about working on a magazine before they got their jobs. I guess it gives me a little hope about getting a job in the future.

Also, I was happy to hear from industry people that grad school is pretty unnecessary in this field. Glad to have that decision validated.

Finally, here are a few photos from the trip:

First, the Conde Nast building. During our tour with Gourmet, the editorial assistant, Chris, showed us Anna Wintor's power table in the infamous cafeteria.

Second, I had the chance to see the Museum of Modern Art on their free night. MoMA is so huge and we didn't have a lot of time, so we just started wandering. How funny, then, that we found a print exhibit. (Fitting for a Magazine themed trip, eh?) There were some neat photos showing how CMYK printing works, typography examples and my favorite, an exhibit of George Lois' Esquire covers. Also included in this display were the outtakes from the photo shoot for Esquire's well-known Andy Warhol cover.

Meredith Presentations

We presented our prototypes for Spoon magazine to the publishing class this week. It was an interesting experience. I certainly didn't expect the questions they had for us. For example, they wanted to know what we could do, rather than what our creative ideas were. Our publishers wanted a fun, funky magazine that was a little tongue-and-cheek. In my cover designs, I tried to incorporate those ideas. Rather than use a bunch of neons (a la Nylon magazine, as they had in mind) I chose instead to use a funky typeface and an off-beat photo choice.

Something old, something new?

While clicking through the archives of Publication Design, I found a link to this Flickr gallery that has a lot of interesting graphic design. Publication Design titled the link "History of Graphic Design Images" and there seems to be a lot of good images here. I particularly like the one pictured to the right. It is a poster for Knoll International made in 1967. I was surprised to see that date listed because I think it looks so modern. I especially like the use of color and transparency in the design.

This image will probably look familiar to most of you. This design was featured in the documentary "Helvetica". I didn't see a date listed with this one, but I remember from the documentary that it has been in use for several decades. It's so interesting how these images from that long ago still have relevance today and can actually look modern.

The week's work

This week I have been developing prototypes for a redesign of the Missourian. Specifically, I was coming up with a new way to present the daily calendar page. Currently it is a bit of a dumping ground where any even that is faxed in is put on the page. So, we wanted to scale back the amount of entries on the page and just highlight a few events. Picking only a few events also allows us to make it a more visual package.

I also came up with a new title for the section to replace "today's calendar" and a new logo to go with it.
The editors haven't seen it yet, so I haven't gotten too much feedback. I'd love to hear what y'all think. Thanks!

Just a little something pretty

I like a lot of other types of design, not just the media-related kind. Sometimes, I daydream about finally getting a "grown-up" apartment and actually decorating it and not just filling it with mis-matched furniture I got free from my parents. My favorite part, however, is that interior design is design that you can live in, much like how fashion is art/design you can wear.

So, as silly as it may sound, I get inspired by furniture. The piece pictured to the right is gorgeous, if not a bit antiquated. That is part of the reason I love it though (and totally want one). It is reminscent of a more romantic time period, where ladies draped themselves on fainting couches like this, surrounded by giant skirts.

Anyone want to lend me $700 so I can take this home with me? No? Didn't think so. This couch can be found here on the Urban Outfitter's website.

You can't miss this

Definitely check out this from the New York Times. Titled, "One in Eight Million", the project showcases different stories and characters found in New York City. I haven't had a chance to look through too many yet, but I really enjoyed the story from Georgiana DePalma Tedone. She is a 90-year-old women who still earns her own living by making mozzarella. I only hope that I am still going like that when I'm 90.

The best part of this medium of storytelling is that you hear the subjects voice. That, paired with gorgeous photos, makes for a great story.

Embracing my inner type nerd

Just further proof that Helvetica really IS everywhere!
This scarf can be found here, courtsey of veer.com. Another fun one, for those that have seen the film:
Enjoy!

Watch out for the door

While scrolling through the archives of Publication Design, I saw a post titled "Doors can be fatal". Well, with all those killer doors out there, it was probably a good idea to check out the post - y'know, for tips. Come to find out, the doors this post refers to are swinging car doors and the threat they pose to bicyclists. To the right is a shot of a campaign that ran to raise awareness about this issue.

I like how clean and simple this graphic is. The colors compliment very well, too. Personally, I think a design that is really simple can be so effective when used properly.

The title made me think of a few things. First, it made me giggle because my roommate got stuck in a door once on campus. Don't ask me how she managed to do that, but some guy behind her had to pull the door open so she could get out. (It was in the Geology building, in case you were wondering).

The second this reminded me of was an information graphic I made for the Missourian last semester. It accompanied a story that was about the city's decision to use "sharrows" - an arrow, or symbol that indicates that bicyclists are to share the road with traffic - around Columbia. I'm proud of this graphic because it was my first that wasn't a locater-map or a graph. I also thought that it really allowed me to use Illustrator in a different way. (If you'd like to see a larger image, just click the picture).

In other news, here is a graphic from the New York Times that you can't miss. The graphic shows which words were most frequently "tweeted" on Twitter during the Superbowl and where the users were from. For those of you who don't know, a "tweet" is essentially a mini-blog post that is 140 characters or fewer. A social networking site, users are able to follow other users' updates. I've known about Twitter for awhile now, but never got into it until a friend of mine started using it. So, with her prompting, I started exploring the site and found it to be pretty interesting, if not addicting. I think the way it could be used with journalism would be interesting to explore. Right now, the majority of the users I follow are either publications or media related. The most interesting posts are from a user called "themediaisdying". This user chronicles the media world as it endures this economy. A bit of a downer, yes, but still interesting. Sometimes there is good news, too.

Shutter graffiti

shutterword
Originally uploaded by j.ledbury

Here's a taste of the typography I've encountered over the past week:

There was a game on?

Superbowl Sunday is not a huge deal in our household. Food, on the other hand, is. So, we used the big game as an opportunity to eat some junk and visit with friends. The roommate and I decided to try out a new recipe for crab rangoon. It was our first time making it and it was a success!


Some of my favorite magazines are food centric, many of which have great design. For example, I love the covers from Bon Appetit. Just gorgeous shots of food, plain and simple. My photography skills obviously don't do this crab rangoon justice, but these were the only two I could get a shot of because everyone ate them so fast!