You can't miss this!

This is just too cool. Cooliris, an application you can download for your browser, let's you view all the photos on the website you are on, Flickr, or even your computer in a new, almost 3-D way. The application pulls up photos and let's you scroll through them on a "wall" quickly. You can click on a thumbnail and it pulls up a large, quality image.

It's hard to describe; I'm hardly doing it justice. You just have to check it out!

Quality Journalism

I think something that distinguishes us (as journalism students emphasizing in design) from graphic designers is the journalism background we get here at Mizzou. It strengths our design skills through teaching us not just how to tell a story visually, but how to tell a story, how to communicate and how to serve the reader/community.

That being said, I have a great big spot in my heart for really great journalism - especially when it comes from this school. If you haven't seen it yet, I highly encourage you to read this story about the Josh Kezer, a man who was freed from jail after 16 years of wrongful imprisonment. It is such a moving story; the descriptions of the little things he experiences in his first days of freedom are great. This was packaged really well, too. Lauren did such a great job with the site - I loved the splash page! And Aimee worked so hard on the print package, which came out so nice. Good job girls!

Another great piece of journalism that y'all just can't miss is "The Girl in the Window". This story just breaks my heart, but it is written so well - I couldn't stop reading. The story is about a young girl who was found in her family's home when she was about 5 or 6 years old. She had been severely neglected and she couldn't even speak. Here you can find a great multimedia version of this story which includes a follow-up story on how the girl is doing now.

Spoon wrap-up

One of the most rewarding feelings to me is finally seeing my work in print. I love having that tangible evidence of something I did. (I also love the feeling of magazines, and technology won't replace the feeling of reading a physical copy of a magazine for me). So, it was nice to finally have a printed copy of what we've been working on all semester: the Meredith project.

It's weird to think how much time we've all spent on this. Personally, the beginning of the semester feels so far away, yet I'm not sure where the time went. Either way, it feels pretty good to be done! Here's a look at my contribution to the magazine:

Work this week

I had fun this week designing covers for Vox's pet issue: Columbia Unleashed. Here's what I've come up with so far:

Response: SSND Judging

Yesterday I had the opportunity to watch this year's Student Society of News Design (SSND) judging. It was interesting, to say the least. I was surprised at the different things the judges discussed when it came down to the final few entries in each category. For example, in the tabloid cover category, the judges narrowed the entries down to just a few entries. They discussed whether the display type matched the images and/or concept, how well the package was executed and if they were solid concepts.

All of this really solidified a lot of things I've learned about design over the past few years. Something I've tried to work on this semester has been executing strong concepts. Easier said then done somedays. Today I was struggling with a design I'm working on for the Missourian. The story is about a local man who wrote an autobiography that centered around his childhood during the Great Depression. There isn't too much in the way of art: Two handout photos of his family in the 30s, cover art and a mug of the author. After an hour or so of moving around the different pieces of the story, I had to step back. I was treating all these elements as just that: pieces. I was having trouble picking a frame for the story, so I resorted to the random moving.

In regard to news design, something the judges looked at were overall design of front pages. My news design professor said that they didn't spend much time on the centerpieces. Rather, they looked at the page as a whole. Specifically, they looked at the other stories on the page. I thought that was interesting, especially since we place so much importance on determining the news of the day, but still having a clear, defined centerpiece. That just goes to show that you have to pay attention to what is going on in the rest of your page, not just what's the biggest.

Type Art

I love the idea of typography as art. There are just so many possibilities. This is probably part of the reason why I prefer when a story has little or no art. It means anything goes.

But what about type as art? As in the actual characters themselves? Now that is something I'd really like to do. Check out Abduzeedo for some neat design things. (My favorite section is "daily inspiration" where there are really cool photos and illustrations selected by Abduzeedo's writers and users) Specifically check out this site where they showcase forty-five "type faces". All the art is made from letters arranged to look like faces. Seems time consuming, but the result is so cool. Here's a Marilyn rendition that is cool:
In other type news, here you can find a fun article from the Wall Street Journal that interviews Vincent Connare, the typographer behind the much-hated Comic Sans. According to the article there is a wide-spread movement to ban Comic Sans from use (and would that really be so bad?) The best part of the article? "Comic sans walks into a bar and the bartender says, 'we don't serve your type here.'"

Design Work

As I'm sure everyone feels right now, it seems like I've been designing so much over the past few weeks. Most of my weekend was spent on the Meredith project. A lot of our copy hadn't come in until recently, so it's been a bit of a scramble. It's been fun watching this all come together, though. I'm excited to see it all in print (if only because that means it's finished!).

A challenging piece for me was a non-narrative piece about cooking without a recipe. The editors basically wanted an infographic type of flow chart to illustrate the process. I saw an article in a recent issue of Esquire that had a similar concept, so I thought I could take this story on. Initially, I tried to emulate the Esquire spread too much. I overestimated the similarities between the two stories and was trying to force our story into the Esquire format. Obviously, that didn't work so well.

So, I scrapped that and started over. It still took some time, but I'm happy with how it turned out. I think this layout works much better with the content, but still gives a flowchart feel.

I've also started working on a feature spread about a themed date night. Right now the title is "Bollyfood" and the theme is, of course, Indian food. When I think of Indian food and culture, sari fabric is one of the first things that comes to mind. I love the rich colors and ornate decorations that they have. From a design perspective, I am excited to use those saturated colors in my design. So far I just have an opening page and it's very rough. Here's what I have so far:
There is still work to be done, but I'm happy with where it is going so far. I think it gives a lot of options for continuing the theme throughout the spread. At this point I need to walk away with it and just let it sit for awhile. We'll see if I still like it in the morning.

Finally, in my world of design, I had an illustration for Vox that printed last week. It was for the screen department's story on actors and actresses that have played God or Jesus on screen. It was a tricky to get art for the piece. The editor and I spent spring break searching for photos that we had rights to publish. Originally, I wanted to draw the body of Jesus and have a cutout photo of an actor. In the end, I illustrated the whole thing and put a cutout where the face would be. I think this illustrated the concept well.

A bit of Spring

Finally, we had some gorgeous weather today. Over the past few weeks, it's been cold, rainy and not very Spring-like. It seemed that just as the flowers were beginning to pop up, the temperature dropped. I was worried the flowers wouldn't make it, so when I saw the tulips around town fully open it put me in a good mood. And, as pretty days like this are likely to do, I was hit with a bout of senioritis. It's getting close to the end! With so much to do, it can be hard to focus. There are so many pretty things around town, however, it's a great source of inspiration.

For more Spring-time inspiration, see this post from Smashing Magazine. It showcases some great photography that will hopefully inspire you. Here are a few of my favorites:
This looks like a perfect, sunny afternoon.
For me, nothing says Spring like daffodils.
Love the color of that flower.
This would have been a fun way to spend the afternoon!

Hope this brings y'all a little bit of inspiration. If nothing else, we'll get to play out in the sun soon!

Whew, what a week

Though it might not feel like it yet in Missouri, it's April already. Time seems to be flying by these days. Must be because there is so much to do!

One thing that I'll be able to check off my list soon is the Meredith project. Our group is planning on going to press next week, so that means we've been spending a lot of time getting everything finalized. At the beginning of the semester had I been told I would have been a part of essentially creating a magazine, I might not have believed it. Overall, it's been a lot of work. However, it's been a beneficial learning experience.

One big thing I've learned is the importance of marrying the words and images within a magazine. Our group has run into communication problems a few times, including a miscommuication about changing copy. That led to designs that were misinterperted and concepts that didn't service the story. When the stories lacked strong focus, the designs suffered as well.

I've had fun designing this, too. I enjoy reading food magazines, so actually working on one is a treat. Since our publication is targeting the edgier foodie, we've been able to have some fun with things, too, rather than find a ton of pretty food shots (though, we've done our fair share of that). One of my favorite contributions to the magazine so far is my illustration for a feature of a vegetarian. Here's what I came up with:
In other design news, I've finally made some headway with Flash. Nothing like learning a difficult program on deadline! Let's just say it was a long, frustrating project. I made a little slideshow about Holy Week, the week preceding Easter, for the Missourian. I had fun designing it, because there are so many symbols involved. Since light plays a large, symbolic role in the death and resurrection of Jesus, I made my slides go from light to dark to light again. I spent a lot of time searching for just the right pictures. And by that, I mean I spent a lot of time shying away from starting in Flash. Just when I started to get the hang of it, I'd preview my work and nothing would play right, even though all my code looked right. Frustrating, to say the least.

Finally, I got it figured out, but it was definitely up to the very last minute. Check out the finished product here.
And, finally, if the week hasn't been crazy enough, I've secured a job for the summer. This summer I will be serving as editor-in-chief of Vox. Not at all where I thought I'd be, but I'm pretty excited (and nervous!) about the opportunity.

Spring Break Designing

Over the past week I've had some big design clips come out. Instead of beaches and sun, my spring break consisted of deadlines and work. No worries, I had a little fun (and possibly found a roommate in NYC if I'm heading that way after graduation).

My biggest project for the week, aside from spring cleaning, was designing a cover story for the Thursday edition of the Columbia Missourian. Since we were light on stories for the week, my editor and I combed through wire stories. There were several we could have used, but the one that stuck out to me was a piece on the economic situation. Basically, what do we call this mess?
I had the opportunity to search through Great Depression Era photos, which was really interesting. I decided to frame the story as a comparison from then and now. The story highlighted some of the parallels between unemployment rates, for example, so I wanted to show readers a comparison of numbers. I did that through my use of display text.

In addition to my first front page design, my first feature for Vox came out. It was part two in the series, "Columbia's Vices" and covered the city's smoking ban a few years later. I discussed my process a bit in this previous post.

Here's what I came up with:
Also, I worked a bit on a side project for my roommate. She's an English major and for her postmodernism class she had to put together and book of quotes and arts that explained postmodernism. Although she isn't graded on the design of it, she asked me to come up with a fun, quirky cover for it. In her book, she used a lot of Andy Warhol pieces and quotes. So, here is what I came up with: