some new learning experiences.

Critique: Insight 2/10

• This week was my first designing the front of book section, Insight, for Vox Magazine. The experience was reminiscent of the times I spent designing inside pages at the Missourian. I sometimes feel as if designing inside pages/department pages is more about strategy and putting together a puzzle than actually creating a content-driven design. While it is frustrating to have very limited freedom, it is a good experience. I definitely like reading the stories and seeing the photos that go into Insight, but designing department pages makes me appreciate some of the other projects I've worked on because of the amount of creative freedom I have had. Advertising is one of the main reasons the designs face so many constraints in terms of space. This might sound like I'm complaining (which I'm definitely not). I'm so excited about and grateful for the experience that I'm gaining at Vox. Designing department pages has just been a little different than the other stuff we've worked on last semester and this semester. 

 Below are the two Insight pages I designed for the February 10th issue. 

Response Part I: Sports Journalism Institute 

• Yesterday, we met with Greg Bowers who is the Sports Editor for the Missourian. He talked to us about an organization called the Sports Journalism Institute. It is aimed at diversifying newsrooms around the country with an emphasis on sports departments. The program works to bring more minorities and women into the world of sports journalism. As a girl who has grown up playing, watching and loving sports, I think this is such a great mission. The sports world is definitely dominated by men as is evident in almost any news outlet. Bowers asked that we all work toward creating a logo for SJI. So our next assignment is to each create 20 different logos for SJI, narrow it down to 10 and then present them to him. 
• I was baffled that an organization (which started in 1992) could go almost 20 years without having a logo. But in all honesty, I'm very excited for this assignment. I love working with typography and haven't had the chance to create much in terms of logos yet. We have to have them ready by March 8, so check back later to see the finished products. 

Response Part II: Magazine design past and present

• With three snow days to spend working on design and other assignments, I had a chance to read an interesting excerpt from William Owen's Modern Magazine Design. I found it very interesting read about the switch in the early 1900s from illustrations on the cover of magazines to photos. Specifically, the use of a single photo bled across the cover with the magazine logo and sell lines over the photo. Previously, covers and really all content in magazines had been made up of illustrations. The debate over illustration versus photography was a hot topic during this era. According to Owen, color lithography had its heyday right before photography became the most widely used technique. However, journalists came to realize that production value increased significantly with the use of photography rather than hand-drawn illustrations. Below is one of the first uses of photography on a cover from Leslie's Weekly as featured in Owen's book.

• A modern example of this type of photo bleed and technique is from Interview Magazine. Interview has a very distinct style that is similar to that of the Leslie's Weekly example. They feature the same masthead on all of their covers over a full bleed photo. They often use spot color with a white masthead. Below is a classic example of Interview's cover design from their October 2010 issue. 

(Photo courtesy of Interview Magazine)

Check It Out: YOUTHEDESIGNER.COM and The Sartorialist 

• All semester, I am following an AWESOME blog called YouTheDesigner. There are literally so many useful and mindblowing posts and updates to the site that it's hard to recommend just one to check out. But this week, in preparation to design my covers for the upcoming feature, I found this one especially helpful. It includes 40 tutorials for Illustrator that create really cool text effects. Enjoy.

YOUTHEDESIGNER

• My second recommendation is to look at The Sartorialist blog. It was created by Scott Schuman, a New York based photographer. It is a compilation of photographs of people from around the world on the streets. It features fashion trends and surprisingly interesting outfits and styles. It is makes fashion into an outlet for human creativity and gives me an appreciation for the fashion world that I previously thought of as shallow and unnecessary. I check it everyday and am never disappointed.