The pictures will finally be in for my Vox lethal injections features, so I'll be creating my final draft (photos to come). I'm also designing my second set of department pages this weekend and am creating a charticle (?) for Insight. That should be an adventure. AND I'll hopefully finally find the time to start/finish my 20/10 SJI logos (being too busy is no longer an option).
Critique: Lots of miscellaneous
Seeing as this week has been spent doing little bits of work on lots of projects, I don't have any real completions to post. The first draft of my lethal injections spread gave me a little bit of difficulty because the copy was in the very beginning stages (I'm talking 200 words with much to come) and the photos were non-existent when the draft was due. But I threw together a four page spread using previously published Missourian photos and got the initial concept together.
In thinking about how I wanted the spreads to turn out, I decided that I wanted a lot of white space and very little color. Death (and especially the death penalty) is a somber thing and needs no celebration. Even without the pictures, I think the story is going to be very driven by the photography. So I ran the photos big and left a lot of white space. I'm super excited for the real pictures from the penitentiary to be taken tomorrow and to be able to make some real progress on this feature.
One thing that I've really come to appreciate through designing for Vox is that I get to learn a LOT while I'm designing about the stories that I'm designing about. For instance, reading the Dirty Jobs vignettes for my cover and now reading the lethal injection copy for my feature has taught me a lot about subjects that I probably otherwise wouldn't have learned about (or would have avoided learning about).
Response: Charlie Sheen (are you surprised?)
Normally I would respond to some event/design/creation of some intellectual value, but with any good celebrity breakdown, some internet and designer humor has come of Charlie Sheen's recent....deterioration. Not sure what's really going on with this self-proclaimed 'rockstar,' but his very epic quotes are providing material for many creative outlets.
Here is a wordpress page that features kittens alongside some of the 'Sheen-isms.'
And yet another site that has actually garnered some media attention is titled 'Live the Sheen Dream.' It is a random quote generator that includes only a picture of Sheen's angry face.
I don't condone Sheen's actions or his completely off-the-wall beliefs, but he is definitely providing some much needed comedic relief through his insanity.
Check it out: Some Smashing desktop calendars and YOUTHEDESIGNER web design
I LOVE calendars. I especially love the kind that you tear off each day individually and they give you some fact, quote, photo, mindless joke. However, I also love monthly calendars, and these are NEAT. Every month, Smashing Magazine allows designers to enter their own desktop calendar designs, and they feature some of the best. This one is currently on my desktop because I love the design, and this is one of my favorite quotes.
But there are lots of other cool, funky and really unexpected ones as well. Take a gander.
The other cool thing I found this week was from YOUTHEDESIGNER. They really like the number 40, and this week they have '40 Cool Website Design Ideas You Should Check." And they really are cool. Websites can easily just be boring templates. That doesn't make people want to explore, use, discover a site. So here are some very different, very fun web designs for everything from Sony Ericsson to web designers like Gunjan Bhutani. But those are only two of the cool ones.
Okay well for some reason, I am having very much difficulty focusing on this blog whether it's due to the sunshine or the full page to-do list sitting next to me. That's all for now.
While we're on the topic of crazy Charlie Sheen-isms: http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2011/03/its_time_to_play_sheen_beck_or.html
ReplyDeleteI didn't play, but I know lots of other people who loved playing it.
That kittens/Charlie Sheen site is pretty fantastic. You're a winner for finding it. Did you see he's hiring an intern?? Check it out: http://cs.internships.com/charlie-sheen-internship/
ReplyDeleteThat "wander" calendar design is great! Not only are those totally my colors, but the unexpected color combination is really nice here. I think the use of transparency and layers here shows us how nice the two can look together when both are used this way. Good find!
ReplyDeleteOooh I love the calendar design you have posted here... I love that quote too. By the way, the final drafts for your lethal injection feature were fantastic. It must have been such a difficult topic to design for, but you really pulled off the severity of the piece while still having fun creatively. I thought some of the larger photos really ended up working to your advantage.
ReplyDelete