This week from the Daily Heller

I thought this would be an appropriate post with True/False coming up this weekend. 

This is a documentary about objects and their design. I think it's really cool because it shows that design is all around us! Take a look and let me know what you think!

Portfolio reviews

I'm really impressed so far with everyone's portfolios. I think the process of deciding what to include in the portfolio can be really challenging, and I'm glad we're all working together to help each other have awesome portfolios. It can be really confusing when you hear different things from different people about how to present your work.

Does anyone have any past experiences/stories about taking a portfolio into an interview? Maybe some advice from previous employers/jobs?

BUSY WEEK!!

This past week, and weekend especially, were cram packed with design!

Over the weekend I worked on the True/False Film Festival feature for VOX with Maggie. I'll wait to post this one because I want you all to see it tomorrow! It was really fun working on this feature...a lot of work...but fun. Maggie has a lot of great ideas, and I think our design vision for this feature really came together well. Meredith also helped us figure out how tho make the feature come together as a whole package. 

I also worked on a two-page spread for Global Journalist this week. I had a bit of a tough time figuring out how to be content-driven with this one. The story is about journalists in Haiti and how they are treated poorly by the police and government. I decided to work with the typography to help tell the story. This is what I came up with...

After meeting with the editor on this story, I'm going to make a few changes: I need to work on balancing the spread. I also need to rework the typographic headline because it is changing to just Standing Together. It wouldn't make any sense to have the tall "T" any more. Any ideas??  Check back to see the final result. 

I forgot to post the link to the web design I did for the Missourian last week. Check it out! The photographer did an great telling the story and the slideshow is awesome! Click here!

I worked on VOX covers for the March 5 issue too. It was really interesting to see that all of us who worked on this cover came up with a lot of the same ideas! I think Jena's cover is going to look great...her post-its worked really well. 

      

With the first two, I was trying to work with the idea of an agenda or a to-do list. I think the first one (the one that looks like an iPhone calendar app.) would have worked best with our audience. I was trying to make the last one look like a post-it on a mirror. Whenever I need to remember something for the next day...I leave myself a not on the mirror the night before!! Any thoughts on these??

Reaction - Wordle.net

OK! I might be really behind here, and you all might already know about this. But, have you heard of Wordle? (www.wordle.net) I think it's so fun. It's this cool site you can go and create word clouds! I think it would have been really helpful a couple weeks ago when I was doing a typographic headline for the Missourian. 

I just thought it'd be interesting to share since we've been talking a lot about typography lately. 

Check it out! Look at the posted word clouds...and create your own. It's fun!

"You can't miss" - The Daily Heller and Obama

Everyone has probably seen and/or heard about this in the news: Shepard Fairey being sued by the AP for using their photo for his Obama/Hope poster. Now, Fairey is suing AP because he doesn't want to pay for using their photo without permission. Meanwhile, the photographer, Mannie Garcia, says he owns the rights to the photo. 

We talk about this all the time. What do you think of all this? Who owns the rights? Should Fairey's work be considered its own thing without the photo? How/when is it OK to use photos for illustration/art without having to worry about copyright permission? Or is it ever OK?

What I've been up to this week

This week, as you all know, we had our prototype ideas for our Meredith publication due. I'm in one of the Mixing Bowl groups and we're creating Mix magazine. I'm really excited about this project. 

Our magazine is for a younger audience of cooks, but they still have that classical/traditional side to them. The look I see for the magazine is modern, yet clean and sophisticated. Not too much flash. 

Here are my ideas I've been working with. The first photo is of my logos. I wanted to show food and friends coming together without coming off too literal. I chose the color palette because I think they're very vibrant colors, and they kind of remind me of colors of food (peppers, tomatoes, etc.). I also thought the color palette could easily be carried throughout the magazine- certain colors for certain types of food, certain colors for certain types of cooks, etc. 

I carried the same ideas through to my department headings (second photo). I think the recipe card tab is going too literal, but I think the blue bar running on the left side of the page subtly mimics that concept. 

The last three photos are the covers I came up with. I think I'm going to go with the final one. I think the lines in the logo mimic the lines created from a whisk, and the color concept is still there. 

Let me know what you think!! I would love feedback on this one since it's a big project. 

    

Weekly Response and plans

For my response this week I just wanted to comment on everyone's hard work with VOX and advanced design. I don't know about you...but I'm exhausted. With all the work, stress, etc. of this semester, I'm surprised I'm still fully functional. I'm stressed, but not on the verge of tears...it is just making me work harder. That's a good thing right?! I'm really proud of and impressed with everyone's hard work. Sometimes I get really intimidated! You're all so creative and talented...it's inspiring and makes me want to improve as a designer. I know we are going to have some really successful designers from this group. Keep working hard with those creative juices flowing...and for some of you...remember...May is coming soon!!

My to-do list for the week to come is overflowing. This weekend I plan on working on the history paper of class and a super bowl photo spread for newspaper design (Jenn and Aimee know what I'm talking about!) Next week, I'll be working with Maggie on the True/False Film Fest feature. We were up at the office for about 4 hours working on some ideas to present tomorrow. We had fun and I hope you all like or ideas. It's going to need a lot of work, but I'm really looking forward to working with Maggie next week and creating a really awesome feature package!!