Response...Here's to Meredith

When I spoke with people that had already taken this capstone course they told me that the Meredith project was intense but that is was one of their favorite journalism experiences throughout college. After speaking with the Meredith representatives yesterday I only became more excited, because I saw -- especially with the Maggie and Veronica -- how quickly our experience build and that working for a magazine with such prestige as Better Homes and Gardens could happen only a few years, or even months, after graduation. 


What I am most looking forward to is seeing the hard copy at the end of the project. I know that's a long way from now -- or so it seems -- but the idea that at the end of this semester I will be able to hold a prototype with designs that I created as part of a real idea. As we were told during this presentation, these are real clients and real readers. It's such an inspiration that our assignment is so much more than anything we've ever been ask to complete for other courses.


After attending the Magazine Club trip to New York City last year I found out that many, if not most, of the magazines we visited had incredibly small staffs. The fact that we will be working in such small groups on this project would normally give me some worry, but knowing that major publications do it every month gives me a bit more confidence in the way of thinking we could really produce some fantastic prototypes.


So here's to the our projects, the work we'll put in and the knowledge that seven semesters (for most of us) has prepared us for this moment!

Critique...Baby Beauty Pageant (Competition #1)

Photo Essays are by far a weakness of mine. I can never make up my mind on which photos I want to use, because after reading the story I can find a way that all of the photos are significant. Thus, with this assignment I ended up with all but one of the photos on my spreads.


These first two pages were my favorites of the five, mostly because I absolutely love the opening photo I selected; I could see why this little girl won Most Photogenic. I also liked the way I was able to fit the photos together without cropping or harming the quality of the photography.

This second spread is not at all how I wanted it to look as I view it right now. The right-hand page would have been better without the two smaller photos because I took away from the emotion and exhaustion in that main photo.

Visually, I wanted the sidebar to bar to take on the idea of a runway like the girls walk down during pageants or like the end of the ribbons they win for placing. The more I look at it now, I really wish I would have created a starburst to put the headline in for Toddlers & Tiaras; that would have made the ribbon concept a whole lot easier to understand.

My cover idea came to me the moment I saw the picture I selected. The more I think about it, and after talking about the importance of the dad over the child I see why my selection was not optimal. However, I still like my design and likely wouldn't have changed it. My spreads would be where I would have highlighted the father more if I could redue the assignment. 

You Can't Miss...Cupcakes and Web Design

I still have a love for the physical aspect of holding a magazine and flipping through the pages as I read, but after a summer in New York City at Hollywood Life I learned that designing for the internet is definitely something I will consider post-graduation. Keeping that in mind, I have decided to follow Smashing Magazine for the semester. Many of the their most recent posts deal with internet design and internet advertising. One post I stumbled upon focused on productive web design using Illustrator. They detail the use of Illustrator as a quicker and easier choice over Photoshop because it allows the designer to avoid having to jump from level to level in order to change things and, instead, keeps all objects on a single art board with the designers ability to select the object they wish to alter. For those of you that haven't used Illustrator much in the past, you should definitely check this out!

On another note, after talking about cake during a large portion of the Meredith presentation and because I was reminiscing about NYC cupcakes I ate this summer I did a quick search on cupcakes and found this bakery. And while their "designs" may not be as extravegate as some of the many beautiful bakery cakes, what I love was the photography displaying how wonderful and different each cupcake was without all the decorations. That's how I see this course and each of us as designers.