Response: Invasive Species

I already talked a bit about "the haps" in my class with watching Helvetica and reading "Just My Type," so there isn't too much to say about the course itself.

On Thursday, we did the usual review and critique with the Vox staff. I always like this part of the week because I enjoy seeing everyone's creative ideas. Once you are out working, you don't spend all this time coming up with idea after idea and you certainly don't have a whole bunch of people spending all of there time on just one or two designs. It is funny to see the similarities and differences.

This week, I think all of the cover designers used the same image for one of their covers, including myself. We pretty much all had the same explanation for it as well. However, when given free rein (I learned this was the correct spelling and usage of that word this week) away from the photos provided, the designs took an extremely different look.

However, I would like to take a minute to give a shout out to my classmate Brittany. I loved her designs for the feature portion of the Invasive Species story. I already explained this in a previous post, but the story is about this certain fish and hog species as well as a plant species that are taking over the U.S. after being brought here from other countries.

Her designs were so creative that I just wanted to throw in the towel. She turned the fish into a "Godzilla" fish with a whole bunch of other smaller fish huddled together in the corner of the page. I will post the image if possible.

She also did some really creative things with what I found to be a not-so-interesting story. I think it shows that she has worked as a park ranger, so this was the perfect story for her.

As I prepare to redesign my cover, I hope to channel Brittany's creative and come up with something as fun and attention grabbing for the front.

Can't Miss This: How to choose a font

That pretty much sums up how I feel about typography.

I am constantly looking for resources to help me become better at picking fonts that accentuate my designs or provide their own personality. This past week when I was working on my covers, I was stumped. So I went to our old friend Helvetica since we had just watched a movie, where we learned how it is able to adopt the feel of many different emotions, brands, etc. However, I just wasn't pleased. It was kind of boring with little to no personality.

Last week, I was also busy grading projects for the regular design class, where some of my students type choices had just the opposite problems. They're fonts had way too much personality. And they were all competing with each other.

So, this morning (I know, what a nerd), I was scanning the WWW for some advice when I came across a 2010 article on Smashing Magazine called, "What Font Should I Use." I think the article is very interesting, so I will give you some of the highlights. (Click the link to read the whole story for yourself.)

1. Dress for the occasion

This is the idea I was referring to above when my student choose too expressive and "stylish" fonts that tend to scream at the reader rather can complement the design. The idea is to have a few outlandish ones but also a few workhorse typefaces.

2. Know Your Families:

I think this is a section best read thoroughly on the website.

3. The principle of decisive contrast

The idea of mixing and matching is something I used for the first time on my "type" cover for the the vignettes edition of Vox thanks to Nick suggesting it. I think it turned out well. This section basically tells designers not to be wimps about changing the weight and contrast a lot because if you just do it a little it will look like a mistake. However, mixing and matching doesn't always guarantee typographic harmony.

4. A little can go a long way

I loved the example used in this section. First, there is yet another fashion reference that totally makes sense, but the real is a restaurant menu for a Thai restaurant. The basic idea that that every once and a while you have a design that oozes the need for a font with personality and that's fine. However, it needs to be used as an accent. The first Thai restaurant menu shows a "asia-fied" font being used all over the menu right down to the prices. The second example uses only the "fun" font on the topic for the restaurant name and then a more traditional typeface for the rest of the menu. HUGE difference.

5. There are no rules

DON'T TELL ME THAT! This is the rule that makes designing so difficult. It's not a math problem, it's an art.

Can't Miss this: Making an Imprint in your coffee

I think we have all seen this, but I found a brief little article about coffee designers on the blog Imprint, which I read each week. This was from early this week, but what I really liked was the writers explanation of the art form. However, I found it odd that she had never really found this talent particularly interesting, especially being a designer, albeit her attitude changes as she looks over her husband's shoulder while he judges a latte design contest. I found it fascinating but that may be because I don't drink coffee, so I have no idea how the barista creates these days.

She writes:

"Over time, I began to be able to tell whose was who at different coffee shops around Boston. There was one staff member in particular who had a very whimsical line quality I grew to love, similar to the initial cap at the beginning of a book of Aesop's Fables I remember reading as a child. Yes, there are technical reasons for variations from barista to barista like how quickly they pour the milk through the espresso or the size of the cup; but in the end, it's the rhythm of their hand, just like any artist's hand, that makes the difference. No two are alike and personal style can be your best friend or something you fight in the quest for perfection."

My friend Neil recently tried his hand at a little latte art. I think it turned out pretty well. (Yes, another Viking reference. I have a tote and a T-shirt, so be on the lookout for those in your future.)

Since I don't drink coffee, I will have to start exploring design options with my addiction of choice - orange juice.

Critique: Covers, again

I feel like I am stuck in a cover designer's Groundhog's Day. Every time I turn around, I am designing another cover for Vox. Despite all that practice, this week I did not feel confident about my covers. I am, however, feeling more confident about revising because I feel like I have a better sense of where to go now that I have spent a little more time thinking over the story.

Briefly, this is a double feature week, but the cover will represent the main story about invasive species, which includes carpe, hogs and a plant.

I went with two picture covers this week because I was having a hard time coming up with a typography cover that conveyed the three different part of the story and could make them into one cover. I didn't realize that the photos we were given are most likely not being used. So look at these with an open mind since they will definitely be changing.

I went with the multi-fish photo because it looks like the men are catching the fish, which fits with the story because that is essentially what is happening to help control their numbers in this region and throughout the U.S. I also stuck with the proposed headline because, while not super exciting, it does paint an image in your head. I decided to go with the tall "i" to "invade" the space of species without being too obvious.

For the second photo image, I went with the bloody fish/happy man image because I thought it had a certain amount of shock value without feeling cruel to animals. I think bloody anything automatically attracts a reader, and I thought it was something different for Vox. With the typography of the headline, I wanted to mirror the feel of the image, so I turned species sideways to be parallel with the fish. I also made the dec sideways as well because while readers had their heads turned they could go ahead and finish that portion of the front. However, I did keep invasive the right way to ground the cover.

For the final cover, you will have to use your imagination. I was going for a fun plant-inspired "logo" of sorts, which would future the title and then like cartoon-like leaves and branches would be growing out of it. Then I wanted it to be partially covered with plants. It just wasn't going as well as I wanted to, and I gave up. However, I am going to keep working on the concept and, hopefully, wow everyone at the next critique.

Coming up, I will be doing my Vox 5 cover and continuing work on the M-word magazine.

Response: Just My Type and the font formerly know as Neue Haas Grotesk documentary

This book is, Just My Time.

Ha! Shameless, I know. But with a title like that, I couldn't resist.

But it's true. I really enjoyed this book, although I did skip over a few of the font history lessons. I was also glad that I finally read the book because my mom gave it to me last semester.

I started from the beginning (such a traditionalist), and I am glad I did because I really liked the personal essay at the beginning. Not only did it introduce us to Chip Kidd, but I find two things interesting about it: 1) unlike writers/authors graphic designers and editors are rarely known unless they are the cream of the crop even though they really pull the publication together and b) we get inspiration from everyone.

I bring up my first point because I can't name how many times I have seen the "All the Pretty Horses" book cover or the designer, but if I had been on Jeopardy or Who Wants to be a Millionaire, I could have come up with Cormac McCarthy as the author. Shame.

I also thought it was funny that a reporter/interviewer was able to see Kidd's design influences. I am not sure if that says more about the interviewer's preparation for the interview or Kidd's lack of introspection about his own art. Whatever, the case, I thought it was funny, especially because I think I see a lot of the publications I read come through in my design. I like clean lines and abundant white space so does Real Simple and Martha Stewart Living, which are both magazines I read. I just started subscribing to Esquire, so we will see if that changes my design. I also thought it was interesting that Kidd was so influenced by comic books.

This leads me to chapter 1: Comic Sans.

This wouldn't be a typography book without a few pages dedicated to the font everyone loves to hate. I am just going to throw it out there that I don't hate. I wouldn't use it on a wedding invitation, but a children's magazine? Sure. I was glad to get so sort-of love for comic sans from Kidd. However, I really enjoyed learning why it was developed. Hearing the story about the dog reminded me of when Microsoft Office tried using that friendly paperclip to help you. I wish I knew what font his little messages were in because I remember them being a less rigid and traditional font.

I really liked the intros to each of the chapters because they really connect you with the subject matter, especially chapter 2: Capital Offense. I hate when people use all capital letters. When I worked in Mississippi, our website was originally open for anyone to comment on. I would guess that about 80 percent of those comments in all caps, and it did seem like the people were yelling each other. It never seemed polite. However the most interesting part of this chapter was learning where the expression, "mind your p's and q's" came from as well as the idea of uppercase letters being called that because of their shelf letter. Definitely cocktail conversation! (Along with the Keep Calm and Carry On poster video)

Another chapter I enjoyed was "Can a font make me popular?" I really liked the part where they talked about designers having a hard time watching historical movies (which was one of many of the same references made in Helvetica) because of incorrect fonts being used. I thought this was intriguing because when "The Help" was filmed in Greenwood, Miss., the crew took a lot of care in finding fabrics and props from the appropriate eras, including a man in town who remade a whole street worth of signs. They brought in images of what they wanted, and he even hand-painted many of the window signs, such as the "whites only" on the taxis cabs. So now I wonder how accurate the fonts that they used for the signs really are. It was also funny to learn about the impact of the IKEA type change. I had no idea!

As I already mentioned there was a lot of overlap between the documentary and the book. However, the movie focused more on the "service" that fonts provide and there use for brands. I think the funnest part was the man who talked about Drink Coca Cola. Period. Helvetica. Period. Can't argue with him! I also loved the man who just pointed at all of the Helvetica signs. I think you could consider Helvetica a chameleon font. It seems to conform to so many different brands and feelings.

You can't miss this: Keep Calm and ...

Watch this video about the 1939 propaganda poster, "Keep Calm and Carry On," which has been reproduced, parodied and even become an icon of the 21st century despite never being used the time of the poster's creation.

I hope you all enjoyed this video. I think it is really well done, and very interesting. What I like about the poster is how simple and clean it is without looking boring. However, I never really thought about how much the choice of typography really played into its effect. I found it interesting that they described the font as "special and handsome." And that it was chosen because they thought it couldn't be reproduced by the enemy. I agree with Steven Heller, the blogger who pointed me the in the direction of this video, why couldn't the Germans recreate this font? But, alas, they didn't, so I guess it worked out.

I came across this on Imprint, which is one of the design blogs I read and the one I picked for my class. I just love it! It has pointed me in the direction of so many interesting designs, but I think this is one of the best videos.

Response: Portfolio time

In class last week, we were asked to bring a collection of pieces we might want to include in our portfolio. I was both looking forward to doing this and fearing doing this. First, I like to think that I take criticism pretty well. However, showing off a design isn't like completing a math problem/test. In general, there is no right or wrong answer, but designing is much more personal, and often it means putting at least a little bit of yourself, your heart and your imagination into each assignment.

For my portfolio, I decided to include work from both my time in grad school in the advanced design class and some clips from my time working at a newspaper in Mississippi.

I pretty much knew what I wanted to include from Mississippi because in the fall I attended the portfolio review for students at the Society for News Designs.

The pieces I included from there were: 4 Lifestyles front pages, a department page from the daily paper, the wedding magazine I designed in Winter of 2011 and my resume. (See examples of some of these below.)

I chose 4 Lifestyles fronts that demonstrate good use of grid, typography and creating a package with images, sidebars and the stories. I also did a department page because (although its not really called that) to demonstrate my ability to organize a page based on hierarchy of stories and to follow a template (the community calendar).

So, I brought those plus a couple of extra Mississippi pieces, just to see how people felt about them.

The pieces from my magazine class I have already shown on here, but I pretty much brought everything I've posted on my blog since it is one of those that I will be more likely to redesign for inclusion in my portfolio, especially since everything from Mississippi is designed in Quark, which I don't have on my home computer.

After reading the feedback, I was surprised by how tough everyone was on the "1 to 10" scale. Even at the professional critique I went to at the SND conference the reviewers were a little bit more gentle! The funniest part of reading the critiques (which I did enjoy) was how back and forth they were. It was like reading a tennis match. Some people said, I needed to improve my use of typography (I agree) and others said they really liked my use of typography. Some thought my creativity was a 9 and others a 6. The range was not super wide but there definitely was one.

I think this just goes to show that it is good to get feedback on your work because it helps you see areas where you need improvement and areas where you are doing a good job, but in the end, designing is different for everyone and what some people love, other people don't and what some people hate or people really like - within reason, of course.

So, whether you are reeling over someone giving you a 6 or excited about a set of perfect 10s, there is not right or wrong design. We each have to work hard, keep adding to our skills and find a job that fits our designs. Thanks for everyone's feedback!

(Well, that got a little "after-school" special, didn't it?)

Critique: Vignettes Covers

Me and the University of Tennessee basketball team have a lot in common this season. Both of us have good coaches, we have been taught the skills to play (or design) well, but when it comes to game time, we just can pull out a W.

OK. Mostly the Tennessee basketball team (I am still recovering from out bball loss to Ole Miss last. OLE MISS, of all teams. If this means nothing to you now, it will one MU starts in the SEC.), but this week I was in my own little competition for designing the cover competition and just couldn't grab that title of cover designer.

Oh, well. I was pretty pleased with the covers I presented, but I will let you be the judge.

The cover was not for a feature story per se. It was for a series of 7 vignettes. They were originally supposed to discuss subcultures in Columbia, however, they turned out more as 7 stories about hobbies, such as knitting, owning chickens, wrestling/cage fighting and the like. Nothing too out of the ordinary.

However, the stories didn't really fit together except under the idea of "hobbies," and since we weren't given a title, I decided to run with that idea and call the series, "What's your hobby?" I realize that isn't the most creative title, but we weren't given much to go on and some of my teammates didn't even get the text, so they were really flying blind.

When I initially approached the covers, I decided to do one that highlighted one particular group of hobbyist with an image (a little robot), one that used only typography because I felt like that could get the idea of all the stories across without putting an emphasis on one and then doing kind of a college (not in that high school year book way) with people and detail shots from the stories.

So, here they are:

My favorite was the typography one, despite my constant fear of using it. That was the one that the editors also liked the best, so I wanted to keep playing with that one. Some of the changes I wanted to make were to make it look less muddy and brighten it up by changing the colors. I also wanted to change the fonts to make them more uniform. The biggest challenge and where I think I didn't quite get to where I wanted to was to incorporate more of the feel of the story. Although, the background words on the page were lifted straight from the story, I don't think it really told readers what they were going to get when they looked inside. From that point of view, I don't think the cover below worked.

However, it should be noted when our group started making revisions to each of our designs, we still didn't have a title. That's how well these stories didn't fit together. During a brainstorming session, the words/phrases that we came up with included: past times, community-created, social circles, finding your niche, shared interests, creating your own family, interest groups, family portraits, building, crafting, collecting, gathering, supporting, sharing, coming together, pack, fitting in, sharing interest, common place community, clicking together, common threads, something for everyone, ties that bind, camaraderie, unit, team, where everybody knows your name, pieces of a portrait and on the side. As you can see, there were a lot of ideas. A

s of right now, less than a week before print, there has been no decision on the title at least that I know of.

Here is one of the final two I revised:

I also decided to throw in one extra idea because why not? I had thought of it while working on the first revision. The title came to me in a dream: The Story of Us. I liked it because it made the cover feel inclusive because almost everyone has some kind of hobby that they enjoy and, in reality, could be featured in a story like this one. We all do activities that bring us closer to other people and that get our minds and our hands working and help create one community of doers.

So, I decided to play with the typography on this one as well, and create the "U" in "Us" out of the words and activities from the story. I really liked how this turned out because it is something different for me and my style of designing. Since I didn't present this one the first time, I would love to know what anyone thinks. Does it work or not? I would like to make some changes to this one for my portfolio and would love if you see that something is missing or maybe it just doesn't work at all.

Here it is:

You can't miss this: Not my website

This week, I will not be bringing something from my usual website. While there were some interesting articles/posts, none of them really stood out. So, I want to share the Tumblr site Flannel Animal I ran across this week. (I hope this OK.).

Flannel Animal, such a cute name, is the work blog for Kyle Hilton, who is an illustrator. While he posts lots of his work on this site, I have just fallen in love with his more recent artistic endeavor - creating his own paper dolls.

I know what you are thinking - paper dolls? But these aren't just any paper dolls. They are paper dolls based off of his favorite TV shows and characters. They include multiple outfits and even accessories. So far, Kyle has done 37 paper doll sheets. My favorites are:

I really like the Downton Abbey one because of the faces. They all look the same basically and describe the different emotions of this character.

There were a lot for Breaking Bad, so if you like that show, you should definitely visit the website to see more of these.

Response: True/False

What I learned this weekend during the True/False Film Festival (in GRE analogy terms):

Films:Columbia :: Football:SEC

In the fall, I was pretty disappointed by how tame football season was. The first football Saturday, I stay hunkered in my apartment fearing the traffic; however, I soon learned that not only could I easily make my way around town during home games, I could even get to campus and find a parking spot. Sometimes I couldn't even tell who had one. No cheering of "It's great to be a Missouri Tiger" rang through the air.

But then I learned that Columbia gets excited about another F-word: FILMS.

This was my first True/False experience, and I didn't even realize how big of a deal it was until last Thursday when it really kicked off. I know, I know. How is this possible? People have been going on for weeks about the upcoming festival. Well, I was a bit skeptical because outside of Mad Hot Ballroom and Harlan County USA, my exposure to documentaries has been pretty limited.

However, I am glad I got tickets to two shows: "Searching for Sugar Man" and "Queen of Versailles," and was able to double my number of documentaries and my appreciation for them in just one Saturday.

"Searching for Sugar Man" was the first of the two documentaries I saw at the festival. In case you missed it, the documentary is about the short-lived career of a Dylan-esque singer from Detroit named Rodriguez who unknowingly because famous in South Africa for his racy and forward-thinking lyrics. The added intrigue to the story is that everyone thinks he is dead after the singer allegedly lights himself on fire - possibly because of being dropped by his label two weeks before Christmas.

Film maker Malik Bendjelloul documentary showcases the ability to find a story from what might seem like nothing to the every day person, which is much like the job of a journalist, since musicians come and go these days as quickly as the tide thanks to iTunes and other single-purchase music sites that allow so many more one-hot wonders. However, Bendjelloul wasn't the only one interested in the mystery behind Rodriguez, which I think was the key behind the success of this Sundance Film Festival double-award winner because it allowed the viewers to see that this wasn't just a musician that Bendjelloul was interested in documenting but that he had a real following outside of the film world.

Not only was the story was excellent, but I really enjoyed hearing Bendjelloul speak about the process of making the documentary afterward. Throughout the film there were several points where it would transition from real life with interviewing people and showing scenes to having illustrations. I was fascinated to learn that those illustrations were done by Bendjelloul because he didn't have the budget to hire an illustrator or graphic designer. I would have never known because they look great and flowed seamlessly in the film.

He also made the whole thing on his Mac laptop, and all I could think was about how important and large a role technology plays in all of our lives. However, I wouldn't dare say anyone could do what Bendjelloul did in "Searching for Sugar Man." Not only is he great at finding an interesting story, he tells it so well.

I had read a little bit about "Queen of Versailles" before coming to the show, and I was really looking forward to it. However, I was surprised, because it seemed more like my type of documentary, that I didn't like it as much as "Sugar Man." In a nutshell, "Queen of Versailles" follows billionaire Westgate mogul David Seigal and his family as they begin their quest to build the largest home in America. However, when the economy goes sour in 2009, so does the family's dreams and income as the house goes into foreclosure and Westgate is forced to close one of its time-share locations in Las Vegas. Don't feel too bad for the family. As Mrs. Seigal says, she could be happy in a small 300,000 square foot home, ha! I really enjoyed all the contradictions. While the Seigal mom seems very down-to-earth, her sense of what is normal is so far off because of living in her own world. Literally. The house they currently live in is on its own island.

This was more like watching a reality TV show than a documentary, but it was just fascinating. I am glad to know what $5 million dollars worth of marble/tile looks like. I will say that I was disappointed that they didn't finish the house. I hope if the family is able to continue with the project that film maker Lauren Greenfield will go back to finish. However, I suspect that is doubtful since Seigal is sueing Sundance but not for the reasons you would think. Read more about it HERE.

Critique: Softball Feature

For the past two weeks, I have been working on designing the feature for Vox. It was for a story about MU's Chelsea Thomas, who is the pitcher for the university's softball team and plays for team USA.

I was really excited that I got to design this feature because I didn't have any sports-related design clips for my portfolio, so this will be a perfect edition to my more usual designs which are usually more Martha Stewart living than Sport Illustrated. I think I have done more than a dozen spreads about food/cookbooks/cooks.

Initially the feature was slated to be a 4-page piece, but I was glad they decided to up it to 6-pages since the text was more than 2,500 words initially.

This is my first spread when it was 4-pages long.

While I liked the opening spread with the faded softball to highlight the text, I felt limited in my design because of all the words. In this version, there are too many pictures and they are all played way too small (because of the space limits).

I was disappointed that my softball design on the opening spread was not better received because I was trying to design something that was less "me," if you will. I think this semester has taught me that my designs are a lot like me: classic and fairly clean cut. I am definitely not funky and neither are my designs. So, I was hoping since I also don't typically do sports that this would be a chance for me to step outside my comfort zone a bit.

I think I did that, however, my more creative/funky ideas in the end were eliminated from the spreads.

This is my second attempt at the feature after it was turned into a 6-page feature. I took out the softball, but I added the gold box on the fourth page to highlight the portion of the texts that talks about Thomas' time on the MU softball team. As you will see in the final spread. That was also taken away because it allegedly made that portion of the text look like a side bar and prevent people from reading. I beg to differ. I thought it was a nice way to highlight and attract people's eyes to the story. But, in the end, I learned from the September Issue that often the designers are over ruled. So true.

By the third draft, I made some more changes, including changing the title (which was a great choice), turning the gold box gray, switching out some pictures and creating an actual side bar.

When I was told we were going to change the title, I was happy because I wasn't in love with the initial one but also nervous because working with typography is still very stressful for me, especially with two people looking over my should while I worked. However, I was very pleased with the way "Queen of Diamonds" turned out and how the two pieces fit together so well.