more work to show

Here are some updates on the work I have been doing in the past week; I know I have posted about it all numerous times but I haven't shown it. Well ta-da: the good, the bad, the ugly, and the published.

The series of pictures is the progression of where my thoughts started with the concept of bed and breakfast and where they ended, or how they ended I should say.

As you can see my thought process changed quite a bit while working with the theme of bed and breakfast.  The top  is the finished product, and the order of the pictures shows the progression of designs I went through before deciding on a concept and final design. I wanted to play off  the idea of old vs. new, to get the feature a "Vox feel." Once I did the color vs. black and white, half and half approach, I wanted to run with it. Finding the right image was crucial. As you can see from the blue image I only found a black and white photo and had to show interpret what I meant on my own. But the idea sold and we went with it. I think the cover turned out nice, classic, "kitchy" if you will. 

What the font. check this out.

I'm addicted to my Blackberry, or as known to most as, the crackberry. But seriously I might be able to go to identifont.com and find the font of a unique font, my blackberry cannot do this --

typography.com posted a test they used from a random sign to see if "What the Font" really worked. Check it out, it's pretty close and it's like "identifont" at your fingertips. First the iphone can gchat, now "what the font!" really, maybe i need to upgrade. If I said it was necessary to have a font identification program at amy fingertips I could convince my parents that I cannot go on another day as a designer without this program, or aka, the iphone.

A bit dramatic, but I haven't been overly impressed with many iphone applications that I have seen. Come on, who can beat Brickbreaker on the Blackberry?? 

critique

first draft
Originally uploaded by maggie searcy

WOW. I have survived the past two weeks. I’ll admit, at 6:00 a.m. last Wednesday when I was still awake working on one of about 500 projects, I was asking myself why I really care so much and why I am so concerned. I see people everyday who don’t have a ton of work to do or don’t care about school, but I can’t relate. It’s totally not my work ethic.

I mean, come on, I’m trying to come to terms that I can’t actually accomplish everything on my to-do list before 10:00 p.m., which yes, was the usual time I went to sleep before this semester again.

In the past 24 hours I have realized yet again why I love designing, why I am passionate about the amount of picas between the head and dek of a feature, or the about of points the thickness of a stroke is and how each detail can make a huge impact. Ah! It’s like a love language!

The math side of my brain got to me today and between 2 o’clock on Friday and 5:30 on Sunday afternoon, Lauren and I spent nearly 30 hours at VOX. Even with the infinite playlists, courtesy of Pandora and the slaphappy humor that evolved over our lack of sleep, we put all we had into this week’s feature. Oh! I am so excited to see it in print tomorrow. Before I reveal the entire thing, the picture to the left is one of the first drafts of our splash page. The feature is on the True/False film festival that is taking place in Columbia this weekend for the sixth year.

Lauren and I had a product we were proud of, but things can easily change when we begin getting inputs from other people – always a good thing, but not always something I want to hear. I had become attached to this red box that anchored the first page of the feature, but since we are limited on space, the “blank space” of my red box had to be tossed, and text had to be added.

The moral of my critique is hard work does pay off. The hours of brainstorming, learning new software techniques, and designing as a pair, was a learning experience as well as a boost of encouragement after completing this huge feature.

Of all the time I have spent on the computer, designing and creating the past week, I never got burnt-out. I wanted to stay up and make my designs better and keep executing ideas but I finally had to let myself sleep. The adrenaline rush that has come over me in the past 48 hours has put me on a high... and reassured me that I am in the right place, doing the right thing, --doing what I love.

Sometimes reassurance that you’re doing the right thing and you’re on the right track is a positive reinforcement that hard work does pay off.

And sometimes, even through all the stress that life brings, and the endless to-do lists, a lot/if any reassurance is recognized, and coming at this time in the semester, I think this is a push to remind me “why I love what I do!”

Critique

The past seven days have been hard to differentiate. Last Thursday Lauren and I presented our general concepts and rough ideas for the True/False Film Festival feature story for VOX. The same day I also pitched two redesigns for the February 19 cover. I found out on Thursday night that my concept was chosen for the cover. I really like the final product. Tomorrow I will post the new cover, along with the other ideas that were generated along the way. 

In between working on the cover and reworking ideas for the upcoming feature, I had to work on a draft to pitch to for my larger semester project. Needless to say, I’m turning into a major computer-nerd/design-geek that can only talk and think and yes, only dream about design. *Side note: always keep a pen and some paper next to your bed in case a brilliant idea pops into your head at 3 in the morning because if you’re like me, there is no way your going to remember it four hours later.

I am posting pictures of economy feature that I redesigned since its original post. I like these two much better than the spread I turned in the first time. 

Response

What do we really do differently now that we didn’t do years ago? Has anything really changed, or has the process merely become quicker due to the age and development of technology?

Yesterday I did a presentation on Collier’s magazine. It began in 1888 and greatly impacted the industry until it closed in 1957. While researching for this project I got lost in the library stacks going through decades of the weekly publication. It amazed me to see how, (a) they were in the forefront of their competitors and reaching upwards of a million readers within the first 10 years, or (b) have we, as designers merely regurgitated ideas and designs that have already been done? Is anything really new?  

Let me back up a little bit... I believe it is all of the above. The impressions that photographers and artists like Jimmy Hare, Will H. Bradley, J.C. Leyendecker and Edward Penfield have created in this century old concept are astounding. I think they were yes, ahead of their time and because their work is recognizable, brilliant, and timeless, why not take from the old and use in the new? You can say your inspiration is the propeller on a crop-duster if you take a picture of a plane flying by, but I’ll say: “the photographs were inspired by Jimmy Hare, a photographer who made vast developments within the realm of photojournalism, but also took the first photo of a flying plane in 1908.”

If we get down to the minute details and pick apart things in a micro-manner, then we can always find a way to question ideas, suggest a different source of origin, or simply say, “It’s not original.” Honestly though, if we did that, what would be the point? Why don’t we take what Collier’s did in 1910 when it was thriving and apply it to our concepts today? A modern spin on a classic.

Do you think we currently do that? In class we’ve been looking at the development and progression of magazine design from 1880s to the 1960s. A lot has changed, but a lot has remained the same, with a few technological updates of course. In the large scheme of things it has been really interesting to see how different magazines got their start, and if they were able to hold their own and press on through the ups and downs the economy has seen over the past century. 

Check this out

If you have to pick one magazine to buy this month... 

At home in the modern world: the never overstated motto of Dwell magazine hits the newsstands every month with a new execution of modernistic viewpoints from around the globe. As a designer, when I pick up dwell, it just feels good, literally: the paper is good quality and has a matte finish, which I might add I am a bit partial to, unless it happens to be high gloss, like Anthem but that is a whole different story.

Its more than a mixture of high quality photography and positive use of white space, Dwell has the ability to make anything have a

n artistic edge. One of the sell lines on March’s issue reads, “Why are the world’s best houses in Australia and New Zealand?” Turn to page 74 to find out

I am an avid reader of dwell and pick up an issue no matter what is on the cover but nine times out of 10 something usually sparks my interest because the general nature and content of the magazine appeals to me. Contrary to the sell line that I just mentioned, I did not really notice it on the newsstand. I read:

SMARTER

GREENER

MORE

DARING

and was intrigued. When I got home and pulled out my new book of inspiration to peel through, absorbing the content and design of the magazine I settled down on the couch and read the sell line about Australia and New Zealand, and honestly, I

 was ready to open to the contents page and find “SMARTER GREENER....” but below the sell line was another line of text: “turn to page 74 to find out.”

That caught my attention and instead of opening up the cover to find a typical Volkswagen ad, I skipped directly to page 74.

Seriously, go buy this magazine now and go to page 74 to see for yourself how fantastic the graphic illustrations are, but don’t stop there, your jaw will hit the floor when you turn the page. That is what I want to see when I pick up a magazine! The color combination of featured houses; architectural profiles of the unique structures are displayed in a wonderful organizational flow, with coordinating page numbers and details. Oh! It is so fantastic! Kudos dwell, you made my month!

I’m posting a snippet of the feature covering pages 74-114, but believe me, you need to see it for yourself and appreciate its beauty and design aesthetic. 

 And there is more info about the issue and feature on their website. Click here to go check it out. 

Typography stimulation

Design-daily.com -- like rolling out of bed and turning the coffee maker on, going to the bathroom, checking my blackberry to review the e-mails I received while in slumber, my first-fifteen-minute-morning routine isn't complete without design-daily.com, and neither should yours for that matter. 

Today I awoke with typography in my mind. Sad? Ironic

? Good? I'm going to have to say all-of-the-above. But really, when anything can mix style, modernism and typography together, I will be happy for a long time. Seriously, the beauty of letters, words, and symbols are unique, but timeless. 

Today I laid eyes upon this table when I was looking at design-daily. The post was entitled "15 great typography-based objects." Without a doubt this table topped this list but there were so many shown that I liked, I decided that typography would be my Valentine and I will post some of my favorite typography-based objects. The table, chairs, and dresser, have already been added to my inspiration book.

M for Maggie. If I found out where this was from, I would literally design 

my room around it next time I move, which is a lot more than most people 

would assume. I am in my 9th bedroom/apartment/home/house within the past four years (and five have been within a 2 mile radius). I move a lot. It's fine. I'll lay some more permanent roots down in a few months. 

 

This last picture is the M on my bed

room door. I'm so happy to see it when I come home after long day, I feel at home.