Week 4

This Week

I am in the running for the 2/26 cover of VOX and came up with 3 ideas for last Thursday's class. We decided to go with the movie rating/preview idea, which I have expanded on since then. With the help of a classmate, I am hoping to alter the typical VOX cover layout by turning it horizontally. If that doesn't fly, I've provided an alternate vertical design as well. 

I also completed my first department page for VOX this weekend and can't wait to see it in print on Thursday. I'll post a picture of it when I get my hands on a copy (or 10).

I also began my preliminary designs for the projects we are working on. We will be producing an appealing, usable, and easy-t0-find website. It's more difficult that I thought it would be, but after speaking with Jan yesterday, I think I have a great concept, I just need to execute it really well before I present it to the publishers on Monday. I want to use the idea that readers are coming to the site or picking up the magazine because 1. They're already neat freaks and want new ways to organize and store things in their lives, or 2. They're very unorganized and are looking for help. SO, what I've come up with is a site designed to emphasize the "clutter to clean" philosophy. I still have some major work to do, but here are some of my first designs for a logo and splash pages, and what I'm revising. The idea is to open each story with a bright, bold image to introduce the stories online, and to use playful colors and clean typography.

Response

This week we finished the rest of the history presentations. The one that struck me the most was Julia's about art director Otto Storch. His work was very creative in the way he used typography and photos/illustrations together. He seemed to have a fun eye for art and it really showed through in his designs in McCall's. I especially like the spread Julia showed where he placed the models on the page to look like they were standing inside a water paint kit, and the one where he took the same idea but put them in a painter's drawer. I was unable to find the photos but I found one of my other favorites to show.

MagCulture

This week on Magculture, Leslie is discussing upcoming exhibitions, including Designs of the Year and Colophon 2009. He also linked readers to some photos of the first issue of Love magazine, which I mentioned last week as something you shouldn't miss. He also included a photo of a possible launch cover that is a little raunchy in my opinion, so I won't post it because I don't know if you would want to see it either. 

You Can't Miss

This is something I found on the blog I'm covering as well. It's a magazine in Barcelona called Apartamento, which takes a look at the reality of living spaces, not the fancy, super-clean spaces we normally see in these types of magazines.