Critique: Spring Preview

Hey fellow designers,

There has been some confusion over my cover design.  The image I used was my vision for what I wanted in a studio shoot.  Obviously I don't have the rights to use Twiggy and we had to use a different photograph for the cover.  Also, the image in the background was a swirl image I found that I manipulated in Photoshop to create the mosaic look.  I am still learning the whole process of Illustrator and wanted to show what I was going for should the cover I chose be picked.  It did, and after meeting with Theresa she showed me how to create a similar look in Illustrator using gradients.  I took colors from the first concept with the eyedropper tool and made my own psychedelic radial gradient.

The final background image came out like this:

I played around a bit and tiled the gradient like my original concept, but decided it looked better without it the second time around.

As for Twiggy, I used the pen tool to cut out her glasses in Illustrator, then made a clipping path and placed them in InDesign.  I filled them in white and added black circles and the psychedelic "Spring Preview" text within them.  I put a bit of a drop shadow to make them pop out.


After my roommate graciously volunteered to be shot for the cover, we came up with three options:

Since Kelsey didn't have the mod-look I initially was going for, we decided to have more fun with the cover.  I asked a few of my friends and people in the office which one they preferred, and it seemed like every one was leaning towards the first shot.  Myself, included.

The cover we went with Sunday looked like this:

After the photo shoot and reworking of the background, I still really liked the cover.  I thought it encompassed the fun and excitement of spring.  I also liked how it was as if she was kissing winter goodbye.   The reason I wanted her to be in black and white, a part from standing out from the background, was because it showed that transition between seasons.  It's almost spring, but we're not yet there.  Just a few more weeks of braving the dreary conditions and then our days will be filled with sunshine and happiness.

There were some people who didn't like the kissing expression of the new cover.  Some comments said it was "too sexual" for VOX.  I consider myself a feminist and completely disagree.  I thought the cover was cute and more visually appealing than the dead-pan face of the original.  Alas, I didn't have much of a say and had to go back and redo the cover again with the expression-less photo of Kelsey.

You should all see the final on Thursday in print, but it will look more along the lines of this:

Not as fun, right?

Anyways, I learned more in this weekend than I probably did the entire last semester of Magazine Design.  I have a clear vision but I know my execution techniques are still playing catch-up.  When I began thinking of a design for the Spring Preview issue, I sat down with a pencil and sketchbook and drew five completely different rough versions of my ideas.  Some were completely ridiculous, and others I could never complete with the skills I currently have.  The whole publication process and collaborative efforts of the entire staff makes it even more difficult to get your ideas across, but overall I'm still happy with the way the cover turned out.  I have a feeling my entire semester will be spent immersing myself in the world of design and going through tutorials and endless magazines to become a better designer.  

Thanks for the help and support!