I read the story three times, highlight words that capture themes and moods throughout, then sit down with my sketchbook and draw.
As you can see, they're SUPER ROUGH SKETCHES.
This helps me a lot because I'm a very visual person, but the process of designing on the computer takes so long to execute that when I start in a blank InDesign document I get lost. This allows me to just think and not get caught up in:
Why is my photo so pixelated? &
Where is the clipping mask I just made with pen tool?
Ctr-Z Ctr-Z Ctr-Z Ctr-Z Ctr-Z OOPS! Shift-Ctr-Z
For my cover presentation on "Simplicity," which is not really simple at all, I drew inspiration from some of my favorite minimalist magazines, particularly the feature and department pages of Interview and some photographs from www.designobserver.com that I posted yesterday.
Here are the results:
Too legal.
Nice photo.
I like my other illustrations better BUT,
it was a photo story, so I had to do one cover with her on it.
Ahhh. I think this one, too. So clean and...simple.
Simple
SIMPLE
SIMPLE!!!
It's black and white, which Theresa says is her jam, but I'm also going to say is mine too. Either I'm all about color or I'm all about black and gray (You should see my closet). It's such a shame that our paper isn't white, but I had to go for it anyways. The mission for the next couple weeks is to try to figure out a way to incorporate the balance idea into the last cover and then play around with the colors to find something that works as well as black and white.
I know, never going to happen.
Suggestions?
Firstly, this blog is so fun I can hardly stand it. My two cents (keeping in mind I have ZERO magazine design knowledge) is this: I think it could be kind of fun take the black bottom half of that last cover and make it a centered triangle (like a mountain kind of) and have the word "simplicity" kind of teetering (balancing, if you will) on it in a bold, chunky, simple font in a fun color. I am an advocate for black with mustard yellow, but that's just me. :)
ReplyDeleteSo fun to read about what you're doing!
-Em Shoe :)
Thanks Em! That means a lot. I love your idea of the triangle as a balance and am definitely going to fool around with that. The color scheme is nice as well. There are a lot of photos taken in the woods for the story, so I may have to incorporate more natural colors, i.e. gross browns and greens, but I'll try the yellow with black as well.
ReplyDeleteI think we could all take a lesson from you that sketches really help you focus on the imagery. And I like that you read a draft 3 times and highlight key words. I am going to have to start trying that. I often just default to playing around in InDesign and I think that is perhaps why I struggle with keeping things to safe and simple.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I have been obsessed lately with mixing blacks and yellows, so I say go for it. But be careful it doesn't come off too bumble bee-ish. On the other hand, it seems like the woman in the story has more of a pastel color palette happening, so although I am a fan of your black and white covers, this story may call for something else....unfortunately.
I have to say, for your third cover option, it immediately reminded me of the Downton Abbey logo. Both are very beautiful, but It started me wondering if you could pull in the idea of the scale with the word simplicity. Maybe you could hang those plate things off of the end of the letters and fill them like you did in your original design, possibly tilt simplicity a bit to give it some movement? I don't know. I'm just rambling. I appreciated your graphic approach to this though.
ReplyDelete