Critique: Talk Show Covers

I don't want to go through my whole thought process on these before I present tomorrow, so I'll just give you the sneak preview now.  Here are my three awesome cover designs for the David Lile feature issue.

1.

2.

3.

I'm really excited about these because according to the schedule, they should come out the Thursday before graduation!!   It would be great to have my friends and family in town to see them on the stands.

=]

Response: 20/10 Presentation

I have to say, I was surprised with the informality of the book cover presentations.  The people from Missouri Press Association were very nice and the whole atmosphere was casual.

I'm not surprised by their comments on my designs.

Meh.

Nice, but too bold for the author.

Too dark, will scuff too easily.

We settled on this one.  Revisions to follow will be to enlarge the photo and make a tighter crop of MLS.  I want to make the dek and byline more prominent, as well as lightning the opacity of the white box just a tad.

Stay tuned!

See this! Motif Magazine

The flaws I find in most of my designs are related to typography.  I'm good at choosing bold, headline texts and even dek typefaces, but when it comes to the smaller body copy and other blurbs, I could use a little finesse.   The blog I've been following, Design Observer, has a whole category dedicated to typography.  Since there weren't any posts this week that interested me, I went back in the archives and found some great shots of Motif magazine, which of course, has beautiful typography.

Motif was only published between 1958 and 1967, with 13 issues.
It's subject was "visual culture" and so contained a lot of the fine arts, graphic arts, architecture, lettering and photography.  Even though Motif didn't survive through the '60s, I think it's so well executed and contains content many would still be interested in today.  If it was brought back, it may have a chance.
I know I'd subscribe.

Here are some pages I found particularly appealing:

Motif no. 11, Winter 1963/4. Cover: Eduardo Paolozzi

Motif no. 3, September 1959. Cover: John Griffiths

Typography no. 6, Summer 1938. Published by James Shand at the Shenval Press

& my personal favorite...

Motif no. 7, Summer 1961. Cover: Alan Davie. Publisher: The Shenval Press

“Sans on Buildings, or What Happened before Architects Started Using Type Books.” 

Photographs taken in Brighton, England by John Woodcock. Motif no. 6, Spring 1961

See this: Perfection in Imperfection

While flipping through HOW magazine, I came across this cookbook by Janice Wong.  It was her inspiration which combines food, design and the search for perfection in the imperfect.
The pages are gorgeous.  I've never seen food so beautiful and I want this book on my coffee-table ASAP.  Here's some of the images from the book:  

If you're interested you should really read more about it.  I'm not near my magazine, but if I remember correctly, some of the page tips were hand-dipped in black dye.  The cover treatment was fascinating as well.

This book served as my inspiration for the food-planning assignment.

MMMmmm

Response: Meredith meeting

After another round of Meredith revisions, I edited down the number of pages for my feature and took away the half-eaten icons.  I'm pretty sad that I had to cut those, but with less pages, they didn't really work.  I also changed some of the fonts on the recipe to Flama Condensed to match Nick's.

Overall, where I need most help is the splash page.   After discussing with my group, we don't think one picture will work that will be able to incorporate food, people and summer.   Meredith parties aren't all that exciting.  Try searching them.

We were thinking of cutouts in concentric circles, or just cutouts for one of each course.   Thoughts?

This is a possibility if no other splash pages work.  Where I have a problem here, is that only drinks are featured.  However, the photo does match the summer/party theme.

These two pages will be separated by ads.

VOILA!

Almost there, everyone!

Critique: 20/10 Revisions

After narrowing the choices for my book covers, I chose to execute four in the correct format and size.
We haven't presented yet, but here they are:

My inspiration from this cover came from the 1Q84 novel jacket.   It doesn't work exactly the same, but still conveys a sense of mystery that hangs about Smith.  

As I explained in class, I liked this concept because of the support Smith held from the gay community. The execution was the hardest after I checked the new text for the title and dek.   Because they are significantly longer, I don't think this cover works anymore.

I didn't want to use pink in my designs just because Mary Smith was the only woman to be chairman of the RNC.  However, with the bold font and silhouettes, the pink felt like a good fit.

This is my favorite cover.  I love the grunge flag with the cropping I chose.   To me, the typewriter font felt like an official document, and I put it in black bars because I wanted to convey a sense of controversy.

Critique: 20/10 book covers

My biggest obstacle during this assignment was coming up with 20 different covers for one book. I didn't feel very passionate or inspired by any of the options.

The book I ended up choosing was Mary Louise Smith: Republican Matriarch.  I felt a  stab of GIRL POWER after reading the description and felt as though it was the only possible choice for me.   For those of you who don't know, Mary Louise Smith is the only woman to be Chair(wo)man of the Republican National Committee.   The book is about her influence on the party and moderate views which included support for gay marriage and pro-choice for women.

Here is a sneak peak of some of my ROUGH ideas for the final book cover:

I hand drew a few others but you'll see those in class tomorrow!

Response: Meredith presentation

The Meredith presentation this week was a really fun experience.  It was the first time I had seen our magazine in full. 

In the beginning I was nervous that our designs didn't all flow well together.  However, after revisions, I'm really happy with "Eat Now."  Our biggest design challenges seemed to stem from miscommunication with the publishing group.  After those are sorted out I know we'll all have a project to be proud of and include in our portfolios.

My individual pages may change in content.  We are thinking of cutting a few drinks from the feature to keep the page lengths reasonable.  Also, I'm going to try to incorporate a food item onto the splash page.

The shrimp cocktail and steak icons have just been added.

Any ideas on how to incorporate some food images on this page?

See this: Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas!

I was going through google images to find my favorite image of the Vegas welcome sign when I stumbled upon (not literally) this great compilation of photographs of it.

Studio d'Xavier

Pinky-Lee

RickyBarnard

In doing our 20/10 assignment, we've had to think of many ways to capture one idea.  I think these images are a great example of how many perspectives can be had on one subject.  There are hundreds on the website, if you're interested in seeing more.

I've been daydreaming of sunshine, neon and strip(walking) far too long.    Time to go home.  VIVA!

Check out more images here.

See this: Mental Disorder posters

I've always been drawn to illustrative posters and minimalism.  I think I'm a broken record over here, but hey, I know what I like! I love these designs by designer Patrick Smith that cover six mental disorders.

I especially love the Narcolepsy one.  Enjoy!

Response: Meredith Prototypes

My group is rad!

Eat Now had some problems looking cohesive on Tuesday, but after our meeting, we're pulling it all together.  The biggest problem was that one of our departments looked like a feature.  That's changed now.

It's really hard working on designing a food magazine, especially late at night because all I want to do is

EAT...

NOW!

But instead of banana split cupcakes and margaritas, my fridge only ever has yogurt and gatorade.

I really like the big blowout photos we used for the feature.  It looks very professional.  I added some quirky extras, such as the chef hat and moustache on the "Tip" pullout and the icons in the right corner that get eaten throughout the pages.  I know my first designs for the cover were a bit much, but this was my way of making the magazine fun and still something that came across as professional and sellable to the Meredith market.

Here is what I've come up with for the splash page of the feature (minus Nick's two icons for entrees and appetizers) and the desserts and drinks spreads.