The Weekly Critique

Business card, anyone?

Along with all the other materials to send out, I think I had the most fun with my business card. I went through about 5 completely different designs. This is the one currently at the printer. Hopefully I won't change my mind. Again.

Here's the front and back designs.

Response: Bringhurst

I started with the Elements of Typography a month or so ago and the first thing I remember was that it felt like reading the dictionary. It was fascinating but ever so hard to get through.

Once I'd read a chapter or two, I'd take a break and think about how little of the information I actually retained. Definitely frustrating. I want a smarter brain, but that's beside the point. I liked our class discussion because it put all that information into perspective and I realized I wasn't the only who thought it was a slow read.

Typography is so fascinating. I'm always trying to understand it more and more. I think the toughest part is that it's just as much of a science as it is art. (Though so is design in general.)

So in the spirit of great type, check out one of my new favorites. Called antenna. Here's the description:

While definitely American, Antenna projects something of the subtleties that we have come to expect from Swiss classics. By concentrating on design of enclosing white shapes over linear black letters, the Swiss school of design has altered our business typography forever.

This week in Veer: Another great slideshow

In an effort to sell photos and type, Veer often posts different theme slideshows. I've posted a couple on my blog. Here's a new one I really like. It's about homes all over the world. Take a look.

You can't miss: Print and patterns

I happened across this great blog a few days ago. It's very crafty and graphic all at the same time. She talks about a lot of graphic designers, but also showcases interesting things such as greeting cards and drinkware. It's just fun and happy, and also is a good source of inspiration.

The Weekly Critique

In the last few weeks, I've been designing like crazy, but have a bit of a break for the next week or two. I worked on the feature for the Best Time issue last week. I don't have a pdf yet, but you can take a look at the online version. I was able to pull all the icons from the print version I did, so it made part of the execution easier. But there was still a lot of learning to be done on the flash aspect of the project. It was a great learning experience though.

Also, I've been working more on the Spoon designs for the Meredith Project. We are working well as a team and I think we're making good progress. Here's one of the department pages we've done:

Response: The thinking process

I had a fun time hearing how everyone else's brain works and processes creativity. It was hard for me to even put my creative process into words, because often it changes. If I'm swamped with schoolwork, I might do it one way, or if I have the whole day to myself (which is happening less and less) I would work a different way.

I have an arsenal of books, and a Delicious account, that I reference to get inspired. I hate nothing more than looking at a blank page, so at least if I'm looking at other people's work, I feel like I'm making progress. At some point, in 5 minutes or 5 hours, it'll hit me. I thought this video was appropriate for that moment of inspiration: Hello, new.

You can't miss: Sad times for the newspaper business

As most of you already know, the Rocky Mountain News folded a couple weeks ago. It hit a little close to home, as I was at the Denver Post this summer. (Both papers are in a JOA). Looks like the Seattle Post-Intelligencer will be closing shop here in a couple weeks as well.

Even as they were shutting down operations, the reporters at the Rocky Mountain News wanted to tell their final story. If you go to their homepage, Rocky Mountain News, you'll see a video at the top. Watch it. It will enlighten you to what all the newspaper employees are going through right now.

They've done some amazing things in their 149.8 years (so close to 150!). Here's one of my favorites, a pulitzer winner from 2006. Photo essay by Todd Heisler.

This week in Veer: Type City, type type city.

Want to get away? Come visit Veer's Type City. It's a magical place with Lupton Beach and an old Miedinger fire station. (get it?)

Basically they want you to buy their fonts, but it's a really fun interactive animation. Creative in a dark, surreal sort of way. I assume it was done in Flash, and for those of you also working on your Flash chops, it's a good example of the possibilities.

Here's a sample of Lupton Beach:

This week in Veer: Pretend you're a member of the NYC Art Director's Club

The elite NYC Art Director's Club was privy to a special presentation by Rian Hughes, a fabulous designer from the UK. Well, the decided to let us into their private little world by posting the video on Veer. It's long; it's the whole presentation. But when you have some time, you should seriously watch it. He's designed some famous/interesting typefaces.

Response: Portfolio-making

Over the last couple weeks, I have realized narrowing and building a portfolio is so much harder than I though it would be. Shouldn't it be enough that we do all the hard work to make the clips? It's just as tough to make the decisions about what to put in/take out.

Mostly, it's hard to keep in mind all the things to think about: balance of serious/playful; traditional/edgy; broadsheet/tab; cover/feature/department. ahhhh..

I do think it was helpful to get everyone's feedback on what my top pieces are. It was also really fun to get to see everyone else's. Lots of people have gone and done interesting things all over the world; that was fun to see.

You can't miss: Free creativity magazine.

Yep, here's a magazine all about creativity and how artists/designers sketch, think and execute. (Interesting to relate to our Fear & Creativity assignment) I actually came across this on Veer as one of their links. What's wonderful is it's free. Here's the link to the pdf.
Type, photography, illustration. Seriously. You will get inspired.

The Weekly Critique

Here's a couple covers I did for last Thursday. There are so many images and visuals to use when talking about grocery stores; it was hard to narrow it down and pick the most effective concepts. I LOVED the photo I found of the bell peppers (yum!) but I was having trouble making the type work on it. The ChaChing one: I'm less-enthused with the images, but I think the concept is better. I'll be revising that one sometime between now and tomorrow morning. Let me know if you have any thoughts, not really sure where to go with it. Thanks!