Getting Back into the Swing of Things...

Oh, what a great week for there NOT to be a blizzard. Congratulations to all of us for surviving!

Up firsttttttttt...

Critique: My First-Ever Typography Creation

Alright, because I didn't design anything for Vox between last Wednesday and today (don't worry, it's all going to catch up with me later this week), I wish to critique my first attempt at a fancy typography creation. I've seen things like this many times, for instance the examples I previously posted and talked about, but I always assumed I'd never be able to actually make something like this. However, while working on my online portfolio over the snow days and past weekend, I realized that I had everything but a nice image on my "Home" page. I decided I wanted to make a logo-type of creation featuring my name to put there. Thus, I shopped for typography logos online for a while that had video tutorials accompanying them, and ended up choosing this one -

The video tutorial was about an hour long, but it took me pretty much all day (including TV/snack breaks of course) to finish. I decided I really didn't like the heads of the screws on this image, and also wasn't a fan of the floral patterned background. As you can see, I also decided to do some different things with coloring and the blue floral pattern. While my end product does resemble the one online, I feel like I also made it much more "my style" and to my liking.

I am wondering what y'all think about it and need your help critiquing it! I am very happy with it overall and learned SO much as far as Photoshop goes, and even a little bit more about Illustrator. Perhaps my biggest qualm is the way the "y" came out... I thought I was being clever in the way of my artistic license by flipping it horizontally, but unfortunately it's hard to see after being beveled and but over the blue background. But then again, I think it just adds to the aesthetic appeal.



Response: Historical References in Modern Design



William Owen's piece from Modern Magazine Design was enjoyable, and of course as a visual person I mostly appreciated the photos and examples of the evolution of design throughout history. In its earliest days, magazine design strongly resembled that of newspapers. In fact, it was quite tough to distinguish the two (design-wise). They both consisted of a lot of text flowing in wide-set columns with few photos.

For instance, the top spread on this page is overwhelming with text. Granted, most of this trend happened before the burst of graphic design. However, certain publications today really reflect this historical style of very text-heavy pages. 

This spread is taken from a recent issue of The New York Times Magazine. This magazine does a lot of text-heavy design in various issues, but the four columns being lined up that far down the page also seems to resemble an older style.

Here, we have a cover of Fortune from the 1930s that features one main photo that doesn't take up the whole page, and also doesn't have any sell-lines. The look is very clean, whereas many modern magazines clutter their covers with sell-lines. But here is a good modern comparison to this style - 

While this 2005 issue of SanDiego Home/Garden  has slightly more text, it doesn't feature any sell-lines and also features a photo in the center of the cover that does not bleed across the whole page.

My last example - 

This page comes from a 1957 issue of Vogue. The close-up photo of the lady's hand with her one large ring and one fingernail that's sporting a different color than the others is something unique for a photo from that period. Interestingly enough, 

this page in the 2004 issue of Needle presents an uncanny resemblance, especially with the large jewelry and the hands all being on buttons of some sort. The evolution of graphic design throughout the 20th century seems to feature every decade breaking the previous decade's mold. 

You can't Miss... This! 

Google Logos!

A history of Google logos! Not only is this endlessly entertaining and fun, but also really interesting to see what Google's designers have come up with, especially because most are designed for holidays/special days of the year which, of course occur every year. There are so many things about this that make me curious... Questions arise such as:

1. How do you get the job of being a designer for Google?
2. What else do these designers do?
3. The Google logo design seems like such a small and trivial part of the website, but the branding is so important... so how does Google choose some of its more random special days to feature and design a whole logo for?

And ya know, so on and so on. I thought this would be a good week to post something like this since we have our big logo competition coming up. :)

ALSO - 

Not to sound vain by putting this under the "You Can't Miss" category, but alas a something a little more personal: a website of my own. Well, technically, not my own. Mine through Weebly... a web host for online portfolios. Unfortunately, and boy do I mean unfortunately, it's beginning to look a lot like... real life. Job searches, resumés, portfolios, all things scary and unknown. 

I have always been a bit obsessed with Disney. Not just their movies, but also their magical, magical home in Orlando. Being as though I am unsure what I want to do for the rest of my life right now, I feel as though an internship is a good transition into the real world. Technically it's a full-time job that pays, but is also non-committal and hopefully will ween me onto something more long-term. Thus, I am applying for an Internal Communications Internship at Disney World for the Fall, but definitely keeping in mind it's a long shot. But, they already have positions posted on their website and I need to apply... mmm soon. 

SO, I spent most of my trapped-snowglobe week working on my online portfolio. The only things I have to finalize is my photography section. I have a few more photos to add, but other than that it's pretty conclusive. And here again, I am going to ask for y'alls help with opinions and critiques. Anything you like/dislike about it, or think I should change about it before I begin sending it out with future job/internship applications would be greatly appreciated!

My Online Portfolio

Thanks y'all!

Peace Out, River Trout -

      Kaylee