Critique: SJI Logos
When Greg Bowers came to talk to us designers as a class a couple of weeks ago (was that all it was?! Time blurs together...) about the Sports of Journalism Institute, I was a bit anxious about having to design 20 logos for a society revolving around something in which I knew nothing about. However, when I got started, I was actually very surprised at how quickly the ideas started flowing. Not to say that cranking out a total of 20 was easy and that my creativity started running low around #15, but I found that after I would construct one, I would find think, hey I really like that typeface, but I want to use it with a different art element. So basically the trying to think of 20 completely different ideas was pretty tough, but knowing I had to get 20 done helped me to look at my previous ideas and how to tweak them and improve them.
It was surprising to see which ones my classmates voted for as the top five, as two of my favorites also seemed to be others' favorites, but the others that were voted on were not ones I particularly cared for. However, after hearing everyone else, that seemed to be the case with a lot of people. It's interesting how different people's points of view are, and how we think something we come up with is terrible when really it's the class favorite.
For next week, we are choosing only five to work on and recreate. I'm wondering if after that Greg, Jan, Erica and eventually SJI are just going to choose out of (18x5= 90 logos)?? That's a pretty large pool to just choose one. Perhaps we will eventually have to narrow it down to one. Either way, I think this assignment was refreshing because it's something very different than the Vox and Meredith prototype designing that we've been doing. I think that there are certain people who are better at designing logos than features, for example, because they are short and punchier, whereas others have more trouble because they have less space to get their idea across.
Response: iPad Conference
Oh... the iPad. Why do I feel like the gadget has worn out its newness, and yet I feel like I never really heard many things (good or bad) about it until its been blowing up lately in the magazine world! I was talking to some younger Mizzou journalism students today who said that the requirements for the school of journalism here are changing so that now you will have to have a certain kind of MacBook, not just an Apple computer, and also some sort of touch gadget, whether it be an iPhone, iPad... etc. This is just so interesting to me, since I've only ever touched an iPad while playing in the Apple store. I just never thought there was anything so revolutionary about it... the fact that you touched the screen in order to use it instead of a mousepad didn't seem all that different.
But, I do agree that this tool makes complete sense for journalism. With print journalism, readers actually get print magazines that they can touch, carry around with them, flip from page to page, even make notes in the back or fill in quizzes with pens. When magazines started going online, there was none of this same feel anymore. Having the iPad almost seems like the middle ground, like the step between print and online, because you can touch it, carry it around, essentially "flip" from page to page.
At the iPad conference, Mike Haney was talking about how really it doesn't do a whole lot to ask readers what they want, because they don't know what they want. And they don't know what they want because they don't know what they can get. It is similar to when the first inventors of automobiles asked people what they wanted out of their transportation, and they said a faster horse. Well, yeah, because they didn't know that an automobile was an option or even what it was!
So, no I'm not sure whether all magazines are eventually going to be read on a device like the iPad instead of on paper, or if elementary school kids will stop learning how to physically handwrite anymore because they will all learn how to type instead, but either way the speakers at the conference made it clear that no one really knows. It is a general consensus of not knowing. Thus, everyone is just experimenting.
Mike Haney also said that if we were to take anything from his lecture, remember to always "try new things!"
You Can't Miss... This!
The Stockholm Public Library in Sweden. Now, architectural and interior design is a whole sect of design that I really admire and by which I am fascinated, but really don't know much about. Olivier Charles creates a virtual world for the interior design to this library. Look at the progression...
The last one is the finished product, actually located in the library in Sweden. I want to go here so badly. I'm pretty sure this would just kill Belle from Beauty and the Beast.
Also, something just fun, is some patchwork on the exterior of buildings with legos instead of concrete or brick. This is by Dornob Design Ideas. Really... what CAN'T you do with Legos??
Alright, well don't get too distracted rummaging through your old boxes trying to find your Legos... or googling "whole Lego houses" like I might have after seeing these...
Until next week -
Ciao Brown Cow,
- Kaylee
Twenty different logo designs seemed overwhelming at first, but I agree that once I started creating them, ideas came easier than expected. Yours turned out good. I really like the one with the half baseball stitches. They said that it was too sport specific, which makes sense, but it's well executed. Good job!
ReplyDeleteYour SJI logos came out great. I really like the baseball stitching one. I know that one was chosen to send to the SJI team. I excited to see the outcome of which logo was chosen for the organization.
ReplyDeleteIt's so funny, when I was looking at the photos of the Stockholm Public Library in Sweden, before I read all of your entry, the first thing I thought of was Beauty and the Beast. Growing up that was my favorite movie, and I was just as much of a book nerd as Belle. I would love to read all of the books on that shelf...if only I had the time.
ReplyDelete