The Week of Iowa

In two days, we wake up at a time of morning that I've only ever seen because of staying up that late, and join the chirping birds in the dark abyss outside to climb on a bus and travel to Des Moines, Iowa.  I've never been to Des Moines, or Iowa for that matter, so I hope our experience leaves a positive impression on me. The publishers and designers have been working extremely, and I mean late hours, weight loss, permanent dark circles under the eyes kind of hard, on our respective magazines to present them all to Meredith Corp. at the end of the semester. Well, this is it. You'd think that after working on something for a whole semester, you'd be prepared to talk about it for days on end, however our 40-minute presentation ahead is pretty daunting. I'm really excited to show them what we've put so much energy into though, and I'm even excited to explain it and delve into why we love the concept... let's be honest, I'll probably bring up my dad. I'll probably bring up that he raised me and inspired my interest in Plaid Dad. I'll probably leave out the Elvis suit.



Critique: Mini Portfolio


So I wanted a cover that looked professional, but also reflected my personality. I found a tutorial online on how to make an Illustrator typography-type element that looked similar to this, so I followed it and then went back and changed things and tweaked it to make my own, and also changed the colors. Below is my cover, and then an example of a spread. I have the label on the left, along with a tab of the section. I really like the way it turned out, though I have things I need to tweak after seeing a proof. It is a lot of white, but I think keeping the white space helps it look more professional. The emphasis needs to be on the work itself, not the design of the portfolio necessarily.

I can't wait to see the final product!

Response: iDad

Our Plaid Dad app's called iDad, which theoretically would contain content from both the print version, and offer new content, and also feature a store where readers could buy some of the zany gadgets and other things that iDad's content displays. We did not make fully execute all of our ideas, but we did execute a home page, which has buttons that lead you to section pages, and then from the section pages you can go to the stories/pages that fall under that particular category. In the real iDad app, we would feature a lot of hands-on, service type of features where dads could tote around their iPad in the kitchen to look up recipes, watch videos on how exactly to whisk that egg in the best way possible, or concoct the perfect caffeinated craving.

 

Home Page

 

'Drink Me' Section

 BYOB page from the 'Drink Me' section

 'Rescue Me' section

 iDad's Recipe Dictionary that falls under the 'Rescue Me' section

 'Fun with Food' section

 Destination Dining page (scrolled down) from the 'Fun with Food' section

 'Conquer the Kitchen' section

 Renovation Station page that falls under the 'Conquer the Kitchen' section

It's really exciting to see our app function on an actual iPad. Granted, it's a very basic rendering, I'm still so thankful that I learned how to do this and can't wait to show the Meredith editors.

You Can't Miss... This!

Japan's Alice in Wonderland restaurant

I've decided that if my print and graphic design skills don't get me anywhere, I'm going into interior restaurant design. How cool would it be to be able to design something like this when you've got a huge budget that allows for it? At least, I'm assuming a huge budget...

Gotta go, Buffalo,

     - Kaylee