Critique: Week 14

This is it folks. My last week of undergrad. Wow.

Needless to say, I have been a designing fool this week. Finally got my web site up: KristinNoe.com. I'm pretty happy with it. It gives the exact tone that I wanted, I guess I just wish I had more really awesome, diverse work to put up.

After seeing how great Abbey's mini portfolio turned out, I used Blurb.com to make one also. I would have liked to have tried something handmade, but that just isn't in the cards for this time of the year. That being said, I really like how professional the Blurb books look. I can't wait to see it! Check out the preview here.

This past weekend I also got to art direct a photo shoot for the Books department of Vox. We were only shooting books, but I got to work with the photographer a lot, which was a very educational experience. He came up with some very interesting ways to arrange the books that made them look really beautiful. I guess that's why they pay him the... oh wait, no.

Oh, and the Pets issue comes out tomorrow! I was very happy with my feature on animal cruelty, but noticed in galley edits that some of my favorite parts of the spread were changed :( and I didn't save a copy of it, so I'll have to wait until tomorrow and get the pdf.

Sorry there is nothing visual to show for my week's work. Hopefully I'll pick up some interesting projects over the summer that I will be able to post!

Critique: Week 4

This week I designed my first department page. The story was about digital readers and whether or not they signal the death of the printed word. My editors asked for a photo illustration, so I put together a gravestone for the printed word:
Considering I am not a strong illustrator, I think it turned out pretty good. However, when I went to see how it printed out on Monday, there was a comment that it might not fit with the story :( At that moment, I realized just how important the headline and dek would be, especially since the original headlines were what spawned the idea in the first place. Every week I am learning more and more about how an entire staff really must work together to make a cohesive product.

Still to come this week: I am going to take my first stab at designing a web site and collect materials for my Global Journalist assignment. The world never stops spinning for a designer!