Critique: Week 12

We're getting near the end folks.

This past week I worked on our Meredith project like crazy so that it would be ready for galley edits on Monday, and boy, is it starting to look like a real web site. Today Jena and I joked that it looks "realer" with those ugly ads. Whatever it takes, I guess. Here are some new tidbits:




I also designed our "community" page, but it won't be a working web page, just a PDF to show.

In other news, there was Pet's work to be done both for my feature and and the entire issue. I can give away the good stuff just yet, but I am playing with the idea of chains for my feature (a story on animal cruelty). Here is a preliminary splash page:


I don't necessarily want it to be entirely black and white, but I kinda like where this is headed. The cramped lettering is supposed to mirror the tiny cages that the dogs in the story are stuffed into. I have only seen a first draft of the text, so I am sure my design will change with it.

Critique: Week 11

This week has been busy as always.

I redesigned my school safety cover based on the critiques I received last week. I really loved my black cover, but what I loved about it was the directness that it got at the issue. I was told to work on the white cover with the repeated words, so I did my best to blend the two and came up with this:


I also worked on a sweet multimedia component for the books department. Next week, I'll post a link to Voxmagazine.com that will let you check it out.

Also, it has been another big week for our Meredith Project. The web site is really starting to come together and I am proud to have learned as much as I have (with the help of some other talented designers). Here are some more tidbits:

Critique: Week 10

Last week was tough. And I barely made it out alive.

This week, I designed covers for Vox. After being given the choice to design a cover for Earth Day or the school safety feature, I chose the feature. I think the story is significant and deserves the prominence of being featured on the cover. So, I designed three serious covers that asked the question: How safe are Columbia's kids? I think that school safety really is a community-wide issue, which is why I chose to pose a question on the cover.



The critique was that they were too Sept. 11th. I didn't really know what that meant, so I googled "Sept. 11 Covers". I guess the middle one could look like the New Yorker cover with the Twin Towers on the black cover? Embarrassingly, I didn't know that cover existed. I just thought to myself, well this is different than anything Vox has done this semester, and it gets across the severity and gravity of the issue. Oh well, I am working on white one. I know we have already had typographic covers, so I'll have to come up with a little more for this one.

I have also been working on our Meredith project like crazy. I am doing a lot of redesigning and tweaking now that we have all the content. I am convinced that the end product is going to be just beautiful and am excited about where everything is going! Check out this other new element:

Critique: Week 9

Last week was Spring Break. However, for me, it would be appropriately titled "Spring Work on Design at my Parents' House Week."

After a minor life crisis, I am the proud owner of a MacBook Pro (yes, you should be jealous). It is so fast and allows me to have all of CS4 open at once, so I can jump back and forth between programs. It has revolutionized my life.

I wish I had more to show for my week of hard work, but unfortunately it was a lot of trial and error. I am not ready to show the web site I have made to showcase my work, nor the Meredith Corporation prototype that I have been slaving over. But I will show some tidbits from it to whet your appetites:




After today's meetings, I have a lot of new ideas for the site. Despite much frustration, I have realized that I am very invested in this project and am excited about making it look really good.