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 13

So close, yet so far away...

This week, I changed my focus from one web site project to another and worked like a dog to get a working web portfolio up. Unfortunately for me, figuring out how to host my own web site has proved to be more difficult than I ever thought it would be. I am now on my third redesign of the entire site and am finally starting to like where it is going. Once I figure out how to get it up on the web, I'll be a really happy camper.

My team and I have also been working on the Pets issue. I'm really happy with our style guide. It has just the right amount of fun elements to spice up our clean Vox layout. I haven't done anything else with the animal cruelty feature because I just got a second draft of the copy today. I think I may do the whole thing in black and white with navy accents to contrast the seriousness of the article with the rest of the magazine. Thoughts?

To get you all excited for the May 7th publication here is my baby, Wilke (or Wilk for short).



Oh, and she wears a Mizzou collar. How cute is that?

Response: Web site critique

It was very interesting for me to read my web site critiques from my fellow designers. I got mixed reviews on my design, which, ironically, reflects the way I actually feel about it. I'm not sure if I am totally sold on what I have done or if I completely hate it.

In a strange way, I feel like my web site needs to perfectly reflect my aesthetic. It is what I am using to encourage people to hire me after all. And I think I am putting too much pressure on myself in that regard. I am afraid to do too much because it won't be perfect.

I know I need to get over this quickly, but that is the current obstacle that I am battling. I think that I will be able to take the suggestions to build up the content while I am developing the overall look of the site. So, thanks for participating fellow designers!

Critique: Week 5

This week, I worked on designing a web site for our projects with the publishing class. Since I know next to nothing about web design (except the cool things that I see other people doing), it was difficult for me to imagine how all the elements I wanted to include would actually work. I ended up just putting together something that I thought looked visually appealing and fit the audience.The most interesting part of this experience was designing for a client, as opposed to making my aesthetic fit the assignment. Don't get me wrong, there are definitely aspects of me in the design, but I really tried to think about who would be using the site and making it work for them.

I also got my Global Journalist assignment this week and am about to go to a design meeting to see if it's okay. This was difficult because I unfamiliar with the publication. I had been told that it was pretty formatted, so I wanted to give them something that would fit in the magazine, but I also wanted it to be a good clip. Those of you who also had to design for GJ this week, how did your designs turn out? Did you keep with the strict formatting or do something completely original?