Need Some Help

which do you prefer?

blog following march 20 - 27

While sifting through the new material on netdiver.net, I came across the website of an illustrator named Kyle Webster. So his work is cool enough (nothing I think is SUPER new and exciting but well executed nonetheless) but what I liked about his website was his "Kyle's brain" section. It seems as though he has designated a portion of his website that acts as a blog, a really good idea because it keep people coming back to his website, even if most of the content isn't knew.
Anyways, the topic this week was his frustration with companies that could not understand that illustrators could also do design and vice versa. He discussed how organizations like to see them as separate entities when really one person can be good at both. So this got me thinking... even though we might come out of this program with the skills to do a whole BUNCH of different design/illustration etc. will we be pigeon-holed as magazine designers?

Graphic Novel Books Department

Is it just me or is there WAY too much text on this for a story about GRAPHIC novels????
So this week's design is bittersweet for me.... Although I like how it ended up, there was a lot of illustrating that I could not include because there ended up being so much text. But such is life. I still think that a story about grpahic novels should be told in a view that makes the reader TRULY understand the subject matter.....

class musings for march 20 - 27

I have found our greatest challenge yet and it is in Internet-form. Creating a web site is honestly one of the most difficult things that I do mind doing. Sure, it has taken me FOREVER to get to a point where I can stand what I have come up with. Sure, I have spent hours playing around with Flash and Dreamweaver in my attempt to make the thing less hack (still lacking in the professional department) ... However beyond all this, being forced to create my own web site has been an incredibly empowering experience. I honestly thought that I was a technological lost-cause. And maybe I still am, but now at least open the programs and produce SOMETHING. It's sad to say, but this experience has been the most rewarding so far in grad school (okay, working for the missourian and VOX are right up there too). I suppose this one was just unexpectedly rewarding. Now, the question is can I make a web site that looks good? This we will have to see...

FreshLIFE Meredith

blog following march 11 - 19

round edges much?

This week I ventured into the depths of netdiver.net and discovered the industrial design links. Although this is an area of design that I imagine I will never try (I had trouble making a button in my grade 10 tech class), I was amazed at how the creativity of these folks parallels that of other designers. For instance, the work of FiveTwentyOneDesign is currently focused on shelving and their style is, as you can see, much on the round, curvacious side. Of course, rounded corners are always an option for us mag designers, when it comes to sidebars, photo frames, and drawing illustrations in general. Trippy. Perhaps a job exists in the industrial design world where I could creatively consult on their corner effects?
I have to admit I also chose this pic because it reminds me of my latest illustration for Vox.... see above....

class musings for march 12 - 19

Logos. This week we have been focusing on creating logos for the convergence journalism sequence. I always thought that this would be the most boring of all types of design. Not necessarily because there aren't some AMAZING logos out there, or that those who create them are not inventive. I guess I imagined that desiging logos is much the same as writing speeches: you have to come up with a million different ways to say the exact same thing. And let's be honest: How many company's have pretty much the same mission statement?
In creating my own logos, I have come to respect those that do this all the time. It is hard. And in order to make the same old catch-phrases interesting, you have to be UBER creative. Perhaps logo-makers are the most creative of the bunch!

Graphic Novel Illustration

Need some help with the colour scheme...

Website design?

Not sure if I can get away with the splash page being this crazy.

Square logo

I hate logos.

Global Journalist Spread

This is a four-page feature for the Winter 2007 edition of Global Journalist. The story is about how Venezuela is divided on whether press freedoms have improved or not. The stars are a main feature of the Venezuelan flag and in this spread are meant to represent bondage in the form of a chain.

The Tables Final

So I believe this is it. I am happy overall with the amount of white space and with the photographs. Although I wish I could have gottena photo from all of the best tables, it worked out in the end because I feel like the whle spread has more air.

blog following march 4 - march 11

Two words: Silja Gotz. (okay so they are two words that happen to be a really interesting name). She is an illustrator who has a resume more impressive than the burns I get after sitting in the sun for like 3 minutes. She has had her work published in like 12 countries, and about 100 different mediums. I found her through netdiver.net of course, and her website is definately worth checking out. I particularly like the diversity in her magazine work. Again, this is an artist who is not bound to one medium, she can work with anything from cutouts to photographs to drawing her own stuff. Some of her best work. Computer Arts magazine recently dedicated a spreads to her work.

class musings for march 4- march 11

This week the topic of my blog centers around critiquing in general. The past two lectures we have spent engaged in some form of critique (from portfolio stuff, to graffiti to the most recent critique of our prototypes). Something that Jan made us do in our last class (be the mean crtiiquer) I actually found quite helpful. Listen, we are all learning and so of course we all need positive feedback to (to be honest without it I don't know if I would have the confidence the keep designing) but at a certain point it is counter-productive. There are, of course, those deplorable people who just have an "eye," who just know what looks good, what type to use at all times, and so on and so on. I'm not talking about those people (bastards). I'm talking about the rest of us, who need help from other talented people who all have different strengths. And sometimes, it takes more energy to package a comment in a nice way than to just simply say it and have it sound a little harsh. Am I alone on this? Maybe I'm a masochist, but blunt is not bitchy. It's constructive.