Response>>Art Director Help

For a class assignment we were to get in touch with someone in the industry, ideally in a position we are interested in. I spoke with an art director at a city/regional magazine. Her information was certainly helpful.

My biggest concern was what to do upon graduation in a time when getting a job is so hard to do. Her biggest piece of advice was to make your self extremely versatile. Know how to design, but also know how to do everything else. Photograph, do multimedia, style shoots, etc. And have a diversified portfolio that shows you can do it all.

My discussion with her gave me a little kick to get started on things like t-shirt design. It will diversify my portfolio. From interning at inside columbia magazine, i know that have various events they create bags and t-shirts for, etc. I think it will be just one more thing to set me apart from other applicants. It also encouraged me to go back to something that I really love and FIND time to do it because now I certainly have a reason, photography. Hopefully despite the business of the next few weeks I will be able to get out and shoot. Photographs to be coming soon...

You Can't Miss>>T Shirt Designs

One thing for my design career I would really like to get into is t-shirt design. My boyfriend used to do it, so whenever I get a moment, he will be teaching me the ins and outs! In the meantime, I found this really cool site called threadless.com. Once I actually get a design I can submit it on this sight to be sold and printed, how cool is that? For those of you with a similar interest or who have done work designing t shirts, check it out. Oh ya, and you can also get paid for it. Yay money!



here is one of my favorites i saw on the site:

Response>>Web & The Job Hunt

So, I'm feeling talkative this morning and I'm going to post 2 responses. Aren't you lucky to here an extra insight of mine?

This morning my design group had our critique for the countryhome.com project we have been working on. In all honesty, it got picked apart. Really picked apart. As it should have been, however. The 3 designers, although working off of a style guide, built 2 department pages each. They all ended up being very different. I think the biggest problem, though, was that since we didn't write the content it was hard to have any direction with how the story or department should look. I think we all realized how crucial it is for the publishers and designers to work together. They all had visions for their content, which made great sense, but weren't executed by us, or if they were they were misunderstood. I've learned through this experience that email and written instructions don't really cut it when it comes to trying to build something visually. A lesson learned that a team is a team and while it can be a pain to sit down and walk through your design with someone the bottom line is on a company project in the real world building essentially other people's vision (the creative director and publishers/editorial) takes teamwork!

Oh the real world.

Which brings me to my next response. I have finally jumped on the band wagon and started seriously looking for jobs. I am applying for my first one this week. I forgot what a task it is to redo resumes, write cover letters, get references, etc. I've also learned that I may be over obsessing about it all. I cannot decide what clips to use. If my resume should have activities or not. Blah blah blah. But, I think with a deep breath I've decided that while the details certainly need to be in place I need to let my design work speak for itself and have a little big more confidence. I also need to quit obsessing over one job and start getting myself out there to open doors. So, what a better way to get myself out there then post my resume on my blog! Here is the most basic version. Feel free to share it with anyone and everyone you know! (And give me feed back since even though I say I'm trying not to I'm still obsessing over if its "right")



download the PDF here
http://bengal.missouri.edu/jlafyb/images/Resume.pdf

and here's just an image, too

You Can't Miss>>Personal Websites

So I thought a lot yesterday about what Sarah and Philip said when presenting their sites. Sarah had her little quippy welcome to my site page that shows her personality and Philip has his picture to give his design/site a face. I'm still not sure what I think about making your site very personal. I like the idea initially because it does give you a face, set you apart from other designers, make you human, etc...but can showing your personality hurt you? If the client doesn't feel drawn to you? Or if your personal design style shows through (even though your work may show a variety of styles) will a client focus on that instead of your work? (I worried about this with my logo--although, I do think my logo helps show my variety in that it's not cute and girly!)

Well while I certainly don't know the right answer, I did find to websites/blogs off of the blog I follow designers-who-blog.com that have personality shining through. I'd like to know what you think. Is it too much?

Dickson Fong shows his personality much more through his copy while Malene Hald does through her header designs. Check them out and let me know what you think...It would really help me in deciding how much "personality" to put on my site.

Dickson Fong http://www.dicksonfong.com

Malene Hald http://malenehald.dk/blog/

Week 9?

It's sad I've lost track of what week it is! But even though I missed blogging for a week, I certainly didn't take a break from designing (though it was probably needed!)

CRITIQUE:

Let's see....

About 2 weeks ago I worked on designing a new set of covers for Vox. This set is about a play called "The Verge," which focuses on the psyche of the woman, what women want, etc. Being in the mood that I was I tried to do some unconventional things although the original plan was to make it a photo cover. I think I probably went a little overboard with the dominatrix idea but I think it was fun and poked fun at the feminist ideal behind the play. I also really liked my vegas show girly cover which pretty much had NOTHING to do with the assignment..but I will definitely keep this around for future inspiration. I think this covers helped me realize an edgy/sexier design style beyond my typical "cute" and "girly."






I worked really hard over break on designing a logo to "brand" myself. I wanted something I could put on my resume, website, business card, etc. I wanted to LOVE it and have it embody "me." From the feedback I got from my classmates they all really seemed to like the final product. I may tweak it a bit, and I have done some flash work with the lines for my website. But, overall I like the feel of it.



My website is a work in progress but www.jenaleneanderson.com is a working site! Now that I've battled the dreamweaver and flash demons, I'm actually really excited and eager about improving it and advancing my skill in these programs. While it's not so fun to necessarily tackle all of the technical that comes with the programs, seeing the finish product makes up for it and let's me give myself a pat on the back for learning something new!

Speaking of WEB, I also worked on our countryhome.com project over break. It was certainly a challenge (I tackled this before my own site, so this is where I did a lot of my learning). To be honest, I'm not that proud of my "designs," I think I was getting too caught up in the web and making it work. This week I will be going back (after working with the other designers and publishers) and doing some re-working.

While on break I worked on another "Look of the Month" and "Shopping Page" for Inside Columbia Magazine. The theme of May's issue is travel so I went with an outfit easy to travel in (wrinkle free!) and a shopping page of every possible bag you could ever need when you travel. I'll be designing those next week. Here is the image we will use for the LOM, just to give you a sneak peak.



Oh ya, and I redesigned a redesign for my portfolio.

Response>>The Industry

Over the last few weeks in editing we had some guest speakers come in to 1) help us learn how to get in the industry and 2) other publications to think about working for. To address the second point first, I had never really thought about alternative weekly's. Even though thats what Vox is for the most part, I didn't really realize I suppose that other cities had those. I was excited to hear about the editorial flexibility they have and therefore hopefully, art flexibility. I've also decided after some thought that working at a smaller more flexible publication will be more for me. The thought of sitting behind a computer and being constrained to a template every week would drive me crazy. I also know that designers have to pay their dues but at a smaller publication the chance of moving up faster is certainly more likely.

To address the other point, a J-school professor at MU, Amanda Hinnant, spoke to us about her experiences at Glamour and Real Simple. Her tips were helpful as far as what is expected when we enter the professional working world. I think we are often quite catered to as far as--well I was sick so I didn't come to class--or I was so stressed I didn't do my best on the project--and her lecture helped me to realize those days are over. I also learned that while our portfolio's are REALLY important, networking is the most important and getting yourself noticed. I think for me that will be the hardest as I tend to be a bit shy around strangers. Time to man up! (That's sexist, I know-sorry!, but I can't think of any other way to put it!)

You Can't Miss>Logo Pond

I thought this would be helpful this week since we are all redesigning our logos this week. It's full of awesome logos for companies of all kinds. It is also a chance to get your work out there. You can pay a fee to submit logo designs, but there are also awards for the logos that win. Below is a logo that one last year. The logo is for Fido Computers.



There are two different sites...the main site is.. and the awards are featured on

Hope this helps!