Response >> Vox Redesign

I wanted to say congrats to Meredith on her redesign of Vox.(Vox is a weekly city magazine published with the Columbia Missourian newspaper) We can all definitely respect the time and effort she put into this project.

I really loved the redesign. I think the editor's were probably squirming a little bit that text is going to be cut. a lot. but, i think in this day and age, witty short writing is necessary. save the long winded stuff for the feature well. in all honesty, i rarely read all of the department page stories from week to week. i usually thumb through, read things that LOOK interesting and then move onto the feature well.

I think Meredith's design will get people like me to stop and read the different department pages, which usually do have some great and fun writing. It goes back to the purpose of design--to get reader's to dive in.

great job, i hope to get a clip with your new design to share on my blog!

You Can't Miss >> Art Farm

Well, I'm not sharing this with you because I think the art/design is amazing, but I think the concept of this Art Farm blog is kind of cool. It shows your more of who she is and makes her more interesting.

Basically Judith Hunt (mainly an illustrator of children's books) combines her blog with the two things she loves: farming & art. I was trying to think of what my two love combo's could be....

design & napping, design & tequila, design & fast food, design & starbucks? i think this means i need a hobby.....

What I want to show you guys though, is the neat way she shows her work online. In my trend interview Cassie Darst of 417 Mag said that presentation of your work can set you apart. While this may not apply to us, it got me thinking about how I could present my design in a CONTENT DRIVEN way. haha, oh thank you jan.

She shows hers as a story book..each little book mark is clickable and brings you to a new page. here is a screen shot. check out her blog at http://www.downontheartfarm.blogspot.com

Week >> Less than a month to graduation!

Less than a month away.. I don't know whether to be excited or hide! I have so much to do before the end!

CRITIQUE:

Since I have nothing better to do (haha, ya right) I decided to count how many hours I spent designing this past weekend: 29.5! It's a good thing I love design.

My biggest focuses (foci?) this weekend were the criminal justice feature and countryhome.com. Both were successfully completed!

The draft of the criminal justice feature we showed Meredith I did like. However, we were trying to merge two ideas and it wasn't really working. Meredith and her amazing design skills helped us end up with an awesome and fun clip (that has no pink!). But here is one of my drafts of a spread. After it publishes on Thursday I will post the final and you can see how it changed for the better.


Next, the tecktonik man! There was some major confusion about whether this is running online this week or serving as an evergreen, but I designed him just in case. If it doesn't fun I'm hoping to give him some really cool sneakers and do something multimedia to make it more fun. But you know you love his purple skinny jeans.




Countryhome.com...oh, country home. I accomplished a lot with this project this weekend. I finally found a "style" I liked for the design of secondary features on the department pages. This image/design is clickable and leads you to a new page where the feature is. I think it is simple enough but still encompasses Kristen's feel she was going for. I also finished updating slideshows, fixing things here and there, and adding ads to the site. From here on out we just have some "tweaking" to do, mainly spacing issues of where things are placed on the site.



Finally, after such an exciting weekend, we turned in covers this morning for Vox. We had a few topics to pick from since the photo cover that originally was supposed to run was lacking great photos. I'll be honest, I was pretty burnt out and my cover lines aren't too witty. But, I like most of the concepts. I haven't done a full text cover yet and I love them, so I figured this was a good time to do it. The one with the marriage vow I thought was fun & poking fun a little bit at the issue. The "acceptance" cover may not necessarily work with the story. Our TA had reinforced that domestic partnerships aren't just for gay couples. But, after reading a Missourian (the local newspaper) story about it, it expressed that a lot of LGBTQ community members were present. While domestic partnership may not mean LGBTQ, the bottom line seems to be that this domestic partnership registry is making a difference in their lives, so why not focus on that aspect? I thought this quote was strong and I'm in love with this font (thanks meredith!) I'm sure I will overuse it from here on out...oh well. Finally I did a cover about the art of the encore story. The story seemed to talk alot about the "moment" bands decide to do the encore or not, the audience cheering and waiting to see what they decide. I wanted to focus on that moment by having the empty stage..and lets be honest, by cover line isn't very creative, but you get what I'm going for.






Oh and finally, I created this little RSVP card for my sister's graduation party brunch. I tried to get it to match her invitation, which I might add has a not so pretty design. It came as part of her senior picture package. But she looks goregous, so that's what matters. Anywho, here's my little card (and the ugly invite..should have let me handle it, MOM)





WHAT'S NEXT:

This week I will have cover revisions for Thursday....photos for the art of the encore story will be posted tomorrow, so I may try my hand at that.

I am also designing 3 spec ads for Inside Columbia advertising clients this week...eeek. I'm making myself do it because I only have one true ad in my portfolio. I'm trying to diversify (after hearing our trend interviews) even though I'm not very good at ad design. I will post what I come up with. I'm doing ads for MCSports, a new salon in town, and a title company (any ideas for this one?)

I will also be FINISHING my website and STARTING my mini-portfolio (i hope) oh..and about that online class i need to finish to graduate.....

Response >> I'm an Idiot

So, I probably shouldn't publicize on my blog that my resume had errors on it, (the correct, PERFECT version has replaced the one posted a few weeks ago)but I do think its SUPER important to emphasize what Jen Rowe and Andrea Hinnant have been telling us. These mistakes are crucial. If I don't get the job, I will be kicking myself repeatedly that this may be what cost me the position. Before turning in my Mizzou portfolio this afternoon, I treated my resume like an editing assignment. Going letter by letter, word by word to make sure NOTHING was wrong with it. I'm trying not to harp on it too much, lesson learned. I need to slow down and pay attention to detail.

Luckily, though, I did atleast get a phone interview. To give each of us a little encouragement, I was told that even though I didn't have as many years of experience as any of the other applicants, she thought my work was fantastic. I gave myself a little pat on the back when she said that. Regardless of whether I get the job, I can be proud that on the very first portfolio/resume I sent out, the ONLY reason I got a phone interview (reminder-spelling mistakes on the resume) was because of my design work. Perhaps these past few, grueling months, are worth it after all! :)

You Cant Miss >> Im A Thai Designer

So, I've been puzzled now for quite awhile about whether or not to put a photo of myself on my website. Well, for those of you debating about it as well, I found the perfect way for us to incorporate a photo.

On I'm a Thai Designer, each designer has a photo of themselves holding something super creative that says "Im a Thai Designer." While we obviously wouldn't use those words, I'm sure we could each think of something...I may go with the original, "I'm an awesome designer," haha. But, this is on my project do do list.






To me, this is the perfect solution to put my face on the site and make a connection but still have it be somewhat content driven, I'm showing you my design skill. The two I posted above are my favorites, but check out the site for some others that are equally as cool.

thaigraphicdesigner.wordpress.com

Week >> Never ending?

As I typed never ending, I thought to myself, is that one word or two, is there a hyphen? Thanks Jen Rowe, for getting me thinking that way, but the sad part is, I don't know the answer.

Anywho, this week in design...

CRITIQUE:

I worked on the Criminal Justice feature last week. Christy, Abbey and I went our separate ways to begin with and each have an element of our original designs we will bring to the final spread. Christy and I attended the photo shoot we had set up with our justice league members. It went, okay. We probably could have been a little more vocal, but at least on her camera we did see some stuff we really liked. We also ended up having her shoot some sillhouette shots which were very cool, I'm hoping we can find a way to incorporate them. Here are some of my initial designs/elements.






Next I'll move on to good old countryhome.com. Designing for web is the most time consuming thing I have ever done. Creating something in indesign or illustrator, then making it a jpeg, then loading it into dreamweaver to find it doesn't work and starting ALL OVER again. This weekend I spent most of my time designing my secondary features. They aren't quite there yet and I'm not proud enough of them to post, but I will soon.

I am also working on an illustration for the art department about some dance craze called tecktonik (I don't know if I spelled that right). Phillip had sent us the youtube link..It's very fun, so that is what I am going for in my illustrations. Here is what I started with having not seen the video...I'm going to stick with the basic format of my little guy (I am trying to give him hightops and a mohawk, I welcome suggestions on how to do it and make it look good). I also had high hopes for making this a little multimedia treat for online...but we will see how much time I have.

Here's my little dancing man.



WHAT'S NEXT:

I will keep working on countryhome.com. This evening I have been working on adjusting color in my slideshows as well as redesigning one. It at times can be overwhelming but one of my slideshows is teaching me how to organize a lot of text in an efficient and visually appealing way.

I will also keep working on the Criminal Justice feature. It will run in next Thursday's issue. As well as my little dance crazed man. I will post the final designs then.

The mini-portfolio (and big one for that matter) eeeeek...I'm avoiding it.

I will also be doing my FINAL Vox cover sometime this weekend. Typically due tomorrow, we are waiting on photos because it is going to most likely be a photo cover about the "Art of the Encore." I do have one non-photo cover in mind, however. Look out for these soon!

After doing my Mizzou portfolio today, I am really wanting to get some redesigns done.

Oh, and somewhere in all of this, apply for jobs!

Week 10

CRITIQUE:
This past week I didn't do as much design work as usual. I did however, send out my first resume and portfolio for a JOB, which is what consumed a lot of my time. I probably obsessed over it a little too much, but I was confident with what I finally sent out of kinkos doors (after printing everything, changing my mind, going home to make the changes, and reprinting!).

WHAT'S NEXT:
I will be working on countryhome.com things next week as well as a criminal justice feature for Vox. I will also be thinking of ideas for my mini portfolio and working on finishing my website!! I will post what I come up with for the criminal justice feature later this evening.