londonkerning

londonkerning, originally uploaded by bohostripe*.

can;t miss 4/24
check this out. it's pretty amazine. graphicdesignbar.com shows a london map made ENTIRELY out of type. pretty crazy, but also really cool. how mcuh time and precision this took, i can only begin to imagine.

critique: websites
i'm pretty happy with my website. i went for a simpler idea and tried to merge a professional look with fun colors and still incorporate my style. i think i was ssuccessful. it still needs a lot of work though. the lautomated layouts need to be changed to something that both looks and works better. too bulky, as someone said, and I agree. this will all be reworked hopefully soon so i can begin sending this out as a working site. i will post a picture of my page as soon as i can dig up the acutal file.

response: mini portfolio: hearing teresa talk today was really informative. however, i'm already pretty much done with my mini-portofolio, and it's prety small. i guess now i knwo that i should send both taht in as well as larger print outs of my design that way the tentatvie employer can gauge both packaging creativity and presentation as well as the functionality and clarity of the larger prints.
*(hannah).

strangemovieposters

strangemovieposters, originally uploaded by bohostripe*.

like movie posters? take a look at some of the weirdest ones made. anotehr great collection of the top thrity strangest ideas/designs in movie posters. really fun to browse through. graphicdesignbar.com

thehoursfinal

thehoursfinal, originally uploaded by bohostripe*.

critique for 4/17
this is waht i worked on for the 4 page mall story. i think one of my weaker points is features. i always focus so much on the first page of it--the more graphic part, and then i feel like i neglect the rest--not purposefully of course, but it always looks that way. i'm glad it's over. my favorite part about this spread was my typography with the name and the clock hands.

response:
trend assignments:
it was really interesting hearing from my person. he's not only a truly talented designer but also really smart and savvy. His responses provided a lot of insight for me. i want to be independent and have a lot of the control--i also want to stick to a less conventional kind of design. again, what he had to say gave me more of an idea of what i have to expect or be wary of in the future.
also, hearing about all of the other trend reports was super interesting as well. just how people ended up getting where they are i found especially helpful.
*(hannah).

strangemaps

strangemaps, originally uploaded by bohostripe*.

The Strange Maps blog is is a collection of really strange and odd maps. It's really fun to get lost in this site just to see what kinds of things are out there! great stuff! take a look! www.graphicdesignbar.com

b

b, originally uploaded by bohostripe*.

critique 4/ 10
here's my short talk department from this week. sometimes i find illustrations a bit difficult. usually because it's hard to steer away from the clip-arty feel. i freehanded this sandwich illustration without looking at a picture, and i actually think it turned out looking less clip-arty that way. i'm pretty happy with it. i like the onions. i overall like this page. even though it's just a department, i feel like it turned out nicely.

response: contest judging.
it was really fun watiching the judges do their thing at this contest. however, i don't think in the future i would want to watch the judging of my own pieces. I'm glad mine made it into the final round, but i do think it was deserving of an honorable mention. i understand that my cover wasn't perfect, but some of the ones that won, (none from people in our class) i thought weren't conceptual or creative at all. oh well. this was a forced contest. i hate contests, and never enter them. they don't mean that much to me. also i was confused that for a lot of the srpeads the attention seemed to be given more to the quality of the photos or photo editing rather than the actual design/layout of the page. interesting.

wilson's

wilson's, originally uploaded by bohostripe*.

critique. i've been working on a thirty page magazine that i am designing, editing and coordinating. here's the mockup of the cover. it will probably change by the end but you can get the feel. i am designed out..this along with the blue note and vox is driving me crazy, so i can't wait for eveyrhting to be over.

response: trends assignment. i will be talkign with daniel perkelay who is 26 years old and has started his own design firm. he's an amazing dessigner and i only hope to be where he is five years from now. he also own an independent record label and started his own underground music magazine: the austin independent. i'm really excited to learn more about what he has to see because i'm starting to think if you're not the most conservative designer, that hte best place to start is with your own firm. something to look into. i'm also exited to hear everyone else's presentations. i think this is a very useful assignment actually.

ambigramdoormat

ambigramdoormat, originally uploaded by bohostripe*.

just a fun thing from my blog this week. graphicdesignbar.com
an ambigram doormat that is inviting when turned one way, and shunning of visitors when placed in a reverse fashion.
i heart type.

design interface

design interface, originally uploaded by bohostripe*.

this is one possiblitiy for my design interface. the idea is a bit too response: complicated for my own good. i've been getting help on flash, but the transferring etc...isn't working out well. i have another option that i'm putting solely on dreamweaver for the class to critique on thursday as well. i love making the desins for these, but right now i hate all of the software. unless i have a lot of time to play with something on my own--like these programs--i have trouble learning them. so, hopefully, if i ever get a day to relax in this life, i will dedicate some time to flash and dreamweaver. i'm impressed with people who manage to catch on to this technology so quickly. i think i'm scared of new things. oh well. one day.
critique: I don't have much i can be critiquing right now-- i have a lot of stuff coming up after spring break--short talk department illustrations as well as a feature on the mall policiy. ehh. yeah. all i can really critique is my web interfaces--none of which i am totally happy with. i feel like i'm overdesgned. like i have no more ideas. i'm definately in a rut, and all that's happening is that i have to design more and more. it sucks. i just want a break. and don't think spring break wil be my break b/c i have to design a magazine for wilson's total fitness-cover to cover-28 pages.

design interface

design interface, originally uploaded by bohostripe*.

response: logos. are hard. i think the biggest strugggle with this project for me was the fact that i was not particularly excited by the subject matter that i was dealing with. alhtough i like a challenge, i figured for a logo that is for a sequence at mizzou, i would be limited to black and gold. so that's what i stuck with. and i think they will pick something black and gold. anyway, i found myself getting bored with everything i was coming up with. i worked hard on it, though, but it wasn't a particularly enjoyable process. oh well. i'll see better days, i'm sure.


critique: short talk. i designed for short talk this week, and thought my illustrations turned out ok. i just hate how everything ends up looking like clipart. but oh well. also i learned that the editors are not supposed to hold any text until the monday before production. i was told that for in one ear and five things, that it was ok for the eiditors to write that after my design was due. not so. also the editors way overshot how much stuff they could fit on a page. it was kind of crazy. i wasn't told about sidebars until i found them in the text. it was kind of a mess and a lot of miscommunication. oh well. it worked out, and will hopefully go more smoothly next time.

can't miss this.
Amy jean porter animal illustraitons.
all are done in really cool colors and have a lot of charm. i will post more about this when i can post the accompanying photograph. also check out the ambigram doormat. fun play on typography.
*(hannah).

jorge0-1

jorge0-1, originally uploaded by bohostripe*.

can't miss this.
illustrations by jorge columbo. series called the dailes..work he is apparently best known for. there's tons in this set--all sketches of different new yorkers. it's quite an electic bunch. charming illustrations that are really fun to look through. graphicdesignbar.com

response: meredith covers
this is just a posting of my thoughts in general about covers. i think the standard for magazine design is really boring. for instance, when i go into the bookstore, i don't even stop to look at the front aisle that has all of the more conventional consumer publications..glamour...allure...cosmo...marie claire...jane...etc...look like the same thing from month to month...not to mention none of the above stand out from the other on a newstand. i guess i just am kind of surprised that people don't push the limit more with what they put on the cover. i guess the normal way sells, so people are afraid to experiment, but htere's so much more out there as far as design options for publications. it will be interesting to see if more magazines (besides the ones in teh artier section) will ever explore other options in the future.

critique: all meredith designs pretty much posted last week. i think my revison will combine my two styles. also have been working on illustrations for vox for the 15th. getting better at tracing while still making it look my own and not like clipart. clips to be posted later.

can't miss this! logo history

logohistory, originally uploaded by bohostripe*.

with our logo assigment coming up, this seemed an appropriate can't miss post. get a look into the history of all of these well-known logo designs. it's a lot of fun, and it gives insight into these everyday images!
check it out at graphicdesignbar.com
*(hannah).

and if anyone sees anyone with my portfolio that i lost, kill them dead. please. thank you.

critique and response

boomer1, originally uploaded by bohostripe*.

the covers and departments below are just some of the things i've been playing around with for boomer magazine. i don't think a lot of the cover images will work--primarily the twiggy and peace sign one--too remniscent. the gun one should work, and i changed the sell line to something about street violence to keep the issue more current and cultural. i'm sure people's biggest problem with these are the fact that they're on black --buti was going for the black and white photo more subtle nostalgic feel and it needs to be on a black background for that. again, i believe black means more than death. and it allows colors to pop. this is not everything i've done, and these covers have actually changed somewhat on my mat boards. but you get the idea. i think the bird cover will probably work best --or is more meredithesque even though it's still not very meredith. i dont' know. i'm still working with everything, and it's very challenging.


response: prototypes: it was really cool seeing everyone's approaches today to the different publications. i think eveyrone has a unique style and personality for their magazine, and it's interesting to see and hear people's thinking behind their designs. it's also obvious how frusturating an assignment this is b/'c coordination with editiors could probbably be better. and also it's tough coming up with a prototype without a lot to go on. but what i saw today, i was really impressed with. i think everyone has been able to pump a little more life into meredith in unique and unexpected ways.
*(hannah).

boomer3

boomer3, originally uploaded by bohostripe*.

boomer2

boomer2, originally uploaded by bohostripe*.

flight

flight, originally uploaded by bohostripe*.

flight

flight, originally uploaded by bohostripe*.

keysfeature

keysfeature, originally uploaded by bohostripe*.

KEYS

KEYS, originally uploaded by bohostripe*.

paperquilt can't miss!

paperquilt can't miss!, originally uploaded by bohostripe*.

so, they send you a bunch of different kinds of papers in teh mail, and then you design something using those papers, and send them back in only to be later sewn in as a square on a ginormous paperquilt. pretty sweet. fun designs to look at too.
*(hannah).

response:
portfolios are a hard, hard thing to put together. we saw this in class today, that's for sure. i thought it was really interesting and fun to see every'on'es collective work. distinct styles emereged, which was cool to see. also, it was neat to see logos, business cards, invitations, etc...a whole vairiety of design other than magazine. i think what we did today will help us to weed out what we want and don't want to be incorporated into what we want to present to clients. also, it gave us a lot of perspective into other areas of design.

voxpicksagain!

voxpicksagain!, originally uploaded by bohostripe*.

working on the design with vox picks. not happy enough with typography. also need real pictures.
working with a package is tough but challenging and fun.

critique2

voxpicks, originally uploaded by bohostripe*.

first rough draft of vox picks. the background is supposed to be tv noise, but it might be a bit busy. anyway. it's been changed.

critique.

voxmerge, originally uploaded by bohostripe*.

so this is what i first experiemented with for one of the vox stories for true false. the design didn't work with the ideas we came up with for a package, but i will be incorporating some of the elements into the new design to make it work better.

cloretsgross

cloretsgross, originally uploaded by bohostripe*.

graphicdesignbar.com
this just goes to show how graphic thinking pops up everywhere. i think this was a great idea. good execution. maybe not the best composition. but i sitll think it's such a clever idea. this week my blog has a lot of cool stuff. one of the most recent posts discusses a moleskin "diary" international display..that showcases artists decorating the notebooks from around the world. kind of fun to look at these and learn about other people!

response: website. i feel like i really need to get good at making websites. it's such a plus to be able to do that when applying for jobs or adding to your portfolio. i just think it's a bit confusing right now, but hopefully it will all click for me soon. right now all of the code seems so over my head.
also, i'm excited to hear more presentations come thursday.

critique.
i don't have the pdfs to show what my departments look like yet. i will post them as soon as i get them off of the vox server. as far as the experience. it was a bit frusturaitng. i spent a lot of time at vox over the weekend. more than 8 hours, but i'm kind of a slow designer. but one of the stories was WAY too short, and i couldn't even design the page around it. miscommunication i guess, but it really pays off to plan well for space. i like my illustrations. the lanterns i did for the chinese new year story, i really like.
the hand i think looks ok--it was the first time i had enough patience to sit down with the pen tool--but this kind of illustration isn't really my style but comes in very useful.
i will post these as soon as i get them!
*(hannah).

cloretsgross

cloretsgross, originally uploaded by bohostripe*.

graphicdesignbar.com
this just goes to show how graphic thinking pops up everywhere. i think this was a great idea. good execution. maybe not the best composition. but i sitll think it's such a clever idea. this week my blog has a lot of cool stuff. one of the most recent posts discusses a moleskin "diary" international display..that showcases artists decorating the notebooks from around the world. kind of fun to look at these and learn about other people!

lantern

lantern, originally uploaded by bohostripe*.

i'm so glad i don't have to use those stupid illustraitons anymore that had celebrity heads on animals. there was a miscommunication about what i was designing for--i thought the celeb/animal thing was a fun story, but it was just the sidebar--in any case, they were doing a whole chinese new year story, too, with history, etc...so here is the art for that more generally themed story. i kind of like these. much more my style than the crazy celeb/animal stuff.

can't miss this and response

can't miss this and response, originally uploaded by bohostripe*.

pantone has come out with their new fall colors! Apparently a new line of colored ipods has already taken to this predicted forecast. these are fun and inviting colors! I like them a lot!

response: I learned so much today from the class presentations! From looking at all of the old Harper's covers and seeing how they evolved over time, it makes me sad to see that the less cluttered more graphic approach to magazine design has been replaced with scereaming sell lines and redundant/stagnat headshots. Also, the advertisments in Life magazine were really fun to look through. How entertaining to look back and see how advertising has changed. It's also really fun to see every once and awhile a design from way back when that looks like it could be printed in one of today's publications.
i look forward to hearing more presentations!
*(hannah).

SHORTTALKART CRITIQUE

SHORTTALKART1, originally uploaded by bohostripe*.

this is the art i'm doing for short talk on the fifteenth. i feel like these illustraitons are really goofy but i guess they get the job done. I hate doing illustrations because I don't feel like i'm very good at them. I feel like they're going to make the spread look a bit messy/unprofessional but oh well. i guess this proves that if i ever need to I can turn lance armstrong into a pig and paris into a rooster.
dear lord.
*(hannah).

response

I have really enjoyed reading both the typography book and graphic style. I think it's really inetersting seeing how design has progressed over the centuries and how much social structures, social issues, etc...informs design. I thought reading about the art nouveau style in germany --jugend (youth) was espcially interesting. it showed how design changed due in part to what was going on in the country. i also learned from reading the books that i like russian design a lot and that my design style/taste is certainly of a simple/bold/ bauhausian persausion.

list of top typography fonts is out by the way:

also. i know i wasn't at meredith with anyone, but i can tell you right now i could not work at meredith and be happy. no offense to anyone--it's just that this home and garden stuff is really not all that interesting to me. especially when it's repeated 5 million times over with no unique design style whatsoever.

and: i was hoping for people's thoughts on this: for band posters, or any poster really, but i guess is see a lot of this with music-related propoganda, are you guys fine with the art on the poster having nothing to do with the band--having nothing content-driven about it. does the interest of the image work well enough for you? or do you like it better when it's a clever play on words or something in reference to or about the band? here is an example of a non-content driven poster. granted, i don't think this is particularly well done anyway--but you get the idea. just wondering your opinons.

you can't miss this!

ok guys. you have to check this out. i've been following headsofstate's work for a while now, and i'm so excited that my blog, the graphicdesignbar, thinks they're pretty awesome, too. check it out!!! they do mostly music posters, and one of the reason i like their style is because they're straightforward and they play off the content rather than just having a competely random image that has nothing to do with the band. very clever duo. great ideas and great designs. enjoy. www.headsofstate.com

h20 final critique

well i'm going to spare everyone from seeing the fifty versions i did before i reached my final. lets just say this was a long, hard and frusturating process, and it doesn't help that the smallest thing being "off" could keep me up all night. i'm a self-confessed nerd. anyway, i really like my concept, and i think for a story on water that this was both a creative and hopefully successful approach. I think the most challenging part of doing the cover besides being involved with the "blunder" discussed in class, was the typography. I knew i wanted a sinple, sans-serif, technical but not computery font--something mathematical--light, vertical and square. it wasn't so much choosing the typography i guess, but finding a good placement for it on the cover. Because my image started at the bottom of the page and ended halfway up, i as left with a lot of graph-paper space to work with and no other backgorund image. I guess that's the part that i don't feel looks 100% right on the cover--i'm not sure how successful i was in melding the background graph paper, the water image and the type into one cover image. oh well. it's over, and now i can sleep again.
*(hannah).

h20 revision 003.

can i or am i even allowed to bleed the water image off the cover? will it still bleed on the cover or look weird? thoughts?
anyway, b/c i think i can't i stopped the water within those purple page margins in indesign.
*(hannah).

can't miss this! why design is wonderful

in the blog i am following, graphicdesignbar, one of its recent posts features these fans made in tokyo that keep the global warming concept in mind. this is why i love design. because it's beauty with a lot of function involved. the fans are created using color swatches of cool colors to remind us of how nice it is to stay cool and feel cool in a world that is endangered of the opposite.





i also love some functionless design. although i think beauty in itself serves its own puprose. anyway, my sister who is an art major sent me this link earlier today of a place called hotelfox in copenhagen. each of the rooms in their hotel is unique--painted/illustrated by one artist. these rooms are wonderful, and ridiculously expensive i'm sure. anwyay, how fun would it be to get a chance to do this? i would love to visit this place just to see the vison behind each room. check out www.hotelfox.com. here are some of my favorites.

response: why contests are evil

i've chosen to respond to the class session we had today in which we did the preliminary judging for the city and regional magazine design contest. I think just being a part of the judging itself was quite a useful learning experience. First of all, I think what Jan said about contests and juding in general--basically, how no contest is fair--- is incredibly important to keep in mind especially when submitting material to be "graded" by others. It's hard not being chosen for something, and oftentimes people take the results very personally. (like me) I think being on the other side of a contest has shown me that it doens't mean much if you don't get picked. There were several spreads today that i thought were really well done, and only three could be picked. (luckily 2 of my favorites made the top three, and my third favorite made the top 5) but that aside, there were many that were deserving and for a variety of reasons. some had standout typographical choices. some great illustrations and layouts. it was generally tough--tough even to view these submissions under one umbrella category under which to be judged. I also think today verified how subjective design and all art is. what some poeple liked and explained would capture their attention, wouldn't have caught mine for a second, and i'm sure many people would have felt that way about my choices. but that's life. that's art. that's taste. and there's lots of different tastes out there. and that's something i've got to get used to. in the meantime i should probably work on the not taking it personally part. :) because someone out there--at least one person--no matter who you are and how good or deserving you think your work is, is always going to think what you've done is complete crap. :) so to that i say, march on, do what you love and screw them!
*(hannah).

breast cancer feature final critique

critique of breast cancer cover and feature: I worked really hard on this design. especially on the cover concept. I proabably played around with at least three other cover ideas before this one struck me. it was a frusturating process, but it was a good feeling when i stumbled upon my final idea. I think the biggest challenge of this story was illustrating its three major themes/topics without being kitschy or confusing to the reader. the themes of humor, breast cancer and putting on a show or play jumped out from the story the most as the most dominant points. so, the process began: i first played around with the idea of using a clown nose, but i figured that approach might be pretty common, so then i played around with a pill bottle image with a label that said comic relief...i also made a cover with a comedy mask whose string formed a breast cancer ribbon. anyway, none of those turned out well, and it wasn't until i was at my work at ticketmaster, that the idea of play tickets struck me. so i used those to make a ribbon, and i kept the background black to convey the mood of a dark theatre. i'm sure some people will freak out because the background is black, and the color black on its most base level is considred dark, depressing and dreary...etc...but I LOVE black, and i think it makes the image pop, and i think it can also lend itself to producing a sophisticated mood especially with such a simplified, stark graphic. anyway, i was really happy with my cover, although i will admit trying to convey comedy through the image wasn't successful. i relied on the cover text for that.



my feature i kept simple. I actually played around a lot with it as well--with different images, etc...but with my past experience doing features for vox, both of which i used heavy, illustrative design elements, i felt they didn't translate all too well from computer to newsprint. perhaps if vox were a glossy, i would feel that it could carry heavier designs more successfully, so instead, i chose to stay more airy and simple with my feature design. i played with the text, using showlights as the font to convey the theatre mood once again and let pink be my driving color. i also think it's important to play up the images, so i kept those large as well. looking back, i think my feature looks a bit text heavy, and i probably should have found a way to loosen it up a little bit--maybe a little too newspapery...

breastcancer2

breastcancer2, originally uploaded by bohostripe*.

getting there.

h20 draft 002 critique

h20lighter, originally uploaded by bohostripe*.

this is still not finished. i've added graph paper to the background to get across a more subtle idea of a graph, but again, it is still a work in progress.
i'm thinking of adding light tick marks or numbers or something to further convey the techincal/graph idea. also gradations in the heights of the streams of water will probably help as well.
*(hannah).

h20 draft 001.

h20, originally uploaded by bohostripe*.

rough draft number 1. none of the text is formatted for the publication. the image is the focus.