Photo Inspiration: earrings

I'm going through a huge mint phase so I had to share some earrings I saw today because jewelry is something that always has such a unique design.

You Can't Miss This: Instragram FX by Photoshop and illustrated magazine covers

A. This week, the blog I follow is celebrating six years of being on the web. On the blog there were mostly just highlighted archives from years past, so I found one that caught my eye. Chris Spooner posted a tutorial on how to do our favorite Instagram photo effects on Photoshop. I'm sure after playing around in the filter gallery we could eventually figure out a similar effect, but this is a quick guide on how to get them quickly. Here are some of the examples of photos that have been adjusted in photoshop but look like they've been on Instagram.
 

B. Going through our online portfolios today made me realize how many of us designers enjoy doing illustration work. I thought these magazine covers would be fun to talk about because they strictly feature illustrations and created images instead of photography or typography (like I've blogged about before). These were pretty great. Some were a lot more abstract than others, but I thought it showed the diversity that's allowed when publications decide to use illustrations or icons.

Critique: Online Portfolios

I thought it'd be easier to write a critique rather than a response of my online portfolio, mainly because I know many changes need to be made. I had a rough outline finished for today's class. I think I am going to make adjustments on my type size and color palette. Right now, I just have a templated color palette, but I am going to try and mimic my mini portfolio with a mint green and white typeface. I am ready to see the finished product! That being said, I am going to need to work hard this weekend on my site. I had trouble at first deciding what page to put my design clips on.

After looking at a few other design portfolios, I think it might be necessary to include some thumbnails on my initial page. That way employers or colleagues can have easy access to my designs without having to navigate through my site too much. I also will be adding a pdf clip of my resume, so I can get into detail about past work experiences. Abby is going to take my picture so I can finally replace my spring break '12 photo that is currently all I have. Here are a couple of screen shots of what I have right now. Like I said, the flower photo will be replaced with yours truly. Be ready to see my final website next Tuesday! I will hopefully have my domain back by then. For now you can find my site at
www.odf7c5.wix.com/oliviaframedesign

Response: Mini Portfolio Take 2

Today we went around class and shared what each of us have so far for our mini portfolios. I am happy with my feedback. I feel like all of the comments will help make my portfolio more successful. I also decided that I am going to keep the same color scheme for my website as well. I think it will help brand me a little better and make my work recognizable in the long run. I already critiqued my mini portfolio (either last week or the week before). But after some changes, here is what I had in class today:

I'll leave it at that. You get the point. But like I said, everyone's feedback has inspired me to make some changes. I might have a few cover additions in the next couple of weeks too. I can't believe graduation is almost here. Scary!!!

Photo Inspiration: Storm pic

This is some hail my friend had hit her house a couple of hours ago. Scary! Glad that stayed away from my car.

You Can't Miss This: Character Illustrations and Movie Posters

A. This week on the blog I follow, Chris Spooner posted some adorable and detailed character illustrations. I thought these are really cute for illustrations but also for people who sometimes like to have an icon for their logo or website. These are pretty detailed but I love how much the color stood out. Illustrations like these can really add personality to a design and lighten the mood of any story. I think it's important to keep illustration in mind over photos sometimes, espeically if the story doesn't offer much option with creative photography. Here are a few of the characters. The blog gives a tutorial (every week) and this week it's a tutorial is how to create these cute illustrations. The cool thing is that there are separate tutorials based on what character you're trying to recreate. These are my favorites:

B. I am often inspired by posters and promotional or  marketing materials when I design things. I think movie posters do a great job of capturing the readers attention in a bold way. When I was designing my burger cover with the ketchup and mustard text, I did a lot of googling to find fonts and what not (I eventually just did it myself and photoshopped it) but I came across a pic of the movie poster for "Waiting," that ridiculous and gross movie with Ryan Reynolds as a waiter...but it made me realize how design inspiration can literally be found EVERYWHERE. I thought I'd check out some other movie posters and see how they worked with photos combined with typography and illustration. Here were some top posters from www.moviepostershop.com

Response: Mini Portfolios

I recently started working on my mini portfolio for interviews and the job hunting process. I struggled with deciding what size to use and how many clips to run. I just tried to narrow it down to a few covers, features, departments, and my strongest work from my mag design course and ads from my internship with Inside Columbia.

Next I thought about color scheme. It was nice that I could focus on what color did the best job of branding myself. I went with a trendy mint green color. It's one of my favorites right now and it complimented a lot of designs that I included. I think going through previous students' portfolios helped see what layouts were successful. I liked having a divider page for each different category of design samples. Here is what I have started with. It is subject to change, and please give feedback. It's still in the works...

There is obviously more clips besides these, but this is a glimpse of what i have so far. Let me know feedback, please and thanks!

Critique: Final Debut Stuff

There may be a few revisions to be made on my debut spreads, but this is what I have right now. I was assigned 4 department pages, including some q&a's with decorating and healthy lifestyle experts. The "what's in your kitchen" spread is still waiting on a photo, and possibly could be turned into a spread. The biggest challenges were photo choices. Not only are they pretty difficult to find, but also finding ones that match the editorial content can be pretty difficult. Here are the designs I have so far:

Photo Inspiration: Margarita

Sometimes I think I should've been a food and drink photographer...not because I'm good but because when I look at my recent photos that seems to be the only thing I document. This was a mango margarita from the mexican restaurant in my hometown. I went with my sister last week. yum!

You Can't Miss: Art Inspiration and "How to create the perfect design portfolio"

A. This week on the blog I follow, blogspoongraphics, Chris Spooner gave another list of art and design inspiration. Every so often he posts just about anything design related that inspires him. The collection added April 5th includes anything from typography illustrations to vector photos. They are fun to look at because the designs come from a variety of graphic designers. If one catches your eye I'm sure Spooner has a tutorial on the designing process for it somewhere in his archives on the blog. Here are some of the examples of the inspiration he posted.

B. As the semester comes to an end, (sorry to bring it up again) we are getting down to crunch time making our print and online portfolios. I thought this link would be helpful because it outlines how to create the perfect design portfolio. To see the whole tutorial click here. One thing that the print and online tutorial mentioned was to be selective. I'm glad we got to have a couple of class periods to go through and weed out the work in our portfolio. I think that will come in really handy when it comes to showcasing your best stuff. Another topic was the importance of online presence. It said that you can have an outstanding resume, but if you have nothing to show rather than tell, most employers won't contact you. Here are some examples of nice design portfolio content.

The article explained how brief descriptions and experience are nice additions to your portfolio, no matter how impressive the design. It will show you know what you're talking about and also give a brief background of experience.

Response: Trends Assignment

Yesterday we began presentations for our Trends assignment. For my assignment I studied Vital Voice, an LGBTQ magazine in St. Louis. It was interesting because I was completely unfamiliar with this publication. Andrea Piamonte, a recent MU grad is now art director. It was crazy to see just how quickly people can be moved up in the magazine industry. Hearing about all of the MU alumni that have become art directors and designers really inspired me to dream big. I used to think some publications were out of my league, but I believe starting at maybe an internship or entry level position is the key to getting your foot in the door. I had a potential employer tell me that students graduating from the Missouri School of Journalism are a "step ahead of the pack"...so that was comforting to hear. 

I also realized how accepting alumni were and understanding of our experience in the job hunting process. I reached out to a Mizzou grad on LinkedIn and it was only an hour later until she replied with advice and a ton of websites offering job openings and internship opportunities. 

 

But back to Vital Voice...I thought their trends were very different from other publications. Their designs aren't very templated. Andrea mentioned how they let stories inspire designs. Here are a couple of covers that show how the typography and colors change. The bright colors are supposed to convey the fun and bold qualities of Vital Voice's brand.

Critique: More Debut Designs

I have finished a few more designs for Debut so I thought I'd share. After working with the publishers a little more talking about the stories and mission statement, I made some major revisions from my last design. I have three more department pages to design to those will be added to a critique in a week or so. A challenge I've faced is finding photos. Luckily Rachel gave us a nice website with some fair use photos and we have had some luck with the Meredith creative library finally. Here is what I started with for one of the "Essentials" department pages.

I loved the colors used but we agreed that it may differentiate from the other pages too much. I decided to add some of the consistent graphic elements in my revision, and used cutout photos instead of the rectangles shown above. Here is what I have now. Also, the content of the story changed a little too so revisions were unavoidable. This is subject to change as well but the current design is:

For another department page, I struggled with whether or not to keep it one page or a spread. The publishers seemed to like it ok on one page. I was able to fit the text very comfortably. The bottom photo is subject to change, but the library didn't offer much specification when I searched for some of the Chicago events mentioned in the text.