22!?

It's February 10, and you know what that means.
I'm another year older!

Obey the Law

I found this rather amusing. The man behind both Andre and Obama's posse has been arrested. Meanwhile his already iconic poster for the Obama campaign is on its way to the National Gallery's permanent collection. Looks like Shepard Fairey might need a little help...or hope of his own.

Chemistry Lesson

Well this is my first attempt at uploading a flash movie into blogger. It didn't work very well. All stretched and pixelated. I will be investigating this. Above is a screenshot of what I hope it will look like. But, you make sure your volume's up.

My Girls

Most likely you love this song if you've heard it before. If you've not had the privilege of listening, watch the video and turn up your speakers.

Critique

The week isn’t finished and I’m already exhausted. It’s felt excessively demanding. My final layout for the January 29 feature on the economy was printed on Thursday. When the morning Vox finally appeared on stands rolled around, I had completely forgotten. Luckily, I managed to pick up a few copies for my portfolio:

I’ve been engrossed with the large and intimidating task to design the feature for the February 5 issue of Vox. It’s essentially a 9-page, glorified calendar of events for the next four months. I’ve been working on the spread with another designer, Philip. Originally we thought we had a good idea, but after critiques last Thursday, we were sent back to the drawing board. We spent nearly 24 hours in the Vox office this weekend designing. We’re pooped. I think my eyes might fall out of my head if I look at a computer screen much longer tonight, but at least we have a smart, snarky (dare we say Voxy?) concept and design. Here is a before and after of the splash page:

Before



After


Here is the first opening spread of Spring Reminders:



Also, I thought I’d show you my cover concept for Spring Preview. While I would have liked to work on it more, the feature is the big priority right now.

And in other cover news, here is a different version of last week's Indie Bands cover for the competition. I'm feel okay about. I think I need some more time to hash out exactly how I want it to look:



Finally, I hope you’ve had a look at a few of the photos I’ve taken this week. I spent a lot of time wandering my apartment, looking for things I might have passed by on any ordinary day.

This next week will be intense. I didn’t get into the Design Center nearly enough last week, so I’ll be making up hours now. Additionally, it’s time to start shooting more pieces for my portfolio, so I’ll be busting out the SLR and the lightbox. I’ve been thinking a lot about how to present my mini portfolio, and have been using Fully Booked as a reference guide. I think I’ll start researching papers and materials to figure out how to present my original work in an even more creative and bespoke way.

Response

Visiting Meredith Corporation in Des Moines was quite an experience. I don’t have much to say about the 9-hour return trip, but the actual magazine tour was fun and informative. The physical structure is quite stunning. The original brick building still stands and is now connected to a more modern office. Glass skywalks take you across the campus and provide you with sweeping views of the snowy white city. The art collection is massive, and so is the amazing photo studio!




I enjoyed sitting in on the cover critique session, especially since we had done the same on Thursday. There is so much thought that goes into putting a room on a cover. It was fascinating to learn about the process of choosing the right cover image as well as how important type is. The editors toiled over whether the right phrase was “potting station” or “gardening station.” Was the vase too tall? How does the page flow? Every time we were asked to give our two cents I felt like the editors and art director were really listening to what we had to say.

I’ll be working in the publishing group for Renovation Style. While we had a productive meeting, I came out with the realization that the editors of the magazine are happy with how it looks. They even said that they like the magazine the way it is and that they’re not having trouble selling ads. I found myself wondering why we’re doing a redesign. New ideas are always important, so I’m hoping to come to the table with many—some close to what they have now and others that are in far left field.

You Can't Miss This

I saw this music video by the Soft Lightes in the midst of choosing my word/logo for our photography project:



Perfect, right? Kris Moyes directed it . I’ve always found it annoying when music videos literally spell things out, but this is executed so well and creatively that it’s inspiring and fresh. I think the movement of the words helps a lot. If each one were static, the video would be quite stale, but the transitions flow with the music. It’s as if the lyrics and melodies are actually listening to each other.

While we’re on the theme of music videos, I wanted to share this one. It came out over the summer when Radiohead commissioned any interested person to remix “Nude” from their album, In Rainbows. Most people were tripped up by the 6/8 meter in the song, which makes remixing tricky. Many switched the meter to a pretty square, very un-Radiohead 4/4.
Except for this guy, a student who recently graduated from design school in the UK:


Big Ideas (don't get any) from James Houston on Vimeo.

What an incredible compilation of office equipment and sounds! And the look of the video is so beautifully bland. Ahh, I love this.

I’ve discovered that the people of Made by Many have a terrific sense of humor. The website that explores how to be a better website has created burb.fm.



To address the explosion of Twitter with bathroom humor, which is quite clever, since Twitter should have never happened anyway. Who can be that attached to the internet? I’m glad that these guys are asking the same question.