We Don't Get French Benefits?

Graffiti Critique


I had fun with this assignment. I drove around all last month trying to figure out what letters I wanted to use. There isn't much to critique, but in case you were wondering, here is where I found all the letters. I looked specifically for letters in neon signs, as well as letters on a yellow background to make the name flow better.

T: from the top of the Tiger Hotel sign
E: from the awning of 'Elm Street Ballroom,' at the Upper Crust bakery... I loved the cursive elaborations
R: from Tiger Stop Gas Station, on highway 70 and 63...The font was basic, but still interesting
E: from Waffle House's sign, on S. Providence Rd.
S: from the HOOTERs sign...Because I wanted another neon letter
A: from the Budweiser Brewing Museum in St. Louis...Because as soon as I saw the A in stained glass I knew it belonged in my name. And isn't it good to end with a laugh?

Coming Up Next.... COVER!
Next week I am in charge of the cover. As I said last week, I am working with a graphic artist who draws his own comic book. Because the comic reflects his life, only set in space, I decided the concept I wanted to do was a transformation from his real life into his comic life. I met with him last Thursday and we talked about how he could draw this. I suggested a few ideas, one being a realistic drawing merging with his comic drawings...Another going from a sketched image to a finished product.

He sketched three different ideas over the weekend and after looking through them, I think the best idea would be to show the transition from black and white to color. The image has him in b&w,drawing the comic, with the images coming to life in color. I was picturing a black background, but we can do a completely black cover because of press issues---so I'll talk with Matt about either cross hatching it, or maybe using a grey tone.

Here is the sketch I want to use:

Redesigns

I have spent some time redesigning my casino spread and my Posted cover from last semester. Here's what I have so far....

This is the logo for the cover. After the Vox logo contest I was inspired, went home and came up with all of these...if I only knew what to do next...


For the redesign, I made sure to make the casino image domiant on the page. Because the state trooper stays in the background, I choose to play the casino big, and him small. The green fade, and the title font were both meant to give the spread the 'casino' aire...maybe remind them of money, or casino felt....but not shove it in the reader's face.

You Can't Miss: GAWKER

This week I want to showcase my sister's favorite blog on the web... Gawker After my rant about Vanity Fair, she told me to check out an article on their site, and once I was there I was hooked. They list a lot of media news, as well as silly things you find on the Internet...such as...Did you know if you search Google for "I can't believe crash won" Google pops up with a message saying 'Did you mean...I can't believe TRASH won" hehe. silly, I know...but sometimes sarcastic city humor can really cheer you up after a long day of designing. Check it.

So this week I was responsible for the cover. FINALLY a chance to showcase my skills on illustrator......except not. Because both features this week were not 'entertainment,' and the rule at Vox is that the cover must always be entertaining, I got to design the first department cover of the semester. It was a lot of fun, the fine arts department was featuring a graphic artist who has created his own local comic book with his friend. This guy was really nice, and jumped at the chance to draw an original illustration for our cover, which meant I spent the week working on a concept, and delegating the drawing to Matt.

My concept was the transformation from Matt's real life into his comic life. The comic is based on he and his friends every day antics...only SET IN SPACE (woohoo!) I wanted to show how his real life becomes more exciting and alive through the comic, and the idea that eventually was worked out was that we could show this transition through color...his real life is boring and black & white...while his comic life is full of adventure...and in COLOR.

Here are a few sketches Matt sent me throughout the week, so you can see the transition from the original drawing to final product.
Sketch 1:

He added color to this one:

Here is what is on the cover:


It was fun acting as the art director, creating a concept for others to execute. Matt is such a talented artist, I feel his own drawings to more justice than I could have done. I still feel like the cover was mine, because I came up with the idea behind the cover...and I took this artists' ability and molded it into workable cover art for Vox.