Thursday, May 04, 2006
Critique: Big Box Timeline 5.4.06
Boomtown Feature
So without further adieu, here's the EIGHT page feature I design with Andrea for today's Vox Magazine:
Now before you get all impressed, that first page was a graphic by my art director Debbie Kim. The only contribution I made was that she used my 'continued' arrow....Andrea, Debbie and I really had to work together because the project was so big. It had SOO many elements (four sidebars, a timeline, a chart, and Debbie's graphic...all on top of the main narrative) it took a lot of effort figuring out where everything went. I will not rant about the drama during the week because I realize there will always be drama, and it honestly doesn't matter as long as the product turns out the way you want. I am happy with the package, and will leave my ranting to drunken nights at Campus bar.
We said at the beginning that graphic would not go on the front page of a normal magazine, but because that page is the only spread, and the only color page in the entire magazine, it was sort of forced to go there. We had to do our own little intro on the next spread (a lovely sign done by Andrea) to pull readers into the actual narrative.
This was a challenge because I had to work with so many people. The two editors in charge were really giving this their all, and both were here over the weekend and that helped when I was trying to do the timeline. A lot of things needed to be cut, and it helped having them here to explain it rather than just hear about Monday during production. Working with Andrea was good, she took on the intro graphic and the chart, while I tackled the timeline and looked for photos.
The timeline took FOREVER-- I was here Saturday from 9 a.m. til 6:30 p.m. just working on that. I am pleased with it. There were a lot of issues going into the weekend, including the fact just two weeks ago there was another timeline in the music feature. My challenge was to make this timeline different, to make it its own, and not remind people of the other timeline. We brainstormed in class about ways to do it differently, and a lot of classmates pushed for a timeline in one box, instead of spread out horizontally over all the pages. Placing it on one page would have been way too cluttered, but I did decide to push the space in as much as possible. I decided to reserve two vertical half pages for the timeline, and my original idea was to have a snake-like line running down one page and up the next.
When I came in on Saturday, I had already scanned in the pictures, and almost immediately placed the Columbia sign on the page. Originally it was going to be a small element, but it landed in Illustrator large, and the idea to use the poles as the timeline kind of struck me then. After that, is was just a matter of fitting all the elements on the page. I am very proud of this, and think it's the best graphic I've done all semester.
Here's a closer look at the timeline:
So without further adieu, here's the EIGHT page feature I design with Andrea for today's Vox Magazine:
Now before you get all impressed, that first page was a graphic by my art director Debbie Kim. The only contribution I made was that she used my 'continued' arrow....Andrea, Debbie and I really had to work together because the project was so big. It had SOO many elements (four sidebars, a timeline, a chart, and Debbie's graphic...all on top of the main narrative) it took a lot of effort figuring out where everything went. I will not rant about the drama during the week because I realize there will always be drama, and it honestly doesn't matter as long as the product turns out the way you want. I am happy with the package, and will leave my ranting to drunken nights at Campus bar.
We said at the beginning that graphic would not go on the front page of a normal magazine, but because that page is the only spread, and the only color page in the entire magazine, it was sort of forced to go there. We had to do our own little intro on the next spread (a lovely sign done by Andrea) to pull readers into the actual narrative.
This was a challenge because I had to work with so many people. The two editors in charge were really giving this their all, and both were here over the weekend and that helped when I was trying to do the timeline. A lot of things needed to be cut, and it helped having them here to explain it rather than just hear about Monday during production. Working with Andrea was good, she took on the intro graphic and the chart, while I tackled the timeline and looked for photos.
The timeline took FOREVER-- I was here Saturday from 9 a.m. til 6:30 p.m. just working on that. I am pleased with it. There were a lot of issues going into the weekend, including the fact just two weeks ago there was another timeline in the music feature. My challenge was to make this timeline different, to make it its own, and not remind people of the other timeline. We brainstormed in class about ways to do it differently, and a lot of classmates pushed for a timeline in one box, instead of spread out horizontally over all the pages. Placing it on one page would have been way too cluttered, but I did decide to push the space in as much as possible. I decided to reserve two vertical half pages for the timeline, and my original idea was to have a snake-like line running down one page and up the next.
When I came in on Saturday, I had already scanned in the pictures, and almost immediately placed the Columbia sign on the page. Originally it was going to be a small element, but it landed in Illustrator large, and the idea to use the poles as the timeline kind of struck me then. After that, is was just a matter of fitting all the elements on the page. I am very proud of this, and think it's the best graphic I've done all semester.
Here's a closer look at the timeline:
Monday, May 01, 2006
Random Design Fun: Thank you for smoking..movie credits
You Can't Miss: Thank you for Smoking
This weekend I saw Thank you for Smoking and I LOVED the opening credits. Each name was on its own old-timey cigarette carton. The colors were fantastic, the lines were really amazing, and after watching it I wanted to run out of the theater and redesign my website again (just kidding)
Here's the link to the credits, the company that made them put it on the web, and apparently they are getting a lot of praise for it.
This weekend I saw Thank you for Smoking and I LOVED the opening credits. Each name was on its own old-timey cigarette carton. The colors were fantastic, the lines were really amazing, and after watching it I wanted to run out of the theater and redesign my website again (just kidding)
Here's the link to the credits, the company that made them put it on the web, and apparently they are getting a lot of praise for it.
