You Can't Miss: Earthday recyclable crafts and

Colourlovers goes green with this crafty Earth Day post. In the highlighted book ReMake It, shirts are made into cute buttons and a purse (you know, you could even put the buttons on the purse. Check out the post for specific instructions.

I like looking at the examples and diagrams of each step. For Infographics, we had to illustrate "how to tie a bow tie." It was pretty difficult. So I admire the clear steps given.

This helpful graph is from GraphJam – a site I love. It has some really fantastic informational graphics that I can so easily relate to. I love it. Check out the site for more hilarious pie charts and more.

Response: Personal branding

So, I struggled a bit with this branding idea. I wasn't sure what I wanted to do, and I didn't have any past examples of this type of work. So, I started from scratch and chose some colors and patterns as well as a font that I liked. I created my mini portfolio cover and a wireframe in Illustrator ... I will eventually transfer this to Dreamweaver (but I have yet to conquer that program, so I need to figure that out).

I plan on using these colors and design elements throughout my mini portfolio. I am thinking I will need to find another font to pair with this cursive one. I will use the cursive one for titles and the other font for any description I add to the portfolio.

Mini portfolio cover:

Portfolio wireframe:

Critique: Modern Midwest website wireframe

Ok, so I spent a lot of time working on this wireframe (as did Joe). Literally, hours of my life were dedicated to carefully constructing this –

Modern Midwest's home page (in theory):

And this (Nightlife page):

Truthfully, it was a lot of work. I spent a lot of time bringing in the elements that Michelle had created for us to use in print and working them for the page. Mainly our fonts and color palette was brought in. I also layered two bars from our magazine to create a divider at the top of the page.

Joe created the content on the main bar of the home page – the featured content viewer turned out great. He also created the tabs at the bottom of the page.

I made the template for the pages and put together the side bar content we were given after google-searching for images. I also googled all of the ads I placed.

My favorite part to design was the "subscribe here" ads. I made three versions that I placed throughout the pages.

Maybe someday I will place the "before" version of this site for comparison. Really, the basic frame we were given wasn't as horrible as I thought it would be. All the pieces were there. Joe and I just had the task of making it look more visually appealing.

You Can't Miss: RGB Wallpaper and the Evolution of the Hipster

RGB Wallpaper:

I was looking through the archives of the colourlovers' blog and found this post about wallpaper. I don't know where in my life I would be able to hang this, but it would be pretty cool. It's pretty fascinating to see how different images are more prevalent with the different lighting. I would say that the combined effect is by far my favorite. (And regular lighting would be much easier on the eyes.)

The post also talks about wall art made available by the same process of overlapping three layers – one in red, one in green and one in blue (but you knew that). The art is based on playing cards, and there are several prints of the strange combinations created by mixing these colors.

Evolution of the Hipster:

Looking at the monsteractive blog, I found an entry about infographics. Having previously taken that course, my general interest was sparked, and I took a look at the collective list.

I pulled "The Evolution of the Hipster" for you all to look at. It was one of the more fun options and made me laugh. I love the pull outs with the arcs and the typography. It is really wonderful. I also love the staggered poses of the hipsters – it truly becomes an evolutionary set up.

At first this reminded me of the 30/30 story that we just designed, but somehow they manage to make this an infographic and not just a design spread – though I would have found this truly inspiring for that week. Love, love, love. Enjoy.

Response: Blog feedback

So, yesterday we discussed our blog designs and purpose. That was fun.

I agree with everyone who said they like the "You Can't Miss" entry. Some weeks, I have a hard time digging around the interwebs enough to find something cool. But, I always find something crazy awesome on everyone else's blog.

I think that these blogs are a great way to track our design projects and progress over time, but I also think that some of the portfolio websites that others have would function just the same. For now, blogging might be a way for me to push myself to keep up on projects because my plan is to go home for the summer. And, depending on the job market and what I end up doing, I can see myself directing potential employers to this blog to check out my work.

If that is going to happen, I would like to re-vamp my blog.

Some feedback about my blog:

Font - needs to be changed

(I am eventually going to join the group of people who have already or are planning to create a banner for the top.)

Color - too many colors of display type that doesn't really make sense

(I have no defense for this. I put something up for that first time and haven't touched anything since.)

Black boxes - can be distracting

(I actually don't know how to change this, I think it came with whichever template I chose. I understand that sometimes it doesn't look the greatest, but I think other times it helps - especially when there is no clear edge on a photo or a spread. This box can help define that.)

Photos - some are large enough, others need to be clickable to enlarge in a separate window

(Again, I am not entirely sure how to do this. So, I don't really know how this is supposed to work. I will try to figure it out.)

Name - should change if kept up after graduation so it doesn't directly relate to the magazine

(This will be an interesting process as I am not the best wordsmith. Any suggestions?)

Right now, my action plan is to make my blog look more intentionally designed. For the duration of this class, I am going to leave all my entries as they are. Afterwards, I will probably chop a lot of the text.

Critique: First Department Page with Ads

This week was the first week that I had to design with an ad. In fact, I had so little copy, that I ended up getting another ad placed on the page to take up some room.

The ads created some challenge in arranging all of the elements on the page. It took me awhile longer to really work everything out.

It didn't help that I didn't get to Vox until after 3. (Fun back story, someone used packing tape and duct tape to shut me in my room. As I didn't wake up until 12 or so, I had not noticed. It was a hot mess that I would be happy to regale you with some other time.)

*Photo courtesy of a resident who thought this was funny enough to take a picture. (But not serious enough to check if I was inside...)

**I will post my department page once I get a copy of it that I can upload.

You Can't Miss: "Raw Color" and inventions that encourage laziness

Raw Color:

Colourlovers reviewed a branding project titled "Raw Color."

The images themselves are so great and colorful and the simplicity carries a really strong and fun message of what each shape is and represents. The brief description of the project and the reasoning behind each of their type and illustrative choices was really interesting for me to read. They wanted independent shapes that could stand alone or be paired together. It was also mentioned that they wanted it to be playful. Mission accomplished in my book. Check out the link above to see some of the placement of these shapes on products and stationery for this company.

Inventions for the lazy:

Now to be fair, many of these inventions are cool (Remember the t-shirt tea bags I covered earlier? They are mentioned.) and quirky, I am just highlighting a few that make me laugh.

NedHardy.com just lists this entry as "34 Cleverly Designed Inventions."

Here are some that I found funny:

<< A TV-tray like device for your keyboard. For those mealtimes when you just can't leave your computer. You know what I am talking about, designers.

<< A hook to dunk Oreos (or Oreo-like cookies) into milk. Keeping your fingers dry and giving you the ability to submerge the entire cookie, reducing the number of times you have to dunk.

<< A teapot holder that allows you to easily pour hot beverages without must wrist movement. And who wants to hold such heavy and possibly boiling hot objects?

Response: Modern Midwest Final Countdown

Our design team has been working really hard to get things turned around really quickly, but our publishing counterparts don't seem to have quite matched our enthusiasm for timeliness.

Working with what we have, we put together some really stellar stuff. I think as a complete package, Modern Midwest is really coming along.Thisweek I updated my feature and put some finishing touches on my department. Art really put me behind on both of these spreads, so now, having things to work with has really made a difference in my ability to put things together.

I still have some finishing touches to make to really polish these up, but I am pretty excited to see it all coming together. I feel like we are seeing the end of this project, which is so great. And I am excited to see the whole package printed together.

Critique: 30/30

I chose one of the younger subjects because I think it really hit the idea of youth who are influential. This photo struck me as an ordinary-looking kid who one would not necessarily attribute a lot of importance to. I think that most of these individuals seemed that way, so he represented the group by having some mystery as to his importance.

While I like the typography for my splash page. I really would have liked to figure out a way to make it a little more colorful and exciting. It fits with the rest of my design, but this spread has so much room to breathe that it makes the next page look really cramped.

I have never worked with so many cut outs before, and I found the photo styles to be inconsistent. When part of the subject was cut off, it made for some tricky maneuvering while designing to ensure those photos did not look odd. I used lines to create labels for each person, and to make some of the crops look more natural.

With a large number of small stories that all varied in length and style, it was really important to me to make them look as cohesive as possible. I found the copy to be the most challenging part to work with. I really like how my display text turned out and the photos, but I definitely would have liked a different organization for each story.

You Can't Miss: A New Color Wheel and Noteslate

Colourlovers explored an array of gray on April Fools Day, and posted this "helpful new color wheel." The blog explored reasons to use more gray - saving money, time and emphasizing the overlooked and underused. There were even photos of an elephant's butt, a mustache and beard, and a gray sky to really show off the color.

Noteslate is this cool new gadget that is essentially a drawing tablet that one can take notes on. I think that it would be a really awesome thing to have when trying out ideas for new designs. Being able to sketch it out on a grid or sample some illustration designs would be so convenient! Not only does it act like pen and paper, but you can save and share your pages. Cool, right? Some of the models even have different color choices for the pen (just at a click of the button.)

Response: Photojournal

So. We had to take a picture every day. I had a difficult time thinking of truly "inspirational" things to take pictures of, so I sort of documented the different things I did all week.

I spent a lot of time working on homework, so I was on the couch a lot listening to Ally McBeal in the background. I also went to my high school a few days to help out with the yearbook and use their computers to photoshop by brother's senior pictures.

My brother on his first day of school. I photoshopped the photo for his graduation invitation. He was rather pale and washed out in the photo, so I made a much progress as I could from the scanned-in photo.

Over break, I was responsible for creating almost 400 invitations for the Prom event that my residents are planning for my building. Twelve hours or so later, I had a large box of masks and itchy eyes from all the feathers.

It was pretty cold throughout most of my break, even when it was sunny, it was windy and chilly. On Sunday, when I drove back it was so nice. I took this photo in my parking garage on campus. I thought the windows framed the day beautifully.

Critique: Typography Assignment

My mom was really excited about this project. She went all around town with me to take pictures of different signs and kept thinking of more places. After 15 photos, I thought I had enough. I have 28.

The ones I used to create this sign (taken from West Park...) are from the high school, an auto shop, The Bar (literally, that is its name), a church sign, the fire department, and a vegetable stand (one of those signs with letter cards that change out).

I like the way the colors worked out, but I think in general this was a tough assignment because I feel like the letters don't really work together in the best way. It might have helped to have more recognizable typefaces. The "w" is used a lot in town, but I doubt a lot of people would be able to match the others to their signs.