Last Tuesday was the first day of my capstone - Advanced Magazine Design. In other words... the most insecure part of my life. Fortunately, I know that this class will not only help develop my designing skills, but also make me more confident in my creativity. I think that I large part in being a great designer is trusting instinct, which comes second to actually knowing the craft. Last semester (in Beginning Design, again with Jan), we were taught to actually think about what we were doing. Crazy concept, I know. But really, there is a huge difference between being creative for the sake of making something pretty, and being creative for the sake of the work.
And this is where my blog title comes in. "Beyond Good Looks" is the understanding that great design is more than what you get at face value. Sure, something can look great, but does it represent what it's supposed to? There's more to everything in life than appearances - even a craft that is so visual.
I'm still learning to design with this in mind. Actually, I think I design with this too much in mind, but it's only because I appreciate what being "content driven" stands for. And I'm still learning, which brings me to CDG (Cassie's Designing Goals) #1: stop over-thinking. (Don't worry, I'll keep you updated on my progress.... in case you were worried.)
All of that said, I bring you Assignment #1. We had to decide between a pimp-my-ride-esque story, and one about the journey boys make (or delay) toward becoming men. This was a tricky decision to make, as neither story really jumped out at me... but seeing as I have a bit of experience with boys still stuck in that still-not-yet-a-man phase, I decided to take a stab at it.
And so came the drawn-out process of brainstorming. And, for your entertainment, my piece of "idea" notebook paper looks a little something like this:
- The words evolution, journey, manhood, dude, bros, maturity, adulthood, party, the in between, >responsibility, transition, passage, the road less traveled, fork in the road (illus), "exit now" road signs, behind doors 1, 2, or 3, scale;
- A box with a shadowed man standing at a fork in the road;
- A sketched drawing with a Peter-Pan-ish man (I think I was pulling for the "I don't wanna grow up" theme).
In the end, I admittingly "settled" with doing cutouts of the photo shoot, which ironically turned out to be what immediately disqualified my designs in the VOX cover/feature competition. Who knew people disliked cheesiness as much as I do? I will forever trust my instincts when it comes to overly-dramatic models... in design & life in general.
Assignment #1, cover prototype
Assignment #1, feature prototype (pt. 1)
Assignment #1, feature prototype (pt. 2)
In response to these designs, I would have to agree with the criticism that I received: aside from using the cheesy model (ugh), there is a lot of white space. And while I'm typically a bigger fan of white space than most, I do think that I err on the side of boring this time around. I also see where the use of the model opposite a real character in the story (in the opening spread, aka, pt. 1) would be distracting. Yeah, it didn't really work out like I had originally thought.
I do, however, like pt. 2 of my design, and find the overall look to be clean and representative of the story.
Designs to come:
Our "Spring Preview" prototypes are due tomorrow in lab. I look forward to getting feedback on this assignment, as the theme called for a bit more energy. Hint: that color I was just talking about is making a (huge) appearance.
Until then, my critique is complete. Take care!
- Cassie May
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