You Can't Miss: Royal Wedding Art

In preparation for the royal wedding, artist Scott Wade came up with his own unique way to pay tribute to the ceremony - using dirt. Check it out!

I am so impressed with how detailed the artist is just by manipulating the dirt on this car. Haha I had no idea it was possible to be so talented with dirt! Whether or not you decide to get up at 3 a.m. to witness the royal nuptials, I think we can fairly assume that this artist won't miss it. Check out more of the photos of Wade's innovative artwork here.

Response: Summer Internship at KC Parent

Over the weekend, I went to Kansas City for a scheduled interview with the editor of KC Parent. The job seemed to be mutually beneficial for her and I - I need more clips and she liked my experience working with the software and with reporting. I'm really excited about the position because I was planning on returning to my home town anyway to make a little money before I set off on my job hunt. I am still planning on applying for jobs throughout the summer, but if nothing comes my way before the fall, I think I'll just move to a city where I can continue to look for jobs in person. This internship will allow me to continue coming up with new clips for my portfolio and keep me involved in journalism while I take some down time to make my checking account a little prettier.

During the interview, I basically convinced the editor she should definitely come up with an app for the publication. She was impressed that I will have had experience working with iPad app software and knowing how to develop a concept for an app. I am tentatively in charge of coming up with the content and design for the app, if the plan follows through. I would be ecstatic to have this opportunity because I think it will be so beneficial to my job hunt! The small staff is receptive to my input and willing to let me dabble in multiple areas, although the internship is mostly editorial. I think it will be a great start and provide me with a lot of real-life experience for my future. Can't wait to get started!

Critique: Final Cover Design

Last week I submitted my final cover designs for the semester for the New Pornographers feature appearing in the next issue of Vox. Much of the critique from my first round of submissions was that I didn't play with the type treatment enough. I tried to do something totally different from what I normally do for the second round of drafts. Theresa gave me some tips on tools in Illustrator that might be helpful to me, but in the end, Chen won for her brilliant idea to clash colors on the photo to represent that band's difficulty finding time to get together.

You Can't Miss: New Beauty Magazine

Okay, for those of you I have already harassed about my latest discovery, you already know how obsessed I am with a high-end beauty magazine that addresses expensive beauty remedies such as botox, liposuction, and a broad range of expensive creams and serums that solve anti-aging, scarring, etc. It's a futuristic fashion magazine that assumes readers who are willing to spend $10 on their magazine, are also willing to spend a large amount on surgical beauty procedures. Interesting idea... and their design is outrageously unique and fabulous! Check out these covers:

The sell lines caught my eye first. I remember Jan talking about odd placement of sell lines in beginning design as being a risky move, but I love that this publication attempted it. I respect their courage and I think the end result matches the overall tone the magazine is looking for.

These types of sell lines are much different than the above photo, but I liked that the publication was not only daring enough to mess with the positioning of sell lines, but also switch up the cover design from issue to issue. I really love the type they're using for these sell lines, too. The slant of the type gives the whole photo a movement. 

Response: Modern Midwest Prototype - FINISHED!

Our creative director, Michelle, is making the final edits with the publishers tonight and our prototype will be hitting the printing press tomorrow! Proofs will be reader to go over by Friday and I believe the final printed copy of the full magazine will be finished by the following Monday.

This whole process was extremely educational for me. I learned so much about the process of actually creating a magazine and I think it makes the reality of doing it even more exciting. I think our prototype ended up looking great. All the group members really came together at the end, but things were a little stressful. I think the class as a whole worked together to try and making the printing process as easy as possible for the whole class. We were all in the same boat and working together made all the difference.

I can't wait to see how beautiful all the prototypes are and I'm especially looking forward to the upcoming 4 a.m. bus departure to Des Moines!

Critique: Hot Box Menu Boards

With all the free time I've had lately (that may be a tone of sarcasm you detect), I have been working diligently to finish up the big design projects I have taken on during my internship this semester at Hot Box Cookies. I found new fonts for the basically finalized boards only a week ago and the design has changed drastically as a result. I'm really happing with how the changes look and I think they really do make the boards much more legible and better looking overall. I'm so close to having most of the major store elements formatted and ready for print! Take a look at how the designs have changed since I replaced some of the fonts:

You Can't Miss: Wedding Designs

I'm not usually one to get into those wedding/bridal reality shows, but I got sucked into the new Tori Spelling series where she is a wedding planner for all sorts of couples who appear on the show. I was really touched by the most recent episode in which one couple had fantastic wedding design ideas. The bride owns multiple rats, so Tori Spelling took on the task of incorporating rats into the wedding design. I never knew rats could be so beautiful! Haha, okay so they weren't exactly beautiful, but I thought the whole concept was so original and unique. The colors were also fabulous. The bride and groom opted for a very glitzy ceremony, but I respected how all the elements came together. Here are some photos I pulled of of the series' site:

The chandelier the couple were married under. The colors were fuchsia, white, and platinum 

The bride and her father walk down the aisle. That bouquet was beyond impressive. There were some crystals thrown into the flowers making the whole thing shimmer. 

There's a cage with the bride's rats sitting right next to the groom in this photo. I love how they incorporated the pets because rats are definitely not usually associated with beautiful things, but the bride and groom were determined to make it work and they succeeded.

The cake toppers are two rats dressed up as bride and groom.