Critique: Prototype Presentation

As far as my design work load goes for this past week, this one probably takes the cake. I've been working on covers for the True/False Film Festival, working on the iPad issue for this week and completed my prototypes for Better Cook. I'm learning that I can produce designs a lot faster than what I used to be able to do!


I'll start with my True/False covers.

For this cover, what I wanted to play up was how beautiful the F fit right under the T. I get really excited about the way letters can fit together and look pretty (lame I know) so I wanted to play up that element. Although the official True/False colors are red and black, I thought I would mix it up a little since Vox usually sticks with a red and black theme for this issue. So I went with turquoise. Looking back on it, I realize Vox probably wouldn't publish a turquoise cover because of people's initial reactions when they see it on the stand. Most people in Columbia are familiar with True/False so they're expecting a red and black color scheme that they will recognize at first. But I thought that a little change could be good.

 For this cover, I was pretty much just experimenting with Illustrator and seeing what I could do with it. I enjoy recreating things in InDesign and Illustrator and seeing how well I can do. This probably isn't my favorite cover that I've made, but I was proud of myself for making something in Illustrator instead of just sticking with InDesign. 

While this a bit of a rough cover, I have selected this cover of the three to make for the final draft. I like the whole idea of working with the words inside the "T" and the "F." The words inside are the names of the films at this year's fest. I am working on revising this cover and creating some kind of background to it to give it some sort of texture and not look so flat, however I do like the contrast of the letters to the white background.

On a different note, the other project I have been working on is for Better Cook. I took what my publishing team wanted and created a cover, department page and a feature page.

For my cover, I found this great image of a salad. I love the bright bold colors and pulling the red from the image into the masthead I thought it all pulled together nicely.

For this department, it would feature different meals that can be made in a quick amount of time. This magazine is all about quick stories, where you don't have to allow a lot of time to read through story after story but instead be able to flip through and find pieces of information that you need.

This is one of the possible features in the magazine. I wanted to have just one big image on the cover because it is eye-cathing, and also goes with the color palette of the magazine. "The Breakdown" features a variety of vegetables, that could give different information about them, including tips on growing/watering them, fertilizer to use, interesting facts about them, etc.

I have also been working on designing the iPad stuff, but it's not 100% completed yet. So you all will have to wait patiently for next week! :)