Critique: Celebrating Summer (Or Celebrate. Man, I really need to read directions.)

This week was one of the first steps toward our special projects for an especially big magazine company. Each one of us created a prototype for our vision of the magazine we are pitching to this very important company. It was super exciting.

My group is DIY, holiday, summer, parties, etc, etc, etc. A lot for a magazine? We thought so too. But the girls in my group all came up with great ideas for the magazine. They were all very different, and I think that had a lot to do with the lack of direction. However, our publishers seemed to like them. Kudos to Lauren for winning the contest and becoming the art director!

So, to the left is my finished prototype for the magazine. Unlike my colleagues, I went for a brighter color scheme and larger logo on top of the page. My whole concept was the idea of a bunch of different puzzle pieces coming together to make an awesome summer. I used a grid and fit photos together on the front to imitate a puzzle. I thought this was a new and different way to look at a magazine cover instead of the traditional photo, logo and sell lines. I also brought out the "Your DIY guide" and placed it over the logo because I thought that it was a very important part of the magazine. I continued the grid idea on my contents page (which I got overzealous and made), too.

As for the font choices, I picked Britanica for the "Celebrating Summer" and its all caps version for the department logos. I used Grotesque for the subheads and other display type and Cambria for the body copy. I picked these fonts for their casualness and conversationality. (Neither of which are words.)

The department page, which I did on fruity drinks for summer, has the same feel, but it is less structured. The grid is more spread out, but you can still get the sense that it is there. I really wanted to lead with the photos because they are what sells magazines like these most of the time.



I wanted the feature to be different, but still recognizable as a part of the magazines. Too many times I open up a magazine to its feature and it has a completely different voice as the rest of the publication. So, to prevent that, I kept the bar running across the top of the page, but changed the display type font. I also worked even less on a grid and came up with a step-by-step design going from the full picture to each part of the party that is homemade. Yes, I went with the traditional red, white and blue, but to most people, that is the spirit of the holiday. Why differ from what people want the holiday to be?



Overall, I am very proud of my design. I never knew how hard it was to completely create a magazine — font, style, everything. I have a whole new appreciation now.

We also voted on our top 5 logos for an up-and-coming country star. We had to create 20 logos involving the star's name, initials and/or mantra and a couple of things she wanted to symbolize her. I would post my 20, but I am not sure we are allowed to do that for copyright's sake. I will say, though, that even though everyone in the class had some problems with what the client wanted in her logo, everyone had at least one logo that looked really awesome ... even if it had a horseshoe in it.