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BLURB books

I already posted about Blurb but I'm going to mention it again because we all have another week to get mini portfolios together. Check it out if you're interested. I chose to do the 7x7 book, soft cover 0-40 is only $12.95. It's reasonable in price and great quality. Now it might not be ideal for printing 100 copies but if you want to do this to start with and to just have a nice quality book of a small portion of your portfolio it's great. Plus it only took about a week for printing and shipping, but I did pay for second day shipping. Anyway, thought I'd throw it out there if you are wanting to do something other than Kinkos. You can check out a quick preview of mine, the site allows for a quick preview of your book so if others want to purchase a book they can get a sneak peek.

The Art of the Encore

This week in VOX is an awesome feature about the art of the Encore and the fad that is so common in the arena of concerts. Sarah and I worked together to create something that visually complemented the voice of the story. The text itself has a lot of visual cues and really sets the ambiance of being at a concert and experiencing the thrill of an encore. We wanted to use repetition in photos to allude to the second helping of music you receive with an encore and also play up texture and color. Enjoy.

You can't miss Jen Stark!

OK, as designers we love paper, right? Well check out Jen Stark's amazing paper sculptures. They are unreal. They look like paintings or illustrations but are actually formed out of cardstock. It's creatively awesome, not to mention beautiful!

Speaking of amazing things to do with paper. I hope you all have seen the Post It note experiment. It's also amazing! check it out too.

You can't miss Jolby and Friends!

On netdiver a dynamic duo of creative artists was featured. Jolby and Friends is a design and illustration team created by Colby Nichols and Josh Kenyon (hence the name 'Jolby'). They recently finished their first solo exhibition Home is Where You Make It. It's work that portrays this narrative of fantasy and whimsy. I encourage to check out the exhibit online and scroll through all of the images. When seen together, they tell a little story that's fun and quirky. Check Joby and Friends out!

A whole new VOX

Recently Meredith showed us her redesign for VOX. I think it will be refreshing for the mag to get a facelift. It's starting to feel a little drab and heavy. The bold new color palette mixed with new layout ideas will really add some spice. My hope for it next year is that the new look will attract more readers. It has the potential to read like a city/regional mag, which is something people are more accustomed to and keep going back to for more. I'm only sad to see it come at the end of our design semester. It would've been nice designing with some new elements.

ILKKA HALSO and the museum of nature

In photo the other day we viewed a slideshow on some amazing artists from the Helsinki school in the Netherlands. They are an amazing group who are proactively trying to get their work out there. Ilkka Halso is one photographer that has created a project called the Museum of Nature. It is a representation of how we can "save" nature from it disappearing completely. It's a comment on social concerns in a very ironic way. 

The super powers of the JLC

This past week Christy, Jena and I spent some time trying to create a comic book, dark graphic novel-esque feature for the Justice League of Columbia. We ran into some complications (naturally) with certain things, such as photos, too many pages with not enough text (that never happens) and also trying to find that perfect design aesthetic to fit the content. After quite a bit of playing around, we decided to include arrows as our graphic element with a lot of white space and bold colors. All-in-all I think it turned out nicely. Very dark and edgy to fit Julia's awesome cover.

You can't miss Google Maps Typography

On netdiver artist Rhett Dashwood is featured. He has compiled the alphabet out of letters found in aerial shots on Google maps. I thought this was witty. It comments on our modern technologies and ammenities, such as Google in general, and combines that with a traditional artistic aesthetic. It is reminiscent of Earth art that became popular in the latter half of the 20th century. Some really interesting stuff.

You can't miss Yeondoo Jung

So a few semesters ago I stumbled upon this photographer during my beginning photo class, Yeondoo Jung. He has this awesome series called "Wonderland" that I've recently revisited for an artist presentation. It's crazy creative and cool. He traveled around to different elementary schools and collected color drawings from children. Through photography, plus amazing costumes and props, he recreated the scenes depicted in the works. They are inspiring to me. I think because I enjoy working with elements from childhood in my own photos. Check him out!