Response: Assignments

It was great to learn that we'll be using Mag+ for an assignment instead of trends. Although I think it's a great assignment, it's nice to have the extra breathing space and learn a useful skill. I also think it'll give us a better chance to dig into everything Mag+ can do.

It was a lot of fun hearing about everyone's Spring Breaks as well. It was great to hear how the photo assignment kind of affected everyone's breaks, making them think about inspirational things that they might have passed by before. I know I was thinking about my drive back to Columbia a lot more because I knew I wanted to take photos then.

You Can't Miss: Start-ups and the infographics editor of National Geographic

In this week's Made by Many blog post, Justin McMurray discusses the thought process behind lean start-ups. Although none of us are working on project management, one of the things that really struck me about this post was the emphasis on talking to people who aren't objective. They talked about taking to friends of friends instead of friends. Walking the street instead of emailing your mom. I think this is great advice for anyone, not just startups.

And on another advice-giving blog-post, Juan Velasco, the graphics editor at National Geographic, gave an interview to newspaperdesign.ning.com. His advice to visual journalists is to make sure you're reading the paper everyday so that you can converse about what's going on with other editors. If you can smell a visual story and suggest it, you'll have a lot more respect than if you just wait for assignments.

I also appreciated his description of the information graphics reporting process: "Graphics are journalism, and the process is the same used by a writer or a photographer in a newspaper: first, gather all the information you need by doing research (in the field, online, with phone interviews), etc. Then, you need to be able to select the most relevant information and sketch out a visual narrative that is clear and engaging." Sometimes I think that people forget that visual journalists are still journalists, we just tell a story a different way.

Critique: a graphic

I feel like I should be critiquing my first round of Cupboard designs, but all of the content is changing so much that I don't think it's worth it. They're adding a person, we're shooting photos and adding a lot of sidebars. So, instead, I offer a full-page graphic I'm working on for a special section for the Missourian.

It's basically a bunch of stats gleaned from the Census that people expect and should know about, but the editors didn't want to write a story about. I turned it into this idea of getting to know the type of people that make up Columbia. We are (mostly) young, female, single and possess a Bachelor's degree.

I'll be playing around with the colors so more to get a better feeling of dominance. I don't think I have enough room to really play around with graph sizes or more design features, so I'm going to have to use color, but I think it's a good start.

Response: Prototypes

It was a lot of fun seeing everyone's prototypes this week in class, and I'm excited to see where everyone will take there's when we're done.

Shindig: This magazine seems like it's a lot of fun to work on. I really like the sleek and slightly retro, but still contemporary, look to it. It seems very polished and the closest to complete. Some of it felt a little decorative to me, but I really enjoyed looking at the spreads.

Nosh: I like the concept for this magazine, though I'm definitely the type of person who eats three meals a day. Theresa's got a great start to everything, and all of the other designers will do really well.

Plaid Dad: I loved the steel strip going down the side. It's a nice "manly" feature to through it, and I didn't even notice it at first. It fit so well with the magazine that I glanced over it, but it added to the masculine feel of the magazine.

Modern Midwest: I think they're facing a big challenge in the lack of place-type photos in Meredith's library, but I think they'll overcome it. I like the younger feel they have going with the magazine and can't wait to see what it looks like.

You Can't Miss: Color for the color-blind and favorite mobile apps

A friend of mine emailed this site to me the other day: colorbrewer. It's a site that will give you RGB, CMYK and HEX codes for different color shades for maps, including combinations that work for those that are color-blind, as well as "print-friendly" and "photo-copy safe." It's a pretty neat website that will let you see what a segmented map will look like with different color combinations.

This week in Made by Many, there's a blog post that's a Q&A with Ivo Jansch, who started up a mobile app company. He said something that resonated with me, and I think speaks to some of what Kristin was getting at in her presentation. He talks about a iPad app called Flipboard, which turns Facebook status updates and tweets into a magazine-like reading experience.

Jansch says, "It turns your Twitter and Facebook feeds into a very visual digital magazine. It's a very pleasant reading experience. The people at Flipboard understand the tablet use case and they understand how people like to read content these days."

Kristin made the point that iPads are an opportunity to combine the best of web and print, and I think Jansch is getting at that point by selecting Flipboard as his favorite app and describing it the way he did.

Response: SJI logos

It was fun seeing everyone's logos this past week. This was probably the hardest design assignments I've ever done because it's so different from news design.

It was also interesting getting Greg's design advice. He takes design literally, instead of figuratively, which is very different from a lot of what we do. But I think it's also good for us to experience because it's how non-designers see design.

Critique: Food challenge covers, rd. 2

During last week's critique, I was given the option of reworking the David and Goliath cover or the fighting cover. I ended up doing both.

For the fighting cover, I think it really needs to be a photo shoot. The cut-out isn't the best, but I still love the concept. I think it's a funny concept that really deserves to be done right.

I think the David and Goliath cover is also a good concept, and it isn't as technically intricate, which is nice.

I like them both, so it'll be interesting to see what everyone else brings tomorrow and which cover the editorial team will choose.