You Can't Miss: A Rant Against Apple and Typography

This week's only post from Made by Many was a rant against Apple. Paul Sims started out by doing a search on Instragram and Apple to discover people's thoughts on an Apple buy-out of the company. It goes on to discuss the secrecy behind Apple, they're total control over anything that goes out over their services and the company's failure at anything social. He goes on to point out that Instagram is actually marketing Apple products because people want iPhones for the app. He has an interesting take on the separation of products for Apple and Android.


And as some brain candy for our last week of class, I'm sharing a blog, youlookliketherighttype, that publishes an overheard phrase in custom typography pretty much everyday. Add it to your reading list; it's so worth it.

Critique: Final cover design

I had the idea for the cover last week, with the red background and funky type, I promise. I realize that it bears a resemblance to the New York Time's Magazine cover out now. Of course, if the NYT is doing it, maybe that means it's pretty cool and striking.

I'm also working on a second cover with the blueprint feel, but it's not as strong as this one, and personally, I think the typography is pretty cool.

Response: The semester

I can honestly say that this is one of the hardest semesters I've encountered in college, which is probably the way it's supposed to be, considering the grad school thing. But I think I've also learned a lot, and certainly worked on more things with so many different styles.

Designing for Vox was an interesting experience which was valuable in its own way for helping us get experience of designing for a magazine. The prototypes were a lot of fun, and I know that Cupboard came so, so far from the beginning. I think that was probably the best part of the semester, seeing how revisions can make something great, as well as how important it is to have the pieces before you start designing.

I also really appreciated the emphasis on our portfolio, mini-portfolio and websites. I think that will help us as we go out into the real world, and even for those of us who aren't going there quite yet, it's a good start for when we do.

Critique: Mini-portfolio

I've been spending some time on my mini-portfolio this week, and this is what I've come up with for the cover.

A friend of mine told me to think of it like a cover letter, so I thought I'd use it to lead into the fact that I bake a lot and don't mind sharing with the newsroom. It also can serve as symbols for the two different things that are going into my mini-portfolio: the infographics and the design work I've done.

I don't particularly care for the illustration of the cake because I think it looks like a toilet paper roll, and the cookie doesn't really fit. So I think I'm going to repeat the images of the cupcake and the pie.

Response: iPad design

It was a lot of fun seeing what other's had designed for the iPad. One thing I noticed throughout was the sort of formatted designs that Mag+ has kind of forced us into. It's all about finding photos that it's okay to put text over and forcing the text to one side.

I also think that it works better for certain types of publications that use photos and illustrations that you can do with this. It also shows that there needs to be emphasis on the extras you can throw into the iPad app, which isn't something we really have time for. But it's been fun to learn, and I'm planning on figuring out some of the different things I can do with it over the summer.

You Can't Miss: Illographics and Funny Overheards

There was a cool example of an illographic posted at Charles Apple's blog the other day. I like how they were able to liven up a fever chart for a story that could be easily passed over for it's kind of boring nature. If you read down in the blog post, it says that this graphic, which is from the Omaha World-Herald, was originally slated for the Business front, but I'm happy it ended up on the front page.

At Made By Many, they decided to post some Overheard at Made By Many, and it's kind of fun to look at as the semester wraps up and I'm going a little bananas.

Critique: Feature Design

I designed this week's feature, which was originally Faces of the Force. It changed a lot from the draft I turned in Sunday and what's being published, but overall I'm pretty happy about it. I like what I was able to do with the photos, which gave the cover designers a lot of problems. I think I was able to make them less criminal looking, at the very least.