This weekend I had my first experience designing VOX department pages. I went in Saturday afternoon expecting to spend several hours getting to know the reins and format of the department pages. However, with the help of Aaron, it was a lot easier than I expected. I was in and out of there in just over an hour. He warned me that it wouldn't always be like that though.
I'm excited to design further pages for Front of Book / Insight. I like the format of the of the VOX department pages. They are structured and easy to design, but still allow for some creativity. As someone who has mostly designed newspaper pages, the structure of magazines is a lot more fun to work with. Another thing that helped was having the design checklist. It might seem annoying, but there were a lot of miniscule things on there that I would usually forget about. I think it's important to take that seriously and not just glance it over.
I agree about the newspaper pages. I feel as if there's a lot more rules when designing a newspaper. I spend a lot of time designing news pages (I'm a print desk TA at the Missourian), but I think magazine design just forces more creativity.
ReplyDeleteA lot of times designing at Vox can feel like doing a jigsaw puzzle. Having designed (lazily and otherwise) my share of Vox department pages, I hope all of the designers are able to go beyond the simple piecing together of elements and create something fun and interesting. It can certainly be a challenge, but it's particularly rewarding when you're able to pull something out of thin air.
ReplyDeleteI agree with all the above. I worked as a designer for the Missourian over the summer, and I found it to be challenging as well as stifling to creativity (although I'm sure that others have had other reactions). However, it did teach me about the benefits of playing by certain rules while designing. Unfortunately, it also made the transition into magazine design in the fall difficult, though, as the creative mentality between news design and magazine design is very different. It's great to be in and out of VOX in just an hour (I know that's how my department shift went, too) but if you get the chance to really design something within your department, then that's great!
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