This week on the Media Bistro Unbeige Blog, there was a posting about those little people you always see in architectural renderings. They are always fairly vague, non-descriptive and represent different population groups. Rob Walker wrote a column about these for The New York Times Magazine. He says the figures are used mainly to provide a sense of scale next to buildings, monuments, etc. The point is to sell the design to the client, making it seem more realistic. I think that goes along with the "human element" we've been talking about a lot in critiques. Clients want to see how the building would look like with people around it. For VOX covers, it's easier to draw a reader in if they see someone they can connect with. In case you really want some, you can buy a set of 120 people for $70.
I know a lot of us have been using sites like fontspace and dafont to download free fonts to use for our designs, but one of my favorite sites is Brusheezy. It's even fun to say. They offer thousands off free fonts you can download to do amazing things with in Photoshop. Often times I see designs and think "How on earth did they illustrate something like that?" Especially illustrated nature scenes. Then I came across Brusheezy and those types of illustrations seemed a lot easier. They even have this cool download for iPod and iPad brushes!
Your cover turned out great Joe! I like the final decision. It all came together really well. Plagiarism is scary, and it would be easy sometimes to not even realize you've done it. I never understood how cautious we have to be as journalists until these past two years. I looked at the Brusheezy site and loved it! I'll have to start using it for fonts.
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