Next Project: Magazine Spreads

Design a magazine. Select a genre and consider the audience profile. 

Research

Visit your bookstore an look at magazines. A lot of them.  Sit down at a table and really study the magazines. Take note of things you like and dislike- noting ideas about typefaces usage, columns, subtitles, content pages, folios, images, color and graphical details. Choose three magazines and write a more formal description of your audience profile, concept for your magazine, visual language and style use, as well as your educational goals for yourself as a designer. Your goals can be in the form of questions. Your write-up should be a 350-500 words in length posted to your blog.

InDesign Skills:

Grid, typesetting, character/paragraph styles, master page usage for production and more.

Specifications:

• Size: dimensions are your choice
  
• Color: CMYK or spot color
  
• Type: select from course font list
  
• Images: Make your own images.
  
• Binding: saddle stitch
  
• Copy: found online
• 6-10 spreads / 12-20 pages

Required elements:

Front/Back cover

Content page

3 short articles

1 feature article

Hand In:

Individual Blogs must document research and design process, and project concept write-up

Mockup thumbnails, sketches, images, etc.

Magazine bound and presented

Homework:

1. Go to a bookstore to do begin research.
   
2. Bring your sketchbook, ruler, pen, and tracing paper.
   
3. Draw out three GRIDS that you found in magazines. Be ready to discuss and share your grids with class Monday. 
   
4. Write your project description {this might evolve over time}.
5. Read article "The Grid: History, use, and Meaning" by Jack Williamon
6. Make entry in blog about the reading.

Due Date: 

Still to come but keeping in mind, we want this to be a project for you sophomore portfolio review.

Critique Wednesday, April 29th

Today we will have a final critique of the Narrative Mapping Publication.

It is required that you have your publication bound so that we may experience the publication in it's final form.
It is not required to have a the publication covered. I believe so of you might want to make some final edits for you portfolio.
The cover will need to be put on and shown to me before long.

For extra credit: Design the cover!
Be creative. Stamps, transfers, book jacket, band...

April 27th

We will be hand building in class today.
Bring all your supplies!
Oh- lets do the cover too!

nice stop motion entertainment

April 13th

Today is a work in class studio day. Remember that this week we are going to be working hard in class and out of class time to design our publication layout. 

Technical questions can be addressed during class. Don't be shy about asking for another demo.

Sophomore Review INFORMATION MEETING

This year's Sessions will be held on the following days, at the following times:

Thursday, April 16th : Noon-1pm
Thursday, April 16th : 5-6pm
Monday, April 20th : Noon-1pm


Note that all Sessions will be held in Room 200 of the main Art Building. Please note, also, that you'll be contacted soon about volunteering your time for the Help Sessions that the graphic design program will be hosting in order to give students one-on-one time with faculty to review/critique portfolio pieces. As we all know, the Sophomore Portfolio Review is a crucial benchmark in the academic careers of all PSU graphic design majors. Any aid and support that we are able to give the students during this intense, demanding time will be of tremendous benefit -- both to the individual students and to our program as a whole.

Please feel free to be in touch with either myself or Lis Charman if you have questions, feedback, or would like to discuss anything related to the Review.

April 6th

Today we will be looking at our images for the visual narrative. I'd like to get everyone to make a quick slideshow in Powerpoint so that we can experience all the narratives as a sequence. We will also discuss the written narrative and its relationship to the visual narrative.

Also we will do a small InDesign demo. Review quickly the master pages and attributes. Work flow and Process.

More tools: type tool, frame tool, rectangle tool.