THE Magazine
Liorah (361 pencils) | Thu, 2011-12-01 05:47
Well, here's the magazine. I've spent the last couple of days feeling very self-satisfied and am sufficiently bolstered for a proper CB roast (I mean, critique). I know it's a step away from most of the usual content, but I need constructive criticism and you guys are good at that :)
Things you should know:
1. The time frame once I was actually equipped to begin working was, to say the least, nerve-wracking, and definitely forced me to make a lot of decisions that I intend to revisit/change for the next volume. Suffice it to say, I already have a list -
2. A number of elements were NOT in my control (naturally) including the slanted title.
3. I did NOT design the title, or any ads, and the little quotes are something they insisted on that I would have left out or done differently.
I want to do this 1000x better for the next volume, so obviously feel free to give input on whatever level (or none at all).
I wasn't sure of the best way to do this, so I just put the whole thing on slideshare, here: http://www.slideshare.net/Liorah/true-balance
p.s. make sure to zoom out so you can view each page whole. As always, thanks in advance!
From success to failure is one step. From failure to success is a long road.
Commenting on this Image is closed.
More later, but I wanted to post this right away, in case there's time to correct the typo in the headline on Page 18 ("femEnine") -- unless that's the editor's error and you don't want to start doing her job, too.
Mara
Front page is important. "Nourishing the Body, Mind, and Spirit of Today's Woman". That tells me you want to communicate the healthy, beautiful woman that smells good, standing in a waterfall with double rainbows. This front page, however, is the dying, old smoker.
Mara - actually caught that... exported this package before the last of the edits. Thanks, though :)
Anders - I hear you... as I said above, it was NOT my choice, and I did not design it. It's the rest of the package that I'm really interested in sharing.
From success to failure is one step. From failure to success is a long road.
Another press stopper...?
You have the V body shape figure art for the oval body description.
So far as critique - there's a lot here, Liorah. Personally, when you brought this project to the board my thinking was I hope you just get thru it. It's a huge project for someone at your level, you were on a cramped schedule and you had to work with someone unfamiliar. So just completing the project with a minimal amount of errors is a job well done imho - you should feel very satisfied with what you accomplished. That's the bottom line. You already see some things that need to be fixed or adjusted, so maybe it's better if we wait around until the next issue before we rip you a new one... I'm just saying. :-)
However, I will offer a couple general thoughts... be careful about trying to fill space. Look at the table of contents - too cramped imo. Let everything breath. Also be careful about emphasizing the important. Go to your feature story - pg 18... the important part of the headline is 'The Work' - and it's smaller than the rest of the headline. The emphasis is backwards. I see that problem in other places too.
But again - I don't want to come off as negative here - great job. It's a huge project and you pulled it off. Be happy and satisfied and continue to tweak it. That's how ALL publications work - they get better over time. And when I look thru this - you know what I see? MONEY. This is a nice project to have in your back pocket - try to keep it.
Again - good work.
Almost forgot - the cover. Now that I see the final version, it almost looks like a bad trim job. The masthead is too close to the top and there's more air on the left than the right - like the entire image shifted about 3/8" to the right and up 1/8".
But I know the other guy did that - so you're off the hook there. ;-)
+1 it doesn't really say "true balance" if it is not balanced. or is this a clever attempt to look creative? it's not working imho. but since it's out of your control, too bad. nice work on the layout though
The "bad trim job" comment from Art D. above is exactly my thought. It's really off-putting.
I would like to add my compliments for getting this monster of a job launched without losing your mind (well, we'll just assume that until you start posting evidence to the contrary!) -- and yes, it's obvious that some serious community support exists for this project, if the ads are any indication. Looks like a gig worth the struggle.
The main thing I noted throughout the magazine is something that's hard to handle when the publication is as ad-intensive as this one is, and that's finding a way to establish -- and assert -- the editorial look and feel from one article to the next. I see some attempt at this, with the use of that swirly font "diner"-type font, but mostly, each article seems to live in its own design world. The result is a little dizzying. I can see your true style as a designer peeking out here and there, and those nice clean, white-spacy pages look great. It would be nice to establish a style manual for this publication for use going forward, what establishes a solid footing for all articles, with standard page treatments that unify all the editorial content, within which you can have more freedom to "brand" each article with one of several compatible typefaces and graphics. Try reducing the size of the decks -- they seemed overwhelming to me.
One tiny nitpick is that there are a few photos of people gesturing or at least facing off the right edge of the page, away from the focal point of the article.
I agree with Art that it's pretty unfair to critique something that you had so little control over, but honestly, Liorah, I'm just blown away by what you were able to accomplish here. You have earned the right to call more shots. Mazel tov!
Mara
If I had one thing to say, I'd actually caution you on what you say about the company in a public forum if you still would like to work with them (or actually, if you want to be known as a reputable designer to ANY company, for that matter.)
Venting is awesome and necessary, but you may want to consider in the future not disclosing the name of the business that's been a thorn in your side. (Unless, of course, their business ethics and practices have been abhorrent and you're then doing the design community a favor letting them know to stay clear.)
Congratulations on making it through, however. Sounded like quite an ordeal. Give yourself a big pat on the back. A 72-page publication is nothing to bat an eye at.
Kelly - You know, I really thought about that a lot... I am generally very careful not to disclose the name of clients if I'm complaining about them, but I didn't really see a way to remove theirs from an entire magazine. I was actually planning on going back and editing or deleting my forum posts so I could leave this up, guilt free... I know it's not a favorite practice on CB, but I'd rather piss these guys off than my clients :). I'm feeling increasingly bad about it - it's really not my style (as you can tell in one forum post where I redacted the accompanying image) and I blame the fever-pitch crazies.
Mara - Style manual!! Yes!! (and I'm that much of a novice that I didn't know the proper term for it before now, lol). Yea, I agree about the lack of balance throughout and "dizzying" effect... I honestly blame those author bios as much as I do the ads. DEFINITELY need to be treated differently - I'm putting my foot down for the next vol.! :)
Art - first, thanks for the heads up - unfortunately, I read your post too late :(. I really wish I'd caught that... oh well. The client didn't notice it yet, and I feel no need to disclose in this instance. They'll either realize it or they won't - hopefully by then there will be a room full of rich women cooing over it at their fundraiser gala dinner/launch event. RE the cropping... lets just say that it was mentioned to him, and leave it at that.
Thank you guys for all the positive stuff - I'm glad I have you guys to share it with :) And now I'm gonna go sleep for two days straight... or, until my kids wake up. lol.
From success to failure is one step. From failure to success is a long road.
If that logo had a little wedge shape underneath it, then it would be clear that it's intentionally skewed. You could put the subtitle in it.
I thought the other cover you showed before was better. The black & white reversing type gets annoying to read. Insides are looking pretty nice. Content seems all over the place but that's not your concern.