Favorite Fonts

yes, I called them fonts. I don't think I'm experienced enough to say I am an expert on typefaces yet, so this is just a list of where I am right now with my font preferences. 

Helvetica Neue Ultralight: duh

Baskerville: classic

Big Caslon: so elegant, but the sharp points are menacing at the same time; kind of like how stilettos are both dangerous AND feminine.

Tw Cen: similar feel to Gill Sans, but not nearly as recognizable 

Din: thanks to Sarah and Renovate | Style, I really enjoy the versatility of this one. It can look fun  (light) or serious and technical (condensed)

BlairMDITC: used a lot on book covers, and looks great with lots of tracking and kerning

Rockwell: I can never make it look good in my own work, but really appreciate it when I see it done well in other design 

Comic Sans: ha, just kidding! I appreciate you even reading this far.

Shameless self-promotion

Last week we presented websites. Mine was ROUGH. If I remember correctly, NONE of the menu bars link to the correct pages, which is really fabulous and professional. I am, however, really excited to get my links working and flash slideshows up and running in the next few weeks. Pictured above is the nameplate I'm using for the main page and logo of my professional site, and although I probably would keep using it even if everyone hated it, it was great to hear that almost everyone thought it looked visually appealing and worked with my stark(ish) website concept.

I was also thinking about using this same nameplate for the covers of my mini portfolio; I would use it on the cover (white text on black background) and then mirror the text on the back cover (so it would be backwards when you flip it over.)  I think it is a timeless enough concept and design to use on something as important as a mini portfolio, but is also graphic enough to garner attention. Let me know what you think; is just having my name on the cover of the mini portfolio too generic or ambiguous? Also, what do you think about the black with white text? I was a little worried about fingerprints, but those would show up even worse on white. Do employers even care about this?

I am in midst of redesigning my resume as well. I've got the text part finalized and am playing with the design. Would it be obnoxious to use the same nameplate for my resume too? I kind of like the idea of creating a brand for myself, but also worry it may be redundant and tired after awhile. Comments DEFINITELY welcome regarding any and all of these concerns!

The Odyssey

Tonight I was talked into attending "The Odyssey," a dinner put on by the Hotel and Restaurant Management students each Tuesday. The HRM students are divided into a team in charge of one dinner and treat it like they are running their own restaurants; kind of like our Meredith projects. This week's theme was dubbed "Odyssey" because it was a tantalizing tastebud tour through the Mediterranean. The meal began with a Coppola chardonnay, pita and hummus (warm toasted pita + fresh hummus = my favorite) and a Greek salad. For the main course I ordered the grilled swordfish with polenta (or you could get veal or lambchops) and baklava with cappuccino ice cream for dessert. Sounds amazing, right?

It was by no means terrible, but I have to admit that despite the ultra upscale sounding menu you could definitely tell it was a student-run dinner. The pita was dry and cold, the salad salty, the swordfish oily and sweet(?) and the baklava had no honey. But the chardonnay, garlicky hummus and cappuccino ice cream were all-star and made up for the rest of the meal.  Good or bad, I recommend the experience because you can STUDENT CHARGE everything and it's a great learning opportunity for the students.

I guess the reason I bring this up is primarily because of the dinner table talk. While in the middle of complaining about the food and our futures, or lacktherof, I brought up the color hunt video we watched today in design class. Well, I felt like a complete nerd because there I was, bursting at the seams trying to explain how the designers were in full safari gear, matching hundreds of swatches to leaves and murky water and strange grasses and Amazonian sky — while my friends stared at me blankly. They didn't get it. I guess that just means I'm in the right capstone.

I will leave you with this lovely image of the Mediterranean sea. Back to the grind; I have faith that someday all this hard work will pay off and I'll be able to soak in this view everyday from my Greek villa.

 

Proud to be an Iowan

...and for once it has nothing to do with a sports team, a vegetable or some sort of natural disaster recovery.  I am extremely shocked, but even more pleased, with Iowa's unanimous rejection of the same-sex marriage ban.

Ironically enough, my roommate decided to rent the movie "Milk" tonight. After the disaster that was "Rachel Getting Married" — I really tried to appreciate it, but just couldn't — Milk was a timely and much-needed dose of optimism, inspiration and, yes, hope.

And, in case you haven't seen it, here is an amazing typographic video accompanying Harvey Milk's 1978 "You Cannot Live on Hope Alone" speech. 

Happy Happy Friday!

Why I will never fly United (or Delta or American or...) ever again.

Renovate|Style Update

Here is my latest Renovate|Style department. I realize it has a lot of problems, but I think I like its' direction. I really like the photo cut-outs, I just need to work on featuring photos that more clearly represent the project from start to finish and adjust sizes and placement. It's hard to look at a page from a virginal perspective (as John put it, ha) and realize that not everyone knows what the hell a "DVD memory keeper" is. Jan and John gave me a really good suggestion to create my own DVD case frames in photoshop so I could put colored paintings and more refined designs within each frame. This will a) give me a prettier dominant photo, b) appeal to an affluent audience by upgrading the project to a finer art level  and c) solve the whole problem with the page's "taxi-ness."

I really like the yellow highlighters bleeding off the left edge of the page, but I can see how the page really isn't easy to follow or clean looking at all. I will work on creating more modular text areas (perhaps to mirror the grids of the frame?)  to help create a more cohesive page that is easy to use and bold yet refined.

Posterama

For me, there is nothing more inspiring than just looking at a ton of stuff. Although it may not be the most professional way to go about designing, it sure gives me ideas. These are some of my favorite inspiration posters; clearly I focus more on typography than actual illustration, which I think is pretty telling of my personal style. 

One of my favorite bands! I love the flower child theme they've got going on. It's a much needed and drastic change from other band posters circulating the lampposts.

Pink and red are two of my favorite colors (especially together), and I think this poster does it in a nice, subtle way. The designer lets the text scream at you rather than using just the color for impact.

Chartreuse! Ah! I love it! And I know some people hate filled bowls, but I think it can make an impact when needed. It can be particularly effective and more relevant when used for events and publications that cater to designers; they can appreciate it rather than wonder what happened to the "Os."

First off, adorable dogs. They would be even more adorable if they were twin pugs. Secondly, as a self-proclaimed hater of all "baby" colors, aka pastels, I must admit that this dusky purple succeeds in feeling quite modern.