Archive for the 'design' Category

I hate the new Giant logo

Published
by
ashley
on August 26, 2008
in design and i am ridiculous
. 5 Comments

So listen.  I know that I am not an expert on things like corporate identity (though I did create a rocking corporate identity package for one of my graphic design classes in college) or marketing (though I did take Marketing 341 one semester in a misguided attempt to explore other moneymaking opportunities considering journalism majors make like 4 dollars a year).

(I am, however, clearly an expert on using parentheses)

But I hate the new Giant logo.  See below.

It looks like a sailboat to me.  A big colorful sailboat.  It does not say “bowls a’plenty” to me, nor does it say “Hey, come shop with us, we’re fresh and clean, look at our updated logo!”

It also screams of unoriginality.  Every major company these days is getting a logo similar to this - the old “image on the side, san-serifed font on the other side” treatment.  See examples:

See what I’m saying?  I love a clean white background more than anything, but this has got to stop at some point.

And you know, I’m not sure that purple, red, yellow and green are really the best color palette choices.  It’s almost like they tried to go with straight color wheel pairings but then messed up on the orange-purple option (though that yellow is more like an orange-yellow, I suppose).  I think they really nailed the coffin down with their typeface color being purple.  Why would you do that?

I had a brief 20 minutes of clear time this evening, which is why I wrote this post to begin with, but then I spent a good five minutes redesigning the new Giant logo.  It’s not perfect, but I like to think it’s an improvement at least:

You still get the “bowls a’plenty” ideal, but with a more modern and tied-together color palette.  Instead of the text on the side, you get it on the top, which is different (and it would also look more balanced on a plastic grocery bag).

Note - I am a newspaper and web designer, not an actual graphic designer (in spirit, maybe).  I took seven graphic design courses in college and averaged a C in all of them (mainly due to my lack of natural drawing ability).  No matter how stupid I am with drawing, at the very least, I know not to make my typeface purple.

the survival of journalism

Published
by
ashley
on July 9, 2008
in design and work
. 0 Comments

(subtitled: Why I should’ve gotten a degree in nursing or some bullshit like that)

I’m trying to learn Flash so I can be superawesome at my job (it’s not going very well. Flash is hard.) and one of the books I’ve picked up is “Flash Journalism” by Mindy McAdams. It was helpful for the beginning things, like animation and things like that. It just seems like I’m not smart enough to do anything else except what it is in the book. That’s not Mindy’s fault, my lack of intelligence. Ha.

Anyway, she has a really entertaining blog about journalism issues and new media designs. I go to it occasionally and see what’s up. And recently, she had this posted: “The Survival of Journalism: 10 Simple Facts”

Man, was it a downer.

It’s no secret that newspapers are struggling. The start-up community newspaper I worked for before I moved to Washington DC was bleeding money so fast I was surprised I still had a job there. Everyday, I would go to work and wonder if today would be the day when I showed up and found the doors locked and the lights off. (sidenote: this actually happened to the employees left there. after a christmas break, everyone showed up to work on january 2 and found the doors locked and the paper shut down. bummer. it hit me really hard even though i was no longer an employee there. you have to root for the underdog.)

It’s hard to convince advertisers to advertise in a paper that people can go online to read for free. It’s even harder to convince the advertisers to move to that crazy side of online advertising.

All around the newspaper industry, buyouts are happening and people are being laid-off. I live in constant fear that one day, when I come into work, my position will have been eliminated due to budget restrictions.

And yet, it’s not like I didn’t know this was an issue when I first entered college in the fall of 2001. It’s not like I wasn’t aware that newspapers were trying not to let the door hit them on the way out. More papers were moving from paid full-time reporting positions to 20 bucks an article-freelancers. Four or five photographers? Forget it. Try one or two and a few stringers.

I originally started college with the hopes of working in movies or television, something behind the scenes, something like a scriptwriter (hah) or a director (double-hah. i can’t even direct my cat off the sofa). Within the first 2 months, I switched my sequence to online. Part of it was because I had just discovered the wonders of web design and the other part of it, maybe, was because I wanted to have some sort of job security when I left school. I mean, clearly, reporters are a dime-a-dozen, and I wanted to give employers a edge when they decided to hire me. I mean, who would turn down someone who could not only design your newspaper, but also your website?

(answer: a lot of people would. touche. good job, 19-year-old me)

I like to think that because I tend to do more online things at the newspapers I work that maybe when the chopping block comes up, I might not be the one to get necessarily chopped since more newspapers are moving toward bigger, better online presence.

I do totally agree that newspapers should give their online content away for free. I know that I do not click on WSJ articles because I don’t have a subscription, and normally, I can just find that information on another website.

I don’t feel that there is that large of a niche audience out there. I think that once my generation hits middle-age, newspapers (at least the actual paper part of it) will be nearly obsolete. Look at the Amazon Kindle - once they get that perfected, with a color screen and everything, I truly think it will take the place of newspapers on the train/morning coffee/park bench. New things are coming, and it’s time to start embracing them. The older generation will be a little less ready to do so, so maybe some papers will print limited runs. But eventually, everyone will switch over.

I do NOT think that bloggers are the future. I think that a few well-meaning blogs out there DO have dedicated people that update them, but I feel that the majority of blogs (myself included) are too banal, too erratic, and too personal to ever have an objective point of view.

I guess I can always go back to school and get a degree in something useful. Something like advertising or computer programming (FAIL) or even marketing. But in the meantime, I’m content with being a member of the media, no matter how small my role is. Working with newspapers makes me happy. I like the smell of newsprint, especially when it first rolls off the press and the paper and the ink are still warm and it gets all smudgy on your fingers (note: this might just be old presses). I would be really sad if physical newspapers disappear, but I’m sure I would get over it because you just know whatever gadget they come out with to read them with is going to be supercool.

velcro revisited

Published
by
ashley
on November 1, 2006
in cooking, design, friends, knitting, life, marques and school
. 0 Comments

i hate it when the weather is trying to decide if it wants to be fall or winter.  when i left my house today at 2 pm, the weather was sunny with just a tiny little nip in the air. 2 hours after i got to work, the sky had turned a dark gray and it’s been cold and rainy all night.  it’s like, my god, just pick one already. 

yesterday, i used the crockpot for the first time.  i made pork tenderloin with carrots and potatoes.  it was pretty good.  when i came home from work, dinner was finished.  i whipped up a box of stove-top stuffing to go with it and we had a really nice dinner.  tonight, i have plans for cuban-esque sandwiches made with the leftovers.  yum. 

i’ve been super boring lately.  even last night, i was so tired that i fell asleep really early.  it was strange.  i think i’m boring myself so much that i’m sleeping just for something to do. 

i e-mailed my adviser so i can figure out what classes to take next semester.  i think i’m changing my major over to advertising.  online journalism just doesn’t appeal to me.  advertising would at least give me a creative outlet.  i’ve been thinking a lot of what i want to be when i grow up (and really, i’m 23.  i should have decided this years ago.  i’m already grown up) and i’ve decided on a couple options.  i still want to be a book cover designer.  like whoa.  i also think it would be neat to be a book editor.  work in publishing.  design posters and packaging and products.  unfortunately, i don’t think there’s a job where i can just sit around and knit scarves and order hello kitty items from ebay. 

i just feel detached, i think, with the whole school thing.  i hate that the last thing most people knew about me was that i had a crappy job, a crappy boyfriend, and a crappy apartment.  i want all those people to know that i have the complete opposite now.  but i’m too detached from everyone. 

i look forward to becoming a little more bustling.  and a lot less tired.

**********
in case you would like to make the pork tenderloin with veggies, here’s my modified recipe:

pork tenderloin with veggies:

1 pork tenderloin, 3 to 4 pounds
8 small red potatoes
2 carrots cut in chunks (i only used 2 because marques doesn’t like carrots… you can add more)
8 whole cloves of garlic
1 can chicken broth
2 tablespoons lemon juice
salt, pepper
1/4 cup parsley, minced
1 package onion soup mix

rub pork with salt and pepper.  sear it on all sides in a hot skillet with a bit of oil.  put the ingredients into the crockpot in the following order:  carrots, potatoes, garlic, pork roast.  mix the chicken broth, lemon juice, parsley and onion soup mix together, then pour over roast.  set crockpot to cook for 10 hours on low. 

the day when comic sans woke up with a horsehead in its bed

Published
by
ashley
on October 17, 2006
in design, life and work
. 0 Comments

i can’t remember when my hatred of comic sans font first started.  i think it was around 8th grade, when all of us 8th graders were herded into our junior high’s computer lab to type research papers.  i remember at least 3 different girls using comic sans to type their paper in and i cringed.

it’s the staple of every kindergarten teacher.  they use it for everything.  and also for people who make “FREE KITTENS” flyers.  and “NEED A TUTOR?” flyers.  and people who create bulletin boards with chintzy borders and whatnot.

man i hate comic sans.  my hatred grows deep. 

occasionally, my manager andy and i will get into arguments about comic sans.  see, he uses comic sans as his e-mail font.  i personally use georgia.  when questioned why, he told me because comic sans is the most readable font.  i jumped on his lack of knowledge of typography immediately and explained to him that actually, sans serif fonts are actually less readable than their devilish counterparts with serifs, and that’s why you don’t see books typeset with sans serif fonts. 

then he started talking about new jersey and taylor ham and he still has not changed his font.  i have no doubt that my endless font pestering can only end badly, but i stand up for what is right.

that’s why i chuckled gleefully when i saw this:  a list of the 7 worst fonts.  of course, comic sans ranks number 1. 

it was also nice to see papyrus on there.  there are some people who really enjoy papyrus, but i have to say i’m not one of them.  i think papyrus has a purpose, and that purpose is strictly for decorating brochures about egyptian tombs.  that’s it.  not for your steak restaurant or your outdoorsy store (mountain state outfitters, i’m looking at you) or your sign about your free kittens.  egypt only.

i think one they left out was times new roman.  there are plenty of better generic type fonts out there (century new, palatino, georgia) that will do the job that times does, and do it better. 

i’m done geeking out.  the moral of this story is that comic sans is lame, and i hate all the day care teachers out there that use it for birthday announcements.

book cover critique: the book of lost things

Published
by
ashley
on September 26, 2006
in book covers, design and life
. 0 Comments

joseph did a review on this cover, and said he thought it was whimsical.  i agree.  here’s a synopsis of the book, shamelessly stolen from amazon:

“High in his attic bedroom, twelve-year-old David mourns the death of his mother. He is angry and alone, with only the books on his shelf for company. But those books have begun to whisper to him in the darkness, and as he takes refuge in his imagination, he finds that reality and fantasy have begun to meld. While his family falls apart around him, David is violently propelled into a land that is a strange reflection of his own world, populated by heroes and monsters, and ruled over by a faded king who keeps his secrets in a mysterious book”

i love the idea of this book.  even though it sounds a little like the pagemaster. 

and i love the lettering.  i love hand-drawn lettering.  this book gets thumbs up all around.  i haven’t seen the actual cover yet, but i think it would be really cool to have the black and the gold matte, and then the white shapes have a gloss on it so it would really pop out. 

i hope this book becomes a best-seller.  john connolly, i have my fingers crossed for you.

the things i would do if i had pantone color samples

Published
by
ashley
on September 24, 2006
in design and life
. 0 Comments

oh man, i love this guy:

pantone color matching - flickr photoset

seriously.  that’s cool and you know it.  you can’t deny it.  this is just one of the many reasons why i love pantone colors.

book cover design: severance

Published
by
ashley
on September 24, 2006
in book covers and design
. 0 Comments

i picked up a copy of severance by robert olen butler from amazon a few weeks ago.  i thought it sounded interesting.  the concept is that on average, consciousness lasts for a minute and a half after decapitation, so most people would be able to say about 240 words before they die.  so he took a bunch of people who have been decapitated (either on purpose or on accident) and imagined their last words.

the texture of the cover is matte, and the picture is a wonderful gray-brown tone.  the red line has a uv gloss on it so it really shines.  the inside design is nice, too.  white text on a black background introduces each person and their story. 

however, my favorite part of the book is the rough-cut pages.  i love that whoever designed this book made the ends of the pages rough-cut.  it gives it a jagged feel that you associate with the way a decapitated neck must look like.  it both fascinates you and grosses you out at the same time.

it was a pretty interesting book.  i passed it along to my friend ruth ann, who i think will enjoy it more than i did.  i don’t know what i expected — maybe stories instead of just words jumbled all together.  but i guess if my head was cut off, i wouldn’t have any stories to tell either.