About this time last year, my 2013 staff stumbled across Computer Arts Collection, a bi-monthly compendium published by Computer Arts Magazine. We were in the midst of the search for our 2013 visual voice, and the kids scoured magazines to find something that really caught their eye.
In each CAC, they featured a design or creative media firm and that organization's approach to a particular project, start to finish. The magazine itself is beautifully designed, and in one issue, my kids found a profile on a company called Vault 49. The feature was awesome, but the CAC designs in the article were fantastic–exactly what our kids needed.
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| Computer Arts Collection -- "Illustration" -- Vol 1 Part 3, 2012. Profile on Vault 49 creative agency. |
We also revisited a font I discovered in Minnesota during a gallery installation on graphic design. I was taken with the font superfamily "Trilogy" by Jeremy Tankard in the UK, and shared it with the kids. They fell in love, we bought the font, and the rest is history.
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| A spread from Skjöld 2013, "They're / Their / There." West HS yearbook, Corning-Painted Post N.Y. |
We had a concept for our visual voice, and we had 18 faces in a font family that gave us enormous creative space in which to develop the book. You can see the DNA our book shares with the CAC spread in the examples above. Our kids put it through what we call the "yearbook blender" and made it their own, but having that inspiration piece was invaluable.
As you look to design or redesign, or if you know that your students are those like Collins mentioned today who'll want to use 17 fonts and five colors all on one spread, I can't recommend to you enough to find an inspiration piece and let it guide you.
-Mike Simons
West HS / East HS
Corning-Painted Post, N.Y.
I am as guilty as some others about letting students over font and over design until things look like a big old mess. I really like the term noise Tracy used to describe all the unnecessary busy stuff. That is now permanently part of my vocabulary.
ReplyDeleteGreg Cantwell
Sheldon High School
Eugene, Ore.
This examples in this presentation will be great tools for my staff to generate some ideas. I'm also excited to use Bonnie's idea of recreating famous or award winning photos to practice all the great elements of photography.
ReplyDeleteBrandon Michaud
Winnacunnet High School
Hampton, N.H.
Mike, thank you for posting this example. I will be pulling this up to use in class. Very clear visual elaboration of how to use a model.
ReplyDeleteYou are a great design teacher and it has been an honor to learn from and with you. I look forward to seeing you at JEA or elsewhere.
Bonnie
Thank you, Bonnie -- if it would help you or anyone, I can give you six "befores" as examples, and six of our "here's what we did with it" of what made it into the book.
ReplyDelete-Mike