Critique: VOX department pages (a.k.a. playing Tetris)

This week I'm critiquing the two department pages I've designed for VOX so far this semester. Interestingly enough, I just noticed that they both feature the same ad.  Anyway, both designs required me to play design Tetris in very different ways. (For those who don't live in the design realm, playing Tetris in regard to design basically means that you have to try and make all of the content fit in a space that's either too big or too small. It's generally more of a news design problem, but happens a lot with department pages, too.)

02.03.11 arts department page



I played a lot of Tetris with this one. The "Lumber by Numbers" story was the only content slated for the page, and it wasn't very long. I tried making the photo larger to take up more space, but its placement combined with that of the ad would have required me to break up the text diagonally, which is a huge design no-no since it's not nice to make the reader jump around so much to read the story. Also, I didn't really think the photo was exciting enough to run very big, either.

After playing around with it for awhile (by breaking some of the VOX design rules), Aaron suggested I add a house ad at the bottom to help even out the spacing. This solution allowed everything to work a lot more fluidly, and I was able to follow all of the rules.

*Side note* I was in love with this headline; it's both clever and catchy.

02.27.11 arts department page



I faced a totally different Tetris challenge with this page. A sidebar story on a completely unrelated topic was also supposed to run on this page. I did spend some time trying to fit both stories on the page.  Once I realized that both stories needed the pullout info bubbles I decided there was no way everything was going to fit, especially with the quarter page ad and the length of the "Fences" story. I think the final product here was pretty successful, even if it's not very "design-y." It does it's job.

You can't miss: bold color palettes—then and now

Color is one of the seven major elements of art, and it's not hard to understand why. Using color effectively can communicate specific messages and evoke certain feelings.

This week, Ministry of Type featured some great film noir posters. The blog links to a countdown of the best posters that have been created to advertise the niche films.

The composition and design techniques are are both intriguing and inspiring to me. I especially appreciate the bold use of color and the harsh contrasts employed. Most of the posters feature simplistic color schemes created by combining simple primary and secondary colors. The designers obviously took great care in considering how different colors play off one another to evoke certain feelings.



This is a painting created by my favorite present-day artist, Dale Chihuly. He's most known for his work with glass. He creates these great blown-glass sculptures. Some are minimalistic and abstract while others take on natural forms.

I've seen a two of his exhibits, one in Kansas City when I was in middle school and one at the Missouri Botanical Garden in St. Louis. While his glass sculptures are exquisite, I absolutely fell in love with his paintings. He has this technique where he splashes boldly colored paints onto huge canvases one after another. The finished result is a panoramic, abstract work of art with vivid colors. When you see them in person, they just engulf you.

The above image is one of my favorites. It features more contemporary, yet still bold, color palette. And as a typical hipster female college student, of course I have a passion for neon colors.

Whether admiring old movie posters or modern paintings, I can always appreciate the effective use of vivid color palettes. I think this appreciation can be observed in a lot of my work as a designer. 

Cheers.