We had a talk with a designer that used to work for Wonderland magazine yesterday which I really enjoyed. It was refreshing to hear someone who admitted he had no idea either which area of design he wanted to go into when he was at university too. Also he gave us some good tips regarding work experience such as, even if you have to make the tea etc, just be polite and get on with it because it's all about making contacts and who you know.

his work was really good, I particularly liked the Bestival work he has done as I love the Bestival artwork! So it was cool to meet the guy that was behind it. It was also interesting to hear his thinking behind all his work and how he gets to his final ideas etc.

The crit went really badly today. I didn't realise we basically had to have our final design layouts completed in InDesign and as I couldn't download it over the holidays because it wouldn't work, my layouts were in Photoshop which I didn't think would be a problem because I didn't know we had to have the finals for today. Anyway, a lot of other peoples were amazing! But I felt like it looked as if I hadn't done much work even though I had done a few of my editorial illustrations over the holiday. I guess I was just unprepared.

The talk with Chris Davidson (Hub Agency) went really well and I got the placement which is good as I was getting worried I wasn't going to find anything in time. He seemed really nice and he's already thought of some projects that I can get on with when I come to work with him for the week so everything seems good.

I have received a few responses from work experience! One of them is quite far away so probably wont go for that, but the other is for 'Hub Agency' situated in the Enterprise Pavillion which is pretty handy. I've got to go meet with the Art Director the Monday I get back to uni and show him some of my work...

Here is my initial illustration of the Eiffel Tower. I want it to look quite minimal and simple. I may add colour to it in Illustrator...

I found this image of the empire state building by Linda Zacks and I really like the minimal sketch. This is how I imagined my Eiffel tower to look so I am going to have a go at drawing it tomrow

2nd page spread

1st page spread ideas



Here are some of my initial mock ups after my crit feedback. I'm not sure which opening page works best? Or whether to put an image in the negative space.

The second page I really don't like, I think it is too in your face and busy in contrast with the first page ideas. Hopefully in my crit they will help me decide which layout to go for, for the first page.

We had our crit today which was helpful. The feedback I got suggested that I play with the headline more, perhaps crossing the text over so that it reflects 'crossing borders' or have it laid across the middle of the double page spread. I want to use a lot of negative space in my layout as this is something I really like in magazine articles. Also perhaps adding some colour as the spread was very black and white.

Over the holidays I am going to work on my editorial illustrations, perhaps do something about Paris as Lenz talks a lot about how she loves living in Paris and how Graphic Design has enabled her to do so.