The story was about a local roll your own (RYO) smoke shop called Roll On. While there was a text story to accompany it, this was overall a photo story. I enjoy photo editing, but honestly I didn't enjoy this particular story. There weren't any verticals and hardly a place for a vertical crop, so everything was horizontal. Talk about static visuals. They weren't bad photos, just hard to work with and to create a story. So instead of a linear story, I decided to try to create a mood/feeling.
The most interesting part of the story to me was the community aspect of the shop. There was a beautiful line in the story that illustrated this perfectly: "...the shop creates a refuge from the "phobia" of smoking, a nod to the stalemate between collective public health and individual rights for smokers." I am still a writer at heart and that line is one of those "holy shit I nailed it" lines. So I took that feel of the story and ran with it.
The first thing I thought of was the Aaron Eckhart mockumentary Thank You for Smoking and thought that was a better title than "Roll on, Columbia". Sorry Vox staff. But apparently no one liked mine either so I suppose we'll agree to disagree. I thought it captured the geniality and lightheartedness of the shop and its owner and nodded a bit to the economic part of the story (thank you, as in, you're keeping us in business, so thanks for feeding your habit here). I led with the shop owner's portrait, of course not without a cigarette in his hand, because he was the center of the entire story.
I can't tell you why I chose the font I did for this design; honestly, it just felt "right". I knew I wanted tall, sort of skinny sans-serifs and landed on Muncie and Arvil. I guess it reminds me of cigarrettes standing in a pack or the warning labels (which is kind of ironic I suppose since it says "thank you").
For the next page I chose to lead with the lighting up photo because the hands cupped around the lighter and the dark contrasting with the light gave me a "safe haven" feel, which is the mood I was going for. The other half, I chose pictures that all had to do with the community aspect of the shop. The relaxed feeling and comfortableness of the shots appealed to me so I wanted to group them all together to create the tone.
I had the most trouble with the last page and trying to wrap it up. I chose to showcase how the cigarrettes were actually made with the top photo (also nods to the diversity of people that come in to roll their own, look at that fancy ass jewelry!) and then end with the owner cleaning and closing up shop because that seemed natural. I also love how he has a cigarette hanging out of his mouth; it just adds to the carefreeness of the shop (not everyday in today's society that you see people freely smoking inside a store).
I wasn't sure what to do with the cover, especially because all the cover-esque photos were pretty cliche and overdone (kid lighting up, hand with cigarette and pretty smoke wafting off, etc.). I wanted to pick something that would highlight what the story was about so readers wouldn't be confused so I settled on the stacks of rolled cigs photo. I really like this photo for aesthetic reasons, but it was hard to get it to work on the cover because of the bokeh and stuff. Once I got the title placed, I realized I needed a place for sell lines, which would cover up the main part of the photo. I opted for a transparent box, but I don't think it worked out too well and kind of ruined the effect of the photo. Aesthetically as far as colors and font, I was pleased, but with the overall execution, I could have done better. And that goes for the whole design. I think with my spreads I got too caught up with "designing" and didn't showcase the photos enough.
I was pretty pleased with my sweet sell lines though, bro. ;)
As for the rest of the week, we've got Spring Preview due on Friday which I'm pretty excited about. Illustrator here I come. I've also got cover concepts due tomorrow for the first round of cover competitions. The feature is all about death and the afterlife. Dun. Dun. Dun. How dramatic.
Sorry for the novel,
KC
I'd have to agree Kelsey, I'm a little rough with making illustrations and I love the idea of font, however I never seem to choose the right one. I love that website, I'm definitely going to have to explore it a little more for my own personal projects. I've definitely noticed that one thing I'm struggling with for VOX is working with the fonts that they already have and not being able to download new ones, something I'm sure that a fellow typography lover such as yourself is struggling with also. The designs you posted are also really awesome, love the apple and the serpent! But coming from someone who is slightly scared to take risks - DON'T BE. Be risky! I think that's an admirable designer trait!
ReplyDeleteKelsey, I have to say, I really liked your design for this assignment. I agree with critiques in class that said there were too many design elements for a photo story. But, again, when simply looking at the design elements of the spread, I enjoy what you came up with. I appreciated reading your explanation for your headline choice. When I first read your headline, I thought it focused too much on the act of smoking and not on the idea of the shop. Yet, when you explain how "Thank you" refers to the business of the shop and how there are hints at the sense of community in your headline choice, I rethought my initial reactions. Furthermore, I liked reading about the thought behind your photo choices (which, by the way, I think you had a good mix of photos). I never would have looked at the picture of the person smoking and cupping the flame as a representation of the shop's "safe haven" vibe. I probably would have liked to see the photo captions treated a little differently. For me, they look a little too compact and I would have like to see them lengthened in some way. Yet, even as I say that, it is important to point out that your caption treatments fall right in line with your design theme. All in all, good job. I look forward to seeing what you come up with for the next assignment.
ReplyDeleteSo I was waiting to comment on yours in class, and then we kind of skipped over the commentary section for your feature spread. I really liked your design because it reminded me a lot of esquire's style. I am a huge fan of that magazine, and you were very bold in your use of color and fonts.
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