Week 7

A few changes have been made to the feature article.
The leading has been opened up in the body copy.
Robert Curry's name and the name of his restaurant, on the second page, was reduced in size because it was taking away from the recipe.
Some other layouts are still being changed throughout the feature and the Our Chefs Recommend pages.
These pages, as well as the Cooking tips, Dedication page, and Sponsorship Index are still in constant flux. Photos that are used in these pages could and will probably change.
More updates are still to come.

Week 5

I made more changes after the critique in week 4, and the feedback I received from the publisher in week 5. I've changed the overall logo color to a green/blue, rather than red, which seemed to be over-powering the compositions. A new cover photo is being used to test how the old cover treatment will work with a new image. The San Francisco Chefs logo on the inner pages was reduced in size and alignments were adjusted. The T.O.C. background image was changed to the same as that of the cover. The feature now uses thinner variations of Gill Sans, rather than the contrasting bold and regular. The Bold, more specifically, made the feature look too "fun", and not sophisticated enough. I'm still working on resizing the feature photos so that I do not crop them. I have to take a small step backwards in order to make them work with the other page elements. I'm also in the process of laying out the Chef's Recommendation pages as well as the dedication page.

Saturday, August 4th

After the critique on Thursday, the publisher feels as if, collectively, the concepts resemble a "Food and Wine" type magazine too much, and lack a sophisticated look and feel.
Changes have been made to the layouts based on suggestions made on Thursday.
The masthead works for the this issue, but may not translate as well to the DC issue.
The Table of Contents has been adjusted to appear less cluttered.
Folios have been placed on both facing pages, per the publisher's request.
The red lines used in the feature have been thinned out and reduced in number.

Tuesday, July 31st_Week4

Today, in class, we layed out a more detailed timeline for the next few weeks.
I will be speaking with Kris Robertson from Career Services to get the what's, where's, and when's concerning the presentation we will be given on week 8.

Thursday the class will be presenting on-screen comps to Joyce.

I've completed the initial layouts for the following pages:
-Cover
-Introduction
-Publisher's letter
-Table of Contents
-Four page feature article

I'm currently working on the Chef's recommendation pages and the "Masthead" page, towards the back of the current issue.

Next week (Week 5) on Tuesday, the class will meet at 10:30AM and leave AiW to visit a publication design firm in Baltimore.
I'm anxious to see the daily operations at a real firm.

Next week the class will also be responsible for printing out comps to critique.
I'm going to try and perfect bind the comp to get a better idea how it could look.
Hopefully I'll have enough time.

Week 6, all page must be printed for Tuesday's class.

Week 3 Journal Entry/Critique

Although the idea of having a complimentary magazine for your friends and clients is nice as well as a great PR move, the current design of the DC and San Francisco Chefs seems poor and hastily thrown together. I did however enjoy that the format for the magazine is wider than most other comparable magazines. The cover of the magazine lacks appeal and originality in the content and composition. The flatware wrapped in ribbons seemed to give some people I had shown, the impression that this was a catalog, at a glance. The masthead in Century Gothic, in all caps is also unoriginal and difficult to read.
In regards to the use of text, overall, I understand that the chef prefers white space in the layouts, and this could be achieved by using set type styles, sizes, and leading. There should also be a set number of words per page so that the layouts compliment the recipes and profiles, instead of weighing them down. The logos used in the profiles should be restricted to the last two pages, possibly following or within the “On the Side” section. The folios alternate from the outside lower left of a spread to the inner lower right, where it could be easily overlooked. The photography used in the previous issue is fine; it’s the way that the photos are sized and cropped that kills the potential impact that it could have on the reader. The captions for the photos do not compliment them or work with them in any unifying way.
I believe, after viewing the on-line version of this magazine, that this publication was designed to be viewed on-line. This could be so because of the way the issues regarding the lack of margins, or the irregular placement of images and text fields do not seem as troublesome when viewed on screen.
I’m not sure about how affective the placement of advertisements is in relation to the chef’ profiles or relevance to each other. The sophisticated image that we’re striving for could be possible without being too conservative in our concepts and ideas. In most areas of the magazine the type is too large anyways. So by simply reducing the point size a little we have given ourselves a lot more white space to use. The design of the chef’s recommendation pages are inconsistent and lack any aesthetic appeal or interest to the reader. It looks as if this section might have been a last minute addition by the way it contrasts the treatment of the other layouts. The dedication page could be seen as insulting to some people because of the impractical use of center justified text looked when it’s reversed. At least there are margins on this particular page. The layout of the index/publisher’s info page feels the same as the table of contents page does, in that it uses typefaces inconsistently and in a boring layout. Overall the desired look of the magazine could be made so that there is a visual flow to the information that s inviting while maintaining it’s functionality.

MInutes for Today's Class

Here are a few of the topics of discussion from today’s class:

Kris Robertson from the Career Services department is finalizing last minute issues with AiW’s Culinary Department regarding our presentation on Week 8.

Mr. Julien offered up Michel Richard’s book as a reference for the class.
After a quick examination it seems that white space is used throughout the book to give it an ultra-clean look.
Michel also likes to use stacked type….
Michel also goes into great detail in his recipes, and is very methodical in his process.
The same attention to detail could also be seen in the choices he must have made during the design and production of his book.

The forward to Michel Richard’s book, written by Thomas Keller, was also handed out.

This week the class is required to hand in a formal analysis of the previous issues of DC and San Francisco Chefs Magazine.

WEEK 2 - Thursday, July 19, 2007

This week the class got feedback from the meeting last Friday.
There will be more spreads to present to the client, but the presentation has been pushed back until week 8.

Today the class also got to choose which magazine we would be designing.
I'm helping with the San Fransisco Chefs magazine and have posted a link to the old DC/SF Chefs website on the left, or you can check it out here.

WEEK 1 - Thursday, July 12, 2007

Last class was a casual introduction to the syllabus and a good chance for everyone to get to know each other better. We all took an excursion to Starbuck’s for coffee and conversation. Today the class reviewed the overall project and voiced concerns that will be addressed in a meeting this Friday with the client.

I'm anxious to get started with the actual content, and have begun drafting mock layouts and grids to keep myself occupied. I'm also reviewing the past issues and marking them up in order to write a more formal critique for next week. I have been researching other culinary publications to get a better feel for how it's readers might "digest" the content...hehehe.