Hey Steve

Is there anywhere we can see those photos you took of the group on the Plym tour?

Final Polish

You'll all be busy polishing your work right now, so here are some things to consider as we come to the last week of the module:

• detailing in type is particularly important: type size, kerning, leading, column width, use of initials etc.
• look back at the brief and check you have covered everything mentioned there - folios, image captions, header/footers for mag name, an introductory paragraph to outline the article contents.
• Use your recto-spread-verso to full effect. Does the first page (the only thing we will initially see) pull us in and want us to read further? How can you be original in your use of content across four pages organised so specifically? Do you use the double page spread well? Does our eye read well across the two pages, or are there visual 'holes'? Are you using white space to best effect.
• Be aware of unity across all elements: does it all hang together and feel like it's part of on magazine? Check over their all their copy and see that everything is spelled correctly but also that it sounds convincing and professional.
• Lastly, you need to keep going and work hard! It always pays off.

CR Blog: David James exhibition

Intriguing blog post from CR about David James and some of his editorial work for a magazine called A Be Sea, where each issue is a letter of the alphabet, and the magazine content revolves loosely around that theme. A neat concept I think, with some really nice pages. Go here to find out more.

Smart Codes.

Group of people called Vanity Barcodes have started to create some subtle barcodes. If someone is struggling to work a barcode into their cover try this?

Heritage Magazine.

I figured there were people like me who are looking at the heritage side of Plymouth.

The best history magazine I have found is one called Heritage. The website is very dull but they have interactive online issues for all their publications which are worth checking out. It is one of the more clean cut history magazines I've found.

To Find their back issues just look to the right of the top menu bar and click.

Heritage Magazine

Sam

Grid Systems - Kimberly Elam

Useful for anyone looking at going beyond the conventional grid layout. Also has transparent pages at points.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Grid-Systems-Principles-Organizing-Design/dp/1568984650/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1268408534&sr=8-2

magCulture

magCulture is a website/blog dedicated to magazine design. I just found it and thought it might be helpful for inspiration...

http://magculture.com/blog/

They have stuff tagged by Topic on the sidebar which looks quite useful, eg. the Designers topic, the Front Covers topic ..

Some nice contents pages.

http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2008/07/07/table-of-contents-creative-and-beautiful-examples/

Page layout designing example

Cool video, designer recorded his entire page layout development. Shows that it even takes them a while!

Fun video to see how many of the workers could fold this magazine back up. All did it fairly quickly but it shows to not make folded magazines too complicated.

Thumbs up

Here's some nice thumbnails Hanna was working on for her publication. Hopefully you're all thinking of the layout of the page by now and that a beautiful magazine is forming before your eyes.

Note: I couldn't resist the title, sorry about that.

Some Cool Origami

Wasn't sure to post it or not, but three or four people found it useful, so maybe others will , either way its pretty inspirational. Go here.

UPP - University of Plymouth Publications

Who knew Plymouth Uni had it's own published magazines and stuff? Yeah, me neither...but there appears to be some interesting publications kicking about that might be worth a look, they're called UPP (University of Plymouth Publishing), and hopefully the library will have copies in the journals section. Enjoy: http://www.uppress.co.uk/index.html

Cover the Covers.

Controversial covers get noticed. Find more here.

Free Style Magazine... Frisbee!

This is a really cool magazine for 'creative people who like to play.' It's round in shape and fits perfectly inside a frisbee. About bringing a freestyle attitude too both life and work. And for people to admire and be inspired by its content, yet having fun with it at the same time. Very nice... Go here to see more.

Swiss..

Some swiss style images for people to admire. I have now became extremely jealous of how un-swiss I am. Not all magazines. But annoyingly awesome none the less. See here.

magazines that you can't hold

Evidently, Dezeen is 'the world's most influential online architecture and design magazine'.

p.s. Someone fancy submitting a story?

Magazine vs Book

According to the oxford dictionary, a book is:
• a set of written, printed, or blank pages fastened along one side and encased between protective covers.

• a printed or written literary work.

A magazine is:
• a periodical containing a collection of articles, stories, pictures, or other features.

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Just to clear that up Steven.

Architecture Journal

Website has a nice way to view a magazine digitally and useful for layout. Go here.

Old Skateboards and cool stuff

Anyone doing skating as their article topic? I found this really cool thing some Japanese guy did in Tokyo where he took all his old decks and made them into strange objects. Go here. Very pretty :)

Some nice blogs

Some nice editorial blogs:

tank design
Goodinc

Sweet Site

Studio8 Design is 'an award-winning independent graphic design studio with a reputation for delivering intelligent and engaging creative solutions.' Check it out.

Plymouth's moving up in the world...

Ok, so this may not be entirely 'relevant' to this module (sorry Steven), but I think this is exciting so I thought I'd share it.

The Roland Levinsky building is mentioned in CRblog!! Apparently the Peninsula Arts gallery is showcasing a load of pretty Chopin posters next month, and the Very Important People at CR think it's cool enough to feature in their Extremely Awesome Blog.

What's kind of disappointing for me is the fact I found out about this through a blog that has no direct affiliation with the uni/gallery/event, when I practically live in RL. Why is there such a low level of awareness about events in the arts gallery? CR knows more about things than we (the students!) do.

http://www.creativereview.co.uk/cr-blog/2010/february/old-and-new-polish-posters

Grids!!

Heres a really good website all about grids, it's got sample grids in all sorts of formats, articles on grids, grid generators, basically everything-you-could-possibly-know-about-grids, plus a list of websites that inspired the site. What I love is that you can toggle between seeing the grid on top of the elements in the site and the regular site without the grid, really useful for seeing how all the elements sit within the grid. www.thegridsystem.org :)

Creative review cover

This is just cool. It's in the journal section in the library if you want to see it in real life, nice stock too!

i-D Magazine

Tipped on its side, the "i-D" typographic logo reveals a winking smiley. Most issues of i-D magazine have featured a winking cover model. Nice concept.

A reminder of terms

These are some WIKI descriptions with hyperlinks so you can read further if you wish too:

A masthead, technically speaking, is the box or section within its pages which contains detailed identifying information regarding its publisher, staff, location, frequency of publication etc. What appears on the front of a periodical, is technically called the nameplate and is distinct from its masthead. For this project wouldn't it be good if you did both for this project? look at your favourite magazine - what kind of distinction does it make between its masthead and nameplate?

Copy refers to written material, in contrast to photographs or other elements of layout, in a large number of contexts, including magazines, advertising, and book publishing. In some fields, copy refers to the output of copywriters, who are employed to write material which encourages consumers to buy goods or services.

In publishing more generally, the term copy refers to the text in books, magazines, and newspapers. In books, it means the text as written by the author, which the copy editor then prepares for typesetting and printing.

In newspapers and magazines, body copy, the main article or text that writers are responsible for, is contrasted with display copy, accompanying material such as headlines and captions, which are usually written by copy editors or sub-editors.

The verso is the back side and the recto the front side of a leaf of paper in a bound item such as a book, broadsheet, or pamphlet. Thus in languages written from left to right (like English), the recto is the right-hand page and the verso the left-hand page.

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Image: Masthead for a 1845 edition of Scientific American

Initial cover design

This is a first idea I've had for a working cover design (I'm being held at gun point by Steven at the moment). My topic is Francis Drake. p.s i've found a pretty good website for old magazine covers - magazine art

I'm not sure what magazine or book this is, but I just thought it might be useful for people when considering the magazine size and shape and breaking the conventional rectangle.

$1,250 well spent?

I'm never quite sure about this guy but he certainly has a good collection of magazines to inspire and enjoy.