Blog « Becky Johnson

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12
Jan
2010

Some Spreads I Worked On

Here are some images of the spreads I worked on for Northern Virginia Magazine. The “Great Escapes” is a special ad section from December.

The following are from the January 2010 redesigned issue. I worked on the events guide, the wedding special ad section, and the restaurant guide. Most of the images were my responsibility to find and incorporate.

For the guides, I followed the template, but for special ad section I had more flexibility for the layout. Most of the images were my responsibility to find and incorporate.

I scheduled the photo shoot for this dish and the chef portrait (above).

Tags: layout, magazine, spreads
Posted in Blog, my work

18
Nov
2009

Optima

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OPTIMA: It’s a font. It’s kinda everywhere. And it’s quite possibly my favorite typeface. Gasp! I’m a graphic designer and Helvetica isn’t my favorite font?! Don’t get me wrong. Helvetica is great and all that jazz, and it’s in my Top 5, but Optima is my numero uno. My Optimus Prime if you will.

Here are some places you may have seen Optima without realizing it:

Aston Martin (try not to drool)

Clinique cosmetics

Estee Lauder cosmetics

Freedom Bank of Virginia (actually, I might be wrong about this one. Here the “G” is wrong — refer to Jaguar. I could’ve sworn it looked right on the building…)

Jaguar (eat your heart out)

2008 McCain-Palin campaign (III know, I know.)

Peugeot

Slim-Fast

Washington SPACES Magazine (except they don’t use it on their website…?)

Brenneman & Pagenstecher website

Versace is sooo close but is not Optima — according to MyFont.coms it’s Peignot Demi. Others look like they have been tinkered with, but I assume they are still from the Optima family. And that is one good looking family, if I do say so myself.

It’s hard to say why I like this particular font the best other than “I just like it.” I think it’s because when you first see it, it has a very rigid, plain, serious appearance, but then you see its subtleties and change your mind. It’s all in the details — it’s thoughtful and refined. It has quiet elegance, prestige, authority… it seems trustworthy (if a font can be trusted?) And it’s just straight up classy and confident. Basically, it has all the characteristics I wish I had. Guess that explains why I used it for my main website!

Is it weird that I just personified a font? Becase it seems like second nature to me. You know how they say that pets look like their owners? Same rule applies to typography.

—UPDATE 1/20/10—
Found two more examples:

2010 Golden Globes font

DRY IDEA Deoderant (works very well, btw); they made a few tweaks on the Y and E, but othwise pretty identifiable as Optima.

Tags: optima
Posted in font/typography, graphic design, logos

12
Nov
2009

Step 1: Read the Directions

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My folks are a tiny bit technologically challenged, and they’re forever asking me how to turn something on or off. So I thought I’d make them some step-by-step instructions for the TV, DVD Player and Wii for two reasons: so they’ll stop asking me, and because I just felt like making something. Maybe next I’ll make pocket-size instructions for their cell phones.

Tags: instruction manual
Posted in Portfolio, graphic design, my work

10
Nov
2009

I Heart Working at a Magazine

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I’m a design intern at Northern Virginia Magazine, and boy do I love it. I mean, who wouldn’t love being in the know of cool stuff in the area or having their name in the credits or getting to help lay it out? Exactly. Here’s a few of the pages I worked on in the November issue.

Above: I got to work on the redesign of holiday gift subscription forms.

Also got to make some lovely charts and layout the education guide. Isn’t that little boy adorable? Found him on Shutterstock.

Tags: Northern Virginia Magazine
Posted in graphic design, my work

01
Oct
2009

Be Well-Rounded

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Inspiration is hard to come by. It’s rare to think of a great idea from the word go (much less stick with it to the end). Most of the time you have to go searching for it. Don’t be afraid to do some homework, or in some cases, do research until your brain feels like a brick and your eyes feel like they will explode if you pick up one more book. I know that must sound pretty awful, but it’s rewarding in the end. It’s also necessary. It helps you look at your concept/project from every angle imaginable. You start to learn about your subject inside and out. By the end, you’re pretty much an expert on whatever it is you’re working on.

Take, for example, Petar Pavlov, a graphic design student who looked to the history of the Aztec culture as well as geometry to tackle a new packaging concept for Doritos chips. It might seem strange to delve into the world of math and history for an art project, but when you hear his reasoning and findings, you realize that it wouldn’t have made sense not to. Art isn’t just about making things “look pretty.” That’s the overall result. Art, or more specifically graphic design, is about creating something new/that was never there before and through it making something tangible that we all can relate to and understand simply by looking at it.

Am I trying to hard here?

Source: abduzeedo.com -> behance.com

Anyway, my point is that inspiration is hard work and that artists have a much wider range of understanding than they get credit for. That being said, you should check out the story on Petar Pavlov either at Abduzeedo or Behance. Prepare to be awed.

One last thing. I know research is a scary word. If you’re like me, you used to cringe at the word when spoken by a teacher. I never loved research until my third year of college. Why? Because I got to research topics I like. It was actually, sorta…fun… which I like to call “learning at it’s finest.” However, if you still hate research and/or research papers, I will share with you my secrets that I starting doing in college to not die of boredom. 1. Find out if or how your research can possibly connect to things you do find interesting. 2. If you can get away with it, throw in some personal opinions. If you disagree with the topic (or just plain hate it), there are ways to let it be known without being tactless. Giving your opinion helps you feel less like a robot doing work and more like an intelligent human being. 3. When it comes time to write your paper: After (and only after) you have written a well-rounded paper, throw in some fact or opinion or analysis that might seem a little far-fetched or comical. Nothing ridiculous! Just something that makes you chuckle to yourself and mutter “I can’t believe I’m actually putting this in my paper.” That’s when you know you’re having fun with research.

Tags: packaging, Petar Pavlov, research
Posted in artist, graphic design

22
Sep
2009

From Nature

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Saw this ad in the Washington SPACES Magazine and tore it out. The connection they made between the stairs and the shell made me think, what else in my everyday life takes after something nature? I also think the quote by Peter W. Gulick, (Mr. President and CEO himself) very profound. He’d be an interesting person to meet. Then, 122 pages earlier I tore this page out:

“The Greenest home you can build is the one you already own.” That’s a brilliant point to make. You should shout it from the mountain tops, Brenneman & Pagenstecher!! And you, reader, should go to their website because it’s exquisite (though a tad slow to load). This ad does them much justice in the looks department. Good thing they had a GIANT HEADLINE to make me pay attention.

Tags: architecture, green
Posted in graphic design

22
Sep
2009

Back on Track

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I guess I’ve been M.I.A. for long enough. The busyness of summer has worn off somewhat, leaving more time for old hobbies. So here goes another blog entry.

My latest project these days is wedding programs for a woman who works with my brother (he recommending my services – gotta love family). She has a fall theme centered around “dusty roses” and “raisin” and “pink heather.” (I thought “heather” belonged to the gray category?) It’s a very subtle color palette and not to mention sophisticated. I wouldn’t've chosen it myself, but it definitely works. I’ll post some pictures when they’re finished later this week.

Part of my absence was also due to job hunting. Went to a whole bunch of interviews and finally got offered an intern position at Northern Virginia Magazine. It’s not paid, but I need it to finish my degree. So far it’s been a lot of fun. Great atmosphere, great people, I fit in pretty well…for an intern. Plus, I’m actually doing graphic design, which I not only love to do but I’m also good at it. That’s a big thing for me considering how I’ve been stuck at summers jobs doing work for accountants and attorneys or worse — cashier (shudder) — where I had no idea what I was doing or I could have really cared less about what I was doing. Those jobs reminded me how much I missed sunlight and fresh air. Working for the magazine, on the other hand, is as enjoyable to me as writing this blog. I’m really glad I’m doing my internship here.

Oh, and I also interviewed at Gloster Furniture in South Boston, Virginia for marketing assistant. If they had asked, I would’ve started working right then and there, haha. I love everything about Gloster from their furniture to their catalogs to their website. However, I may have been experienced enough for that job right out of college. It’d be a big undertaking as my first job, but I’m so willing to hit the ground running and learning as I go. And I’m not just saying all this because there’s a posibility that they’ll see this — my interview already checked out my blog once — I really am sincere. I’d move to South Boston, VA in a heartbeat to work there.

Let’s see, what else… Since moving back home after graduation, I’ve been occupied with the ongoing process of consolidating all my old stuff with all the new stuff I accrued over for years at Tech. The tricky part that I made as a rule for myself is that I’m not allowed to put anything in the dark abyss that is the basement. That means I have a very motivating factor to organize my room and throw things out or sell them or whatever. It’s like cleaning my room from the inside out. It’s exhausting yet refreshing at the same time — I highly recommend it.

Okay, this is getting too much like a diary than a graphic design blog. I’ll get back to the original point of this blog now.

Tags: interviews, moving, working
Posted in organization

18
Aug
2009

Presentation is Paramount

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Drew & Heather’s wedding pictures were ready for viewing this past Sunday, and they invited the family and I to come check out the photos with them. The photos turned out great. Everyone was very impressed by the company, The Edge Photography Studio. And not just because of the spectacular shots of the wedding. Their presentation of the photos yesterday was so classy. We were served champagne, cheese and crackers when we arrived. Then we watched a projected slide show of all the spread comps for the printed album, followed by all of the photos taken at the wedding. Next, we passed around printed samples of the spreads we just saw (scaled down to 1/4 the size of the final product) so that the couple (and family members) could have the opportunity to rearrange any photos they didn’t like. After that, we passed around a sample of a printed album similar to what Drew and Heather have ordered. The albums are handmade with leather bound covers and black-edged flush mounted (thick, unbending) pages. Absolutely stunning. Plus, they offer the albums in different sizes, including mini books! Last, but not least, Drew & Heather were presented with a 2-disk set of DVDs containing high quality digital files of all their photos. No proofs! How awesome is that!? Oh, and did I mention that the DVDs have personalized labels, and that the cover is also leather bound? Yeah, these folks are the definition of classy.

All of that aside, I was very pleased to see that they photographed my graphic design pieces from the ceremony and reception. Being part of the wedding party, I had nowhere to stash my camera, meaning I didn’t take a single picture that day. I completely forgot to take pictures of my work in the environment! Fortunately, since my brother has the digital files in his hands, he was ever so kind as to send me some of those pictures to me tonight so I could post them on my website! And here they are:

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062709180607

062709180859

062709193245

062709181141

062709181128

062709202249

The quiz cards (above) got a lot of positive feedback. Since it was mainly Heather’s idea, I can’t take much credit for it or it’s entertainment value. So I mainly had a lot of people telling me that I did a great job of hiding the answer. Apparently, nobody had spotted the answers until nearly the end of the night. This surprised me; I was worried that the answers were obvious and somewhat illegible. I deliberately put the answers on the right hand side on top of the design for two reasons. First, because I wanted it to be hidden so nobody could cheat or accidentally see the answer before reading the question. Second, since most people are right-handed, their hand/thumb would cover the answer when they picked up the card. That way the answer gets hidden by the design and the hand. Seems my cleverness paid off.

This is (hopefully) the last I will write about this job… unless I can get my brother to find a picture showing the table numbers and menus. But I doubt it. Up next: wedding programs for one of my brother’s coworkers to whom he mentioned I’m a graphic designer. Aren’t siblings wonderful?

Tags: presentation, the edge photography studio, wedding
Posted in graphic design, invitations, my work

06
Aug
2009

Icons

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Web 2.0 Look

critique

Hand Drawn Look — Apparently Web 2.0 is dead…? (Read)

Tags: icons, web 2.0
Posted in Portfolio, my work

06
Aug
2009

A Couple Random Things

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1. Alright, I gave in to Twitter… I’m finally understanding its appeal. It’s pretty useful in the creative realm so you can update the world about your recent works and finds. I’m following Abduzeedo and Etsy, which I daresay will come in extremely handy. For example, I saw that Smashing Magazine has a book coming out in September and I pre-ordered it. (You should too — http://tiny.cc/0Jo7t) And I think it’s funny that the first day I really want to be on Twitter is the day it’s attacked by DDoS. Oh well. Makes for an amusing topic of conversation. (Quite possibly my favorite headline of all time.) It’s so sad yet so true. Feel free to follow me on twitter: rmjohnsonvt.

2. While I was waiting for Twitter to get back online, I was over at ArtBistro.com. Great site, by the way. Lots of insightful articles, like this one: http://tiny.cc/artbistrocritique This is a critique of a fast food restaurant ad/coupon flyer, which I’m very excited to have come across. One, because it’s a smart and detailed critique. Two, because I do this aaalllllll the time and it’s nice knowing there are other dorks like me out there.

3. I have always made a point to read advice columns when I come by them. My favorite, though, are the ones with a little bit of sass. I’m mainly talking about Ask E. Jean over at ELLE. She tells it like it is, and I appreciate that. Don’t you? (Check out this one, it’ll make you laugh. However, any male readers may not find it interesting.) Anyway, my point is that I would love to have my own advice column or blog. I sorta did it as a joke with my college roommates and came up with these: http://tiny.cc/7mgqj I really want to do more, but the problem is that I have no one to write in their questions! So if you’re reading this, you should send me a question. Either leave a comment here, or post it on my twitter: dearbeckyj

Tags: advice column, critique, twitter
Posted in Blog, graphic design