The Designer Is Always Right

For the second project, we worked with a group of seniors in the communication design department to create an editorial illustration for an article in a magazine project they were working on. We would create the illustration, they would place it, set the type and do any other design things that needed to be done. The teachers of both classes were working together as well and apparently they hand picked the students depending on their style of design/art in the hopes that they would create a good match. …I’m left to wonder if I was the last one on the list. Not to say anything negative about the designer’s style, it really was pretty good for what it was, but it was very clean and very Swiss with a very limited color palette. …meanwhile I like lots of colors and lose lines with lots of references to nature(for a start). So, what to do? The article was very abstract and was essentially about empathy. The magazine was aimed towards older, male architects. So I decided to try something that I did last semester and print out a buch of photos and trace parts of them over each other to create something more abstract and pattern-like. Black and white with a pop of yellow, lots of movement—they loved it. I wasn’t too fond of it but when you’re working for someone else, I suppose you can’t be in love with everything you do.

I will keep my ranting to a minimum as it feels very unprofessional to badmouth someone I was working with in public but I will say that it was not an entirely pleasant experience and I hope my next time working this way goes a lot better. Like I said, you can’t love everything you do and while I finished it and I think It looks good, this piece is not me. Either way, I hope you enjoy.