Baltimore Magazine has good design!

I am an active reader of Baltimore Magazine. I love everything about it! Therefore, I might be a little biased when picking this layout as "good design." I think the relevance of having a seven page "Baltimore Nightlife" spread is a pretty good idea. Its very appropriate and timely because New Years Eve is right around the corner. They decided to advertise this spread on the magazines cover: 

I love the use of black as the primary background color. It also stays consistent through-out the entire piece. Here is the cover spread where the article begins: 

I love the bright colors with the black background. It reminds me of city lights against the night-time skyline. Not only does this cover spread have a lot of C.R.A.P, the images are awesome. I love how the image of the people dancing in the background is blurry. It helps show the motion and upbeat atmosphere. The dots also seem to be working really well with this piece. 

Creating a Newsletter!

Using all of the elements in CS5 (Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign) allows you to create a dynamic functional newsletter.

I find the program Photoshop must useful for clipping images from a background. When I created a field hockey newsletter, I clipped an image of a field hockey stick and ball from a solid white background. I placed the images in the center of the newsletter and wrapped the text around the images. Photoshop is also a useful application for apply filters to photos in a newsletter. By using photoshop you can change a day-time photograph into a night-time photo; completely changing the mood of your piece.

Illustrator would be helpful if you wanted to create a logo for the company's newsletter you are producing. This program allows you to distort shapes to make cool images. Using the pen tool, you can easily replicate  images to your liking. Illustrator also allows you to make vector images. This allows the image to be the largest it can be. Therefore, the logo can be applied to anything as big as a billboard to as tiny as a business card. If you wish to increase or decrease its size of the vector image, the quality of the image will remain the same.

InDesign would allow you to layout all panels of your newsletter. You can bring all images/photos created in Illustrator or Photoshop into this program to create your final product. InDesign is my favorite program by far.

Breast Cancer logo

Susan G. Komen has come up with a very cleaver branding logo. The pink ribbon will forever depict breast cancer awareness: finding a cure. See below:

This advertisement/logo is universally known.  The pink ribbon can be found in several other advertisements.

I have also found that several companies have partnered up with Susan G. Komen. Recently, I purchased tennis balls with the pink ribbon designed on each ball. Although these tennis balls were more expensive then the plain Wilson tennis balls, part of the proceeds went to the Susan G. Komen breast cancer foundation so I was more inclined to purchase them. The Race for the Cure is another way this organization campaigns to raise funds and advertise itself. 

Good Logo

This logo for Night Golf is very clever. It uses a gold ball to portray the moon. Even the texture of the golf looks like craters on the moon. 

This circular typeface work well with a circle around the text. It's simple and memorable.  

Bad Logo

The above logo from Arlington Pediatric Center is a VERY bad logo due to it's sexual reference. Do I really have to explain how this logo could be portrayed as sexual?? ok, moving on.

The logo on the left represents the Discovery Channel's old logo, the logo on the right is it's new logo. Although, I do think the placement of the globe on the new logo is slightly more improved, it's too small. With the more modern typeface in the new logo, it makes the word "channel" too small to read. The background color also washes out the globe. I like how the original logo had "Discovery" in black. Personally, I think the older logo worked better. 

Good/ Bad Color

Black and white fragrance advertisements are really popular right now. The the splash of princess pink in the Lancome ad works nicely with the black and white. The color was pulled from the liquid  in the perfume bottle and the girl's dress is a tint of that same hue. The colors definitely convey the glamorous style of the advertisement.

This advertisement was found in Style Magazine and has entirely way too much yellow (bright colors). I also think that having the text "When life gives you lemons.." in white is not a great idea against the yellow because it makes it difficult to read. This idea is very clever, but the color in this ad is it's down-fall.