Design 166: NYT MOCK COVER PROCESS
By Alex Osorio Ojeda
Grade: 3.9 (A)
Objective: Be able to create to create two covers for the “Future of work” issue of The New York Times
First critique:
Objective: Take 6 photographs without any addition to them.
First, the issue was that much of these are not direct of what the article pieces communicate (recieved from crit.). There is too much going on that we lose the original goal: to communicate the article’s message effectively.
With covers, the goal should be to communicate the message through neccessary details. Many of these covers had unneccessary elements such as the blur and objects that did not add help with communicating the message of the article.
I figured that I should prioritize the most recognizable and digestable detail in the article and have that be part of the cover. This help will give the reader a good idea of what the article will be focusing on. Ex: Sisyphus having a connotation of endless work, a commonality with the articles emphasis of prioritizing work for the rest of our life.
Critique two:
Objective: add NYT logo and improve photography
The main challenge was not using photos are vague on communcation. The articles themselves zone in on an issue that can be interpreted in many different ways. This makes it difficult to try to zone in on the intended message through visual communication.
The two covers that I thought were the most effective were the sisyphus and sticky note covers as it utilizes a style that NYT uses for most of their covers.
In addtion, the audience of NYT are familiar with many classic literature so choosing sisyphus to represent the endless amount of work that is put up against U.S citizens was a good choice.
Critique 3:
Objective: improve current mockups
I knew that I was going to stick with the sisyphus cover so I ended up using this oppurtunity to make mulitple mockups. By making different versions, I was able to decide whther it can be made more effective. Once I presented this in critique, the professor found color to water down its effectiveness in communcating the original message of the article.
I decided it was better to stick with the black and white cover. Adding more color/detail may cause uneccessary confusion since the goal is to simply present the articles message.
The only neccessary change would be to make the tie and NYT logo red. This is to give the cover more of a business connotation along without taking away anythign from the intial mockups.
For the cover with the bag, I recieved feedback on how it was hard to tell what was in the bag. The items on the cover also did not have a strong connotation with what the article was about. I identified that the best solution for this would to be change the items in the photo.
FINAL COVERS:
Process: Three weeks