response

The trends assignment was very interesting. It's always cool to hear what professional designers have to say about design and their influences. I talked to the creative director at RELEVANT magazine and one of the things I found very interesting was the fact that even though he was technically at the top of the design totem pole, he still had to get approval from the publisher for his designs. Of course, this is a different scenario from bigger consumer magazines where the editorial side really doesn't interact much with the publisher.

The variances in the different art directors' experiences was also interesting. It was troubling to me that at a big magazine like Glamour, the art director had no say in the stories or art chosen for the website. You also had magazines like St. Louis magazine where the art director is in charge of the whole thing to magazines like Blueprint where there is some division of labor. I guess my design experiences will vary according to where I end up. But I'm beginning to realize that some of the preconceived notions I had about certain types of magazines may not be true.