Critique: Raising Ryleigh Cover

Since I basically critiqued my feature spread in class today, and talked about all the things that I would change to make it a better layout I am going to talk about the process that went into making my cover.

Here was the cover that I turned in and won:

      I was really drawn to this picture. I didn't feel it was sensationalizing or focusing on the disability. I saw a really touching moment in this picture. The way that the woman is holding Ryleigh's foot so gently and how delicate her foot actually looks made me feel like it was a touching moment. I understood the concerns that people had with the photo, but I just didn't see that when I looked at it. 

     Okay more about the actually design. I had a design before this one that I apparently forgot to save, but it was this picture with the font in black placed of the hand. I knew covering the picture was a bad idea, but I couldn't find out where else to put it because the background of this photo is so dark. Then the simply solution to change the text white hit me. I like the soft pink bar at the bottom because I felt it accented the picture and pulled out the softer side of the photo instead of the harsh or medical feeling.

     Once I won, Andrea (TA design capstone) asked me to come up with some other possibilities for the cover since the picture I chose was maybe going to be used in the feature. Also there was concerns with it looking to much like a cover from two weeks ago. 

All the other possibilities:

     I added a few other photo options, but also messed around with the text and the placement of the text. I wanted to give options, but not get to far away from my original concept since that is was what the staff wanted in the first place. I personally thought that my original was the strongest cover while making all the alterations. I am not sure if that was because it was the first design I submitted and I kept wanting to come back to it, or the fact it was the one that won so I felt it was the best.

     After talking with Erica (design capstone professor) we narrowed it down to the two final designs that would be chosen for the actual cover of the magazine.

These were the two final designs:

If you want to see the one they picked or see if any last minute tweeks were made I guess you will just have to pick up a copy of the Jan. 31 Vox Magazine.