In continuing with my postmodern design presentation I had discussed April Greiman and this specific image but I didn't include it in my presentation so I wanted to put it up here. This is a common theme with her work, pictures with random shapes and images.

Tess Wizniak

Layers Magazine Review

Professor Jones

December 4, 2012

Layers Magazine

In todays society the design world is consistently growing and changing, and also becoming more competitive. Design as well as many other fields in the arts are becoming more and more popular amongst students as a desired area of study. Certain mediums of communications, in this case magazines, are just one of the many ways we as students can learn and keep current with all the different trends and areas of graphic design. Layers Magazine is just one of the many design magazines influencing present day designers and students. Upon researching and looking at the magazine, one can review and understand the basis of this editorial. 

Layers Magazine was created to assist designers in using certain programs to create their work. The magazine is led by Scott Kelby, the worlds number one selling computer book author. They only release six magazines a year. In their magazine they release up to date information on how to use different creative programs and tools for design. The articles provide detailed tutorials and complex how-to’s  of Adobe products. This includes tutorials on Illustrator, Indesign, Photoshop, GoLive, Acrobat, After Affects, Premiere Pro, Dreamweaver, and Flash. They pride themselves on releasing the “secrets” of these programs to create professional work efficiently and timely. The magazine itself seems to be a pleasant blend of design art and tutorials and instructions for how to do the art they display. The advertisements in the magazine are generally all design related or art related as well. This must mean that design businesses trust and pay the extra money to be involved with this magazine. (layersmagazine)

As a current design student, it is interesting to see what this magazine offers. It’s also easy to see how some magazines about design may not be very helpful to students. Some may just feature many pictures of art and designs. This can definitely be helpful to inspire students and show them the current works, but that isn’t always enough. I actually believe Layers is a spectacular outlet for students. It is a step by step how to guide basically. Not only does it show current works, it shows how to create them. This whole magazine is educational. It’s like an encyclopedia of graphic design. After seeing it, I personally would recommend it to any student or designer who may need help with one of the many Adobe programs. It also seems to be highly professional and in reviews it’s also recommended by professional designers as well. That being said, with the multitude of different design programs offered, it’s important to specialize and have good knowledge in all of them. To make oneself as a designer more competitive and have a step above some other designers, it’s good to know how to use all the programs. This means a magazine like  Layers could only be a positive entity for students. 

In comparison to some of the other design magazines offered, I do have a bit of criticism for Layers Magazine. Though it’s hard to say any art based magazine is not colorful enough or there’s not enough art in it, that’s my only complaint. There is many great art pieces displayed in this magazine, but it seems some of the other magazines may be more vibrant to the readers eye. They could add a bit more art to attract the readers eye. If someone was more interested in just appreciating and viewing art and design more so than learning about it, this magazine may not be for them. In some ways a problem can be it’s only relative for students and designers and not just to the general art lover. Also, the website as well seems a bit monotone for a design magazine. I only discovered this after looking and my classmates magazines websites. Maybe the background color of gray could be changed to something more appealing to the viewer. With this being my only critiques, I would still recommend subscription to students.

In conclusion, Layers Magazine seems to be a well credited, critically acclaimed, educational editorial. I would recommend specifically a graphic design student to subscribe to it. Also a professional designer as well obviously. However, I would not recommend it to anyone else. In todays world it’s important and good for students to have as many study outlets as possible for their are of study. Design magazines like Layers is just one of the many opportunities for us to further ourselves as students and future designers. 

       This is another Tessellation done by M.C. Escher. Its called "Sky and Water". Naturally you can derive its name because the shape translates from birds to fish. I found that interesting. It's also cool how the background travels from white to black representing to me; air and water.

      Being that my name is indeed Tess, I have a slight fascination  with "Tessellations". This in particular one was done by an artist named M.C. Escher. He's one of the artists that better known for their Tessellation's. This one was done in 1938 and is called "Day and Night". I love the way it clearly translates from day to night or light to dark. The contrast is interesting. It's also interesting how the shape of the birds translate into a completely different shape, becoming checkered like.

I was inspired by this image also because of my 2D class. We are entering into a project where we take pixels or squares of blacks, grays, and whites, and place them together to create an image, like the one above. I like this one better than the ones we are doing because it's in color. Also the patterns in each square add to make the image more complex, and also to create the different shades of the childs face. The artist above is Chuck Close, he does many more like this, including more abstract ones. When I'm done this project I'll post it!

This is a project I just completed in my 2D Design class. Using only blacks, whites, and grays. I chose this text and layout because it reminded me of Superman! I like it because it has volume and dimension!  I also meant for it to somewhat look like it was exploding or protruding from the background image. I was happy how it turned out so I figured why not put it up here.