critique: Raising Ryleigh cover & feature

Well, I did it: I survived my first designs for Vox. Overall I am pretty pleased with what I created. I made some deliberate style choices that I know now may not have been best for this story. I will probably go back and edit the spreads later on, just because I do like the story.

First up, the cover. I knew early on that I wanted to use the photo of Ryleigh laughing on this colorful mat. I really felt like it captured the story for what it really was. This was not a tale of spina bifada as a disease, but instead about a young girl and her parents. I truly felt that a face should be on the cover.

The cover

I'm proud to say that my cover was one of the finalists to run with the story on Thursday. Hopefully my next covers will be equally as good, if not better. 

Opening spread

Spread 2

Spread 3

If I could change anything about this I would probably change the photo order on the bottom spread. Funny story: I had them switched originally. After talking to a few people I changed them to what it is now. No big though; I can see both ways and I think I like it better switched back. I used a lot of white space in these spreads which I know made a lot of people hesitant, and that's okay. It was a daring move in the design and I see now that it might not have been the best. I do think that the photo sizes need to be a bit more different since they are kind of the same size. I really do love my caption style, though.

Coming up this week and next week for me: some magazine covers on refugees in Columbia, a feature and cover for the spring preview issue, some advertisement sketches, and potential logo ideas for my own image.

I also decided to post some music mixes, just in case anyone else really likes listening to music when they design. Maybe some of my favorite songs will help inspire your next design!