Graduation Invitations

So I wanted to design my own graduation invitations.
I'm thinking postcard style, with lot of typography treatment. I always hated high school graduation invites with huge pictures of the graduate. NO ONE WANTS TO SEE THAT.
So I'm trying to make a nice one, but lacking inspiration/direction. Here's what I have so far:

Which font looks best?
Will it confuse my older relatives to have type turned sideways?
Is the bottom type too spread out?
Do the columns look ok?
Do I need to incorporate a graduation cap/scroll something of the sort?
meh.

Can't Miss: AceJet's Uncommon Knowledge

Another cool feature of the AceJet's blog, is Uncommon Knowledge.

I think this is a really great idea for a blog feature, and something I might adopt.

They are general guidelines learned in design, though ones you might not be taught in school. Or as AceJet phrases it, "Things I wish I had known much much earlier in my career."

Check it out!

Photo inspiration

You knew it was coming. Photo inspiration is from #thundersnow2013

Meredith Design- Stir

So for our Meredith project, I am in the young entertaining/cooking magazine group.

Here's the Working Mission Statement from the publishers: the magazine strives to create a platform on which young readers and new entertainers can build their knowledge of everyday cooking and hosting. We share simple tips and current trends that will enrich the everyday lives of our readers. Filled with startup projects, ideas for hosting, and recipes that cater to an array of skill sets, the magazine reaches young entertainers through a variety of platforms, which are accessible beyond the print product. 

Their Working Titles: Steep, Host, Stir

I went with Stir.

my cover. i didn't want to go with a lot of sell lines. i may have to fight publishers on this, but i'm willing to. I think this is much more appealing for the audience we are targeting, and will look completely different from all other food magazines.

masthead is bodoni font, at a 15 degree tilt. 

Here's a sample dept page. This was difficult, because I had really great art idea for this piece, and didn't just want to create a template for a dept page, which I think was the point of designing this page. I may perhaps design another page, just a template, that would work for the magazine month to month. 

Feature spread. I would like the features to have a different design every month, so this is just an example of types of art we would use and font styles. 

Body fonts are din and else.

I also mistakenly thought we were supposed to design a TOC, but I guess we weren't. whoops. here it is.

Lastly, here's my color palette.

True/False covers-take 3

 After the tuesday critique, I made one more round of edits on my designs. Here are three more versions of the Intruenza theme.

T/F covers-take 2

We were asked to come up with three new ideas, because Thursday's ideas "underwhelmed."

For this one, I wanted to play with the idea of True/False festival bringing out a different side of Columbia. So this whole idea of a secret identity and the true and false within a person really appealed to me. 

One of the theme suggestions was Intruenza. Here I wanted to work with the idea of feverish seeing spots, and measleish mumps.

Lastly, with this being the 10th year of True/False, I was looking for a big way to incorporate the number ten. 

Honestly, I never really know what to say. Here are the visuals, what more is there to say?

Photo inspiration !

I wanted to do an ambigram for the T/F cover, but things didn't quite pan out like that. So it has a second life as my photo inspiration of the week!