Now it’s time to Say Goodbye…
The time has finally come to bid farewell to my internship at the Jackson Sun. I am so thankful that I had this opportunity. I have learned so much about the newspaper industry and have been challenged to learn more about the design programs I used based on different projects I had.
Today, since it was my last day, Heather took me on a tour of the Jackson Sun. I was really impressed with the process. I definitely have a new respect for the newspaper industry and I hope that the internet does ruin the art of the newspaper. Seeing how all of the processes come together is certainly a sight to behold.
I am finally approaching the end of my internship due to the fact that I have met my 40 hours, and also because this semester is just too ridiculous to continue driving back and forth from Jackson. In the meantime I received some pretty good projects to work on today. First was altering the logo for the Jackson Sun Spelling Bee that will be sent to the Scripps Howard National Spelling Bee in Washington. I enjoyed working on the logo, but I’ve started noticing that my logos that I am designing are starting to look very similar. Looks like it’s time to delve into some more fresh ideas.
Another project I worked on was the rack cards advertising the NAIA women’s basketball coverage. I kept it really simple which seemed to make for a successful rack card.
There are times that I am extremely tempted to become a web designer and today certainly tempted me with that notion. I was designing an ad for the newspaper and everything was going fine until I printed the ad out for proof. The original ad used a bright cyan. On computer it looked perfect, but in print it looked horrendous. I don’t know how many trees I killed before I got a product that looked decent in print. I ended up steering clear of the blue background and using an earthier color. I think this worked out for the better anyways.
Today was simply the long laborious task of scanning in pictures for the Spelling Bee that will soon take place, and that I will have the privilege of helping to judge. Many years ago I attended the spelling bee to support my friend as she competed, but never would I have thought that I would have received the opportunity to sit on stage and stare down nervous little middle schoolers as they spit out letters to twenty syllable words. This will certainly be an interesting experience.
Today I learned a valuable lesson about creating documents in the correct file size. I had been assigned to work on the Jackson Sun promotional outfield sign. They knew what they wanted, but they didn’t know how to give it the pizazz they were hoping for. With all of this work in illustrator, I had been dying to get back to photoshop so I could use some cool effects. So, I did indeed get on photoshop and within 10 minutes had given the lettering the pizazz that they were desiring and they absolutely loved it. Then comes the problem, “That looks perfect, just make sure it’s an eps.” uh-oh. Here comes trouble. I did not expect for it to be so difficult to convert a raster image to an eps, but for the first time I have found myself in a position where I do not even know what to google.
Thankfully I call Algene and things are swiftly figured out (thanks…). I definitely learned an important lesson about file types that day, and it sure did feel good solving the problem that had first appeared so unsolvable.
Now I just need to take a trip out to Pringles Park to see my “crowning achievement”
It’s time for the annual Blue Suede Spectacular, and this year Lonestar is performing. I’m not a big country fan, but I wouldn’t mind seeing them in concert.
Today we had to take an ad apart and re-piece it to fit the size of the ad in the paper. This would have been a lot easier if we had the original pieces, but even despite that, it wasn’t too bad.
So I have a handicap.
I have finally realized today that I cannot find good clip art to save my life. I don’t understand why I have such a difficult time with this, but it seems to be a reoccurring problem.
Another problem, that one would think would not be an issue is finding pictures of cute babies to use for ads. I am currently working on a “Cutest Baby” competition form and I CANNOT find a cute baby that does not look like an alien to go on this ad. I never dreamed of having this problem.
More reader’s choice…
Today was just a continuation of working on Reader’s Choice. There are various deadlines to this project so the work is a bit monotonous.
Aside from that, I also started on updating the newsletter for the Jackson Sun. Apparently this newsletter has not been updated in quite a while, so this is going to be a beast of an undertaking. oh boy.
Wild Blue Country
I knew that the air force and various branches of military have brass ensembles, but did you know that the air force actually has their own official country music group? Yeah, I was intrigued as well. Wild Blue Country is coming to town to perform and here is the promotional poster I designed for it. I was kind of excited to actually get to design something that didn’t look girly. The guys in the band ended up liking my design so much that they had the ad blown up from newspaper space sized to poster size to advertise their concert… pretty cool.
An insider’s view of the Reader’s Choice Awards
I have grown up around Jackson pretty much my entire life. While growing up in this area, I have always been aware of the reader’s choice awards, but what I was not aware of was what a big deal the Reader’s Choice Awards really are.
Apparently there is quite a cut-throat competition that goes on with this activity including ballot-stuffing and hard core campaigning just so business can win the coveted title. My part in this competition was simply updating the rack cards that will be place in all of the newspaper stands around the region. I think I like that role better than being a ballot stuffer.
NIGHTNIGHT by DEDDY
