WEEK SEVEN: response.

The Get Out Issue. Ohh what to say about this experience. I will say that overall it was a great experience working on the special issue's design with several amazing designers, a great concept, and some awesome art and art direction.

In reflecting on the experience, I think we all could've worked on communication as well as organization. It was also unfortunate that so many formatting changes had to be made at the last minute. We also had a restricted art selection, and while what we ended up using looks great, it was difficult to find. Some things that I learned on this special issue that I think we all should consider when working on our prototypes:

1. Set your style in stone. Of course, some degree of flexibility is always necessary, but only little changes. The best way to do this is to play around with different options and test fonts, graphical elements, boxes, etc. in every possible layout configuration you could need to identify potential problems.

2. Collaborate. Gather opinions from other members of your Meredith group to ensure that you have a variety of ideas to choose from. I find that I'll be completely satisfied with an idea of my own, but will later hear an outsider's suggestion. My projects often turn out better because of such a suggestion.

3. Keep things organized. Check over your work multiple times to make sure you didn't miss anything. When working on the feature well this weekend, we finished laying out the pages only to find that we had all forgotten a story off the well. Although this was quickly remedied, it would have been nice to have it in the documents in the first place.

4. Don't forget consistency. If a change of some sort needs to be made, make sure everyone knows about it and does it correctly.

5. Stay open minded, and keep the ideas flowing. A redesigned info box format was asked of us on Tuesday, so staying open minded and not getting locked into a certain format or layout could help to make our Meredith projects the best they can be.

I am so grateful for the awesome group of designers I was able to work with this weekend. I think we all appreciate the opportunity for such a unique experience.

tbw.