Critique - Week 1

Admittedly, I did not commit as much time to this feature as I would have liked, and my first priority if I'm going to produce excellent design work is to manage my time better. The difficulty in this photo story was finding a balance between the hook, which is that it's a story about a 2-year-old girl in beauty pageants, and the actual content, which is a very touching story about a father's devotion to his daughter. It doesn't have any of the trappings of abusive parent-child beauty pageant relationships, and I was surprised by how beautiful it was. In the end, I took the safe route and skewed toward the frilly aesthetic that immediately relates beauty pageants rather than trying to tell the father's story better through the peripheral design elements beyond he photos themselves. I found the first two photos I used to be the strongest of the bunch, but I didn't have a sense of how to really wade through the rest of the photos. The last package speaks well to the pageant setup with the beauty queens, trophies and runways, but it is also probably a bit generic for the story. The second spread, I feel, addresses the father's devotion not only to his daughter but also to helping her through the pageants. He doesn't simply love her, he takes an active role in this activity, which is rare.

For the cover, I debated about the usefulness of several of the photos. I strongly considered the photo I used for the opening spread of the feature, but giving it the square crop required for the cover destroyed all the empty space in the photo that beautifully isolates the two focuses of the story. Eliminating that space would have ruined the photo, I feel.

There is another photo that I ended up not using at all of Ellie, the little girl, bawling. It appealed to me for a few reasons. Primarily, it would create a hilarious juxtaposition with the headline "Isn't she lovely" that would fit with Vox's frequently more cavalier tone. Furthermore, crying babies on the cover are probably going to draw more people than a row of trophies. I also felt that it was an idea that few people if anyone would have, which would give it that elusive hint of originality. Unfortunately, what it had in originality, humor and shock value it lacked in content-driven design. The story is not about how  unpleasant baby beauty pageants can be, but rather how strong a father's love of his daughter is.

I liked the photo I used as the lead in the second spread as well because when placed on the cover it reflected the father's support of his daughter. Again, crop issues became a problem as it was not shot specifically for the cover, and it seemed too involved a photo for newsstand recognition.

As it unfolded, I somewhat begrudgingly chose the straightforward photo of Ellie with her tiara and her trophy. At the very least, I felt it conveyed the broader subject of baby beauty pageants. It is also beautifully composed for Vox's cover shape and headline placement. It is also the cleanest photo, and it lacks any distractions that might confuse the eye upon quick glance. It is certainly not the most compelling photo, but it is very nice and worked well for the cover.