Here's my paper, tell me what you think :)

Stephanie Sharpless

History of Graphic Design

“How”

                As I was looking through all the different kinds of magazines on the list, “How” seemed to grab my attention more than others. Starting with the cover, it gave me an insight as to what was inside. The three main topics of this magazine are based on how to become a successful designer and/or starting your own company. Once I opened the magazine I was drawn to the new types of finishing’s done to advertisements. Then I began looking at the stories inside the magazine. They are all geared around starting your own business, the tools you will need to start, and basically how to be successful.

            The stories in this magazine for the most part are based on how to be successful as a designer as well as what you would need to be successful in your own business. One such story talks about redesigning a work space at a major pharmaceutical company. It gives you the pros and cons of working within a budget and trying to provide the client with cost effective ideas. Another article talks about how to grow your business during a bad economy by providing your clients with new and exciting ideas. The majority of the articles talks about how to market yourself as a designer and gives your ideas on what you want your firm to be like and how much to charge a client, it even gives you a worksheet on how to calculate how much it will cost you to run your business each year. The art work and pictures of these stories capture your attention; they are not your average photographs. They combined the ideas in the article with pictures on the pages.

            This magazine in my opinion is a much better magazine than a regular business journal. It is specific to the designer and it gives detailed information on graphic designing, advertisements, and how to accomplish different tasks. For example, it teaches you how to design letterheads for companies so they stand out. It actually brings you into the world of design whereas, for example “Money” magazine talks about money and investments in a general way. You really don’t get anything out of a magazine like this if you’re the average person. “How” magazine draws your attention as soon as you open it and you see the bright colored ads and skillfully written stories.

            The advertising in this magazine has a lot of new finishing’s, which are called MiraCure. MireCure is a UV coding’s and special finishes that help enhance the appearance and quality of printed pictures. I found that most of the advertising in this magazine is very elaborate and graphic, full of bright colors that draw your eyes to it. I would recommend this magazine to other graphic design students because it gives you a lot of information about the graphic design business. It helps you decide if this is what you want to do with your life, and it gives you step by step instructions on how to build your own business.