Alumni magazines HAVE to use crap photography supplied by the alumni themselves – normal work-a-day people that have no photographic training. They cannot afford to send a photographer along to Belize to photograph a graduate working on a master’s project. They rely on the graduate to submit photos along with updates on what they’re doing.

Yes they have money to make the cover look nice, and maybe a feature or two, but there is a lot of crap that needs to be included for the magazine to accomplish its goal of informing graduates about what is going on at the school and what other graduates are doing.

Cut them some slack. It’s a tough job making chicken salad out of chicken sh…

I agree, though hiring Randal Ford (and flying him to Alabama no less) to shoot the cover feature is a whole different galaxy than having student volunteers do most of the work for clips.

The Auburn mag may be fairly low income relative to other publications, but clearly they are well funded. At least, this launch issue is.

Yes, smart. The font, branding, and cohesiveness/flow of the mag can get you a long way so “cheap” is a relative word…

Smart use of these creative design components, getting a good photographer for cheap (it is not a photographers market these days) & strong written content could be a smart start for the mag…

Even if the statement by DJ seems flippant or naive, it is sharp and based on truth…

The bird pics are solid for an Alumni Mag… a sort of dummied down Jill Greenberg approach. And the font and cohesiveness are on the right track…

http://pentagram.com/en/Auburn_spread6_pop.php

All they’re saying is to use what you have well and a better product will be produced. I couldn’t agree more.