Dog Models?

Hey!

Before I get into this post, I just want to say that, at this point, I have not decided what I'm going to do for both my cover photo and my two-page spread. However, I have ideas that will go in a separate post. 

So, now to get into it, I need dog models, since all of the photos have to be my own. I have a few options for dogs that I could photograph. However, I think I've decided to make this issue focused on small dogs and I've done this for a couple reasons: 

1. I've grown up with ONLY small dogs, so I feel like I'd be more comfortable with smaller dogs rather than bigger dogs.
2. It's easier me to photograph bigger dogs rather than photographing larger dogs. 

Now, time for the line-up. This line-up is finalized. Firstly, I could use my dog, Lola. She's an all white and spoiled Havanese. Secondly, I could use the dog of my one of my closest friend, Mia. Her name is Pandora and she is a Tea-Cup Yorkie. Hence the focus on small dogs. 

Here are pictures of them both, respectively: 

Anyways, see you next time!

Kristen

Fonts Galore!

Hey!

Now that we have a title, it's time for the fonts. To view the different fonts, I just used Microsoft word.

Now, here are the options: 

Times New Roman

Algerian

Cambria

Castellar

With these choices, I was going for more of a classic and professional look. This is because when I looked at the fonts used in The New Yorker, it's timeless and clean-cut. It's simple, yet it stands out against the cover itself. It's iconic: no other magazine has the simplicity yet elegance that is The New Yorker. 

Retrieved from here

So, of course, I wanted to integrate this simplicity in my own magazine through the fonts that I chose, which is why I chose to consider the fonts above. 

I think that for the purposes of my magazine, and also to satisfy my own personal tastes and aesthetics, I'm going to use the Castellar font. I feel that it's similar to the font used for the masthead in The New Yorker, yet it's uniquely different from it. 

Anyways, see you next time!

Kristen

The Schedule Update!

Hello!

Like I said in the post where I outline my schedule, I'm planning on doing a post a week detailing what I accomplished last week in relation to my schedule and if I'm ahead or behind schedule. 

As of this moment, I am behind schedule. I didn't anticipate the amount of work that I would have over the weekend nor did I account for what I had planned over the weekend. However, prior to publishing this post, I published a post about the fonts. Soooo, the only thing left is the post about the font and color and then I'm golden. 

So, the schedule for this week is the fonts post and then everything that's included in the first scheduled post, which is linked here and in the first paragraph. 

Anyways, see you soon! 

Kristen 

We've Got a Winner: The Title

Hey!

So, I didn't make a blog post detailing the process by which I chose a title for my magazine. However, before I reveal what title I have chosen, I will the options that I came up with and why I came up with those options. 

Let's get started: 

Retrieved from here.

1. The Dog Times - play off of the The New York Times, 
2. Dog Weekly - play off of the magazine Entertainment Weekly,
3. Cosmodoglotan - play off of Cosmopolitan, 
4. The New Borker - play off of The New Yorker,
5. Bork! Bork! - I really have no reasoning besides that bork is commonly used to refer to the bark of a dog.

A lot of the names that I've come up with are inspired off of popular newspapers and magazines. I've done this because it's relatively comical and light-hearted, and all the names of existing dog magazines are boring to me (Modern Dog, Dog Fancy, Dog Friendly, etc.). 

Now for the grand reveal, drum roll please: The New Borker. I really like the way this sounds and I feel like, all of the names, it would suit my magazine, however, I feel that this title would suit it best. Additionally, I like the way it sounds better than the other options I proposed. 

Also! I'm sorry I didn't post this last week like I was planning on, I ended up being really busy and I was swamped with work, so sorry. :(

See you all next time!

Kristen

About Me: Volunteering at the HSBC

Hello!

I'm writing this blog post because my groupmates recommended that I should as it is relevant to the process of creating the foundation portfolio. 

So, here it is: I volunteer at the Humane Society of Broward County (HSBC). To give some background, the HSBC is a not-for-profit shelter that houses dogs, cats, bunnies, hamsters, sometimes even pigs. I volunteer in the kennels, where I perform tasks ranging from cleaning cages to distributing new dog toys to refilling waters. Basically, I try and make their quality of life better. 

Below is a video of two of the puppies that are at the shelter. I cleaned their ENTIRE cage and they were super cute and hyper.

Both my groupmates and I figured it would be important to mention because the HSBC acts as a potential source of material for me to use. What I mean is that I can possibly use the HSBC for my two-page spread or even my cover page. There's a lot of potential when it comes to the HSBC and my foundation portfolio. 

Schedule: March 14th - March 31st

Hello!

Below is the plan for the rest of March. I've set up these goals/plans in order to keep myself on track and centralize the process of creating the foundation portfolio. 

3/14-3/17

• publish the four posts that I'm drafting  (schedule, fonts, title, volunteering at HSBC)
• start designing the magazine layout on Joomag or Canva 
• blog about what I accomplished this week (this would probably go up early next week)  

3/18-3/24

• finish designing the rough draft of the magazine cover
• brainstorm ideas for the two-page spread 
• brainstorm ideas for the cover photo, headlines, and the main headline 

3/25-3/31

• obtain permission to photograph dogs at HSBC (IF NEEDED)
• organize photo shoots with my friends that have dogs (IF NEEDED) 
• ask my good friend Mia (she's an amateur photographer that has a lot of talent)  if she has any camera equipment that I could use and coordinate with her

Also! A goal of mine is to post every week about what I accomplished the previous week, if I'm ahead or behind schedule, what else I did in addition to what I've outlined in the schedule, and talk about if I wished I would've done anything different/things I wished I did.

This will be my working calendar for the remainder of March. I'll make another one for the two weeks in April that we have to work on the foundation portfolio. It's hard for me to make one for April right now because I still need to brainstorm and plan for certain things and I also don't want to get ahead of myself. 

Anyways, have a lovely day and see you next time!

Kristen 

Collaborative Session: Feedback

Hey!

Today in class we got into groups of six and showed each other our blogs, discussed what we've done, and suggested improvements and gave tips to each other. 

From this little group activity, I received the following advice/ideas from my groupmates: 

• create a week-by-week schedule to help organize the creation process 
• they recommended that I say in my blog posts that I volunteer in the kennels of the Humane Society of Broward County and discuss how this helps me in creating my magazine
• one of my groupmates used this color site which helped her choose the color for her masthead, it showed the different colors that represented different moods and stuff like that
• the same groupmate showed us the process that she went through to first pick a title and then pick the font that the title would be in on her magazine
1. She first decided which title she would use based on the genre (beauty and makeup) of her magazine 
2. Then, she compiled a list of possible fonts and applied them to the title of her magazine
3. Finally, she picked the one that she liked the most and the one she felt suited her magazine the best. 

 ALL of these things will be done in the form of various blog posts that will be published this week and next week. So stay tuned!

Anyways, see you later!
Kristen

Very Rough Sketch

Hey! Quick post! 

I completely forgot to upload the image of my sketch of the cover page that I did, so here it is. 

I was too busy trying to fix the layout. Ugh, I should add this as an edit to the post that I made about how wonky this website is.

UPDATE: I fixed it.

Anyways, I'll see you soon!
Kristen

Planing!

Heyo!

Since I made my decision about the focus of my magazine, it's now time to create a general "plan" as to how I want to execute things and as to how I want things to look. I think to do that I'm going to first plan how I'm going to design the magazine cover, to do so, I decided to very, very, very roughly sketch out what my cover is going to look like. 

I did so using inspiration from the following images:

Unlike the covers below, these covers aren't nearly as busy. It contains little to no headlines that stand out, and even the main cover line doesn't take up much space nor call much attention. The cover is solely focused on their respective images. The images were respectively retrieved from here here and here.

Like the two to the left, this cover
is busier and the cover image
is definitely the main focus of the
cover. Retrieved from here.

In almost every image of a
cover that I looked at, the subject
(dog) was in the middle and was
the most defined item on the
cover. Retrieved from here. 

First off, poor puppy, and second
off, this is also a very good example
of the subject of the magazine
being the main focus. Retrieved
from here.

 

EDITORS NOTE: I know this layout looks a little wonky, but this is temporary if I can figure out a way to get this to look like how it did when I created this article, but, for now, bear with me, please. 

EDITORS NOTE #2: So, I just switched around the format and it looks really good now! 

Anyways, see you soon!

Kristen 

A Decision Has Been Made!

Hi! 

I've made the decision between a dog photography magazine and a "typical" dog magazine. Drum roll please, the choice is a.... "typical" dog magazine.

Ta-da! I've made a decision after a week and half of deliberation. But why? Why did I take so long and why did I decide to do a "typical" dog magazine?

So the answers to both questions. First, I took a long time to decide because I genuinely want to enjoy this assignment. Why would I do something that I don't enjoy, let alone do it well? Okay, MAYBE I would still try my best. BUT, I am a firm believer in the idea that if you do something that you aren't passionate about, the results won't be as good as if you were doing something that you loved. 

Also, it's not a matter of I wouldn't have enjoyed doing a photography magazine, because I think I would've enjoyed it. It's more of a matter of I would enjoy orienting my magazine more towards stories about dogs instead of pictures of dogs. Plus I'm not the best

Here's an example of what I would be doing.
Retrieved from here.

photographer in the world and I want this magazine to look as good as I am able to make it.

I kind of answered the second question with my first answer, however, just to reiterate I think I would enjoy creating a magazine that focuses more on content - not to say that a photography magazine doesn't focus on content (it's just a different "form" of content). I mean content as in like stories and what not. 
Anyways, see you next time!
Kristen 

My Worst Enemy: The Blog

Hello!

So, what's up with the title, right? This blog has been the biggest pain in my butt. It's so tedious and buggy at times. For example, it'll collapse paragraphs of text on top of each other and the only way to fix it is to create a new post (from what I've tried, that's the only thing that works). 

Sometimes refuses to let me delete a certain section of the text and it throws a hissy fit. So, sometimes if I hightlight a section of the text and delete it and then proceede to type a sentence or two to replace what I deleted, instead of making space for new characters, it'll delete the stuff that I didn't write and make me want to toss my laptop across my room. 

It might just be me that deems this site as public enemy number one, however, I think I'm not alone in my complaints as I've heard my other classmates groan about how complicated this site is. Maybe I'm just being dramatic, but I felt that this issue deserved it's own little post (as it is apart of the process). 

Anyways, in addition to this I'll publish three other posts detailing the process and all that stuff. See you next time. 

Kristen

Decisions, Decisions, Decisions

Hey!

So, dogs. I'm still conflicted as to what I should choose: dog photography magazine or a "typical" informative dog magazine. 

If I were to do the photography magazine, then maybe I could be more experimental because it would allow me to focus more on the photography aspect of production rather than content. Plus, a vast majority of photography magazines are creative and think outside of the box. 

Image was retrieved from here 

When I think photography and magazines I think of the infamous Paper, one of it's most famous covers was of Kim Kardashian posing nude. Of course, this would be focused on dogs and not human beings, but the "bounds" still has plenty of potential to be pushed and it most definitely can be. 

This is a good example of the kind
of photography that I would do if I
did a magazine that focused on
animal phtography. Image was
retrieved from here.

Perhaps I can do an animal photography magazine, but the photos would be parodies of infamous photos  with dogs as the subject. For example, the famous Marilyn Monroe photo dubbed "flying skirt." To describe it, it's her standing over a subway grate pushing her skirt down, or perhaps instead of Kim Kardashian breaking the internet it's a dog doing so. 

Now, on the flip side, if I were to do a typical dog magazine, then, perhaps, I could focus more on the writing and content portion of it. With a typical magaizne, I can create content that I would be passionate about. For example, I can discuss shelter work and how it benefits the animals immensely, or I can talk implications of animal abuse and neglect. These would be things that I can't to with a magazine that is soley focused on photography.

Additionally, I would have access to resources that would enable me to create a typical dog magazine that talks about serious issues because I volunteer at a local animal shelter. So, I would be able to interview shelter workers and take photos easily. 

Both options are appealing to me. So, it's going to be a bit difficult to decide which idea I would enjoy doing more. 

Anyways, see you later.

Kristen