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 

The Genre Debate: On Paper

Welcome Back!

So, what I had planned for this post was a debate on paper between two genres that I had chosen (animals and cooking). However, after some thinking (and some really cute photos) I decided to choose to do an animal magazine.

I looked at this Dogster website and I immediately fell in love with the idea of doing a dog-themed magazine. I immediately saw the potential that a dog magazine had – plus who doesn’t love dogs?

I figured I could go two routes: 

Route one would be a more “informative” style – like Dogster – it would potentially contain grooming tips, good dog products, training tips, etc.

• Here is an example of a typical post that would go in this type of magazine from Dogster.

Route two would be more of a photography styled dog magazine. So, instead of a focus being put on the content of the magazine, the focus would be on the quality of the images. 

• From several google searches and perusing through the Internet, I've found nothing about any current dog photography magazines.
• So, I have an example here from popular photography magazine, Shutterbug.

Anyways, see you next time!

Kristen

First Post, Welcome!

Hello, welcome to my blog!

Before I begin with blogging about my process, I want to introduce myself. Without further adieu, my name is Kristen Mobayed and I am an eleventh grader at Cypress Bay High School.

Now you may be asking, what is the purpose of this blog? Well, I'm here to tell you. It's to display the process of creating a magazine for my AICE Media Studies AS level class.

Now that introductions have been sorted out, it's time to get to the nitty-gritty stuff: what genre am I choosing for my magazine? I need to decide what genre I'm doing based off of the following: (1) which would I enjoy doing the most and (2) which would be the most plausible for me to do successfully.

The following are areas which interest me enough to do a magazine on:

1. Gaming 
2. Cooking
3. Photography
4. News
5. Animals

These areas interest me enough to create a magazine on, however, the plausibility/ease of creation of each of the magazine with respect to the genre is a very important factor. For example, obtaining content for news stories might be a bit troublesome for me as I am a high school student with access to limited resources and the potential for the lack of a good local news story that I would want to "report" on.

Anyways, see you next time!

Kristen