Creative Critical Reflection

Hello World.
Enjoy!

"Barnes and Noble." Barnes and Noble. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Apr. 2016. <http://www.barnesandnoble.com>. 

"Faccebook Logo." Facebook. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Apr. 2016. <https://www.facebook.com>. 

"Twitter Logo." Twitter. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Apr. 2016. <https://twitter.com>. 

Final Project

Hello World.

Enjoy!

Goodbye World.

Sike! ESS 2.0

Hello World.

Surprise! Yes, I know I said you wouldn't be hearing from me again. However, life doesn't always turn out as planned. Here's what happened:

My good friend and model for my magazine, Cheyenne showed me some of my peers' magazines. That initiated a steady stream of stress, panic, and dissatisfaction. I was unsatisfied with my own project, panicked because I didn't feel mine was good enough, and stressed because I had very little time to do anything about it. So, I decided that I was most certainly NOT going to turn in anything to Cambridge that I was unhappy with and I thought that if I knew I could do better I was definitely to prove it. Thus began my magazine 2.0.

After talking with another friend, I chose what elements of my magazine I was going to fix, or essentially do over. I loved my cover and chose to keep it as is but I needed to change my advertisement and double-page spread. I cringed while flipping through the pages of my digital magazine. From Day 1 of this project I wanted to get a good grade on this project because it meant validation to me. To me, it was a "you are good enough, talented enough, and smart enough to succeed in this field." Something I craved from Cambridge. I thought to myself, how can I expect them to give me validation when I don't even feel confident in the product I am offering them. So with that being said, I scratched my advertisement and dropped the double-page spread to plan B.

After frantically texting everyone I knew, I gathered my models for the shoot I planned for my new double-page spread and advertisement. I realized that my original advertisement didn't feel like an advertisement to me. After researching beauty product magazine advertisement conventions, I realized why. I decided to start over and follow the advertisement conventions established for my type of product. For my double-page spread I gained some inspiration from the Dove Real Beauty campaign. I wanted a picture of a small group of differing ethnicities and body types smiling and laughing. The message I was trying to promote was to love yourself because there is no one type of beauty.

I also added a promotion for the online edition of my magazine at the end of my double-page spread. One of the question on our Creative Critical Reflection was asking us how we plan on distributing our project. It prompted me to consider that technology and social media had a very prevalent role in my target audience's, female millennial and feminists, lives.

As of right now, I am officially done with my magazine and the script of my Creative Critical Reflection. I am in the process of recording my Creative Critical Reflection in a screencast format. This will be my last blog post sharing the ups and downs of the process with you. I sincerely hope you enjoyed the journey and are pleased with my final product.

Goodbye World.

"Infographic: Women's Media Consumption Habits." Ad Week. N.p., 5 Apr. 2015. Web. 10 Apr. 2016.<http://www.adweek.com/news/advertising-branding/infographic-womens-media-consumption-habits-163886>. 

"The Dove® Campaign for Real Beauty." Dove. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Apr. 2016. <http://www.dove.us/Social-Mission/campaign-for-real-beauty.aspx>.

Set in Stone

Hello World.

Lately I have been a little stressed. At the last minute I decided I wanted to make my magazine better because I feel like it's not good enough. I'm worried I won't be able to finish on time. I'm spending today, Saturday and Sunday taking some new pictures for my double-page spread and possibly taking a new picture for my TOC. After playing around with my cover page for a while, I think I'm pretty much done with it.

For my double-page spread I plan on putting the majority of the text on the left page and putting a large picture on the second page. If all the text doesn't fit on one page I will put some on the bottom of the second. As for the picture, I plan on taking a full body picture of my model with plastic surgery lines written all over her. This is my last post where I blog about what's been going on ad how I have been. My next posts will be my Creative critical Reflection and Final Project. I hope all goes as planned and I am completely satisfied with my project at the end.

Thank you all for going on this journey with me. I know it has been full of uncertainty and anxiousness. Congratulations to you for sticking by me, through the ups and downs of it all. I hope you understand and enjoy my final project. Also, I  hope that my journey and final project make your day just a little bit brighter.

For the final time,
Goodbye World.

So Close,Yet So Far Away

Hello World.

Well, the deadline is fast approaching and I've been working to finalize the details of my project. After talking to my Newspaper teacher, I realized I could better my story by adding subtitles and more structure. Also, after giving my work to a couple friends I made a lot of edits to my writing. I feel much more confident about my story now that I have feedback. I'm going to implement the suggestions given to me by my teacher and my peers to make my work the best it could possibly be. My goal is to completely finish my magazine by Thursday so I can focus on my Creative Critical reflection.

I have been spending a few hours working on my project since last week to finish. I have to confess, I'm scared to be done with my project. It seems like there is always something I could do to make it better and when I finally turn it in I won't be able to adjust anything anymore. All my friends tell me that it is good and it looks great but it doesn't calm me down. The only thing that will is when I found out my grade from my teacher, as well as the Cambridge graders.

After I added the subtitles to my story I also added more to my story. The only thing left is adjusting my cover page and playing around with the cover line font. After I complete that, I need to do the last bit of the project, the Creative Critical Reflection presentation. At first, I was intimidated by it because I need to make a 10-15 minute presentation. However, after getting started I realized that it is not that bad and the blog posts help me reflect on the process. By the next blog I will  hopefully be completely done with my magazine and have made significant progress with my Creative Critical Reflection.

Goodbye World.

It's Crunch Time!

Hello World.

Wow! Time has passed by so fast, I can't believe my project is due this coming Sunday. Good news is I am right on schedule and I have no major concerns or obstacles to face. Ok let's get down to business.

As you all know, I spent the weekend taking pictures for my magazine, with and without my lovely models. I took the picture for I'm using for my Table of Contents. I was inspired while I was brainstorming how to create my previous idea with the post-it notes. While I was looking I saw a shopping list posted on a bulletin board and I thought to myself "Oh cool, it's like we're in the market for a new body" and that's when it hit me! My TOC could be in a shopping list format with makeup surrounding it. So, on Sunday I took some pictures and it came out great!

On Saturday I got all the photos I needed for my cover page and double-page spread (DPS). We took so many pictures to make sure that we wouldn't have to get together again. All the work on Saturday was definitely worth it because I am so happy with my images on both the cover page and DPS.

The Nik Collection came in handy and I used it to edit my photos. Although, I did have some trouble on Joomag trying to figure how to enlarge photos but it all worked out okay.

Up until now, I've been editing photos and working on the layout for all the pages of my magazine. I am excited to say I almost done and I'm going to take a break and come back to it on Wednesday. I am also waiting for my reviews from my story to come back. After that, I will make some edits and finalize the story. I plan to start my Critical Reflection tonight, I'll get back to you all very soon!

Goodbye World.

A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words

Hello World.

Hi everyone! I'm feeling really great today because I made a lot of progress with my pictures! I spent today and Friday taking pictures for the magazine and thankfully, I'm almost done.

On Friday I created a "face wash" to take pictures of for my advertisement. It was interesting using my backyard to take pictures for my advertisement. I've never had to think from the photographer's perspective before. Here are some of the pictures I am considering for the advertisement:

         

Today I had my best friends, Charlotte and Cheyenne, come over to model for my magazine. For my cover image I used Cheyenne and it took a lot longer than I thought to get done. We worked for about an hour and a half before we called it a day.  We ended up designing a tank top for Cheyenne to wear on the cover. It was unexpectedly time-consuming and challenging to make. A lot of thought went into every aspect of the shoot. I had to decide on every detail, for example, whether or not she would wear her hair up or down. Writing the words was challenging as well and we had to erase them multiple times. Fortunately, I'm pretty positive that one of the pictures I took today is the cover image. Above is a picture of me writing on Cheyenne.

Today I also took pictures for my double-page spread (DPS). I used Charlotte and Cheyenne for this. I have three images in mind for the DPS: one extreme (ECU) close up of the left side of Charlotte's face, one ECU of the right side of Charlotte's face, two close ups or mid-shots of Cheyenne and Charlotte's faces. They both have the lines doctors draw for before surgery on their face. Below are pictures of me drawing on both of them.
           

These girls are my best friends and it was so much fun to take pictures for my magazine. The whole process was upbeat and we all kept positive attitudes despite the challenges. To the side is a picture of them going "under the knife."

My teacher recommended the Nik Collection by Google if we were interested in  photography. I downloaded and I plan to use it to edit the photos I took today. It has multiple programs and because I've never used anything like it before I'm going to have to watch some tutorials. Luckily, their website has links to tutorials and shortcuts. Well, until next time.

Goodbye World.

Onward and Upward!

Hello World.


Currently, I am continuing the happy dance I started last post. Why am I still dancing, you ask? Well, it's because I finished my story! I plan on asking two of my teachers to review my work in order to submit my best writing.

My story is focused on cosmetic surgery in the United States and the causes/effects of its prevalence. In a previous post, I mentioned including more than one country; however, it would have made my story too broad. Moreover,  in the end, I didn't have the room to write more about another country.

Also, I happened to finish laying out my double-page spread. I still have to add pictures and play around with the page background color but other than that I am good to go!

Speaking of pictures, on Saturday I plan on taking pictures for my cover page, double-page spread, TOC, and advertisement. If things don't work out, I have next week to get everything done.

For my advertisement I have finalized the details of my product. It is going to be a face mask that I will make myself, and put in a  decorated mason jar. My product will be called NatUral: Face Mask. I used Canva, a program that you can use to make graphics on, to create a logo for my product.

Along with creating my logo, I found the recipe I'm going to use for my face mask. The website I used has a bunch of great recipes for DIY (do-it-yourself) face masks. I may try out my DIY face mask for fun after the photo shoot on Saturday.                                                                                      


Additionally, for my TOC I brainstormed a list of the stories that are "in" my magazine to put on the page:
1. Cosmetic Surgery Story
2. Dangers of Dieting
3. Drugstore vs Designer Makeup Challenge
4. 7 Minute Ab Workout
5. 12 Steps to Self-Acceptance
6. The Barbie Body Makeover or
New Barbie For All Shapes and Sizes

As you may have noticed, I have not come up with a title for my story (#1 on the list). I also have not decided on a title for #6. These are just some ideas I jotted down and the list is most definitely subject to change.

Goodbye World.

Winter-Hebert, Catherine. "7 DIY face masks for healthy, gorgeous spring skin." Inhabitat.N.p., 26 Feb. 2015. Web. 1 Apr. 2016. <http://inhabitat.com/7-diy-face-masks-for-a-gorgeous-spring-and-summer-skin/>.