Final Submission

Creative Critical Reflection

https://prezi.com/view/9Jgtm0JnDRsdhGq9X3BL/

3rd Quarter Feedback

for the feedback in the third quarter I mainly received positive comment on my magazine, especially my cover and table of contents. The main issue of my magazine was my article quote. Article quote was still hard to see in contrast to my actual article text. What I will do is increase the size of the quote three more time it is for sure that it will be easily visible.

3rd Quarter submission

In my first draft, a thick white border was unintentionally added to all four paged of the magazine because put all my content within the dotted line on Publisher. To fix this I expanded everything to the edge of the canvas. The pictures in my table of contents are now slightly spread apart and the quote in my article is now bigger and easier to see. Lastly, I also added page numbers to all of the pages.

Creative Critical Reflection Draft #4

What I used to create my magazine was a Cannon camera, a computer with Microsoft Publisher, and an iPhone 8. In scheduling photo shoots many of the people that I chose to take pictures with had tight schedules and the only one that matched my schedule was able to take part in my shoot during the later parts of the day when it gets dark. In order to take pictures that are visible to see, flash had to be used on the camera I used. When it came time to actually create my magazine I chose Microsoft Publisher. During the makings of the magazine, I cropped, resized and dragged to position pictures. I also had a variety of fonts to choose from and used text boxes to enter my text to move them around. In making my logo for the magazine I was able to adjust the transparency of the colors of the letters on Publisher. The iPhone 8 was used to take smaller pictures for the table of contents. When taking photos I set the camera on portrait mode to blur out the background of the main subject I was capturing. The iphone was also set on HDR.

Creative Critical Reflection Draft #3

Going into this project I had the choice of creating a film or a magazine. My immediate decision was the magazine because I had more experience creating print media since I was recently taking a tech class where I was taught how to fully use Microsoft programs such as Word, PowerPoint, and Excel. Choosing to do a magazine I was given the option to use either Adobe InDesign or Microsoft Publisher. I chose Publisher because I was more familiar with Microsoft programs. Since I was good with Microsoft Word, Publisher was very familiar because a lot of Microsoft programs work the same. Creating my magazine was not really difficult, but coming with ideas of where to position pictures and text was difficult. However, when getting into how magazines are produced, it was very new to me. I now know the steps to how a magazine traditionally and digitally gets to the consumers. I also learned the conventions of magazines throughout the project by researching different magazines. I was able to gain knowledge of where to place pictures, what type of colors to put on pages and where to position text. Knowing what I do now, I now know what it takes to produce a magazine when I see one.

Creative Critical Reflection Draft #2

My product engages with audiences by using social media and a website.

Social Media

Many companies such as GQ, Vanity Fair, and Vogue have many social media platforms such as Instagram, Twitter, and Snapchat. Social media is able to interact with their audience by posting pictures, reading the comments getting feedback, and replying back. Social media such as Twitter, can also update their audience by posting what new things are happening to them, keeping their audience informed. The way I will use social media is basically the same way by posting pictures and Tweets to the people who visit my social media platforms. Engaging my audiences by using social media will make them stay interested in magazines I create. Getting a better following on social media will also attract more people to buy my magazine.

Website
Like social media, many magazine companies have websites as well. Using a website will allow people to read my magazine articles on their electronic devices, which is in most peoples pocket. Creating a website will also allow me to sell products such as clothing and produce videos like how GQ and many other magazine companies do too.

Distribution
My magazine will be distributed both traditionally and digitally. Traditionally, a publisher is the first thing that is needed to create my magazine. Since my magazine is based off of Sarasota, Florida, I will be using the Serbin Print Market and Publishing Company. This is where the magazine will be edited by editors and printed out. Deciding which publisher to work with depends on what type of magazine it is: fashion, sports, technology, etc. In my case it is fashion. All magazine also have a producer where they create all major aspects of the magazine. My producer will then send my finished product to retail stores. The retail stores will market the magazine to consumers to purchase.
Digitally, a digital publisher will be needed. I can also create an app for my magazine so people can have my magazine digitally on their phones or tablets. My magazine can also be distributed by getting an online subscription to get my magazine sent to them on their computers or phones and tablets as well.

Creative Critical reflection Draft #1

During the beginning of this project I first began by researching magazines in my genre in which I chose Fashion. My research was composed of popular magazine companies such as GQ, V magazine, Porter, and Essence. What I did with these magazines was compare and contrast their covers, advertisements and table of contents to find conventions of fashion magazines. I found out that most of the magazines I researched had their title at the top of their cover either centered or to the left or right. Most magazines had their title at the top left corner of their cover. All the table of contents listed articles and feature articles with page numbers. Most articles had a dominate photo that cover most of the page as well as block quotes.

I both challenged and stuck with conventions in creating my magazine. In my magazine I challenged the way how most table of contents are made. Most magazines list all their articles with page numbers and a couple of images. I thought that this convention was too simple so I made my page numbers huge and offer a picture for each article shown on the table of contents.

My cover and my two page article however, stuck with conventions. My cover was inspired a lot by GQ magazine where they listed their article blips on the sides of the magazine and positioned there title in the top left corner like a lot of other magazines do as well.

Social groups that maybe attracted to my magazine are people who like keeping up with new trends of clothing. The target audience of my magazine are people of the age of about 20 to 50 years old.

Digital Distribution #3

GQ Magazine 

Like Vanity Fair, GQ also uses Conde Nast publisher to distribute their magazines - has do most high fashion magazines such as Vogue and Allure. Again, Conde Nast is a premier media company renowned for producing the highest quality content which attracts more than 120 million across leading print, digital, and video companies. GQ also has online editions for consumers that rather read their content on a computer, phone, or tablet. To access their online edition the GQ app must be installed on the users device. GQ also recently launched an online shop where consumers are able to buy clothes, goods, and gear which were all chosen by their editors. Like many magazines GQ offers a website. On their website users can read many articles, learn about grooming, health and traveling.

Digital Distribution #2

Vanity Fair

The Vanity Fair magazine distributes their magazines both on paper and digitally online. The digital editions are offered on the iPad, Nook, and Kindle Fire available on their Vanity Fair app. Vanity Fair works with the company called Conde Nast which is a premier media company renowned for producing the highest quality content for the worlds most influential audiences. Conde Nast publishes and maintains brands for Vanity Fair.

Vanity Fair's website also digitally distributes their content. In their website they offer many articles and featured articles as well. They also have video clips and advertisements, especially ones promoting the Oscars since Vanity Fair hosts Oscar parties.

Traditional Distribution #1

Traditional distribution is a chain of businesses where they will pass goods and services to consumers. There are usually three levels in a traditional distribution model: the producer, the wholesaler, and the retailer. A publisher is the first thing that is needed to create the magazine. This is where the magazine will be edited by editors. Deciding which publisher to work with depends on what type of magazine it is: fashion, sports, technology, etc. All magazine also have a producer where they create all major aspects of the magazine. The producer will then send the finished product to retail stores. The retail stores will market the magazine to target the audience they want. 

Revision #3 Article

Like everything else in my magazine the unintentional white thick border had to be fixed. For the article it was more complicated because I had to expand everything without having text come off the page. What I also had to do was fix the quote since people commented that it was hard to see because it was to small and it blended in with the text from the actual article. This is also difficult because if I made the texted for the quote any larger it would take text from the arricle off the page since I am over lapping the quote text on to the article text. To prevent this from happening I cut about three sentences from the end of the article that was for the most part not too important. This created more space to make the picture at the top larger and the quote larger as well. The final quote is now black and bolded and 2 times the size of the original text. The text for the article remained the same. I also added page numbers with the magazine logo beside it.
New: top
Old: bottom

Target Audience #3

Vanity Fair is another magazine with a similar target audience. To market their mahazine, Vanity Fair recently came up with something called the Vanity Fair Social Club, a virtual experiential event. This was created to allow mant bloggers to discuss and connect with customers about major events using a specific event hashtag. Vanity Fair has found out that 88 percent of shopper say that if they enjoy an experiential interaction with a product they are more likely to make a purchase. This creates positive branding for Vanity Fair. With this virtual experiential event, 3.8 million people responded yes with 12 weeks with entry submissions. Vanity Fair's overall marketing strategy is to allow the customers to say what they want, so products quality and useful for them.

Taking from this I can create a website for my magazine and offer an online forum where my website and magazine readers can discuss amoungst each other about the magazine or other topics about fashion or ones that they choose themselves. This can possibly create more popularly for my magazine.

Target Audience #2

Like the previous magazine I discussed about, Vogue Magazine also uses social media as a big part their marketing strategy. The most popular platforms they use are Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. In 2015 Vogue had 7.1 million Facebook followers, 9.68 million Twitter followers, and 8.6 million followers on Instagram. On Twitter, Vogue engages their followers by asking questions such as, "when it comes to suits, which side are you on?" This will make more people retweet which can make Vogue become more popular. Vogue uses Instagram as their most powerful social media platform to engage their followers with the fashion world by picture of top models and fashion week using the hashtag #Vogueinstafashion.

Another way vogue promotes their magazine is by hosting a Vogue charity fashion show. In 2014 vogue was able to raise more than $25,000 off of ticket sales. That year vogue gave the money to the charity call Community Living Kingston, an organization that works to give disabled individuals every opportunity to participate fully in the local community. This fashion show is created by the student body from Queens University where they are given the opportunity to show off their creative talents while being able to give back to the community at the same time.

Target Audience #1

For the GQ magazine, most of their marketing comes from their social media platforms especially their Instagram account. GQ post men's fashion and lifestyle content on their Instagram account. Last year (2017) GQ's Instagram account accounted for about 70% its revenue. GQ's Instagram account works the same way as to how a social media influencers would where they would make money by promoting brands such as Coach, Nespresso, Remy Martin, and Tudor as a paid sponsorship. GQ was able to get 90% of their revenue off their Instagram account and dropped to 70% in 2016 only because they were also gaining success in other social media platforms such as Facebook and snapchat at the time. For my magazine, I can use the same tactic by creating different social media platforms and posting photos of trends in  fashion or other thing related to fashion, and maybe eventually a company can sponsor my magazine and revenue can increase. 

Another marketing strategy GQ uses is their website. GQ actually redesigned their website where it will be more attractive to advertisements by utilizing sticky ads and lazy load ads to optimize a better format for mobile users. GQ has noticed that people read advertisements as much as they read the actual content, knowing this GQ is trying to put more better quality advertisements for viewers to see. this will attract more viewers, in turn revenue will increase.

Revision #2 Table of Contents

Like my cover, I had to expand everything to the corners in my table of contents. Doing this, I had to make all the pictures and texted bigger. I also separated the photos rather than having them touch to cover more white space to cover more space in the magazine. Finally, I also numbered my table of contents with the magazine logo beside it.
New: top
Old: bottom

Super Bowl Advertisement

The first Super Bowl advertisement that I analyzed was an ad on the NFL. This ad shows two popular athletes from the NFL Odell Beckham and Eli Manning reenacting the dance from the movie Dirty Dancing. This ad is trying to target their audience by using humor by using to big male NFL players dancing together. Since a Dirty Dancing reenactment was used female viewers might have been attracted be Dirty Dancing was know for being a "chick flick." Older viewers in general might have been attracted to this ad because they can relate better than the younger viewers since Dirty Dancing was made during the older generations. Techniques I can use from this advertisement is humor to promote my magazine. The second Super Bowl advertisement that I analyzed was one that promoted the 2018 Winter Olympics. This ad showed famous skier Lindsey Vonn 's years of training over her years and showed how she overcame her big injury to perform in the Winter Olympics. This ad builders emotion for empowerment and inspiration to promote people to watch the Winter Olympics. This ad may also attract females because Lindsey Vonn was used in the ad. A technique I can use from this advertisement is the uses of inspiration. I can use inspiration to promote my fashion magazine by inspiring individuals that may think they can not fit in. The third advertisement I analyzed was the Tide ad. In this ad, they convince viewers to buy Tide by using celebrities from the famous series called Stranger Things. I can use their technique by putting a famous celebrity on the cover of my magazine.

Revision #1 Cover

The first revision that I made on my magazine were on the cover. What I did was that I expanded the whole picture to the edge of the canvas. Now that the picture is larger I had to adjust the title and all the text within the picture to a bigger size. When doing so, I rearrange some of my article blips, for example, in my first draft "Saks Fifth Avenue" in "Saks Fifth Avenue making a difference in the community" is positioned all in one line, in my newly revised version, "Saks Fifth" is stacked on top of "Avenue." This made the magazine cover more empty space. Overall, the main fix of the cover was to expand the picture to get rid of the thick white border as seen below.
New: top
Old: bottom

Feedback/ Revisions

The feedback that I received about my magazine were very small fixes that involve the border of my magazine and my article. The system that I used to create my magazine was Microsoft Publisher. Publisher provided a border that is smaller than the actual 8 x 11 size page. What I did was that I put all my content within the border and when it came time to present my magazine each page showed a thick white border that surrounded my actual magazine. Not knowing this will happen I still received a complement about the white border. What I'm still going to do is expand all my content to the edge of the page, doing this I will have to adjust everything to a bigger size.

On the second page of my article I included a quote that laid in the middle of to columns of text. The problem was that it was very hard to see the quote because there was little contrast between the main article text and the quote's text. What I will possibly do is either change the size quote or make it a different color so it s easier to see.

Use of Conventions/ social groups

During my research of magazines I picked up a few key features that appeared mostly on all of them. Magazines such as GQ place their title at the top left corner, and magazines such as Vanity Fair placed their title centered at the top. Of the magazines that I researched most of the article blips on the cover were position on the sides of the featured model of the magazine. For the cover that created I used the technique GQ used by placing my title at the top left corner, I also placed my article blips on the sides of my model like how most magazines do. For the table contents, I tried to challenge conventions rather than stick with them as shown below.

What I did was that I positioned and sized my pictures to stack from smallest to largest to make it appear like stairs. I also made the page number of where the articles can be found very large.

For my article I stuck to conventions by placing a dominate picture that covers about 25% of the page and placing the text below it.

Social groups that maybe attracted to my magazine are people who like to keep up with new trends of clothing. 

Scheduling Photo shoots

Scheduling photo shoots for my magazine was a bit difficult. There were a lot of issues with timing were I would have a busy schedule and the person I am taking pictures of also has a busy schedule. Or, there will also be situations were I have a clear schedule but the person I'm working with is busy and vice versa. I only had one main big photo shoot and it was at night time so there were  difficulties in finding good lighting. These are the best pictures I captured:

Magazine Flat Plan

Based on my research of magazines, advertisements cover at least half the magazine. For my magazine there will be 48 pages of advertisements and 38 pages of articles. The articles I came up with that I am not going to create are mostly about fashion trends such as what to wear in different seasons of the year. The articles are from 2-4 pages long and advertisements 3-5 pages long.