Alejandro's Blogs!

My table of contents is now complete! Here it is: Just like the cover page, this is practically complete and is subject to change, although for the most part this is how it will end up staying.

After enormous amounts of trial and error and using filters to improve the look and match the color palette, I finally got a great look! Here it the cover page: Keep in mind this is basically the finalized version simply because I am running out of time to continue making changes. Regardless, I am very happy with how it came out. The process of creating this however, was not so easy… First of all, I had the problem of not having a portrait mode photo. This could decrease the quality of the picture simply because it would need to zoom into an area of the picture since it was originally in landscape mode. However, it turned out great after I applied the filter to the pictures. Not only did the filter make the quality fo the picture look better, but it creates a warm and soft vibe to the magazine. This is what I was aiming for since Travel magazines are meant to relax the audience. Secondly, I kept the font of all the text the same since it will allow the reader to more eas...

I finally had time to take some pictures. Here they are:            These are the better pictures that I will likely use in the magazine. I didn’t include the others since they were either inadequate or not what I am looking for. Additionally, after i took the pictures I noticed a mistake. A magazine picture should be taken in portrait mode, however, all of my pictures were in landscape mode. How did I fix this? Trial and error. I simply put on the pictures and found the one that I liked best. Keep in mind all of these picture can fit in with the color scheme I want. I will be displaying a very potential cover page of the magazine in the next post… stay tuned!

I have now drafted the double page spread. Here it is: I know I already made a draft, but this one is more likely to be my template. This is because it is more organized and can fit the idea of a travel magazine a little better. Basically, the pictures are more fluid and bigger which allows the audience to truly take in the view. The last template wouldn't work just because all the pictures would be too cluttered. However this template is easier to read, in which the pictures will be seamlessly be incorporated with the text. Next I am planning on creating his template on Canva.

Finally I found some time to create drafts of both the title page and the table of contents. Here it is:      Right off the bat it's important to note that these are not my pictures. I will be incorporating my pictures to some structure that looks like this. All I have to do is actually go and take the pictures. When I do take the pictures I will critically analyze the weaknesses of my magazine thus far. Next up should be drafting a double page spread...

Of course while doing a very large project, things come up and things have to get done. This week it will be very busy as I have multiple tests and 3rd quarter grades are coming to an end. With that being said, I also work basically all weekend so I will have little to no time to create significant progress with the project. This week I was supposed to begin taking pictures and drafting my double page spread, however I will moved things around so it can fit my schedule. Doing this project requires me to go to the beach and take pictures, which will be difficult to get to. So… how do I plan on overcoming this? Well to do this I will have to work backwards. Meaning that this week should include me making a draft of my double page spread and begin to think of ideas for the article that will be included on my magazine. Also, I will begin to use the magazine creation software called Canva, but I will be posting drafts of it with other pictures provided by the software, which I will ...

This post will be a shorter one since I will be going over a sketch idea i have for the magazine. This sketch was based on travel magazine patterns I have seen thus far… Here is the sketch: This sketch displays both the cover page and the double page spread. I will most likely be following a derivative of this structure since it is simple yet effective. The boxes on the double page spread reflect pictures that will pertain to the article. However, the entire cover page will be a picture with minimal cover titles, because it is conventional to see a little amount of cover titles on the cover page. Also, the best way to convey the serene vibe is with pictures, which is why I plan to cover the magazine with pictures and proper colors.

In this blog post I will be primarily talking about colors and fonts to put on the magazine. But first my group and I have come to final decisions on magazine issue locations... I will be doing Miami, Gabriel will be doing Panama, and Jose will be doing Switzerland. Jose would have done Venice but he didn’t have enough properly photographed pictures for the magazine in Venice, so he decided to switch to Switzerland. Now that we have that down, let’s move on to our magazine production! I have very little time this week to actually start taking pictures for the magazine so I will be doing more basic things that will help me create my magazine once I do take the pictures. One of the most important things in any sort of picture is to set a mood or a “vibe”. This can be acheived by using certain color palettes since there is psychology behind seeing certain colors. The color palette I will like to focus on will involve cool hues. This is because cool hues convey a sense of...

Today in class, we had a feedback session. We gathered up into groups of about 6 or 7 and gave feedback to other individuals on their projects including video and magazine blogs. The feedback session was very interesting as everyone learned something from it and I got more ideas on future blog posts. Also, it opened my eyes to other things that can be researched improve my magazine like fonts and colors! The main feedback I received is that I am on the right track, but that I should begin my actual production soon, or that I should at least create some sort of magazine sketch as a rough draft. This is just so I don’t get too behind on what I am supposed to do. Additionally, I was able to give feedback on some DOs and DON’Ts that some people did, such as having a cover picture that doesn’t really cover the entire page or having a picture simply not suited towards the target audience. In the end, it was not only entertaining but it was also very helpful and I would love to d...

While my group members solidify their decisions on their magazine locations, I will be performing research on my magazine cover page and will be brainstorming some magazine masthead names. Some of the names me and my group have been brainstorming are as follows: - Journey - Explore - Adventure - Destination - Places We thought of these names while trying to be unique and original. We did this by staying away from already popular names like the “Travel + Leisure” magazine that is commonly used. To perform this research, I will primarily be looking at images from Google since Google can provide an abundance of types of images for travel magazine cover pages. I will be narrowing my research to those magazines that primarily have a beach theme to it, since I will be doing Miami as my tourist location for my issue of the magazine. One of a big travel magazine convention that I noticed is how the models in the pictures (if there are any) don’t look directly into the ca...

In this blog, I will primarily focus on ideas for the individual issues my team members and I are required to create. First, we need to brainstorm ideas of different areas we can do for the magazine. This is because basic travel magazine conventions involve different places for each issue of the magazine. This is a travel magazine so each issue should ideally be the same area in different seasons, or 3 different areas (since there is a total of 3 people in the group). However, based on some research of “25 of the Best Travel Magazines” it is more conventional to do the different issues based on different areas rather than different seasons. This decision was based on looking at the popular travel magazines and seeing what they targeted with their issues. Most of them ended up having different areas in each issues. For instance one magazine can be focused on Paris while the other can focus on Italy. With this being said, my group and I have to rely on the pictures we already ...

Now that we have decided on doing the travel magazine, we have to figure out the logistics of creating the magazine. The following is a rough schedule of what my group and I will attempt to follow. Because we haven’t done this type of process before, the schedule may be inaccurate, however if that is the case then we will update it as needed. The schedule has been created for the next 3 weeks Week 1 (Week of March 2, 2018): - Introduction to blog - Draft rough schedule - Begin research and pick genre for magazine - Try and create with a name for our magazine WEEK 2 : - Continue research - Decide what each issue for each member will consist of - Gain inspiration on magazine types and organization - Put together drafted title page - Decide what the double page spread should consist of - Begin table of contents - research typical travel magazine conventions WEEK 3: - Complete table of contents - Start double-page spread - Finalize title page Following ...

After reviewing what we had found from the previous blog, we finally decided on doing a Travel magazine! We went with this decision based on target audience, popularity, and for our own personal reasons. Also, we didn’t really focus on content we would include to make our decision simply because we felt that we needed to focus on our strengths first, as they will be able to balance out any weaknesses. Basically, the target audience (for a travel magazine) includes people with time and money who are about 25-50 years of age. This target audience can slightly deviate but if I keep the target audience this in mind, the magazine would be well suited for said audience. Furthermore, Travel magazines are the 83rd most popular types of magazines, where car magazines are not even in the list of 100. This is because car magazines reside with a very, very, very specific target audience which decreases popularity. It is simply unconventional to produce such a magazine also because of ...

We now have solitary groups and have basically decided that our magazine is going to be more picture oriented. Not too much drama, just simple and basic since it can easily capture our target audience. Of course to get a target audience we must first establish the genre my group and I will be focusing on, but which genre should we choose? Originally, my group and I mainly focused on a National Geographic inspired magazine that displays nature’s beauty. Also, each individual issue produced can be very unique in its own way which makes it that much more interesting. However, after some thought it was ruled out because of the difficulty and lack of equipment to properly and effectively photograph certain animals. After more thought we decided on doing a car magazine since our city and school is home to some very wealthy individuals that would allow us to photograph their car for our magazine. However, car magazines are not popular and the fact that each member has to do a different i...

And off we go with this new project! My group and I have decided on doing a magazine rather than a video for this foundation portfolio project. I am working with Gabriel Menoyo and Jose Carranque. We decided on a magazine simply because we thought it would be able to suit all of our needs better. If we we filming a video it would be more difficult to meet up as a group every weekend due to our schedules. Also, photography is more of the style of media my group and I are able to more effectively produce. Not only that, but writing is one of my stronger points (stronger than filming), and by doing the magazine I not only show creativity and photography skills, but I also demonstrate my ability to write for purpose. In the end, a well made magazine can capture the eye of people (even if those people have never seen that magazine name) with a good photo on the cover. But not everyone is going to watch or see a film introduction made by someone not known very well. We have also plann...