30th April
Last night I started brainstorming ideas that I could use for my topic that surrounds my magazine. I have kind of had an idea of the kind of publication I would like to create for this project since half way through last year. I was taken by A Magazine the first time I picked it up last year when I got hold of an issue that Giambattista Valli created around his inspiration, that being beauty. The magazine was/is fashion but in a different way. It’s more a magazine showing the designer/artists inspirations but also full of inspirational content for its readers.
Its more of a scrapbook, and I like that kind of feel and I think that, that suits my style of work and personality well, as I am very creative and decorative when I use sketchbooks for my work. I think I just need to refine and interpret it in my own kind of way when it comes to creating my magazine.
My theme for my issue is Love but I want to expand on it by exploring the meanings of the four greek types of love being:
Storge = affectional love
Philla= friendship
Agape = unconditional love
Eros = sexual love
I want to do sections exploring the meanings of all four types of love, the articles that I would like to include I think I would like more intelectual and scientific ones rather than fashion ones explaining why you go for certain things. I will include fashion images but I think I would like to include more art works and have a balance. Writing this down and thinking about the content I would like in my magazine I think it would be good to look at magazines like Purple, Garage and A Magazine for the content.
TO DO TOMORROW:
Look through previous issues of A Magazine & screenshot and analyse the pages and what I like about them.
Look through the issues that I have and research into its editorial team
Look at the contributors & curators the magazine has had and the topics their issues have covered
3rd May
I came to uni today to get help with the idea which I had for my magazine and to see if I could get the go ahead for it and I left my tutorial feeling very wound up and angry. I do find it uncomfortable to speak to certain tutors about work ideas as instead of giving constructive criticism it feels a little too catty.Whilst I am sure that the person I spoke to today was trying to get a good answer out of me about what I wanted to do I ended up feeling rather aggravated and antagonised. I knew I was giving vague answers but this is because if I am completely honest I don’t feel completely comfortable talking to this particular member of staff.
In my tutorial whilst initially a lot of it seemed to be going round in circles this is because of my lack of research that I have done as while I have my initial idea I haven’t started looking into it in a deeper sense as I wasn’t sure if this was something that I would be able to do so I didn’t want to explore something that would be a waste of time.It is also due to the fact I felt like I couldn’t really voice what I wanted to really do without my ideas being criticized in a way that isn’t constructive, which makes me somewhat temperamental. As the same tutor seems to think that my biggest achievement is walking and talking as that was dropped in during my tutorial. A comment I haven’t taken very likely and don’t find funny in the slightest.
Some of my tutorial came in handy when it came to breaking up the magazine into sections based on my four topics I would like to cover. As the magazine has to be minimum 16 pages, which means I can roughly dedicate 4 pages to each of the four loves. I have been told to be careful when commissioning people for my work as I only have 19 days now, and also that it is time to really start cracking down and finding specific pinpoints of inspiration for my magazine.
After today and realising I only have 19 days to pull this together I think that I will make a timetable for myself of what I need to research. I think I need to do my magazine content first and then do my magazine layout last as I can play around with it. I have started one section of my magazine already and have started reaching out to a few people to feature work in it. More illustration based stuff. I am going to go home on Sunday to sort a few things out and to do some more research and take some pictures.
I had previously thought of commissioning some written pieces for my magazine but realising the kind of magazine I want to make and that most of the images featured in it won’t be mine I think that it is best that I do them myself as after roughly laying everything out on InDesign, if I don’t write them then most of the work at this stage wont be mine as I have decided for this project that I am not going to use any of my previous work. I want a new slate, plus I always seem to lose motivation halfway through most projects and not being able to look at my work afterwards! The only project that I am still satisfied with is the first styling project we did (Past, Present, Future) as it’s the only one I have ever really given my all to.
With this project even if this doesn’t work out as my idea might be too ambitious for 19 days, it is something I am keen to explore as this is something, depending on how I cope with it. That I would like to do as a project outside of university and also as my final project.
8th May
Since I last wrote for my journal I have put together my Eros section and have started reaching out to people to contribute for my other sections as well as laying them out which has helped as I am now getting a clearer idea of how things are starting to look. I am a little apprehensive as I am really struggling to think of ideas to feature in my affection and unconditional love sections as its very on the straight and narrow for unconditional love and I don’t want just images for affection. I really don’t want to let myself and the magazine I am creating down with the lack of content in these two sections or for it to not be as strong as I really like my idea.
Today I borrowed my aunts SLR camera to take some pictures whilst being at home, I wanted to take a picture inside of the cathedral we have in Coventry as it has this magnificent wall that is fully painted with an image of Christ that I thought would be lovely to use in my project, unfortunately I couldn’t get in all weekend as they have had this flower festival going on inside and I thought I could also take some pictures of flowers from some flower shops, I could find no flower shops which had a good supply of flowers so my day felt like a little bit of a waste.One thing that I did get done which I was really happy with was a shoot done with Love Heart sweets. I bought some from my local market as I thought it would be something nice and also nostalgic to feature in my magazine as I think most people would have had them as a child and given them out according to the message that featured on the sweet. I made sure I had enough light in the room that I shot in and just used a white piece of paper as my backdrop and put the flash on to make sure the pictures came out bright enough.
Me not being a camera expert, had to make sure that the camera lens wasn’t zoomed too much as things became too blurry and the flash meant that it would take over the image so my image were done from a bit of a distance that was something I wasn’t really too keen on, so once I got onto photoshop I cropped the images and played around with the curves and also the brightness of the images. I wanted them a bit brighter than what they were from my shots as they were quite dark still and I felt that they were quite dull also. I’ve blown them up on InDesign for the images to completely take over pages. I want the messages to be bold and big, I am really happy with the way they look they look a lot whiter but feel really soft and it has actually worked out so they look like they could have possibly been done with a film camera as there a little grainy and while it wasn’t what I initially planned them to look like I am happy with the outcome.
11th May
Today I went to a flower shop called Scarlet and Violet to take some photo’s of flowers to use in my magazine. I want to blow up the images so they take over a whole page. I am doing this with specific flowers as I have looked into the meanings of flowers as I wanted to include ones which represent my sections as giving flowers is a sign of affection and we give them to those we love or to honour them. I have included a list of flowers and their meanings on one page. I took the pictures on a disposable camera as I like the way images turn out when you develop them and then scan them in, it makes them look a little outdated and softer than what they actually are, plus I like using disposables more than SLR’s. I think everything looks pretty on a disposable! I also got the email address off of one of the staff members as I am thinking it could possibly be a nice idea to feature the shop in my magazine and do a small review about the shop for my affection section as it’s a good way of promoting something to buy, plus I think that its the kind of place that my reader would visit and buy flowers from as it is quite a respected and beautiful place to visit and they sell the most lovely flowers. I also want to go and visit the columbia road flower market for my project as that is also somewhere where I can get some amazing photo’s from and also feature in my section for affection.
http://www.scarletandviolet.com/pages/press.htm
14th May
I have started to put my magazine together properly. I have edited my article and put it in and also started looking at fonts and ways to set out my writing. I have chosen to keep the font Times New Roman as it is something that I want to be classic because I have started laying things out and inserting more content I can see it coming together more. I am liking the idea of possibly doing an accessories shoot or something just to get a bit of fashion/retail in there, but I am not sure I can get hold of a camera or a studio in time as the university one is all booked up AND hand in is next week, which is making me slightly nervous and is making me think maybe I have been a little too ambitious with this project and also that I shouldn’t have waited for a response from the tutors about my ideas as I could have reached this point last week and managed to get studio space. I have also today started on my customer profile for my magazine. What I would like to do tomorrow is maybe look at other magazines that have inspired me and my content to look at what their target reader is, I would also like to go visit some magazine/book stores tomorrow to do a bit of competitors research.
15th May
TO DO LIST:
– Chase Jess for article
– Learn how to make a fortune teller (turn it into a flat pack)
– Magazine research/competitors
– My 10 ‘love’ photo’s <<< (for my page on the 10 things I love.)
– Research further into unconditional and affection sections
– Look for shoot locations for cover
– Write up questions for leanne
What I got done today:
Emailed both Jess and Kelsey regarding the illustrations and answers from my interview
Magazine/Competitors research
Research on unconditional love
I am getting a little worried now about how it is getting close to deadline and I still haven’t received the answers for the questions I sent to Jess, I know her a little through friends of friends and at times she can be a little flakey. I am still really struggling with ideas for my unconditional love section and affection chapters in my magazine. I did however come up with a few ideas for my unconditional section. One is an interview that I had with my friend on her becoming a teenage mum at 17 and the positive effects that has had on her life. It is now more of an issue with the unconditional section, I really don’t want that to be a weak section but I am now really pushed for time, which is my own fault. I should have started with Affection and Unconditional first as they were always going to be the hardest compared to the other two, which you could have a million and one things displaying signs of friendship and things to do with sex.
16th May
I’ve just been filling in some of the empty pages for my magazine now. I am really excited about how it is starting to really come together and look more like a final product. Over the past couple of days I’ve been watching films for possible information/inspiration. I also created a little written/arty piece by scribbling song lyrics about flowers over a lovely image I found of some flowers done by a photographer called Matthieu Lemaire. I have also come up with my cover photo and where it is to be shot. Initially I was thinking in a studio but I have decided to shoot my cover image out on the street. My cover is to be someone holding a heart out in their hands, this is to represent giving your heart to someone and also representing the saying ‘You hold my heart in the palm of your hand’ meaning/ representation the giving of love and making yourself vulnerable. The face will not be seen I want the main focus to be on the hands and the organ that is being cupped in them. I also thought it could be a cool idea to have the heart on my last page crushed and trampled on signifying heartbreak.
17th May
Today I went and took pictures of my friend Lloyd’s tattoo which is a symbol of affection that he got done for his previous boyfriend who he thought he would marry. I wanted to display this in my Affection chapter as people get tattoo’s done to signify their relationships with people, to show they are unified and as a symbol of their love for someone, most in the form of getting that special persons name tattoo’d on them. I took the pictures on a disposable and used flash so they will come out nicely I hope. I got quite a few different shots, some closer up than others and at angles to try and have a range to pick from. Also I was thinking it would be a nice thing to include other peoples thoughts on what unconditional love means to them personally. So I have started to ask people to write down what they think it means on post its so I can scan them in and have a page of post it’s showing various opinions.
19th May
I didn’t get any work done yesterday, I was very upset and not in the right frame of mind to do any, which has left me with less time to finish everything off. Although the majority of my work is done and I am just waiting for my collaborations to come in now so today I have spent the day trying to catch up on my research and typing it up.
20th May
I have managed to put all my research online so far, I also have my bracelet illustrations so I am now just waiting on jess’s answers. I have taken out the post it page as my scanner broke so I cant put them in. I also created a Forever Friends dot to dot and an illustration. I have kept the dot to dot but I haven’t kept the illustration as I haven’t been able to have it coloured in, in time. I have also take out the page which I had left for the flat packed fortune teller as I wont have time to make it and also I don’t know how I would make it on InDesign/Illustrator/Photoshop. Tomorrow I am getting my photo’s developed and also taking my cover shot done and then I can re-arrange my page layouts.
21st May
Today I put my photo’s in for development and then went on a shoot for Vogue L’Umo, shooting the guys who designed the Olympic torch. While I am chuffed to have the chance to have assisted on a shoot for Mens Italian Vogue it took up the majority of my day when I wanted to have everything finalised and not be rushing anything tonight. I also got my pictures back and a large portion of them did not develop as they were too blurry or dark, which I am really gutted about as that showed I had done more work to put towards my project, rather than just inserting ones that weren’t mine. So that means that I don’t have any images to show the 10 things that I love, any of the actual flower photo’s from the visit I made to Scarlet and Violet, which I wanted to include. I am however happy and relived that my cover photos came out as that would have caused major issues.
I am happy with my work. I have really enjoyed putting this magazine together but I wish I had more time to develop it and also had planned my time better to have created something that was really special.
N/A Magazine 