Magazine- Final

Now that this project is over I feel like I have learned a lot. I feel like I am starting to get a little better grasp on design. I learned a lot about designing for a system and not just a piece. I learned a little bit about this working in my internship when we were working on the catalog because it was all a system and had to function like that. I felt like it was difficult to make things different but still feel like it belonged to my magazine. I have always enjoyed magazines and book formats and designing for things like that so this was the project I really looked forward to. It was a lot of work and a lot of time put into it but I think it was well worth it in the end.

I am happy with the end product of my printed magazine but I'm just not sure on the mobile app. That is a different world to me and I wish I could have researched good mobile apps and magazines in particular. But being a college student you have limited resources and money so that kind of limited me. I hope we get to work more with technology based design like web, apps, etc (even though it is not in my area of interest at all) because it is becoming a huge part of our world but I still love the printed design and something you can hold in you hands.

As I have gone throughout this semester I keep waiting to feel confident in my design. I wonder when that confidence is going to come into play. I have done well on my assignments and received good grades and feedback and I feel like it has made me grow. But with every step of every assignment I haven't gone into it confidently and just knowing that what I made was good and I was happy with it.

Mock Up- Magazine System

Copy the following links to see my almost final versions of my magazines.

https://www.box.com/s/kn9knjdbtz7bu85pgufg

https://www.box.com/s/um3vhglsoh9mbyflhucm

2 Version of Magazine and Mobile Draft

Here are more drafts for my magazine. Copy and paste the links to view the two different issues of the magazine showing how my system will work.

Magazine 1:
https://www.box.com/s/i847ko6aqb9x5oqnc2pp

Magazine 2:
https://www.box.com/s/4gz8lm5h98uqvp7dc0b8


After printing the magazines out I decided I need to change the body copy text and that it needs to be black. Even printed at full black Bauer Bodoni is hard to read as body copy and is too thin in some places and gets lost.

This is a sample of how my mobile version will work. It will be a flip version and will work like flipboard. To scroll between the pages of the articles you will flip it up and to go the the next article or department you swipe to the side. To go back there will be a back arrow. The mobile version has been really hard for me because I really don't use many apps. I do have an iPhone5 but I just don't take advantage of the apps. I feel like I have learned a lot so far when it comes to mobile and pixels and apps in general.

Magazine Draft

Here is a link to a draft of the completed magazine....


https://www.box.com/s/k2yvfr4zyafx7yhapn78

Magazine Draft

I changed the direction I was going back to the fabric/wallpaper idea. I think it was conveying the modern clean classy country kitchen I wanted better than my recipe card idea. Overall I'm pretty pleased with how its going and think I can make some major changes and have a good magazine and I think it will transfer to different issues really well. I have started the mobile research and I am a little nervous for how that will go but hopefully I can pull that part off.

Concept Idea

I went with the recipe card idea just because I thought the concept was stronger. I did not like the design and system as much as my other idea. I gathered my articles I wanted to do and gathered the images I wanted to use and this is what I came up with.

Mobile Research

Here is some brief research I did for mobile apps. I don't have any experience using apps especially magazine apps. I just recently got my iphone5 and the only app I use is Pinterest. I looked at different pages and spreads and I also looked at their grids and I found that even though it is so small they still use a high number grid. I also looked at the point size of the font and it is pretty small obviously. I was wondering why they have the gray on the top and bottom and I think its because they designed it for the smaller screen size and haven't updated it to fit the new screen size.

Cover & Contents Page & Mood Board

I narrowed my 3 concepts to 2. I did some more research and made a small mood board of what exactly I wanted it to look and feel like. These are both rough ideas but I feel like I'm moving in the right direction. My favorite design is the fabric one(the second one) but I think the recipe card concept is more obvious and clear.

Masthead & System Redo

After deciding what I didn't want to do I narrowed my concepts down to 3 ideas. Recipe cards, vintage fabrics/wallpaper, and americana. Americana is a country decor alot of homes are using now days so I thought it would represent country pretty well. Recipe cards because there are some very nice recipe cards out there and I liked the design of a lot of them. And vintage fabrics/wallpaper because when you think of a country kitchen you think of the wallpaper and all the flower and rooster/chicken fabrics the used to use. These were all very rough ideas. I just wanted to get some ideas out there and see if I could communicate the concept ideas with my 3 ideas.

Masthead and System

This step would be considered a good failure. None of these are working or doing what I want. I struggling coming up with my concept and that translated into my design. I did some more research and brainstorming and came up with my concept after this step was completed.