Creative Critical Reflection

Creative Critical Reflection

At the beginning of this project I had never used Microsoft Publisher before. When I started to use Publisher I struggled with adding pictures and getting the text boxes to be even and proportionate. As I continued to work on my project I actually learned how to use it. The little things I had struggled to do at the beginning became very easy, and simple. For the interview even though I had done a couple of them before I was still not comfortable so I decided to practice. Through practicing it made it easier when I had to conduct the interview for my magazine. I felt more confident and believe I did a better job at this interview than I had for the previous interviews. Taking pictures for my magazine was another skill I had to develop. I used my iPhone 6s Plus as my camera to take pictures of the store featured in my magazine. Achieving pictures that worked well on the magazine took time, so I took multiple pictures that way I could use the ones that worked the best for the cover, table of contents, and article pages.

Fashion Co. represents social groups because it showcases local fashion boutiques that anyone living near them could go and visit, whether it be men, women, or teens. The magazine's target is mainly women or teens, but in many boutiques featured fashionable men's clothing is also available. Women and teens are mainly the magazine's target audience because more teenagers and women purchase magazines then men do. The magazine attempts to target women and girls through fashion by featuring articles on style and tutorials. Therefore, appealing to the audience that purchases products like magazines helps to increase revenue, sales, and also helps to get the magazine more attention. Many girls and women look to fashion magazines to find the latest trends and style. According to Statisticbrain.com "68% of girls and women say they use fashion magazines as their source of finding the latest trends." This is a big percentage and shows how much a fashion magazine like Fashion Co. represents the social group of girls, and women alike.

1. How does your product use or challenge conventions and how does it represent social groups or issues?

3. How did your production skills develop throughout this project?

4. How did you integrate technologies - software, hardware and online - in this project?

2. How does your product engage with audiences and how would it be distributed as a real media text?

My Magazine engages with audiences by having interactive articles. Some of the interactive articles featured in the June/July issue of Fashion Co. are Summer Style Preview, Trendy Summer Style Tips, 20 Easy Summer Looks, and How to get Beach Waves for ANY Type of Hair. In the magazine readers are often asked their opinion relating to the topics discussed in the article. For example the 20 Easy Summer Looks might ask the audience what their favorite outfit is in a little thought bubble somewhere on the page. Also several articles are split into different sections depending on which section relates to the reader. In the article How to get Beach Waves for ANY Type of Hair it is split into three sections; curly, straight, and wavy depending on what type of hair the audience has that is the section they would focus on. Fashion Co. also encourages readers to write in to the magazine to let me know how they liked the magazine, what type of articles they would like to read in the next issue, and what boutique they would like to be featured next. The audience is encouraged to write to the magazine about any thing they would like whether it be a question, comment, etc. My magazine prides itself on being an interactive magazine and engaging audiences.

Fashion Co. uses conventions because it looks like Teen Vogue, Cosmopolitan, and, Marie Claire. The cover page uses a typical gossip/fashion magazine layout with a full image taking up the background and attention grabbers to the side of the magazine to attract readers. Towards the bottom right side of the magazine a bar code is utilized to tell readers how much the cost of the magazine is in the U.S. as most magazines have. The magazine challenges conventions because even though the background is a full image most fashion magazines, such as Elle, Vogue, and Allure tend to display famous celebrities on their covers. This fashion magazine uses the window display of the boutique discussed in the magazine as the cover image. The title font is different than usual fashion magazines that use more standard edgier font than the curly cursive font used in my magazine title. My magazine cover uses shapes to enhance the cover and attract readers attention but fashion magazines don't tend to use shapes. The font of the magazine is the same throughout most of the magazine while magazines like Lucky, Bazaar, and Fashion tend to have different fonts. The article part of my magazine does not begin with a full page image instead it starts off with the article and two pictures that relate to the article. The final way Fashion Co. challenges conventions is it is about local boutiques in different states, this time about Shore. Traditionally most magazines cover global main stream topics instead of local topics such as boutiques.

To make my magazine I used Microsoft Publisher, Microsoft Word, my phone's camera, marketing, distribution, magazine cover websites, and Gmail. Microsoft publisher was used to actually make the magazine product; the cover, table of contents, and article pages. Microsoft Word was used to type the interview questions and answers. The camera I used to take pictures for my magazine was my phone's camera (iPhone 6s Plus). I used the internet to find marketing and distribution websites so I could get an idea of how I could distribute my magazine product. Also, I used it to find cover, table of contents, and magazine layout ideas for my magazine. Gmail was a very important resource this is how I communicated with the store I interviewed for the article in my magazine (Shore). Through Gmail I was able to schedule an interview with the marketing coordinator and was also able to know her working schedule. This way I knew when I could come in to take pictures so she would be there to approve them.

For marketing and advertising Fashion Co. subscription cards would be placed in local free magazines to market and make people want to buy the magazine. Also, social media would be a huge part of the marketing and advertising. Fashion Co. would have social media outlets such as, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, Facebook, and Tumblr that would alert customers of the next issue that is being released, posts about the magazine, pictures, interactive giveaways, and posts about its features. My magazine would be distributed through a real media text through stores as most magazines are. I would have it in the local boutiques featured in my magazine. Also in stores nearby and in grocery stores that would be willing to display and sell the magazine. It would also be available online through the Fashion Co. app in the Apple app store and Google Play store. This way people on the go could access the magazine from their smartphones and tablets. As a way to engage audiences even more, and in case people do not use apps, the magazine would also have an online website. To get the magazine into stores a meeting would have to be set up with the specific store (to start off), so the product could be pitched directly to them. According to Observer.com to get the magazine app on the app stores "$99 a year would have to be paid for a developer's license, in addition to a $5 charge for the X code 4 development software." Then the app must be submitted to Apple for approval. After around 4 months of waiting Apple will say if the magazine app has been approved. The process for getting the magazine app on to the Google Play store is similar. The website is probably the easiest way to distribute the magazine, but is very expensive. The total cost of a "small" website is around $5,640 to $11,400, including visual design, testing, and launching (Executionists.com).