Production - Cover Image

 Hello everybody! In today’s blog post I will be getting the cover image for my magazine brief. So what are we waiting for? Let’s get into it!

Sooo…. A little secret, I may or may not have already found an adequate photo for my cover that has nothing to do with my planning, and I know, I know that’s exactly what the 3 weeks of planning were for, but it was just too perfect to pass up.

In my plan I originally wanted to take photos of cheesecake in multiple different shots and pick out whichever looked best, that was before I found out that cheesecake is like 17 dollars, which is insane. So as I was mindless scrolling through my photos I found the holy grail of food photos 

Look at it, it has a rainbow adjacent color scheme (which always looks nice when done right) and is contrasted with a not as vibrant background, a diagonal composition, natural, even lighting, and an environment behind the hero. It’s everything I need it to be and it wasn’t even on purpose. 

I took it at some pop up cafe a few months ago (to add a little context), but I never thought this would be its first major use. 

As great as it is, it definitely needs some tweaking, mostly to get rid of the hands in the photo. They aren’t arranged in any pleasing manner and add some unnecessary contrast.

After a few changes I got this: 

Originally I just zoomed in and got rid of most of the hand in the photo (the little fingers peeking through at the bottom will be dealt with a bit later don’t worry), but then I thought, this image looks a bit more washed out than I thought, so I went into the photos app and kind of just messed around until it looked how it is now. 

I think it looks nicer without showing that it was scrubbed with filters, but if it ends up changing it means I was told it was to much. 

Reflection

This post showed me the importance of using what’s at your disposal because had I not found it this post would have been a lot more tedious and time consuming, so I’m glad I found an alternative. In my next post I will be putting the masthead and the stripline onto the photo seeing how well my chosen color palette actually works, I’m hoping to have the cover and a little of the table contents done by the end of this week, so I hope this keeps me on track.

See you all in the next post!

Planning - Feature Article Spread

 Hello everybody! In today’s blog post I will be drawing up mocks for the 2 page feature article spread, as well as discuss a few topics that I want to write about in the actual content. So what are we waiting for? Let’s get into into it!

Here are a few designs that I came up with:

#1

#2

#3

#4

#5

In my spread I want to have 1-2 actual recipes in the writing, which also includes having a picture of the finished dessert, based on that I want to elimate #5 and #3, since the foods included on that page would be more general, rather than focused on the writing content. Now, I wanted to consider the difficulty of actually attaining these photos, and I believe that #4 has way to many unnecessary photos in it, and would only make me spend unnecessary time, effort, and whole lot of money. 

This leaves #1 and #2 in the running, both with adequate spaces to lay recipes and photos, while still leaving room for the main article(s). 

They’re quite similar actually, the main difference is that #1 has images surrounded by the background, while #2 has the images cut to just be the subject on the page. Not sure how easy it is to discern that, but it is the intended design. 

#1 will create good contrast, but I feel after it is finished it will be too wordy and not contain enough images. #2 will create a much cooler effect having the food be the only thing in the images, but I feel the placement is just a little bit too awkward and uniform. 

If I had to single out only one I could continue on, it would be #1. It will be nice about not having to worry about any potential overlap with words and photos, and can give me a lot more freedom about what I actually want to put in there. However, it will need a few tweaks, the pictures will probably be a lot smaller and I might put 1 or 2 photos with no background, to steal some of the charm #2 has. 

In a perfect world I would be able to try out both of them, and I might, but when I take photos, I’ll do it in a way to model after #1

#1  - Final Answer!

Content

In my project proposal I said I wanted to mention, gender roles, overconsumption, and food insecurity/inequality, but I am also considering tell “fake” personal stories that have to do with food. If you remember from the first few weeks of research, this was a prominent consideration of mine, and I still want to incorporate it. My writing style will be a lot more “playful” since that follows the normal conventions of a food magazine, but will still be refined. 

As I was looking at past examples of magazine briefs, I noticed that the content focused a lot on the interview writing style, and used questions to talk about representation. I assume the model didn’t actually answer any of these questions, but it still creates a feeling of cohesiveness in the brief. 

But in all honesty, an interview sounds like the last thing I’d like to do, even if I’m the one making and answering questions. I believe it isn’t the only route I could take (especially considering the brief I looked at was centered around an actual person and not dessert), but I will defintely need some extra clarification, that I will share on my next blog post. Some forms of writing that I would like to do are reviews, anecdotes, and recipes (duh). 

I feel like those will give a lot more life, and I hope I get to have them in my final product.

Reflection

Like I said in my last post it’s crunch time, especially because this entry is the last one I’ll post before I start getting into production. I think my research and planning has done a good job guiding me, but the reality will be made clear soon enough. Making the actual magazine is something I’m not too worried about and has me a little excited, what I’m concerned about are the CCR’s, they give off final boss energy and from the way they were introduced and emphasized, it defintely seems true. I have 3 and a half weeks to get this entire thing wrapped up and sent off to Cambridge, and I assume most of it will be dedicated to the CCR’s. 

I’m hopeful but a little scared, so I will try to be focused, intentional, and diligent. 

See you all in the next post!

Planning - Table of Contents

 Hello everybody! In today’s blog post I will be mapping out the visuals of my table of contents, I wll also be coming up with possible titles for each “chapter”. So what are we waiting for? Let’s get into it!

To begin designing I first need some points of inspiration

I tried looking for pages that had the most differing designs and the most enticing layouts. In my brief I need to use 6 photos taken by me, and since my feature article spread will mostly be filled with words, so the majority of these products probably need to be placed on the contents page(s). Out of the TOC’s (table of contents) I looked for, the ones I like most are the first one in the top left, and the second to last one in the bottom middle.

Both of them place the words into an environment of sorts, rather than place the photos around the words, which is an aspect I want to incorporate into my own design. Now to head on over to Procreate to whip something up!

This is extremely rough and subject to lots of change, but I think it holds a lot of potential. However, this has showed me that I need to start on the actual contents and stopped being so focused on the design elements. I was planning to create a few more, but I think this will suffice as a baseline, and I will mold it as the production process starts. 

Reflection

If I’m being honest this post ended up being a lot shorter than I was intending, and the realization of how little time I have is starting to set in. From now on I need to be a lot more diligent and think in the long run if I want this project to succeed. Hopefully this mock I’ve made will be put to good use and reduce some stress during the next few weeks. In my next entry I will be drawing up a mock design for the 2 page feature article spread, which will hopefully be a lot easier to arrange, since it will be so focused on words. 

See you all in the next post!

Planning - Cover Image Mocks (And a title change?!)

 

Hello everybody! In todays blog post I will be figuring out the intricacies of the cover image as well as making mood boards to give "life" to the project. So what are we waiting for? Let's get into it!

Ok, so I was originally going to use Canva to make a rough draft of what I wanted, but then I realized that it would take way to long and using stock images was gonna influence my ideas waaay to much, so I'm just going draw them, plus it's more fun like this, so let's hop over to Procreate! 

First I need a "template" if you will, that displays the masthead. 

It... looks wrong, the colors are good, the name is correct, and the fonts are fine. I had to sit here for a while contemplating why it looks weird, and then it hit me. It's the space between "sweet eats" clashing with "Good Cooking"

The green shows places of continuity and/or symmetry, theres a space between "Good" and "Cooking" but the font is so small that it doesn't make a huge difference. But the space between "sweet" and "eats" is so large that it interrupts the continuity it was creating. I thought it was kind of weird that I didn't really notice, but I looked around and...yeah that's exactly what they avoid.

A food magazine I bought

This masthead ensures that all lines of continuity are finished and completely uninterrupted, even making the "of" at the top smaller and italicized to separate the words. So I applied that to my title and checked the difference. 

 

Defintely a whole lot better, but still unsatisfying, maybe it was the fact that it was 2 words? I had even changed the color of one of the words to separate them more but it wasn't working. So I decided to try single word to see the difference.

This just looked... a lot better, a lot cleaner, and a lot more cohesive. It almost feels like I'm cheating, especially with the entire poll, but I asked around and generally people preferred the second option. So,  the new title is:

Good Cooking: Confectionaries

A little bump in the road, but better refined than messy, now let's continue. What food should I center this around? Well after looking through my palette again it seems a white/light colored food would best fit in the spot, and well what better food than cheesecake? Am I biased on this, absolutely, but it seems a little too perfect to not at least try.

I'm not sure why it got so pixelated, but I like the way it came out, it's obviously a super rough draft but  I can see something coming together.

I actually quite like the composition of this one, however I would need a lot more coverlines and a much more complex background.

This one is actually super cute as well, and with a nice table to set it on, as well as a few other accents and accessories I think it could look very cohesive.

If I had to pick one idea as a final inspiration, I'd pick the 3rd one, however I will be doing an entire photoshoot with this cheesecake, so each of these compositons will get their own chance to shine.

Reflection

Being able to see my color palette and my fonts and ideas come together creates a surreal kind of feeling. In my next entry I will be coming up with the visuals and actual writing in the table of contents.

See you all in the next post!

Planning - Style Guide

Style Guide

 Hello everyone! In today's blog we will be creating a style guide, this is something that will really help me plan out the tone and mood of the magazine. So what are we waiting for? Let's get into it!

Sooooo..... what is a style guide exactly? If I'm being honest I had never even heard the word up until this class, but it refers to a set of standards for the formatting, writing, and design of documents, aimed at ensuring consistency and clarity. I do not run a magazine company, nor am I making an 100 paged product, so luckily we can just look through the cliffnotes for this post (Gone are the days of cranking out 1000 word posts).

To create a style guide I need just a few things:

- Main and Secondary Colors

- Typography and Fonts (and where they go) 

- Writing Conventions

Colors

So, since I'm making a dessert magazine I wanted to used colors that envoke a calmer yet fun feeling, so here are just a few that I whipped up (pun intended): 

I got stuck between #1 and #3 because they both gave different versions of what I was thinking, but I utimately went with #3 because it looked a little more "desserty" than #1. Black and white are also going to be apart of the scheme, but I wanted to use very dark blues and slightly off whites because black and white are very final colors, so I still want some wiggle room, even if it's only a little.

The main colors are #AD286E,  #D32E55 (The first two colors from right to left) and #F7F7F7 (off-white) and #01002D (dark blue), and my secondary colors are #FFC8DA (light pink), #FFEA85 (yellow), and #FFF7CE (light yellow), these will all get their official names and swatches and whatnot,  I just want to simplify it for now. 

Typography and Fonts

Now it is time for fonts, an arguably scaring part in this process, fonts aren't everything, but they do contribute a lot, and thats why for this project I want to keep it simple, something that is attracting, but not overwhelming and super uncoventional. 

But first, you need to know the difference between sans-serif and serif fonts. A sans-serif font doesn't have any projecting lines or "flourishes" in their letters, an example of this would be Arial. A serif fonts does have little details added at the ends of letters, an example of a serif font is Courier. Fun fact! The font I'm currently using (Times New Roman) is the most popular serif font out there. 

• Masthead - Catellos & Moonscape
• Coverlines - CS Arquis
• Body - Inter
• Headers - Moonscape

Writing Conventions

There isn't much that I need to say for this since I won't actually be writing an entire magazine, but I will be using the Oxford comma ( The comma right before "and" in a list of 3 or more- "I love cats, dogs, and birds.") , a somewhat informal tone that is passionate, enthusiastic, and informative. In recipes and in articles the numbers will be in symbols (3) and not in writing (three). 

Here it is!

Reflection

This post was a lot harder than I orginally assumed it was going to be, finding colors, fonts, and a website to put it all on was extremely time consuming, and I'm glad that it's finally come together. In all honesty this post is likely going to change a lot and by the time this project is over this sentence will probably be gone too, but I hope that this foundation will be very useful to me and my brief. In my next blog posts I will coming up with ideas for the cover image/creating mood boards to flesh out the mood of the magazine.

See you all on the next post!

References:

https://webringthebhumi.blogspot.com/search/label/Planning 

https://colornamer.robertcooper.me/

https://www.1001fonts.com/serif-fonts.html?page=4

https://styleguider.replit.app/

https://www.dafontfree.co/download/moonscape/#google_vignette

https://befonts.com/downfile/79a504294b56aada78923d99ef4219d4.893519

Planning - The Title

Planning - Project Proposal

 Hello everybody! In today’s entry we will be doing the project proposal. So, what are we waiting for? Let us get into it!

 

My name is Charli Campbell, and I will be doing a food magazine brief. I chose this because I wanted to experience a new kind of media that I hadn’t really tried before, and it seemed a lot more appealing than doing a film opening (since I’ve experienced most of the mishaps that happen during filming). I picked a food magazine because one, I love food and food photography, and 2 it was definitely the easiest genre that I could manage without partners.

After extensive research I have found that the audience that a food magazine appeals to most closely is

-              Women

-              Ages 20-55

-              In Europe and America

-              With children/ SAH’s (Stay at Home)

-              That are the main cook in the house

-              Are food enthusiasts

-              Or looking for the latest trends, appliances, and tools

 

Potential social issues I am interested in addressing in my brief are the expectations of women in a household, both children and adults, overconsumption, food insecurity/inequality.

 

The main programs I plan to use are InDesign, Affinity Designer 2, and Canva (for graphics/fonts, not to make the actual brief). Things I need to learn are how to comfortably use InDesign and Affinity, how to import fonts and graphics, how to cutout photos and upgrade their quality, and I also want to learn how to color correct my images. There is a lot more that I will need to learn, however I think these are the most prominent things to me right now

My basic plan for my magazine

1.        Create a finalized style guide

2.        Draw out mock cover pages and table of content with style guide

3.        Plan out the format of my cover, table of contents, and feature articles

4.        Start the planning of CCRs

5.        Decide what my photos will be and plan a shoot day (this includes gathering my camera equipment, finding a location etc.)

6.        Continue planning/making CCRs

7.        Piece together my brief

8.        Finish/continue making CCRs

9.        Wrap up any other loose ends and celebrate

 

Do I think it will be this simple? Not in the slightest but having a general goal and plan is better than walking into such an extensive project blind. I assume most of my issues will be time management, as it is currently the hardest part for me to manage with my blog posting, but through dedication and hard work I think I can make it happen.

Something I would also like to do during this project is to practice using the different softwares, because they will also probably create a lot of problems for me as well, I’m not exactly sure how I will practice it, but I’m sure that there are many resources out there that can help me.

 

Reflection

This is definitely a blog entry that I will be constantly going back to in order to keep myself on track with my tasks and deadlines, and I’m glad that I was guided to create such a useful post. In my next blog post I will be creating and finalizing a style guide for my magazine, I’m excited to see what it holds, and I hope you are too.

See you all on the next post!

Planning/Research - The Meaning of Color (Pt.2)/Color Theory

Hello everyone! In this blog post we will be finishing up the meaning of color and transition into some actual color theory, this includes hues and values, compliments and monochromes, and whole lot of other stuff. So, what are we waiting for? Let’s get into it! 

 

 

  

Black 

The color black absorbs all light, so it is a very low-energy color, however when put next to contrasting colors (especially white) It can increase energy, and it can also compliment/accent almost all other colors. But by itself, black can dampen the mood. It is known for many different things, it can be evil, mysterious, convey the night and disparity. It is associated with sophistication and seriousness. It can be an incredibly intimidating and authoritative color.  

 

When is contrast with white it is almost always associated with opposites, black usually acting as the negative side to it, like Yin and Yang, and light and dark 

 

Effects: Mystifies, Seduces, Secures, Intimidates 

 

Positive: Formality, Strength, Authority 

 

Negative: Depression, Sadness, Pessimism  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

White 

White helps the mind focus and is a useful tool when organizing, white brings clarity and defines borders. White is the complete and total opposite of black, but just like its counterpart it pairs well with just about anything. White is purity and balance. It is associated with being clean, being virtuous, and being perfect. It can also mean hope and innocence. As a whole white is the base, the canvas colors can shine with. 

But that doesn’t mean white has no negative connotations. White is often considered to be bland, cold, and empty, and even blinding when it is used too much.  

 

Effects: Calming, Balance, Purifying 

 

Positive: Clean, Elegance, Goodness 

 

Negative: Cold, Blank, Unfriendly, Empty 

 

 

 

 

 

Color Theory 

 
But first, what even is color theory? I’m sure you’ve heard the term before but have never heard the explanation. Color theory is a set of practical guidelines on how to mix colors and the visual effects of color combination. But color is EXTREMELY subjective, so I will be going off the interests of my researched audience and a little bit of my own interest 

 

 

 
 

  

This is a basic color wheel that I’ve organized into the three types of colors: Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary. 

The primary colors are red, blue, and yellow. They are 3 pigment colors that cannot be created by any combination of other colors; all other colors come from these 3. 

The secondary colors are green, orange, and violet (purple). These guys are formed from the primary colors, red and yellow = orange, red and blue = violet, yellow and blue = green 

 The tertiary colors are red-violet, red-orange, yellow-orange, yellow-green, blue-green, and blue-violet. They are formed from the mixing of primary and secondary colors, hence the 2-part names. 

 

Hue, Value, Saturation 

Hue – Hue is the fundamental property of color (a shade or a tint), it’s what distinguishes red, blue, yellow, and any other color on the color wheel 

 

Saturation – Saturation, (A.K.A intensity/chroma) is the purity, vividness, or strength of a color, this ranges from fully saturated (vibrant) to desaturated (grayed)  

 

Value - Value is the relative lightness or darkness of a color, it is a crucial element when creating depth and shadows 

 

 

 

 

Color Harmony 

Harmony refers to the pleasing arrangement of something, whether it’s color, music, or even food. Harmony is something that intrigues the eye in a positive manner, creating balance and order, if something isn’t harmonious it is ether boring or too chaotic.  

If something is incredibly bland, it doesn’t stimulate the brain, and it causes people to become uninterested and loose focus. On the other hand, if something is way too complex, it overstimulates the brain and the viewer can’t stand to see it. 

But how does one even reach harmony? Well, there are a ton of different ways to reach it, but we’ll be going over the most recognizable. 

 

Monochromatic 

Using a monochromatic color scheme refers to the usage of 1 singular color and its differing shades and tints, but black and white can also be present. 

Monochromatic schemes are best in food photography when: 

• The food is meant to look elegant yet simple 

 

• When the hero (the main dish/food) doesn’t have a lot of different colors, and the tone of the image is calmer, use the same color scheme  

 

• When creating a powerful mood 

 

• If your hero gets lost in the background, monochromatic colors bring it back to its original intention 

 

Monochromatic schemes can carry a heavy emotional tone to it when done right. When you want the image to feel modern and sleek, use a cool and desaturated palette. When you want it to feel comforting and homey, use a warm palette.  

Monochromatic color palettes are: 

• Extremely versatile in food photography 

 

• Simple and beginner friendly 

 

• Great for directing the audience’s focus 

 

Drawback: 

• Can become bland and one-dimensional if it doesn’t have enough variation and texture 

• Sometimes need a little contrast, whether it’s a sprinkled powder or some different colored fruit 

 

 

 

Analogous 

Analogous palettes are the use of 3 adjacent colors on the wheel, this could be something like, green, blue-green, and blue. The first is usually the dominant color, the second is the supporting color, and the third is the accent color (this is called the 60-30-10 rule), and the addition of black, white, and gray are almost always allowed in any color scheme.   

 

Analogous colors are best when: 

 

• You are trying to emphasize the freshness of the food  

 

• When you want the image to look very cohesive 

 

• When the goal of the photo is to create a “natural” tone 

 

 Benefits:  

• It becomes pretty easy to coordinate the props and accessories needed in your image, due to the colors being picked out already and the 60-30-10 rule 

 

• They create a very soothing environment, and since the colors transition smoothly with each other it doesn’t overwhelm the eyes 

 

Drawbacks: 

• If you use too many different hues in the analogous scheme, it can make the photo look extremely cluttered 

 

• It can be a little bit difficult to stick to the distributions of color, and if it is unbalanced it can make the image look uncoordinated 

 

 

 

 

 

Complementary 

 A complementary scheme involves the use of colors opposite from each other on the color wheel to create major contrast, this includes pairs like orange and blue, and yellow and purple. Ever wonder why the main Christmas colors red and green are so popular? It’s because the maximum contrast they create is very pleasing to us and stimulates multiple parts of the eye. 

Complementary colors are best for: 

• Drawing lots of attention from the viewers 

 

• Highlighting and emphasize certain points of the image (like using small pieces of lemon in a purple background) 

 

• Energizing and engaging the audience, of course, with more desaturated colors this effect can be lessened 

 

 

 

 

Benefits:  

• Using complementary colors make things more noticeable and resultantly more memorable  

 

• They enhance depth and dimension a one by creating shadows and highlights in the photos 

 

 

 

Drawbacks: 

• Can become hard to look at if it has too much saturation 

 

• There isn’t much “underlying” harmony in complementary colors, most of what you see is what it actually is, which may require desaturating and balancing in post 

 

• Sometimes they are too contrasting from each other and end up looking harsh and discordant  

 

        

 Reflection 

While there are a lot more techniques that can be used in color theory, these are the most understandable and beginner friendly. While it is hard to say which I will be sticking to one specifically, the one that I believe will yield the best results is complementary colors.  

The other two techniques focused a lot on being calm and warming, and while I do want elements of those tones, I want to have excitement and energy as well, which is something that would either require a lot more knowledge and skill or way to much over-saturation. With complementary colors, I would be able to do both, I can have bright and bold schemes that hook viewers, but if I wanted to have a more relaxed but still visually appealing photo, I would need to use calmer versions of the same colors.  

I think this post will end up being super useful for when I end up doing my style guide and has laid out some very important groundwork for composition and layouts.  

In my next entry I will be creating a finalized title for my brief, see you all on the next post! 

References:

https://twolovesstudio.com/blog/colour-theory-food-photography/

https://www.theinteriordesigninstitute.com/ph/en/blog-a-beginners-guide-to-creating-analogous-color-schemes-for-any-space#:~:text=Analogous%20colour%20schemes%20are%20perfect,creative%20variation%20and%20visual%20interest.

https://mindfulavocado.com/color-theory-for-food-photography/

https://www.studiobinder.com/blog/what-is-an-analogous-color-scheme-definition/

https://poppybeesurfaces.com/blogs/poppy-bee-surfaces/mastering-monochromatic-color-in-food-photography?srsltid=AfmBOoosoTb2ngfkZYOiv6VG_ZVfreZqen0CBjpAAoEAj0W7wwsKFjFV

https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/topics/color-theory?srsltid=AfmBOorto0ejTg6K9Ma_NyUXYovtN3p-I2vDIIKgzcFZtLwi3LE0rw01

https://www.colormatters.com/color-and-design/basic-color-theory