Blog Posts
Week One
As part of University degree, in the subject of Magazine production, I and five others are producing a magazine of our choice. Within the group we will each have different roles, and different jobs to do within the magazine. Not only will this assignment be challenging as we are entirely in control of it, but we will need to help and rely on each other, just as in a real magazine would work, and work together as a tight team.
The first step is to choose the concept in which we will base our magazine on. The group has decided on a female based magazine, aiming at 18-30-year-olds, based in Cornwall. Our main inspirations for the magazine are Glamour, Cosmopolitan and Dazed and Confused which all are female based magazines that cover subjects such as beauty, fashion and music.
There are a lot of things that we need to think about, and work as a team to agree on and decided. One of the most important first decisions we have to make is to consider the title of magazine. This is very significant as it is something that needs to reflect our magazine. Also we need to agree on the style and format of the magazine. Advertising is also very important, as if this were a real magazine; we would rely heavily on advertising, so we need to choose very carefully shops, businesses and people that will reflect our magazine.
Week two
We have decided on a name! Introducing, Grind magazine. Although it may seem a simple task to come up with a name, but it’s actually quite difficult to decide on something that all six of us will be happy with, something that isn’t already used, and something that will reflect our magazine. We played around for ages with different names and concept, and finally came up with something that we agreed on! Because our magazine is based on beauty, fashion, music, we wanted create a magazine that was specifically for women, but not just looking at fashion, but music, art sport, news, places to go, and things to see. We want to incorporate a little bit of everything that all females can relate to.
We decided on GRIND, because it doesn’t sound like your every day magazine, it’s something that will stand out, and will contrast with the image of a female that we want on the front cover, something that all of the magazines that we are looking at have.
We have set up a Facebook group, so we all can talk together, as its easier than constantly arranging meetings, and we only have one day a week to work together at University.
In design. A programme that lets us produce work suitable for article work that will be used to format for our magazine. It’s quite complicated to use, and I have really struggled to get my head around it. Luckily a member of our group is familiar with it, and has access to the programme at home, which will be useful! We all need to work with the programme and produce our work on In design and then send it to her.
Week three
Content. Its one thing brainstorming all the lovely ideas that everyone has and another actually deciding what exactly to put into our magazine. We have decided to cover beauty articles, fashion, involving a charity challenge, music/art/film reviews, what’s on guide to the area such as what bands are playing and where, any exhibitions that are being held etc, news local and national, sport, looking at bios of local girls, horoscopes, and a section on sex and health. I think it’s good to cover a range of subjects, however it may get too much, and we might end up over complicating the magazine, so this will have to be something that we come back to and re-consider.
We have also chosen our roles within the magazine. Every magazine needs roles. Editor, Sub-editor, Production editor, art editor, features editor news editor etc. My role within the magazine will me features editor. I’m pleased that this is my role as writing features is my strong point, and I have already got a few ideas lined up.
We have also decided on the basic format and style for our magazine. Although it’s only week three and early days yet, we are aware that although we have made some decisions, it’s very possible that they may change. We really want to have our magazine at a slightly bigger size than A4. This is the same as Dazed and Confused magazine. I think that this will really help our magazine to stand out. Most magazines stop at A4, though this may prove to be less popular, and with the other two magazines we are looking at, Glamour and Cosmopolitan have both within the past two years have brought out sizes of their magazines that are half the size. I choose to purchase the smaller sizes; this might be the case with a lot of people, who find it more convenient, so this may not work in our favour.
Week Four
The flat plan for the magazine is all decided! We have got 30 pages, including 7 adverts. A few of us have been in contact with advertisers and things are looking up!
We have started advertising for a front page model, something that is very important, as we need to find a girl who has the right look for our magazine.
As my role within the magazine is features editor I will look over all the features that are being written, as well as writing some myself. The features that I will write, will be a beauty feature looking at professional make-up artist Ella Butler, and look at products that she likes and uses. Also I am producing a sporting profile, along with another member of my team, Isis. We want to have a page that shows women who are trying their hand at extreme sports, and produce a small profile on them. We are hoping to cover sports such as BMX bike riding, surfing, skate boarding and any other sports that we can find.
I have already found a female surfer, and have conducted an interview. Finding someone that would be appropriate and who would actually have the time to have an interview was a struggle, but I eventually found the right girl! Now it is just a question of writing up my profile in a similar style to Isis, so that our work fits together and flows smoothly.
Week Five
This is the font that we have chosen to use for the magazine. White Rabbit font. It is quite bold, and we have chosen to use it for our title. It isn’t my preferred choice, however the majority of the group have chosen it.
This week is when we need to decide on all the boring jobs, such as font, colour, bleeds (the borders, which we have chosen a 3mm bleed) and knuckle down on finding advertisers. I’m so glad this is a group project, so much to do, so little time!
Annoyingly it will too difficult to produce a magazine that will be larger than A4, but smaller than A3. I have a contact that works with reprographics and have tried my best to sort out the situation, but to no avail. We have settled on A4, which is close enough.
I have found a local restaurant that we can use as an advertiser. Their restaurant is quirky, and retro, and I think it fits in well with our magazine. I was a bit dubious at first, using a restaurant as advertising, as opposed to clothing shops, but as it is a Cornish based magazine, and the restaurant is local, I think it fits in well.
Initially it was quite intimidating; the prospect of phoning up and emailing so many people for interviews and to use them for adverts, but now it’s quite enjoyable!
We have also found a model for our front page, Laura Brown, and plans for a photo shoot are underway.
Week Six
The font cover has been designed! It’s so exciting to see our work coming together.
I think the final picture looks stunning. It’s really stylish and simple, we are all very happy with it. The model is Laura Brown.
This week we have all been working on our reviews. We are covering music, films, books and art. I am writing a review on a local artist. I’ve been all round Falmouth searching for someone suitable, and who is a bit different. I have also looked in my home town of Fowey, Cornwall, which is where I found the right artist, Andrew Leniec, who is in the right age group that we are aiming our readers at (he is 25) and his work is abstract and focuses on the local area and the Cornish coasts.
We have also changed our font. There were different fonts that we played around and looked good, but we decided on Squirrel as it’s easy to read, fairly plain, and different from every day text.
Now that we have all got our own bits and pieces to start editing, and the main stresses are out of the way, the buzz of creating your own magazine has taken over. I’m starting to really get into this project, and I’m really enjoying it. We have all given each other deadlines each week that different pieces of work have to be done by. Sophie, our editor reads through and edits our work before she sends it to Isis, who does the finishing touches on In Design.
Week Seven
Final week! Everyone is rushing around like mad trying to finish off all the last minute details to make sure our magazine looks perfect. It’s so stressful, it really makes you realise what it would be like to be working in a real magazine environment when sending issues to print, you get a real adrenaline rush.
After spending the week doing the rough outlines of what each feature will look like on In Design, and pulling my hair out with the annoyance of not being able to fully understand how to use the programme, I finished all of my work. Only for it then to be changed by the editors. However once seeing how they played around with my work, and changing it slightly, it makes you see it from a different point of view, and it actually looks much better.
This project has opened my eyes about team work. Despite working within a team for various different projects over the years, this assignment has been very beneficial. It’s the first time that we have been completely independent with what we are doing. We have all learnt how to use In Design, understand the ‘behind the scenes’ of making a magazine, such as all the fiddly aspects of font etc, and how important every step is. Learning to rely on each other, and make sure that we can trust each other to keep to the deadlines we set each week. We have all worked so hard on this magazine, and I believe it were to go to publish, it would be a success!
Where has all the romance gone? There’s nothing like loving gestures to warm the heart of your other half, except if your loved one treats Valentine’s Day as scrooge treats Christmas. So what can you do to encourage the passion and romance that you crave? 
laurabfinlay 
