CCR

 Question One

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

Question Two

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

Question Three

How did your production skills develop throughout this project?

Question Four

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

 

Final Brief

 Final Brief 

Hello Blog!! I come to you with my final product. It took a lot of work and effort but it was worth it in the end. Hope you enjoy!

Cover Page:

Table of Contents Spread:

Feature Article Spread:

Production- Table of Contents Creation

 Table of Contents

Hola blog! I have retured yet again to share on how I made my Table of Contents. If i'm being honest this is my least favorite out of the 3 (Cover, Spread, Table of Contents)  mostly because making a table of contents like this is new to mr and i'm not as confident in my abilities. 

I was able to get this done rather quickly. I uploaded the cutouts of Sunny and Oliver and put in the cutouts of the shapes as well. I made the pages and titles correct for what we had but I came up with other random deadlines and page numbers for the rest of the table of contents.

Out of the 3 this one was the most difficult to make because i'm not accustomed to making it like I am with the cover and spread. Once I got the hang of it, it was easy to finish but I don't think it looks as good as the other pages. I am overall happy with my magazine and I think it was made to the best of my abilities.

I added the second page and moved things around when I realized that I needed two pages.. my fault for not using my listening ears. I was able to get it all done shortly after and I added more pictures and more fake page numbers and modules.

Production- Spread Creation

 Spread Creation

Hello Blog. As I was taking pictures to prepare for my magazine I was also speaking to the owners and finding out more information on their dogs and thats when I decided to change my coverage to fit the better stories. 

I first inserted all the pictures and shapes. For the shapes I played with their opacity and I sent all of them to the back and put the pictures over.

I later made copy for the feature article, I made sure to do a traditional copy and I used the quotes I got. I also text wrapped the text around the image to make it look more appealing. 

I did the individual modules where I told storied in the past tense and I used one module to share a quote. My yearbook experience really helped in writing this copy and making the spread design. I have a lot of experience writing traditional copy and it came easy to me to tell the story of Whiskey with that prior knowledge. 

Production- Cover Creation

 Cover Creation

Why hello Blog. Nice to see you again. Today I will be discussing the process of creating my cover. 

I knew that my feature article was going to be on Whiskey so I looked through 100+ pictures of him and chose the one that I thought looked the best.

I then put it into Canva to get a cutout with a transparent background because I knew that I was going to need it for my cover. While I was at it I also cut out a barcode that was going to go on my cover. 

I found the barcode on google and I kept these off to the side.

I then opened Indesign and got to work. I started by inserting the picture and getting it to the size I wanted it. I wanted it to be big enough for the cutout of Whiskey to go into the masthead.

I made sure to include out theme colors and shapes. I sent the shapes to the back as well as the masthead and put the cutout of Whiskey on the top.

I finished off by adding puffs that show the module titles and the feature article title and other magazine elements.

Making the mock cover helped me a lot with this. It made the process a lot smoother because I had gone through it all before so it was a very seem less process.

Production- Photography Day Two (Oreo)

 Oreo

The last Dog that I took pictures of is Oreo the Yorkie. I was covering his running away so we could not bring him outside at all. We took his pictures inside which seems like it would be easier but it was actually quite the opposite. He is very needy and wanted my attention the entire time. In retrospect I probably should've used a lens that not as zoomed in for cases like this, but we live and we learn. 

Oreo also really did not want to pose at all, even when bribed with food and treats. We found that just holding him down and letting go for a second was the only way we could sort of get him to sit still. He was the smallest dog but he arguably gave me the most issues. The lighting indoors was also not the best but I had to do what I could with this escape artist.

As you can see in this photo, Noah's hand is moving in the back. We had to work quickly to avoid him moving towards me. 

Final Photography Relfection

This was my first time taking pictures of dogs and this has taught me a lot. Each dog is very different and just because something worked for one dog doesn't mean that its going to work for another. I did enjoy this experience very much. This is something new that I can add to my portfolio.

Production- Photography Day Two (Arya)

 Arya

What is up blog! I will be taking about the process of taking pictures of Arya the Great Dane. 

Context: This is another one of my boyfriends dogs but I have never really been allowed around her because she tends to be more aggressive. I have been around her a few times at this point but those interactions were heavily monitored. Naturally, I was a little nervous to take pictures of her but I made sure to interact with her as little as possible to ensure my safety. 

Arya tends to try to run away and her strength makes her harder to stop so we opted for the backyard. She is trained but she likes to do her own thing most of the time. I let Noah command her and pose her for me and I just stood there with the camera. 

She actually acted very nice towards me and we got comfortable enough where I could pet her and try to pose her. I asked Noah to get her to do her tricks with her paws, which she is very good at. 

In the end, Arya taught me how to approach taking pictures of more aggressive dogs and precautions I need to take to ensure everyones safety.

Production- Photography Day Two (Whiskey)

 Whiskey

Hi Blog!!! Today I will be taking about taking pictures of Whiskey! He is a black Great Dane, who on his hind legs reaches to about six feet tall. 

Whiskey is my Boyfriends dog and since I go to his house a lot, he is already very used to he and likes me. I knew that taking these pictures were going to be easy because he is a very obedient dog. The only concern I had was about his size. 

I decided to stay further away and zoom in to him rather than stay closer and not zoom because I knew that he moves around a lot when let out so I wanted to be prepared for movement. 

We learned that he reacted better to toys then treats because when holding a treat in front of him he is consumed by eating ti and starts to door everywhere. Noah helped me by throwing around the ball and making him sit and stay to help me get my final pictures.

These are the two pictures I will be using for my cover and feature article. Whiskey showed me how to approach taking pictures of bigger dogs and what a toy could do.

Production- Photography Day Two (Sunny)

 Sunny

Hello Bloggg! I will be taking about taking pictures of my own dog, Sunny. Since she is mine I know how to control her behavior. We did not use treats, instead we took her out on a walk. She loves her walks but she knows that if she misbehaves she will have to go inside so I used that to help me. 

I had my Boyfriend, Noah Catala, help me by walking her as i took pictures and told him hoe to pose her. He also has much experience with not only my dog, but dogs in general. 

We were able to get her to sit on the grass and I would call her name to grab her attention, which is why there are pictures where she is looking at me. 

The picture I ended up choosing had her looking away. I purposefully let her get distracted to get a picture of her looking off to the side. It was also quite hot outside so her sticking out her tongue is her panting, but do not fret, we provided her water. 

She was very easy to do and we were done in about 10 minutes. She showed me that the best lighting is around 3:00 PM on a sunny day. The green grass gave her a nice color and provided contrast to her fur color. 

Production- Photography Day One (Oliver)

 Oliver

Hello Blog!! I went on the same day as Samuela to take pictures of her brother, Oliver. He is a much larger dog which made it a lot harder to move him around or get him to do what you want. He is also a lot more free willed and does what he wants. The treats really helped but they were only able to keep his attention for so long. 

We had to play with him quite a bit to get him to cooperate with us. We also used the smaller camera for Oliver because he was a bit sensitive to the bigger camera.

While taking pictures Oliver would go to the pool and drink the salt water, for the record we had fresh water for him but he chose to drink the salt water.

He was a little more difficult to take pictures of but with enough care and attention we were able to get some good and useable pictures of him. He sort of prepared me for the bigger dogs I was soon going to face. He also helped me learn how to deal with more difficult dogs.

Production- Photography Day One (Samuela)

 Samuela

Hello blog! I will be sharing the process of taking pictures of Samuela. She is Christopher Villegas's dogs so I went to his house at our scheduled time. 

I found that bribing the dogs with treats is the best way to grab their attention. They are both very energetic dogs so I chose to separate them for the pictures to help me work as efficiently as I could. 

I started with Samuela because I knew that she is more energetic and would probably be harder to get pictures of. She pleasantly surprised me by listening when threats were introduced.

 

We mad sure to give her a lot of attention for behaving correctly. I also know that she is an anxious dog so I chose to use my smaller camera with her. She was still scared but the sound of the shutter but we were able to get her to shift her attention with treats. She showed me some do and don'ts of dog photography.

Planning- Table of Contents Design

 Table of Contents 

Hello blog!!! Today I will be making a mock of my table of contents. I am making mock for my entire magazine to plan out the time and what exactly I would want to do for my magazine. This is helping me create a plan.

I started by making the headline of table of contents and adding the shapes I wanted. I followed the style guide to maintain consistency. 

I found a cutout to use of a dog. Its a silly little cutout of a dog that I cut out on Canva the I added it to the page.

I finished the mock up. I used the same picture multiple times just as a placeholder. We also decided to add page numbers as a marketing tactic for our future responses to CCR.

This will make it much easier for during the production process as I will only have to change the pictures and the page numbers.

Planning- Photo Dates

 Photo Dates

Hellooooo Blogggg! This blog post will not be very long but today I am doing something very exciting, planning when I'm going to hang out with a bunch of dogs. On a more serious note, today I will be scheduling when I will be going to take pictures of dogs. I will add a list below of dates, times, and potential poses.

Noah

- Thursday March 12 @ 1:00 PM

- Whiskey (Great Dane), very lively dog and good at tricks so maybe a picture of tricks?

Alejandra

- Thursday March 12 @ 12:00 PM

- Barbie (Yorkshire Terrior), very poised dog but a little bit overweight so I would want a sitting picture off to the side a little so I can use her for my nutrition module

Christopher 

- Thursday March 12 @ 2:00 PM

- Oliver (Golden Retriver), he sits well for a picture so I am thinking that or him rolling around possibly with his stomach up

Angie

- Wednesday March 11 @ 1:00 PM

- Sunny (Silky Terrior), Since she is my dog this is easier to schedule but I would like to try to get a picture of her running or jumping because I know she is very athletic.

Planning- Cover Design

 Mock Cover Design

Hello Blog!! Today I will be creating a mock cover. 

First I started off by looking at some inspiration to remind me of conventions as well as helping me gain a sense of what picture I think will fit best.

These fit with the playful vibe I want to go with and they have puffs and other things to entice the reader.

Picture Choice

I want to find a big picture that will fill up the cover nicely but leave enough room for text. I eventually decided on a Golden Retriver with an outdoor background to mimic the setting of my photoshoot and the size of dog.

I then later made the headline with the name of our magazine and I cut out the picture of the dog and put it over the cover title. I am also planning on including our shape elements after I figure out the layout.

The process 

I made a rough example of how I would want my cover to look like. Since I am doing the dog edition, I chose a dog for my cover. I also solidified that I want an outdoor picture. I am content with the outcome but I feel I can play more with the shapes and opacity of the shapes on my actual project. I feel it is important to try to use all of our design elements on the cover to maintain consistency in our magazine so I will ensure to include as much as possible without making it look tacky.

Final Product

This is my final product. I am quite happy with it and it getting me excited for my actual magazine. I do want more of a playful photo for my edition but I am overall content.

Planning- Feature Article Design

Feature Article Design

Hello blog!!! today I will be planning and using Indesign to make a mock up feature article. Im going to use Canva to be making cutouts and i'm also going to be relearning how to use Indesign.

I first learned ho to make a two page spread on Indesign (thanks to Chris). It was actually quite simple, you just type in 2 where it asks for two pages. Then I was able to make my spread.

Cutouts

I will now be choosing a couple of pictures I want to go on my mock up. I decided to with with the picture of the dog with the tongue out for my dominant picture because it goes with the playful vibe were choosing.

I made the cutouts on Canva and saved them separately with transparent backgrounds then put them into Indesign.

I then added the mock headline, subhead and copy font. For the copy, we decided to text wrap around the images of the dog to make it look better and more pleasant to the eye on our spread.

On the top of the Dom, I was planning on adding a small module to fill in the empty space as well as add our shapes which we chose circles, squares, and triangles.

We also Learned that Indesign only takes CMYK colors, so we converted our Hex Codes to:

Sweet Salmon- C: 0 M: 60 Y: 45 K: 0

Cornflower- C: 86 M: 56 Y: 16 K: 1

Banana Cream- C: 2 M: 1 Y: 59 K: 0

using these colors I am going to add graphics to my mock spread!

This is how the dominant side of my spread turned out!

This is my finished mock spread! I decided to add another picture for my mod and I filled the rest of the white space with more mods. This is sort of what my spread will look like. This helped me visualize and create a layout design that I can use for my actual spread.