Creative Critical Reflection

Excursion Magazine

Just a Few Finishing Touches

Soooo... Today I spent the day writing and laying out my two page spread. I found an amazing layout in Travel and Leisure which i will be using to base my two page spread off of. I did lots of research about the background of Mardi Gras and its impact on New Orleans and it has turned out great. It really captures the essence of the amazing city. The advertisement is also done. It is a luggage advertisement which coincides with the travel theme. It shows a woman getting home from vacation walking into her front door with her suitcases behind her. This really captures the usefulness of these suitcases and will attract buyers. 

I also started to plan out my CCR and figure out any visuals I will be adding to the video to make it more intriguing. I am so so busy finishing up this magazine. All i have left is just a few finishing touches and recording of my CCR and its all ready to go!! 

The End is Approaching...

As the deadline approaches, I keep on coming up with all these things I can do to my magazine to make it better.

Cover Page: Check!

My cover page has been complete for a while but when I added an additional page, I decided to add another cover line which you will read about down below. The page is exactly what I hoped it would be and I'm really happy with the outcome!

Table of Contents: Check!

Starting with the table of contents. All of the pictures are now horizontal instead of vertical and it looks much better. Also all of the subheadings of the pictures on the table of contents are done as well. So I can check the Table of Contents off my list of things to complete.

Additional Page: Check!

While looking through a Travel and Leisure magazine I saw something that caught my eye (i posted it in my last blog post). It was a map of a bunch of different cocktail bars in London. As I went through my camera roll, I saw a bunch of pictures of food I've eaten while I was in New Orleans and thought I would incorporate that into my magazine as well. So I decided to make an additional page with 4 of my favorite places to go while I am in New Orleans. The pictures include a poke bowl, a salad, a bagel platter, and an ice cream roll which you will further see when I post my final magazine.

Advertisement: Incomplete 

Since I added the additional page, I have to add one more page to make the amount of pages even. So I will add an advertisement. I have to wait until my mom gets home from work so I can do a quick photoshoot with her. I am planning on doing a luggage advertisement to go along with the travel theme. It will be her walking through the front door after a long vacation with her two suitcases behind her. 

Two Page Spread: Almost 

I completed my layout of the two page spread. It has three pictures up at the top. A smaller one on the left and right and a larger one in the middle. I have so many pictures from my trips and Mardi Gras that I want to use as many as possible to really capture the culture of New Orleans. I have not yet written the content that will be going on the page but I have a lot of stuff in mind. The title on the spread is "Laissez le Bon Temps Rouler" which means let the good times roll in French. This is a commonly used phrase all throughout New Orleans and thought it would be a great idea to incorporate it into my magazine.

Today and tomorrow will be dedicated to finishing all the final touches on my magazine and starting to think about my Creative Critical Reflection. Almost done with this journey but its not over yet:)

Some Inspirations from Travel and Leisure

While looking for some inspiration for doing an advertisement, I looked in a Travel and Leisure magazine to see how they laid out their advertisements. They decided to place an ad in between the table of contents. If Melanie and I choose to take this route, we would both need to plan an advertisement very soon.

Another idea that was going through my head is to do an insert on What to Pack or the hottest food locations... The What to Pack section includes key necessities the director believes is a great addition to their travels. The map of the cocktail bars shows great places to check out in London which can easily be related to New Orleans as well. Maybe Melanie will do the What to Pack and i'll do the food because it relates perfectly to our travel destinations.

These both look like great additions to add to my magazine and will further discuss with Melanie tomorrow for her advice.

PSA

Sooooo..... we've made another major change in the magazine. We decided to change the mast head to Excursion from Excursionist. We made this choice because it fits better on the page and doesn't look as smushed. We placed it in the center at the top and it looks great. In our opinion, Excursionist is specifically the traveler and Excursion is more of the journey so we thought Excursionist would fit our magazine better.

My partner Melanie and I have been able to talk out the different options we have and testing them out to see which we should use. We are trying to do the best for our magazine and are willing to take each others advice along with our classmates.

Tomorrow and next week we continue the journey of making the two-page spread. We will also come up with cover lines for our table of contents and thinking about an advertisement to put in the middle.

Here is a few links we gathered to help us learn more about advertisements...

"The Secrets to Effective Magazine Advertising." Business Town. N.p., n.d. Web. 01 Apr. 2017.

Staff, Entrepreneur. "Magazine Advertising." Entrepreneur. N.p., n.d. Web. 01 Apr. 2017.


These links help us learn about the overall magazine advertising tips and how to advertise in magazines. Be back tomorrow with more two page spread layouts!!

Start of Something New

For clarification of my blog title, the start of something new is referring to the two page spread. We've been so focused on the cover page and the table of contents that we haven't really gone in depth about it so two page spread, this ones dedicated to you...

Today as Melanie and I sat in class, we asked our classmates some advice on our magazine (which we do almost everyday because we are so indecisive and want more opinions). Melanie and I have been working so hard on this magazine and we just want it all to pay off. Today we focused on some layouts for the two page spread and a couple caught my eye...

Something about these two layouts caught my eye and I realized why I liked them so much. Its because of the use of putting the pictures inside the letters. I have so many amazing pictures from New Orleans and Mardi Gras that I could incorporate more of them in a creative way by doing this. Melanie and I spent the entire class period figuring out how to do this and finally she got it. We were so relieved. My thoughts were to write out Mardi Gras in big letters and spread it across the page like the one on the bottom does. We played around with it a bit and it looks amazing.

Heres what the letters looked like after we got it to work.  Im so excited to do more and really play around with the layout. More to come tomorrow...

"Magazine Layouts." Pinterest. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 Mar. 2017.