Why Do People Love To Travel?

While sitting at my desk thinking about what to include in my next blog, I wanted to reflect on traveling and put aside the logistics of the magazine for a day. I researched the question "Why do people love to travel?". I know why I love to travel but I wanted to see others opinions. Why would these people want to read another magazine about traveling? What would make our magazine different from all the others?

From the research, I learned 10 reasons why people love to travel, these include:
1. Challenging yourself
2. Learning
3. Expanding your perspective
4. Getting in touch with yourself 
5. Appreciating your life
6. Building and strengthening your relationships 
7. Having an adventure
8. Escaping 
9. Relaxing and Rejuvenating 
10. Celebrating

All of these reasons are what we want to include in our magazine. We want our readers to read our magazine and be able to go out and explore these amazing places based on our experiences. Traveling for me is very important. My family and I are insanely close and its always important to go somewhere new and see the lifestyle of others. New Orleans is a place that not many people realize how amazing it is. Yes it may be a party city and many people think its dirty but not many people realize the culture and how nice the people are (it's nothing like Weston, Florida). I want to convey my love for this city in my magazine and let our readers be able to feel the way I do about this city. 

"Mardi Gras is about music, parades, picnics, floats and excitement."

Specifically the edition of the magazine is about Mardi Gras. Mardi Gras is an event that is put on for many years and all the people of New Orleans get together and celebrate by throwing beads and riding on floats. I want to be able to share the amazing experiences my family and I have with the readers of our magazine. 


"Mardi Gras History." Mardi Gras in New Orleans. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Mar. 2017.
"10 Powerful Reasons Why People Love to Travel." The Virtuoso Life. N.p., 30 Jan. 2017. Web. 20 Mar. 2017.

The Magic Continues...

Next up, Table of Contents!!! After working so hard on starting our cover page, we were so determined to make the table of contents even better! Melanie and I both did separate research on ideas for table of contents which included looking on Pinterest for some creative ideas. After debating between a few layouts we found one that we loved!!

By using this template, it allows us to incorporate more amazing pictures within our magazine. This template is also very symmetrical and clean which is what we want our magazine to be. The amount of pictures Melanie and I have is crazy which will make our magazine very appealing to consumers. We decided to replicate this template but put pictures on both sides of the two page spread. We still have not decided if we will split the page in half and put an advertisement on the other side but we still have some time to make that decision. On this table of contents, the main color incorporated in it is hot pink because that color is in every picture in some way. Underneath every picture there is a subheading about what the article is about which has that picture on the page.

During our next sit down, we will begin to research all the subheadings for the table of contents and the main article on the two page spread. We will also look into doing advertisements and what we could choose to advertise. Lots of more hard work ahead so stay updated!

"Table Of Contents." Pinterest. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Mar. 2017.

And The Magic Begins...

Melanie and I have started to make the actual magazine cover and let me tell you, it is gorgeous. Both covers coincide together so they are clearly from the same magazine but different issues. All the colors used are so appealing to the eye and the pictures match so well together...

Maybe I should get back to explaining the production/planning process instead of gushing about how amazing our magazine looks so far...

Im going to tell you about my specific magazine cover since it is my greatest masterpiece. The layout of the coverlines are very clean and symmetrical which makes the magazine look more modern which is what we are going for. We decided to change the color of our title to whatever matches best with the picture so both of our editions embrace different colors. I learned from some of the research we have done that when you have a somewhat dark cover photo to just avoid color and leave the mast head in white so that is what I've done for my specific issue.

Sometimes my partner Melanie and I have different visions on the layout of the magazine but we work it out by testing both ideas and seeing which one actually looks better. Some people say they hate working with a partner due to the conflicting ideas but In my personal opinion, I love working with a partner, especially one who I am close with, because we have a good enough relationship that she can be honest and say she doesn't like an idea I propose. She's not afraid to speak up which I like.

 I chose a picture for my cover that is colorful and makes the magazine attractive. Im not going to tell you what it is though because I want it to be a surprise!! Since New Orleans is my favorite place on the planet along with my families, my dad brings his huge professional camera every time we go. Since it was mardi gras this last time, I took over the picture taking because I knew that I might want my magazine to be based on New Orleans and specifically Mardi Gras. My dad showed me all his tips and tricks and at that moment I became a professional photographer.

Towards the end of class we wrapped up our cover page and made sure everything we wanted to include was laid out. Our next task is to start to create the table of contents and think about some topics to include in there. Be back soon!

Nikola. “55 Best Tips for a Successful Magazine Cover.” Magazine Designing, 19 Apr. 2015, www.magazinedesigning.com/55-best-tips-for-a-sucessful-magazine-cover/. Accessed 19 Mar. 2017.

Excursionist

So today was the busy day I told you about yesterday. Melanie and I sat down and got right to work. We first researched some sample table of content and cover pages for inspiration for our magazine.  We decided to draw a sketch of our vision. We want our title on the cover to be in a clean cut modern font but to also stand out so it doesn't get lost in the background. We want the background to be a colorful and beautiful view of the locations we have chosen which is New Orleans, Louisiana and Costa Rica (we changed from Miami). Melanie and I both went to Costa Rica over the summer but at different times and took the most amazing pictures which we cannot wait to use in our magazine. I travel to New Orleans so often I might as well buy a house there. I take beautiful pictures on my dads camera of parades during mardi gras and all the beautiful landscape which really embrace the culture of New Orleans.

After drawing the sketch of the cover, we tested out which title worked best, we have chosen Excursionist. We want the cover to be very clean so we chose to do three to four coverlines on each cover with a barcode at the bottom. The main topic/location of the magazine will be in a bigger font right underneath the masthead so readers know exactly what they will get when they look at the magazine. The main image will be a large picture of our choice from each of the places we have chosen.

Next, the Table of Contents. After getting inspiration through table of content templates, we found one that is perfect but decided to make a few changes to make it our own. There will be vertical lines with pictures in them with the page number at the end. The lines with pictures will be at the bottom of the left page and top of the right page. The right page ones will have a description of what the page is about. There will be two color bars going through the top and bottom to add some extra color. Our main goal is to have a visual attractive magazine and want it to be clean and grab the readers eye. Our next step is to gather all of our choices and make some big decisions on which pictures to use. Also to choose a two page spread topic and research some more about the locations we have chosen. More to come throughout the week!

“Designing the Perfect Table of Contents: 50 Examples to Show You How.” Design School, 6 Jan. 2016, designschool.canva.com/blog/table-of-contents-design/. Accessed 13 Mar. 2017.

DRUMROLL PLEASE...

I'm going to try to keep this one short and sweet because tomorrows will be almost as long as a Harry Potter book. The genre of our magazine has officially been chosen and it is travel!!!! Now on to the next debate of what our title should be. We have narrowed it down to four: Nomadic, Roamer, Excursionist, or Globetrotter (if you don't get the concept, they are all synonyms for traveler). 

On tomorrows agenda, my partner and I will draw a sketch of what our front covers should look like and what the generic outline of the magazine should be so both issues complement each other. While sketching the covers we will try out each title to see which one looks best as the masthead. We will start to put a color palette together and see if we want to use a generic color or font. We will continue doing research on the travel magazine and what our two-page spreads will be on. We will also finalize each location we chose to do for each edition and gather up all our pictures.

As you can tell, tomorrow is going to be a long day... got to get some rest! 

Debate between the genres

Since I've posted my last post, my partner and I have narrowed the genre choices to two. The two choices are a fitness magazine inspired by Women's Health or a travel magazine inspired by Travel and Leisure. As an avid traveler, I wanted to make a magazine on what I love most which is traveling with my family. My partner on the other hand is a fitness freak and wanted to make a magazine on something she loved most. We both decided to do research to prove our points to each other on which magazine genre we should choose.

To do research on the two genres, we sat down and looked through Women's Health magazine and Travel and Leisure Magazine and compared the two and this is what we came up with...
 
Womens Health:
-Usually consists of woman model on front (which may be hard for us to capture)
-Tips for working out
-Bold masthead; color changes
-Flashy coverlines


Travel and Leisure:                                          
-High definition images                                  
-Mostly all pictures of landscape so no need for people to photograph
-Very clean layouts
-Basic coverlines
-Masthead color changes

If Melanie and I chose to do travel it would consist of one issue on New Orleans and a special edition section on Mardi Gras and the other issue would be Miami since it is only a short car ride away to get great pictures. We would find the best restaurants and tourist attractions. If we chose Women's Health we would go to Melanie's gym and take pictures of people working out, diet tips and healthy foods. I promise the next blog post will reveal the genre we chose... I know the suspense is killing you!!


"Women's Health." Women's Health. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Mar. 2017.
Locker, Melissa, Talia Avakian, Travel + Leisure Staff, Chris Abell, Dobrina Zhekova, Melanie Lieberman, and Rachel Chang. "Travel + Leisure." Travel + Leisure. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Mar. 2017.

Here it goes...

When first being assigned this project, a million thoughts went through my head of what I should do: a magazine or a film opening? After finally getting over the first step by choosing to make a magazine with my partner Melanie Louis and as months passed, the project came into light again. We were informed about every aspect of this project which was clearly overwhelming. After the lecture on this project, I went home and began my blog...

So welcome to my blog! My name is Cali Kaufman and I am typically not the one to write blogs due to my introverted personality but here it goes. Having a blog is a little stressful due to the fact that I have to put all my thoughts, actions, failures, and successes on this one page but I will get it done.

I want my magazine to be something I am passionate about so it would be easier for me to formulate a story and actually want to put in my best effort for something I love. While being at home, I decided to look through my bin of magazines that my family is subscribed to that we get every week. A few sparked an interest like Travel and Leisure, People, Glamour, Women's Health and InStyle. All these different genres look so appealing and being an indecisive person definitely doesn't help.

The rest of the week I will devote myself to doing major, in-depth research to choose the best magazine for my partner and I to complete. Stay Tuned!