Final Submission

For my final submission I had a few changes to my magazine.

Cover Page:
For my Cover Page, I moved the title of the magazine further up so that I could move the subtitles off of my cover model. I also got rid of the blue glow that was around the title because I think it looks better just with a black outline. I changed the color of the light green subtitle and the black subtitle so that the colors were able to stand out more.

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 Table of Contents:
I kept the Table of Contents the same from the third quarter submission.

Article:
For my two page article, I justified the text so that it looked cleaner. I also moved the words off of the pictures so that it didn't look so cluttered. I also adjusted the page numbers so that they were on the outside of the pages to look like a normal magazine. I also added the 'Sota Wellness branding to the bottom of the article so that it is in uniform with my other group member's magazines.

Creative Critical Reflection

5178 Creative Critical Reflection

CCR Draft #4

During this project I used many different softwares to produce my magazine. I integrated softwares like Adobe Photoshop, Microsoft Word, Microsoft Publisher, and several other online tools to help me create the best product possible. Through these softwares I was able to create what I was looking for. Beginning with Microsoft Publisher, I took some of the pictures from my photo shoot that I did with a Canon EOS DSLR. I switched the camera to "Portrait" mode so that I could get some clear pictures of Taylor. After I developed some good pictures that were clear and sharp, I uploaded them to blogger from my Iphone. I plugged in  my USB cable into the computer and I was able to access my photos that were on my phone. I imported my photos and pulled them up in the Photoshop app. While in the photoshop app, I inserted the photo and started messing around with the fonts. While I was looking at the fonts,  I had to decide which color would pop out the best and that would be easy to read. I decided to use a bright purple font because I thought that it would pop and that it would stand out. I could not chose red, blue, or pink because my other team members were using those colors for their titles. As a group, we decided what we should include on our cover page and how many featured articles we should have on the front page. The whole group needed to include our article about best eats in SRQ, our featured main articles, and healthy eats on a budget. I integrated the internet into this project by researching various magazines like Shape, Women's Health, Men's Health, Health, and Self. The internet allowed me to research these magazines and gather information that I used to develop my magazine. I based my magazine off of the other lifestyle and fitness magazines that are currently in circulation. I chose to research these magazines because I think that they had the same or similar target audience that I wanted to address. I wanted to address the younger generations and middle aged people who have an interest in being physically fit. The internet also helped me out by allowing me to have access to social media platforms such as Twitter or Instagram to help promote my magazine. I used Twitter to tweet about this month's issue of the magazine and I also had Taylor post about her interview so that more people would be able to learn about the magazine. By having Taylor post about the interview, it allowed more people to read about it since she has Olympic athletes as friends and several others that follow her that may be interested. I also used Instagram to post about the magazine too. I had an add that popped up in the feed of some of my followers that if they clicked on it, it would bring them to our magazine website. The pop up add included celebrities or popular athletes that would interest people into reading the "sneak peek" of  the issue. By bringing them to our website, I was able to gain more subscribers for the magazine that increased the popularity of the magazine. This also helped to increase the circulation of the magazine because more people were subscribing to the magazine which allowed more issues of the magazine to be published. I am very pleased with how my magazine looks after revising it and how well it is liked. Overall, I think that this experience has taught me a lot. I know how to edit pictures in softwares like Microsoft Publisher, Word, and Adobe Photoshop. I have also learned what marketing and distributing a magazine is like and what the proper techniques to improve my magazine are. This project allowed me to gain many skills from different technologies that I was not aware I had.

CCR Draft #3

During this project, my production skills have grown tremendously. Throughout this project I have learned how to do many things. Before starting this project I did not use Microsoft Publisher very often, matter of fact I think I only used it once before this project. I am certified in Microsoft so I knew how to work with computers and the majority of the technology before this project. I did not know how to Photoshop before this project came along. I found it very entertaining photo-shopping my picture so that it would turn out the best way possible. At the beginning of the project I knew how to edit pictures and add text to them to make them look like posters, but towards the end of the project I was very familiar with the softwares like Microsoft Publisher, Word, and Adobe Photoshop. During the middle of the project, I found it easier to edit my picture and text for my cover page in Microsoft Publisher because there are better text font and text art options compared to the Photoshop software. During my interview with Taylor, I had a lot of fun. I learned a lot about Taylor that I didn't know previously. I also think that our group worked well together. We each were able to do our magazine issues on activities or people we were interested in. Overall, I think that I have developed many editing and photoshop skills for this project.

CCR Draft #2

My magazine engaged the audience by providing lifestyle and fitness tips through various articles. By having several articles that discuss fitness and health, my magazine is able to engage the target audience. The articles are for several different ages ranging from young adults/teenagers to people that are in their mid 40s to early 50s. The workouts can be done by any of the readers that subscribe to my magazine. The goal for this magazine is to reach out and help people strive to live a happy, healthy life. My magazine also engages the audience by having sponsored athletes and celebrities posting weekly or monthly ads on social media accounts. This helps to engage the audience because it brings the reader to the website that has the featured article with the athlete or celebrity. In these articles, the athletes or celebrities are giving some insight on how they stay in shape and are giving the readers some tips. These tips may include a healthier diet or a different way of working out. I intend to distribute my magazine by utilizing digital print techniques and methods to help publicize my magazine. Through the digital print techniques I strive to develop a website that will give you on the scoop for the month or for the new issue of the magazine. This website will have links that will allow the readers to print out the addition of the magazine that they wish to read. I would also put links on the website that would take the reader to a featured article with "sneak peeks". I would also use social media platforms as a way to distribute my magazine. I would set up several accounts that would be run by managers of my magazine. These social media accounts would also have celebrities that would currently be working for the magazine and being sponsored by the magazine. For my marketing plan, I would put my magazine on stands at the grocery store and would put them on coffee tables at hair salons or nail salons. I will use social media platforms like twitter and Instagram to market my magazine, internet ads, and to use print ads.

CCR Draft #1

Throughout my magazine process I did not challenge the conventions. I used the conventions instead to add to my magazine to make it better. The way I designed my magazine was very similar to the other health magazines. My cover page is similar to the other health magazines in the way that my cover is an action shot. Some of the Shape models and the Women's Health models are doing activities during their photo shoots that help to show that they are being physically active. My cover page represents the young adults and older teenagers because my model is in her early twenties. It also represents college level athletes and aspiring college athletes because she is a swimmer. The font and the color of my title match the other magazines that I researched like Shape and Women's Health. My table of contents is different in some aspects from the other magazines. My table of contents has two pictures, one at each end of the page. The table of contents in Shape magazine and Women's Health magazine include pictures and the title of the different featured articles. I used the same fonts as the magazines that I researched and I tried to use the same font colors and size as the magazines too. I chose to keep the font black so that it would be easy to read and not a light color that would not be visible. I also chose to arrange the table of contents into two columns so that there is easy access to the articles and the ads that would be in my magazine. I chose to include a quote in my table of contents that would fit into the same theme as my magazine. For my two page article I chose to match the theme of my model's college. Taylor went to the University of Florida and the colors for UF are blue and orange. I tried to match the captions of the photos with dark blue or orange to match the pictures that were featured in the article. I also used bold bright headings for the article so that it would catch the eye when the reader opened to that page. I decided that I was going to include four pictures in my article that represented Taylor as a swimmer in college and what she looks like now as a coach. I wanted to include the pictures to demonstrate the comparison and the contrast between the two. While I was doing my research I discovered that the majority of the two page articles in the magazines all have several pictures and have big bold fonts that catch the eye. This helps to stop the reader while they are flipping through pages to get them to focus on the main article. Through the use of all these conventions, I think that my magazine represented the target audience and age range for the viewers.

3rd Quarter Submission

Cover Page- For my cover page I changed the fonts so that they were easier to read. I also changed the number of featured articles on the front cover to make it look more professional. I changed the font colors as well to make them stand out and pop against the dark/light parts of the picture.
Table of Contents- For my Table of Contents I changed some of the fonts as well as some font sizes. I also changed a picture to make it fit my article colors better. For our branding, we made it all the same at the bottom of the table of contents. I also added page numbers that matched my flat plan.
Article- For my article, I rearranged the entire thing. I added another picture to give a contrast of what Taylor looked like in college and what she looks like now as a coach. I redid the layout of the article so that it looks like a magazine and so that it will only be two pages and not three pages. I also added page numbers to the bottom of the article that match the original flat plan. I changed some font sizes to make it stand out more as the title and I changed the font colors to make them correlate with Taylor's team colors.

Distribution Plan

I intend to distribute my magazine by utilizing digital print techniques and methods to help publicize my magazine. Through the digital print techniques I strive to develop a website that will give you on the scoop for the month or for the new issue of the magazine. This is a similar technique to Shape magazine as well as Women's and Men's Health magazines that use both digital print and social media accounts to help distribute their magazines. This website will have links that will allow the readers to print out the addition of the magazine that they wish to read. I would also put links on the website that would take the reader to a featured article with "sneak peeks". I would also use social media platforms as a way to distribute my magazine. I would set up several accounts that would be run by managers of my magazine. These social media accounts would also have celebrities that would currently be working for the magazine and being sponsored by the magazine. The celebrities would be required to post at least one picture every 2 weeks to help distribute the magazine. These celebrity issues of the magazine will also feature sneak peeks of the next issue as well as a tip from the celebrity themselves. Through these distribution techniques, I feel that I will be able to reach the audience of my magazine thoroughly. The online access and social media accounts will help to reach the lower range of my audience include the teenagers and young adults. The digital print techniques that will be available in the grocery stores, hair salons, nail salons, and malls will help to reach the older range of my audience that are not as technically inclined as the young adults and teenagers.

Article Revision

For my article revision, I redid part of the layout to make it easier to read. I also got rid of some pictures to make the article flow more. I also changed the font to make it bigger and easier to read because for my first draft the title was small and was not bold. These changes will help the magazine sell better and it is also easier to understand. I also changed the layout for the pictures so that one is in each corner. This will help the article flow better and gives it a unique design. I threw in another picture as well to help show a contrast of what Taylor looked like throughout college and what she looks like now.

Marketing Blog Post

I will use social media platforms like twitter and Instagram to market my magazine, internet ads, and to use print ads. I think that my plan will engage my target audience because I am using similar techniques to the other magazines that I researched. Shape Magazine uses internet ads, print ads, and they have several social media accounts that market their magazine. Women's Health does a similar thing to Shape.

By using social media platforms like Twitter and Instagram to reach my target audience because most of my target audience most likely has some form of a social media account. This will help me to reach the teenagers, the college graduates, and even the working class. By using internet ads, this will help engage my audience because they can pop up whenever someone goes on the internet. To reach the moms, I would use the internet ads to pop up during games that their kids play as well as in the videos or movies they watch. I would also use print ads because they can be available wherever someone may go. They can be in the grocery stores, doctors office, dentist office, hair salons, and many other places. Using these techniques, I will be able to reach my target audience as it is similar to the other magazines that I researched and this will help keep the audience engaged by being easily accessible.   

Revisions- Table of Contents

For my table of contents, I did not have to alter much about it. I changed one of my pictures so it matched my theme more, and updated my branding so that it would match the rest of my groups' branding. I also updated my font to match the other members' fonts. I still decided to use black as the font color because it is easy to read.

Distribution Research- Self

Self magazine has been active since 1979 and has been distributing their magazines through several different platforms. Self magazine used to use several different digital and print platforms to distribute their magazine. Self magazine is not as big or popular as other magazines, so they do not distribute as well. They do not sponsor and half marathons or 5k races like Women's Health. This decreases the distribution rate because these races bring in big crowds that could be potential viewers. In 2017, Self magazine decided to cut all print forms of the magazine. As of February 2017, Self magazine is an online only magazine. This means that there are no more magazines that would be in the checkout lines, at hair salons, or in stores at all. This also decreases the distribution around the world because in some parts of the world, there is no internet access so there will be less viewers now. Self magazine is adapting to the modern technology in the world and is trying to focus on the modern technology to help expand the magazine. I wouldn't just use digital techniques to distribute my magazine. I don't think that they will have the maximum audience that they can potentially have. I would stick to other distribution techniques like Women's Health and Shape magazine.

Distribution Research- Women's Health

Women's Health has reached a wide variety for their audience due to the different distributing techniques that they used. Women's Health is published 10 times a year. The viewers can access videos, print-outs, MP3 videos, and personal trainers that would help the readers focus on a healthy lifestyle. There are almost 500,000 viewers that come from social media platforms like Facebook, or Twitter. Women's Health also uses DVDs that can be used at home that would help people workout if they are unable to make it to a gym. This also adds to the wide variety of the audience because with these DVDs, anyone can workout at home and follow the exercises provided in the video. They also are sponsors for ZOOMBA which sponsors half marathon races, 5ks, and 10ks. They host an event that takes place in several states like New York or Illinois. This event is called Are you Game? This event is held all day and features work-outs, healthy cooking, and yoga. By using all of these different kind of distribution techniques, Women's Health is able to bring in a wide variety range for their audience. I would try and use most of the techniques that they used for their magazine like the social media accounts, sponsoring half marathons or 5k races which would bring a lot of attention because there are a lot of people that usually participate in these races.

Distribution Research- Shape

Magazines typically use different forms of media to distribute their magazines. Due to the enhanced technology there is in the modern world today, magazines are using more digital techniques to distribute their magazines. Most of the magazines are distributed online through social media platforms such as Pinterest, Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook, or Twitter. I would utilize this model by using social media accounts that would promote my magazine and would use celebrities or models in the ads to help gain interest. Shape magazine uses Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Pinterest to distribute their magazine to the their 2,500,000 readers. They also put their magazines in stores or malls where they can be viewed on the racks in the checkout line, or at hair salons. This helps to keep their younger/middle aged audience of women to read each issue.

Target Audience- Self

Self magazine has a combined total of 10 million readers from digital and social platforms. Self magazine reaches an audience who regularly exercise, are wellness enthusiasts, healthy lifestyle influencers, and people who are willing to spend money on health. My audience is similar to this audience because I aim to target people who are interested in health and fitness. I think that these people are most likely younger or are in their middle years of life. Self magazine markets its magazine online mostly and has several different media accounts that promote the magazine. Self magazine only uses persuasive and encouraging language that gets people motivated to workout. Self magazine uses video, digital uniques, and social media platforms. I would use the same platforms they used, but I would also include print for the people that do not have access to the internet.

Target Audience- Women's Health

Women's Health Magazine has a total of 37 million readers which includes 18,782,000 adults and 16,335,000 women, in print, digital, and social media. Women's Health Magazine has a demographic profile that ranges from college students to married women, married women to millennials, and women with children. The age range for Women's Health Magazine is from teenage years (18) to 49 years old. The majority of the readers are either married women or college students who have jobs. My target audience would be similar because college students may have interest in being physically fit and are interested in fitness and health. They marketed their magazine by using different platforms of media to display their product. This allows people to access the magazine in print form, on the phone or computer, or through social media like instagram or twitter. Women's Health Magazine used events to gain popularity that would influence the reader to read or look at the magazine. I would use the same forms of media to display my magazine. By using the same forms of media, this will help my magazine to gain the same audience as Women's Health and Shape. I would also try and use snapchat as another platform because snapchat allows people from all over the world to read the articles and it is easy access to articles online.

Target Audience- Shape

My target audience for my magazine is gender neutral, ages teenager(13-14) and up to around middle age (40-50). Since our magazine is based out of Sarasota, the audience should be mostly in the South and should be areas surrounding Sarasota, Florida. Out of 5,384,000, 91% of the readers are female, the age range is 25-39, 80% of the readers are college graduates, 57% of the readers are married, 76% of the readers are employed, and 40% of the readers are moms. This magazine is similar to mine because it targets young women that are employed and that have recently graduated college or are currently in college. Shape markets its magazine by using several different platforms to display itself. Shape uses print, video, social networks such as Pinterest, Instagram, and Twitter, a companion app, and digital platforms to display the magazine to anyone at any time. They persuaded some of their viewers by having sponsors that would sponsor a new client or a new employee. Shape magazine uses a lot of print and digital techniques to acquire their audience. By using social media networks, this helps keep the college students interested and it also helps keep the stay at home moms interested too.

I think that we would market our magazine by using print, digital, social media networks/online. I think by using these media techniques we will rack in the same audience as Shape. We will be placing our magazines at the most convenient places like the grocery store, the mall, the movies, CVS, etc. This will help to attract the younger audience. This will help keep our magazine successful and keep enough money rolling in to continue making issues.

Feedback and Revisions- Revision 1 Cover Page

My magazine needs some changes to be made to it. These changes include changing the font color, include branding, and page numbers. My cover photo was very well liked by the class and they thought that the picture turned out great. There are several different subheadings with many different colors, some of them being hard to read. I will change the font colors from red to a darker color and I will probably have to move the subheadings around so that they are all visible. I will also need to include the magazine brand in the article along with page numbers for the article and table of contents. Our group needs to determine what the branding is going to look like so that it will be the same for every issue of the magazine. I was also told that the colors in the magazine matched the pictures that were included. The feedback I received also said that layout of my magazine was well structured and had a clean look. I will be changing the font colors on the cover page and will be adjusting the font size to make it bolder. I rearranged some of my texts on my cover page so that they are more visible and so they are not covering my model as much. I also made the main article title have it's own section on the bottom of the page so that it can stand out.

Use of Conventions

I think that my magazine adds to the conventions, rather than challenging them. This magazine is different from most health/fitness magazines, it still gives lots of information regarding workouts and wellness. By using the font type we chose, it really grabs the readers eye and is big enough for most people to read. By using a dark purple font, it adds color to the magazine which also helps catch the reader's eye when they are found on the magazine racks. The layout of our magazine is very closely related to all of the magazines that we had researched. This helps fill the pages and gets rid of excess white space which may turn away some viewers. The social groups that are represented in our magazine are the youth, and fitness lovers. Our magazine helps the young and fit people get inspired by new and improved workouts. This also inspires anyone who is looking to get more physically fit and for anyone who is willing to turn their life around.