Interactive Magazine | Jaxmine Onyango

Greenscreen

What is a digital magazine?

A digital magazine is a magazine that's readable online. As this is a digital medium, there are a few different types. Online magazines can be read online and normally don't have a print release. There are usually apps for these that are called Digital Magazine Apps, these are typically for Kindles and other tablet devices. An example of these types of apps are PressReader. Digital replica editions aren't fully fledged magazines but are mock-ups that are close to a digital magazine, these can then be read and downloaded by subscribers to that website. New York Times do these types of editions for their Home Delivery subscribers. Digital replica plus can have interactive elements in them such as videos or chatboxes. Online library magazines are available through a subscription to the website and after paying, any magazine can be downloaded to read offline. A website that does this is GreatMagazines

There are many interactive elements that can be in a magazine. There can be scrollboxes, arrows to click on the next page or the previous one, videos and audio just to name a few examples. AIDA Inspiration 4 has arrows to take you to the next page or the previous one and there's sometimes an arrow that takes you downwards, signaling that there's more text below. It also has a scrollbox that has a button to take the element back to beginning. It also has links to social medias below the magazine. On it's 7th page there's a GIF of someone dancing. Joomag has interactive boxes on the items that when clicked on, takes you to the page detailing more about the item and where to get it. After that, clicking on the box talking more about the Macbook Air shows you a video showing the product off. This is a common way store magazines work as its a simple and effective way to let the audience see exactly what they're looking for without having to flip over pages filled with something else. When manually clicking to go on a new page all of the interactive boxes glow for a few seconds, this makes the audience aware of what's interactive and what's not

In my magazine I can add interactive elements like interactive boxes that take the audience to learn more about a product like one of Joomag's magazines does. Adding arrows that take you from one page to the next is also integral to making digital magazines

Digital magazines are good for the environment and are generally less costly to produce. They're easier to access due to being online and can be instantly found because of that as well. It's also easier to update than print if there's an error that slipped by and can be easier to share, as it's normally just a link or an app. However because of how cheap it can be to produce and how easy it is to make one there's a lot of competition, which can lead to smaller magazines being too unnoticeable compared to the bigger companies. Since digital magazines can be updated so easily and is on the internet, this also causes a lot of online magazines to be filled with fake information and lies which makes audiences more skeptical

Print magazines are more likely to be seen than digital ones since they're in stores. People who read print also usually read for longer, which means they're more likely to actually read the articles. Print also has more control on advertising to it's specific audience and catching their attention as there isn't an online algorithm in the way. This can make the advertising have more of an effect on it's target audience and can even be more accurate than digital at times, such as putting a company advertising a product that already caters to the magazine's interests. Unfortunately because of how long it can take to produce, there may be times where print magazines report news that's already outdated by the time it gets released in stores. It also costs resources and materials to create printed magazines, which eats into the environment as print magazines at the very least cost paper and ink. This is worsened by how after people are finished reading printed magazines, they're usually thrown away. In general it's cheaper and more eco-friendly to create digital magazines

AIDA. (Year unknown) AIDA INSPIRATION 4. Available at: https://inspiration.aida.de/magazine-04/aida-inspiration-4/. Accessed at: 17.11.21

App Store. (2021) PressReader: News & Magazines on the App Store. Available at: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/pressreader-news-magazines/id313904711. Accessed at: 17.11.21

GreatMagazines. (Year unknown) Digital Magazines. Available at: https://www.greatmagazines.co.uk/digital-magazines. Accessed at: 17.11.21

Joomag. (2019) Lexpress Connect N03 decembre 2018. Available at: https://viewer.joomag.com/lexpress-connect-n3-decembre-2018/0327324001543409202. Accessed at: 17.11.21

Klein, D. (Year unknown) What Are the Advantages of Print Media Over Electronic Media?. Available at: https://macromark.com/blog/what-are-the-advantages-of-print-media-over-electronic-media. Accessed at: 17.11.21

Locsin, A. (2019) Disadvantages of Print Media. Available at: https://itstillworks.com/13661835/what-are-the-characteristics-of-print-media. Accessed at: 17.11.21

Mag+. (2019) Ten Benefits of Publishing Digital Magazines. Available at: https://www.magplus.com/blog/ten-benefits-of-publishing-digital-magazines/. Accessed at: 17.11.21

New York Times. (Year unknown) Replica Edition. Available at: https://help.nytimes.com/hc/en-us/articles/360024852592-Replica-Edition. Accessed at: 17.11.21

Pettinato, M. (Year unknown) Advantages & Disadvantages of Online Magazines. Available at: https://www.ehow.co.uk/list_6318795_advantages-disadvantages-using-multimedia-pages.html. Accessed at: 17.11.21

Digital magazines comparison

Australian Hospitality Director is a magazine about hospitality in Australia. It's front cover has it's masthead in the middle of images that show people cooking, their utensils and others restaurants. Next to the second set of images is "2021 Preview Edition" in red and it's the smallest text on the page while also being sideways. The text for it is basic but stands out against all the images. The "Hospitality" in the title is red and is the biggest word on the cover, which instantly lets the reader know what this magazine is about. The layout is quite simple and easy on the eyes. There are no buzz words or pugs which are two things that are in typical magazine layouts. Below the second set of images are social media and the companies own website icons which link to the companies respective ones. There's also a tagline at the bottom: "Connecting Buyers and Suppliers". The icons imply that this magazine is an online-only one or that the company modifies their magazines from how they look in print before publishing them online. This design appeals to older people (around 30-40 years old) as it's bold for them to read and is very simple

Artlink is a magazine about art, making both magazines have literal names. The front cover is bright pink which really catches the audiences attention. There's a person in the front with bold black and white clothing which again further stands out from the pink background and the outfit is clearly an abstract art piece in itself. On the left side the person is black text that surrounds the person, this text is in a completely different font from the rest and stands out because of it. This font has more of a handwritten style and it might have been used because there are quotes from others. The masthead is at the top right, opposite of the figure, and is the second biggest text in the front. "EXPERIMENT" is the biggest but is sideways. Below the masthead is "Contemporary art of Australia and the Asia-Pacific", the volume and issue number and how much it costs to buy the magazine. The cost of the magazine being on the front implies that this magazine was also printed. Next to the figure on the right are the cover lines in the magazine, being one of the more smaller texts on the front but being bold and uppercase to still be readable. It's quite simple once you really look at it but it's still quite eye catching. Fitting with the subject matter of the magazine, the front cover is experimental. This design appeals to younger people like teenagers and young adults with how bold and experimental it is (especially the writing on the left)

The main difference between these two are the colours. Australian Hospitality Director has a more neutral colour palette with the boldest colour being red. The images, text and icons all feel as if they're in their own different section with how separated they are. There's also not much text in the front page at all with there only being the title, a tagline and text mentioning that this is the preview version of the magazine. Artlink only has three colours (pink, black and white) in it's front cover but is considerably more bold with them. The pink background is very eyecatching against the figure who's mainly wearing black with white accents. The text is also black and white which stands out against the pink quite well. Those two colours could represent the extremity of two sides as black and white are the most dark and bright colours. It would make sense how these two magazines have vastly different layouts as they appeal to very different target audiences and are about completely different things

Australian Hospitality Directory uses a double spread page to show an Australian food company that they endorse. Majority of the pages are taken up by a picture of a kitchen counter with food and cooking supplies on it. This picture makes the reader aware of what the company is about and the items are spread evenly but in a way that still makes it look believable that someone is using the supplies shown. By looking at the picture its clear whats going on, it's subtly advertising Riviana's diced apples. The diced apples make the picture have vibrant and bright colours that stand out against the white background, the lighting in the image also highlights this. The picture goes well with the cover of the magazine as it has a white background with a bold and warm colour standing out against it (red and yellow for the double page spread). There's text detailing more about what the company does and how to contact their customer support for more. Both the header and the description are the same dark blue as the company's logo which ties them all together, especially since the header is meant to be a tagline for the company. The tagline text is the biggest on the page to catch the readers attention. The header and description texts have different fonts, but both of these fonts are simple and easy to read for everyone. This was most likely done to appeal to the older target demographic who may have a hard time reading anything in a font that's too unusual or cursive (like Jokerman or Brush Script). The picture itself is interactive and clicking on it will link to the company's website. Below the picture are other brand logos thats owned by the brand being advertised, clicking on one of them takes you to a link detailing more on what they do. This makes Riviana (the company being advertised) their parent company. The text is mostly formal ("Riviana foods is one of the country's leading food importers of quality products for the industral, foodservice and bakery markets." and "Our extensive product range includes..."). Being formal when promoting a brand or product is seen as being more down to Earth and honest with consumers. Interactive elements are used in this double page spread to take the reader to other external links made by the company being promoted

Artlink's first two pages are also double spread pages but they don't have any interactive elements on them. They instead use the double pages to have a page dediated to showing images and another for text, so much text that the reader would have to zoom in on the pages to properly read anything. The grey box in the left is an editors note about whats in the magazine and what the editors views are on art. The rest of the text is about an art project in space, talking about how they prepared for the pictures and why they chose to do the project in space. The header text "Every space project needs an artist" has two different fonts. "Needs an artist" is in a bigger and bolder font and is most likely the first text the reader focuses on. The reason why that was chosen to be highlighted in particular may be because this entire magazine is about art and the perspective from different artists, and how art (and this magazine) cannot be created without an artist making art pieces. The font is also used for the beginning letter of the editors note and the paragraph below the header and quote. "Every space project" is the same font as the rest of the text in the double page spread, which makes this only stand out for being bigger than the descriptions but not the other part of the header. This may have been done to really put emphasis on the rest of the header and implies that its less important the "Needs an artist" part. The header has to be this big to stand out against the massive amounts of text on the page. The descriptions are much smaller as there is a lot of information to fit in the page. The authors names are bold as a way to draw attention from the reader and are slightly bigger than the main bodies of text, but not enough to be too noticeable like with the header. Theres a blue box next to the writers names as they're meant to highlight the text as well and appear bold against the monochrome layout so they're more visible. The blue box also goes with one of the images in the right and acts as a way to tie in the two pages together. The images are warmly lit in some and dramatically with others. Some of the pictures stand out against the white background for how vibrant they are and give colour to the double page spread. There's also text captioning two of the pictures that details the people in the picture and how they were able to take the picture they're describing. The text for the editors note is informal but detailed and articulate ("Luckily for you, we've not filled this guest issue of Artlink with my own perculiar tastes..." and "It emerges as bigotry and racism in its most outward appearance but, insidiously for our cultural development, it is seen in our clawing attempts for international recognition, our belligerent defiance of the first people of this land, and our superficial attempts to appear intellectual."). This type of writing makes sense for an art magazine as art is meant to be fun at times but also very meaningful to the people making it. The rest of the text on the page is formal, especially the caption for the images ("...in which the entire cabin is cleared except for one subject who is allowed to float and fall freely with their eyes closed, ears blocked, and naked." and "...highlighting out dependence on air as living, breathing beings and the physical and emotional limits of the body"). Overall the layout is very minimalist with it's grey box, white background and overall greyscale colours and it draws the readers attention to where it wants it to be (the header, pictures and names of the artists and editor). The only interactive element in this magazine is on page 13, there's a video of an animation installation

Both of these magazines first pages are double spread pages. They both use it similarly for more space to show a brand or for pictures and text. Australian Hospitality Directory is more simple and relied on pictures with a minimal description on the company being promoted. Artlink used the space to talk more about the project and add an editors note at the beginning of the page. The pictures used are heavily different from eachother (diced apples while the other is a range of different performances) but are still both vibrant and stand out against the page. Australian Hospitality Directory only has one image so it feels less cluttered than Artlink's multiple images. Artlink's pictures are smaller and much more close together which creates a claustrophobic feel between them while Australian Hospitality Directory's one picture has much more space to even things out despite how many objects are in the picture. Artlink's images being smaller allows there to be more space in the pages to have a caption for their images while Australian Hospitality Directory doesn't have one for theirs. Having only one picture also allows them to make that one image bigger. Both layouts are simple and section off different topics (displaying other brands and having a difference between an editors note and an art project), albiet Artlink does more to section each other off with different coloured boxes. As Australian Hospitality Directory is aimed towards older people, they would feel bombarded if there was too much text all at once. Artlink also has much more to talk about as its an art magazine and the extra space from using both pages allows it to go into much more detail about the project. They both use formal language for their descriptions, the editorial note Artlink has does use informal language though. Australian Hospitality Directory uses formal language to better sell the company being advertised while Artlink uses formal language to present their art projects seriously and to better articulate their points. Both magazines only use two different fonts in their double page spread but both use them differently. Australian Hospitality Directory uses the two fonts to differentiate the paragraph and the header more, the font used for the header is only used for just that. Artlink uses it's two fonts together and are used for multiple things, the more bold and strictly uppercase font is used for part of the header and the beginning letter of a few of the paragraphs and the more standard font is used for the other part of the header and for the rest of the text on the pages. The colour of the text is also different, Australian Hospitality Directory only has a dark blue that matches the ribbon and text of the brand being promoted while Artlink uses black for it's most important text (header, writers names and the caption for the images) and grey for the rest (paragraphs). Another difference is in what interactive elements each use and how they do it. Australian Hospitality Directory uses interactive elements to link their audience to social medias and other company websites on a new tab, while Artlink uses one to show a video that can be played on the same site as the magazine

Pocketmags. (2021) Australian Hospitality Director. Available at: https://pocketmags.com/onlinereader/html5_reader/false/209466. Accessed at: 17.11.21

Pocketmags. (Year unknown) Artlink. Available at: https://pocketmags.com/onlinereader/html5_reader/false/62757. Accessed at: 17.11.21

Daily Diary 17/11

Today I learned about magazines and wrote an analysis comparing two different magazines covers and double page spreads. I have until next Tuesday to finish this

As I find the presentation of magazine covers interesting, analysing two different magazines wasn't too difficult for me. I enjoyed seeing the differences between the two I picked. I think graphic design in general is fun to analyse. Overall I think I'll like doing this project

Initial Ideas for Magazine

The masthead of the magazine will be bold and in a simple font like Arial. It'll be the biggest text in the front page and may interact with the figure in the front cover (such as making the text "surround" the figure by transforming the text)

The typography will be simple like the masthead will be, I'll most likely use the same font for the headers in the secondary lead and use a different font for the descriptions

There will be a splash line of the main story in the issue and I may make it in a speech bubble from the model

The secondary leads will be at the sides to not be too distracting from the main cover line

I most likely won't have a pug as I will use buzz words in my front cover instead

The colour scheme of the front cover will match the colours the model is wearing. It'll be bright to catch the audiences attention

The main image in the front cover is the model and everything in the cover will work around them

The interactive elements I will have in my double spread sheet are clickable boxes that take you to different links. These will be used for the clothes the models are wearing. Another element I'll have are videos, probably of a fashion show to show how far fashion has come from before. A mini slideshow that they can click on to learn more about fashion

The content will be about fashion and possibly go over the history of fashion as well

The images will be of a model (possibly two) that will go on opposite sides of the double spread

The typography will mostly match the cover with fonts

The colour scheme will be more toned down than the cover with more down-to-earth colours. This will be colours like an off white for the background, black for most text and a neutral red or brown for highlighted text

Focus Group Planning

Market Research Table

Research

My fashion magazine is going to focus more into street fashion. As I am not completely familiar with magazine covers, I want to research the design of them. I looked at a list from Fashionista that was comprised of 53 of the most memorable magazine covers from 2020. One thing I noticed were that a few of these were very simple but bold. There's also a range of difference, with some covers having many cover lines or buzz words surrounding the model and others not having any text but the company logo. The latter are few and far between but I do think they're very striking for how minimalistic they are

Magazine covers normally have the masthead at the top of the magazine. Most fonts for them look similar and are in uppercase like Elle, Vogue and Vanity Fair (as shown above). Out and Marie Claire are different from the norm of fonts and the drastic change gives them a completely different feel from other fashion magazines. Marie Claire's short font in lowercase gives off a feeling that their magazines are made for girls and are less feminine, instead being more girly (and there is a difference!). Out is italicised and the font is actually bigger than usual mastheads for fashion magazines. The models head or hair going over the masthead is very common for fashion magazines, usually for more popular companies as the companies name is big enough to where audiences don't need to see all the letters of the brand to know where the magazine is from (like Vogue for example). Most magazine brands are also only one word (an exception being Marie Claire)

The model is almost always the center focus of the design of the cover. This gives more space for the model to be at the front and center of the cover, which is the biggest thing that interests the audience. The cover lines of the magazine can surround the model or be at the bottom of the cover, or sometimes aren't even there at all. Cover lines are almost always accompanied with buzz words to exaggerate the article and can be used to appeal to a specific demographic ("There's a whole new kind of acne to worry about now! fun!" appealing to teenagers) ("Age-proof your skin" and "Get younger looking legs" appealing to more older people, like middle aged adults)

I learned that overall most fashion magazines have the same design philosophy. The model takes up most of the space and their head usually covers a part of the masthead, which relies on the audience to know these brands already. The masthead is always at the top no matter what and is normally in uppercase. While I do like how simplistic some of these covers are (Out and Elle covers up above for example), I recognise that smaller magazine companies can't do that as the bigger brands have more recognition and as everyone already knows what they do, they don't need to put any cover lines if they can get a big enough celebrity to star in the front page. Most of these covers have cover lines regardless so it wouldn't be strange if I add them to mine. When making my magazine I'll put the masthead at the top of the cover in a big and bold font. The model will take up most of the space as well. I'll add cover lines and small buzzwords so the magazine doesn't feel too barren. For the most part I'll also be following what most magazine covers do

Now that I know what audiences like from fashion magazine covers, I want to do research into the articles of these magazines so I'll know what to write for mine. I will look at the top stories and most trending articles to get an idea of what to do. I also recognise that both of the responses for my questionnaire and my focus group said that they don't care about the text in a fashion magazine much, so before researching I want to mention that I already have an idea of what to write. One of the responses in the focus group mentioned that they'd want to see taglines for the clothes and possibly a description of what occasion to wear the clothes, which I'm considering adding in

The first website I looked at was Elle, it has its own trending articles at the bottom. As these are trending articles and will change at any time, I'm aware that they'll only cover current events. The articles featured in this category talk about Black Friday, beauty & care, fashion and the majority of them are about celebrities. Other than the articles on it's trending category, they also have an article on media (books, tv, music) and current news

The next website I decided to look at was Fashion. They don't have a trending section but one for their latest stories instead. The first article advertised is about a celebrity winning an award. The other articles are also about celebrities, fashion being promoted, shopping and hair & beauty. They more focus on celebrities than anything else and have a few articles for sponsored content aswell

Another website I looked at was 10Magazine. Their articles focus more on art and promoting different fashion items and stores. Their news category is actually for news relating to fashion instead of politics like most other magazines do. Unlike most fashion websites, 10Magazine strictly only focuses on fashion, beauty and sometimes art as well. Art includes exhibitions and news on musicians

What I learned is that most articles for magazine websites actually focus much more on celebrities than anything else. They mostly talk about celebrity gossip and about their fashion while beauty and politics are sidelined. As I intend to strictly be a fashion magazine, I want to stray away from only talking about celebrities and focus more on fashion & beauty. In my opinion 10Magazine was refreshing to look at because they only focused on fashion unlike the other websites. There won't be much text to begin with in my magazine as the responses in both my questionnaire and focus group said that they care way more about the images rather than descriptions

As stated in my research commentary, I wanted to focus on talking about fashion and purely that. I asked about peoples favourite fashion styles in the questionnaire and the majority said casual and plain clothes, which I may use as a fashion style featured in the magazine instead of a Q&A section. As I research about what to put on my double page spread I recognise that many of the responses in my questionnaire and focus group said that they would most likely skim over the text, so I intend to keep descriptions short in the double page spread and more focus on photography and taglines

I've decided to do research on eco-friendly brands as it was a part of an article that I sourced for my video. It would also be a way to tie in the video in my magazine without making it feel out of place. This ties into a few of the responses from my questionnaire saying that they'd read a fashion magazine for recommendations for where to shop and advertisements for brands. I first looked at Impakter's list of 100 Global Brands, this list has a "sustainable" rating that goes from A-F. As this list is meant to be for general brands, it has brands that aren't in the fashion industry. Using this list also helps with showing what brands I should or shouldn't promote as my magazine will have a bit of focus on the fashion industry. Clicking on the names in the list will bring a new page that details why the rating was chosen

These are all of the fashion brands that are in the list. Noticeably the only rating that is B (Good) is Adidas. The rest of them are ranked as mediocre but none of them are in the bad ranking per say. To make sure that this list is correct, I did a bit more research into Adidas. Good on You overall rates Adidas as Good, stating that "Compared to its competitors, including Nike, Puma, New Balance, Skechers, and Asics, Adidas is miles ahead in terms of sustainability and labour conditions". An article on Gameplan stated that "For over 20 years, adidas has been a change leader in sustainability". Adidas itself has a page dedicated to tackling the problem of plastic waste, even hosting some articles they made about the issue. Overall it seems that this brand is ethical and can be safely promoted in my magazine

As I wanted to focus on at least two brands, I decided to also look into another fashion store or brand that's ethical. The only fashion retail company on Impakter's list was rated mediocre so I wanted to stray away from including H&M. When searching for fashion stores I only got brands though. I decided to look at Laura Pitharas, a self titled brand, as another brand to promote. The brand focuses on womenswear and suits that are tailored to women's bodies. In her websites about me page, it's said that "Laura often refers to her brand as menswear for womenswear" and "Transparency and sustainability [is] at the forefront [of] all the garments are made in the UK". Elle featured the brand in a list of 55 Sustainable Clothing Brands and said that the company "is certainly one to watch"

I will make one of the pages dedicated to this (brands to recommend) and the other page to the poll section and to more pictures, as all the responses I've gotten have stated that they would prefer more photography. This is why I also intend to keep the description short as to not bore readers and make them not read it anymore. I would give more of a spotlight to Adidas as they are the more known brand, but I will try to also recommend Laura Pitharas if I have the space

I'm finally done with researching the subjects I will talk about in my magazine, but I also planned to do my video on the evolution of the fashion industry. I know some things about the fashion industry but as I don't completely remember I'll have to research more into the topic

The first website I looked at was lovetoknow, an article from Eric Wilson. The article first focuses on change and how fashion styles are constantly adapting. It then goes more in depth about specific terms like mass production and fashion's infrastructure. It doesn't shy away from fashions bad business practices like fast fashions working conditions, I may talk about it as well but that might be too grim (and a bit ironic) to fully explain in my fashion magazine. However a way I could go into more detail is if I made the magazine focused on being eco-friendly, I would have to make sure the brands I might be promoting are the same though and many big fashion chains use sweatshop labour so my options may be limited. A way I could circumvent this though is by not having any logos on the outfits. It finally ends on change again and how celebrities and magazine editors can also go on to be designers themselves. The first two paragraphs talk about the difference between apparel and fashion, one being a necessity and the other focusing on marketing a style. The next paragraph focuses on how the industry changes what it does with demand from the consumers. This includes with people changing what they do overtime, an example they gave being crinoline makers becoming bra makers. After that the article details about the industry, the infrastructure and working conditions are explained, and the last two are about how more people are becoming designers. These paragraphs are the most important to me as I only plan to talk about how creating clothes has become something bigger than it once was (with promotion and advertising)

The next website I decided to look at was Impakter, an article from Youmna Abdallah. This article more focuses on fast fashion and how it's damaging to the environment, something I don't plan to go too in depth with as I want to do a general overview of the evolution of fashion. If I do decide to lean into the magazine being eco-friendly though then this article is very helpful as it supplies statistics about environmental damage ("Nowadays, around 150 billion garments are produced each year, despite a world population of 7.5 billion" and "According to Earth.org, it is responsible for 10% of global carbon emissions annually; which is five times higher than the aerospace industry"). It really goes into detail about how bad fast fashion is but it does have a section dedicated to the good things about the fashion industry, such as companies that dedicate on being more eco-friendly. At the end of the article there's a link to the websites Sustainability Index, which I also used in my subject research for my double page spread. I can also use this to determine which brands I can talk about in my video or avoid promoting

I'll include a mix of both articles in my video, talking about the general evolution of fashion, then going into a bit more detail about fast fashion and ending on a positive note by promoting eco-friendly brands to shop from. Doing this would also tie into one of the responses in my questionnaire saying that they'd pick up a magazine to get recommendations on where to shop. When writing my script I'll reference from the two articles as well to avoid plagiarism

With my research finished, I can now start on writing a script for my video. The script will have an informal tone as I want to keep the video lighthearted despite the topic. I want the script to not go into too much detail about how bad the industry is and talk about the positives at the end like the article in Impakter because I don't want the video to be too upsetting. I may also consider adding a section of my double page spread about this as I don't want the video to feel too out of place. I also want to minimalise adding words that may be difficult to pronounce as I want to record with as little mistakes as I can manage

Now that I can work on my script for the video, I want to do some small research into making the video visibly enjoyable to watch and have an effective voice over for it. I already have a plan on how to make the video look visually, having a simplistic style similar to how uricksaladbar edits their videos if I can. I will also use stock footage for the scenes in my video, so I may have to source where I'll get those too

The first video I watched about the topic was for videos that'll mainly be viewed on a phone, so most of the tips didn't help. The only tip that really helped was the last one about text and graphics, which I already knew I was going to use in the video anyway. The tip was that the text should be away from the subject of the video as it's meant to complement the visuals. Another tip in the video that would be good if I didn't already know it was to put the most creative and interesting visuals first to interest the audience

After finishing the first video I took a look at one dedicated to 5 video editing tricks in Premiere Pro. The first tip was on using text in the video and how it can be distracting to use it over a video as "the eye doesn't really know what to focus on". One solution they gave was to make the text more transparent or to set the Blend Mode as something different from Normal, another was to make the background darker or add a Gaussian blur to it. The second tip was to add motion to still pictures, like adding a zoom out effect, to give life to the image and make it feel less still. They also mention that by right clicking on the key frame, changing the effect from Linear to Ease In or Out can make the transition feel more smooth

Watching videos on editing tips was helpful but I've also decided to watch others that'll help me with my voice over. I chose to watch Kevin's video first as the title boasted having 25 tips. The tips were to have a quiet room to record in, which I will have as I'll record in the college's gallery. They also suggest having a blanket over the table which I may do as well. Another tip is to use a device to read from the script instead of paper as the noise of turning over paper is distracting. They say to format the script as to have a title for each different section as to know what you're editing. An important tip is that they say to bring life to the script instead of just reading it, a way they do this is by standing up and being energetic while doing so. They mention that if there's a mistake while reading the script to restart the whole sentence and not just the word as it's difficult to cut in editing. Another tip they give is to give your voice a break after every 5 or so minutes and to be hydrated. They say the levels of audio should be between -12 and -15. The last tip given is about having fun as the audience can hear if you're not

The 25 Tips video was very extensive but I watched another video by TechSmith just in case there were any more tips. In this video they say that smiling while you talk is also an effective way to have a lighter and more fun tone in your voice. Another suggestion was to have someone else listen to you while you record as you may not notice mistakes until editing. Something else the extra person can do is read over the script themselves and highlight words to make the person doing the voice over know when to exaggerate a word. The last tip is that some phrases may have to be changed if the narrator can't pronounce it properly and that its a perfectly fine thing to do

The tips for video editing were more for adding small details in my video than anything else. I imagine that I'll use motion for still images in my videos to make it a bit more interesting to watch. The videos may have not completely helped me for making a magazine but they will help for other projects I will make using Premiere Pro. In general the voice over tips in the first video covered a few of the things said in the second video and was more helpful to me than the editing videos. I'll follow most of the tips said in the first video as I think they would be helpful to do. I may not need to do titles in my script as I'll be the one editing and will know the script enough to be able to tell what I'm talking about. I won't have another person hear my voice over as I'd find it distracting, but I'd highlight key words and underline phrases in the script to give more emphasis when I say it out loud

10 Magazine. (2021) 10 Magazine - Fashion and Beauty Digital Emporium. Available at: https://www.10magazine.com. Accessed at: 23.11.21

Abdallah, Y. (2021) From Hardwear to Quickwear: The Evolution of the Apparel Industry. Available at: https://impakter.com/from-hardwear-to-quickwear-the-evolution-of-the-apparel-industry/. Accessed at: 24.11.21

Adidas. (Year unknown) Sustainability. Available at: https://www.adidas.co.uk/sustainability. Accessed at: 24.11.21

Elle. (2021) Fashion Magazine - Beauty Tips, Fashion Trends, & Celebrity News. Available at: https://www.elle.com. Accessed at: 23.11.21

Elle Fashion Team. (2021) 55 Sustainable Clothing Brands That Are Anything But Boring. Available at: https://www.elle.com/uk/fashion/what-to-wear/g22788319/sustainable-fashion-brands-to-buy-from-now/. Accessed at: 24.11.21

Fashion. (2021) FASHION Magazine. Available at: https://fashionmagazine.com. Accessed at: 23.11.21

Fashionista. (2020) The 53 Most Memorable Magazine Covers of 2020. Available at: https://fashionista.com/2020/12/best-fashion-magazine-covers-2020. Accessed at: 18.11.21

Impakter. (Year unknown) Top 100 Global Brands. Available at: https://index.impakter.com/top-global-brands/. Accessed at: 24.11.21

Justin Odisho. (2017) 5 Little Video Editing Tricks that make a BIG Difference! (Adobe Premiere Pro CC Tutorial / How to). [Online Video.] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AaO0D66xeYY. Accessed at: 24.11.21

Kevin - Basic Filmmaker. (2018) 25 VOICE OVER TIPS Explained with Examples. [Online Video.] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8q_fiXFLpw. Accessed at: 24.11.21

Pond5. 9 Tips to Make More Creative Vertical Videos for Social Media Platforms. [Online Video.] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BYqbcqqhCVo. Accessed at: 24.11.21

Port, S. (2020) The adidas Sustainability Story - Leading The Change. Available at: https://www.gameplan-a.com/2020/06/the-adidas-sustainability-story-leading-the-change/. Accessed at: 24.11.21

Robertson, L. (2020) How Ethical Is Adidas?. Available at: https://goodonyou.eco/adidas-ethical/. Accessed at: 24.11.21

TechSmith. (2020) How to Get a Clear Voice Over. [Online Video.] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ljaqZjdY-zg. Accessed at: 24.11.21

W. (2021) W Magazine. Available at: https://www.wmagazine.com. Accessed at: 23.11.21

Wilson, E. (Year unknown) Evolution of the Fashion Industry. Available at: https://fashion-history.lovetoknow.com/fashion-clothing-industry/evolution-fashion-industry. Accessed at: 24.11.21

YouTube. (Year unknown) uricksaladbar - YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/c/uricksaladbar. Accessed at: 24.11.21

Questionnaire

For my final research I decided to do a questionnaire. This questionnaire is meant to be an extention of the focus group which is why the questions are similar and only has 4 responses to suit that. Unfortunately as I forgot to put all the questions to be required, one of the participants had skipped a few questions. This is completely my fault and next time I do a questionnaire I'll make sure to make all the questions required. The questions and responses are here as I later on ended up doing a different questionnaire anyway and dont want to clog the page

The first question makes sure the responses are by people within the age demographic of my magazine, which they are. The votes are split between 13-16 and 17-19, this tells me that the responses aren't specifically swayed in one age demographic

The second question was for gender and only three people answered, so it's hard to tell how skewed the votes are. However the other 3 votes show that these responses are from more girls than boys. Girls are also the main target demographic for fashion magazines so I don't think them having more say in this questionnaire is something of too much concern

The rest of the questions are answered by the audience typing instead of checkbox answers as I was interested in what they'd have to say and if any of them would answer differently. All of these answers are similar to each other and the focus group, specifically 1's answer albiet they focused more on the models. One of the responses mentioned photography, which is something I'm going to have a lot of as one of the focus group responses mentioned it as well, with having diverse shots of the clothing being modelled. I planned to put both of these in my magazine as without them it just wouldn't be a fashion magazine

This is the only other question with 3 responses, I assume this was skipped because they got confused with this question and the previous one being similar or because they had the same answer for both. The difference between these two questions are what you'd expect from a fashion magazine vs what you'd want from one, it's my fault for not making this clearer. Two of the answers are the same and I'll keep inspiration in mind while writing for my magazine, possibly linking to 1's answer for question 6 in the focus group with putting that in the taglines. I unfortunately can't cater to the 3rd response for obvious reasons

This question is similar to the one in the focus group and they answered mostly the same. One of the responses said they would but didn't elaborate more and the overwhelming majority said they wouldn't. However these responses said they would if the images caught their attention enough to. Paired with the responses from the focus group, in general audiences care way more about images than text in magazines so I won't focus as much on the descriptions in favour of the images

This was asked as I was considering adding a Q&A section with the responses from the last two questions asked in this questionnaire or the first and last question asked with the focus group. Unfortunately most of these responses said they would also skip it. One answer said they would consider reading it if their answer was part of it, however that was the only the one considering to read it. I maybe should've worded this question better with stating that it's for a poll with the audience instead, but if the audience wouldn't care for a Q&A section then I won't include one and will consider other ways to add text in

The last two questions were for the Q&A section so the answers matter much less since I'm not sure if I'll do that anymore. The question that would've been featured in that section was this one. Only one person went a bit more in depth to explain their answer and that response has a different reasoning than all the others, even factoring in the focus group's answers

The question asking for the audience's favourite genre only got two responses regardless and none of them match with the answers from the focus group, so I wouldn't have been able to use them for a poll anyway

In general this questionnaire didn't help me much. Despite having more time and space to write more detailed responses, I didn't really get any aside from one or two answers to questions. The focus group helped me much more with their answers and I feel that the reasoning why is because the people in a focus group feel more forced to have different answers from eachother, which meant they ranged from different answers and had more detail. Part of this is also my fault for not making every answer required and for me not saying that I'd have liked the responses to be more detailed at the beginning. The only thing I really learned from this questionnaire that I didn't already from the focus group is that my idea for a Q&A section would've been skimmed over. This is also my fault for putting similar questions that I already asked the focus group though

I actually decided to do the questionnaire again as I made mistakes while distributing my first one and I needed more responses regardless. This questionnaire features the same questions as before but I've redistributed it to different people and slightly changed the Q&A section question to ask about a poll section as well. The rest of the questions will stay the same as I wanted to still count the responses I already had that completed all of the questions

This time I got a range of different people to respond so the ages
have changed from before. It's no longer an even split between 13-16
year olds and 17-19, but now a majority of the audience are in the
17-19 category. As this fashion magazine is mostly aimed at them, I
don't see this as a problem. There are much more older people

answering this time than before

The questionnaires responses are still mostly from girls, but there is a

noticeable increase in men answering. As my magazine will most

likely cater towards girls as most fashion magazines do, I don't see

this as a concern either. An interesting fact is that the percentage of

girls is the same for both questionnaires (66.7%)

Most of the these answers were the same: clothes/fashion, gossip,
celebrities, makeup and fashion brands. More detailed responses
included photography, interviews, outfit suggestions, fashion tips and
advertising. I'll make sure to include these when making my magazine
and I'll try to include fashion tips in taglines for different outfits, which
was a suggestion from the focus group

Majority of the responses were to look at the clothing and for
photography. Some answers were related to celebrities as well. I'll
make sure to give fashion tips and recommendations on places to
shop in my magazine as I hadn't thought about that. Two of the
responses details about having a strong cover image and as I'll focus
more on pictures than text, I'll make sure to have an eyecatching
cover image that stands out against other magazines

These answers are mostly the same as the focus group, it's very clear
that audiences heavily prefer images over text for fashion magazines.
Some responses suggested what they'd pay attention to: reviews,
facts, blurbs, tips, latest trends or if it's nearby a picture they liked.
I may use the tagline idea from the focus group to add some of these
in my magazine, latest trends is something that appears in the
responses alot so I may have to add it to my subject research. It's also
worthy of note that these answers correlate to the suggestions for the
previous question aswell (tips and advice for example)

The responses to this question mean a lot to me as I was considering
putting a Q&A or poll section in my magazine. Out of the 51 responses
16 put a definite no, while most others were open to the idea as long
as they could participate or if it included answers from a stylist or
designer. I was worried about this as I'm not sure where I'd find a
designer avaliable to answer my questions but with these responses
I feel more confident to continue on with my idea. I'd most likely
choose an interactive poll instead of a Q&A as its an effective way to
get audience participation and many of the responses agreed with
doing a poll as they find them fun

The other two questions are for the the poll and don't matter as much
as the other questions do in terms of layout. 23 out of 51 people
prefer in person shopping, two answers said both and the rest were
in favour for online shopping. In heinsight I should've done this as a
checkbox question, but I also wouldn't be able to get the reasoning
why some people chose their answers if I didn't so I don't regret it.
The majority being in favour of online shopping is different from the
focus group and the previous questionnaire, which is interesting.
The poll is obviously about online vs in person shopping, when
talling up the answers for the poll I will also take both the focus
groups and old questionnaries answers into account. One of the
responses in the focus group and another one here mention the
excitement of waiting for clothes and both have a preference for
online shopping. Some responses here also contradict eachother,

some like online shopping more for their consistent sizing while
others prefer in person shopping because online isn't consistent for
them. This is interesting but I'm not completely sure what to take away
from noticing that, it may have something to do with what sizing chart
the online store likes to use?

The last question is also for a Q&A with the audience. As one of the
responses mentioned that they'd read the Q&A as long as it's not too
long, I may cut this question out from the Q&A/poll section. However
it's still interesting to see the diverse answers to this question. There
were a few answers that kept coming up: casual and plain came up
the most, (dark and/or pastel) academia, bold and baggy were also
repeated a few times. Some responses labelled their favourite item
such as turtlenecks or graphic tees. A few responses talked about
seasonal wear such as summer, fall or winter

Overall this questionnaire helped me alot more than the previous one did and I'm glad I redid it. There were new suggestions and ideas (fashion tips and recommendations on what store to shop at) as I sent this questionnaire to different people than my usual group. Having more responses definitely helped with getting more interesting feedback aswell. I've decided to go through with my idea for a poll section as more people have responded positively to it as long as I don't add too much text to it and keep it relevent to fashion. The main focus is on making an interesting cover and photos in the magazine as many responses said they would pay more attention to the magazine and the text in it if it was next to an image that interested them. This would also count as another interactive element added to my magazine

Daily Diary 18/11

Today I had to do research into different magazines and ask questions to a focus group. My analysis of the focus group's responses, secondary research (questionnaire) and the comparison of two magazine double spreads are all due on Tuesday. Finishing the research above will be due next Wednesday

I liked researching about magazine covers as I find graphic design really interesting. I think I could've done better into researching them as I could've looked more into street fashion magazines instead of having a general look at fashion magazines

Focus Group Research

HERE

wix doesn't allow videos over 10 minutes

Focus Group Analysis

001. What’s your favourite fashion style?

The first question was asked more as an introductory question to ease the focus group to be more relaxed than anything else. 2 mentioned that fashion styles can cycle back into different, older styles after awhile. As the history of fashion is something I'm going to have to study, I think this was interesting of them to say. The other responses answered the question without adding anything of note

002. When you first think of a fashion magazine what’s the first thing that appears in your head?

2 said they pay more attention to brands and mentioned the reputation those brands have. They also mentioned about celebrities and famous models starring in the magazines. Celebrities are usually used to instantly intrigue the audience into buying the magazine to see their favourite celebrities and what they've been up to recently, this is why they're seen more on front pages than regular models. However as this will be a magazine I'm creating out of scratch with no big brands or names attached, I unfortunately can't cater to either of these

1 said the clothing being modelled and promoted by the models. They suggested a photo of a catwalk as the clothes are the main thing they want to see. I'm not sure if I'll have the space to put an image of a catwalk in my magazine but I can use models to promote the clothing

3 said different types of models and the diversity they can add. They said famous models or actors are common and what they expect to see from magazines. I can add a range of different types of models to properly show the clothing, I obviously can't add famous models and celebrities though

003. Do you prefer online or in person shopping?
1 prefers in store shopping as they get to know the material and how it looks on them, unlike how for online shopping it can sometimes turn out unexpected

3 also prefers in store shopping as they can actually see the clothing in person. They say that they can see if it’s their size and that they can try it on and see if they like it or not. They mention that since they can’t do it online that if it doesn’t fit then they just wasted their money

2 is the only person who said they preferred online shopping for the excitement they have while waiting for the clothes to arrive. They also say they prefer online because they don’t have to constantly go to other stores and carry the bags while shopping. They built off what 3 said about sizing and mentioned that the sizing chart has progressed more so it’s more understandable to use. They mention that stores are leaning more into going online as well

In heinsight this question isn't as important and won't help me create the magazine. It was a mistake on my part to add it but I may put the questions and answers in one of the double page spreads instead as another way to use the responses. I might also put the question in my questionnaire to get more responses to put on that page. 1 and 3 have similar answers for liking in store shopping while 2 focuses more on

004. If there was a video in a fashion magazine, what do you think it’d be about?

3 said a review on different outfits or a presentation of people wearing different outfits. They said it’d depend on the subject. I personally don't think I'm well equipped enough to properly review someones outfit and I think that I would be biased for my personal tastes in fashion. I could research more on how to properly review clothes but as I'm already set on what I will do for my video (which I wasn't at the time of writing these questions) and I think the history of fashion would be more interesting to talk about

1 expects someone modelling the clothes and have prices of how much it costs alongside. This is a good idea but would require me to know how much all the clothing costs and as I plan to use whats already in my wardrobe for the magazine, it would be a bit difficult to remember them all

2 said the video should be showing clothes and commentary from the designer; like what was the inspiration and the ideas to create the look. I think this may be the most interesting answer but also the most difficult to pull off as I'd need to somehow contact a designer for it and I'm not sure how I'd do that

005. Would you prefer more pictures or more text in a fashion magazine?

2 said they’d prefer more pictures of different angles to see more of the detail on the clothes instead of just seeing the front for example. They said that more detail about the clothes could be in a small paragraph. I appreciate this response because I could definitely add this into my magazine and having different angles would be a good way for me to add more pictures without seeming like I'm just doing this to fill in more space

3 prefers more images to see the outfits better. They say they like looking at images more in general and that they don’t really pay attention to the words in a fashion magazine specifically, unless its about the outfit

1 prefers more images so that there would be more outfits that can be displayed. They said there would be more choices to choose from as well. If anything they said that they’d like to see the text explaining the materials the clothes are made from. In general all of their responses are quite similar and they all agreed that images is more important to them. When making my magazine I'll focus more on getting pictures of the outfit in different angles and settings to allow the audience to see more of the outfit. The text is talked more about for the next question I asked them, but I will keep in mind that they prefer when the description is about the outfit and the materials its made out of

006. What would you want a fashion magazine to talk about?

2 said they’d want the text to be from the designers perspective and what gave them the inspiration for the outfit. They’d want to hear about any moments in the process like if they had to change anything. They said readers in general would want to know if they just came up with the outfit design or if they had a trial and error process. While I do think that this would be a great thing to add in the descripton, it would be extremely hard for me to find a designer that's willing to feature in the magazine and I doubt I'd get any timely responses back

1 said about the times people may want to wear the clothes in, an example they gave being a dress for a party. This could work as a tagline for an outfit and is something I may add into my magazine as it's quite simple but effective

3 also said a description on the outfit and what they had to do to create it, agreeing with 1

I learnt that when it comes to fashion magazines the main thing that the audience wants to see are the designs and models, as suggested by their answers to question 2. Text is often skimmed through in favour of looking at the pictures for the same reason. I'll keep this in mind while making my magazine and will add more pictures than text. I may use the responses for question 4 and 6 in a small Q&A section of my double page spread as I feel like those two questions weren't really important in the grand scheme of making my magazine. One of the responses mentioned that fashion cycles alot back to older styles, but I was already planning on researching the history of fashion for my video. Overall I don't need to add anything to the list of subjects I'm already researching

My focus group came up with diverse answers that I didn’t think about, such as the designers commentary responses for question 4 and 6. I can't actually do as those responses suggest but I do think that it's admirable that they came up with answers like that regardless. This is not a weakness about the focus group but more on the questions I asked them. Question 1 and 3 ultimately won’t help me make the magazine unless I use the responses in the actual magazine itself, which I may do on one of the sides of the double page spread. If I do decide to do that I might also put those questions in my questionnaire to get more answers

Daily Diary 23/11

Today I had to make a mock up of my magazine with InDesign. My homework is to create a storyboard for my interactive video

While I'm confident in my designing abilities, I'm worried that I'll get too caught up on the design and not be able to decide on a fixed design I truly like

Daily Diary 24/11

Today I finished doing my list of research that'll help me with my magazine. Next Tuesday I'll have to come to the gallery at 10:15 to record my voice over (as I'm the last person there I don't have a time limit), making that the deadline for me to finish writing my script. On Wednesday after maths (10:00-11:15) I have to be at the TV Studio to take the photos that will be used in my magazine. I will also have to finish a design brief for homework by tomorrow at 9am

Fashion is more of a dormant interest for me but I liked researching for it. Seeing brands that are ethical and that others are pushing for other companies to be the same was refreshing to see after reading about sweatshops and minimum wage being very common in the fashion industry

Back up

Bibliography