Legitness

Hey guys! This week I've been doing some serious work on my cover page and I'm pretty happy with what I've come up with so far.

First of all, I have been searching through different fonts on Canva and I have seen a great number of fonts that I really do like. However, I think I might end up doing using the Aileron Heavy font on Canva because this font type is smooth and attractive, which is appealing to my target audience. Also, the Aileron Heavy Font has a level of thickness that I personally like because I feel like it gives the magazine depth.

Also, I think I've been playing around with the different colors of borders on Canva and I didn't really like any of the colors while I was trying them. Green seemed too playful, blue blends in too much with my cover image, and yellow is always a yellNO in my books. However, when I came to find the orange border, I thought it was perfect. To me, it seemed playful, but still had a warm vibe that still gave off the level of substance that I'm looking for. In addition, the border fits in with the cover image, giving the magazine cover an aesthetic vibe that I really want to harness.

It's halfway finished and I hope to finish the rest of the cover after I finish my table of contents so that I can place the secondary cover lines and the main cover lines into their right spots. Then, I can rearrange the current subheading tiles and rearrange them so that they are in the format I want them to be. I will also have to move the sell-line to the bottom of the cover page (or I might leave it slightly above the title if it doesn't look as aesthetic as I want it to look.)

NAVIGATO

Hey guys, so I've FINALLY come up with a title name for my magazine. I have been searching all online for inspiration and I sifted through literally over a hundred titles to go with. After almost giving up on looking up for titles, I found a website that had some really good names. When my eyes crossed paths with number seven on the list, I instantly fell in love with the name: Navigatio. It's perfect because it has a deeper meaning than just the name itself since it means 'voyage' in Latin. Also, it just sounds really cool and I think the title will sound attractive to my target audience, ranging from 30-60 years old.

However, I think I would like to edit the name a little bit. Instead of being 'Navigatio', I think I prefer the name 'Navigato' more. The reason for this change from what the website is suggesting is because 'Navigato' is easier to say than 'Navigatio'. Also, for some reason in my head, 'Navigato' sounds like a Japanese word such as 'arigatou', which means "thank you" in Japanese. This name therefore roots the magazine more into the global and world scale of travel by juxtaposing multiple cultures and traditions in to one magazine. Also, if someone is well travelled, they are likely to make a connection that these two words are synonyms to one another, so therefore, I think it will be a great idea to make the name 'Nagivato' as opposed ot 'Navigatio'.

Thus, from this point forward, the blog will be called 'Navigato" instead of "Azhar's Portfolio Product", so that I can keep the focus of my magazine as a work of art rather than just some assignment that I am trying to get out of the way. I am currently working on the cover page as I speak, so tune in later to receive my updates about the cover! :)

Mission Passed!

Hey guys! As it turned out, my family and I were actually able to go to New York City after all! I had such a nice time and I would love to go back in the near future! We saw so many things, from the Empire State Building, Central Park, the MET, MoMA, Times Square, and just so much more! This was not just a vacation for me (well for my family it basically was), rather I was hard at work with my phone out taking pictures of everything around me. I had to keep a big eye out on anything that I thought could work for my magazine.

These are just some of the pictures that I took during my trip. I tried to get a wide variety of shots of high-rises and profiles of buildings while I was there so that I could choose one from the set and use it for my cover page. I was thinking of using my pictures from the museums and the interiors of the buildings for my future magazine article. Speaking about my magazine article, I'm starting to think it would be easiest for me to talk about New York or Miami, places where I have access to a lot of pictures. I would like to be able to write about a topic where I have a good access to pictures so that I can use the pictures to back up my story. 

Possible Change of Plans

Hey guys, so tonight is the night before I embark on my trip to the illustrious New York City! When I first heard about going to New York City, I thought about all of the wonderful pictures that I could gather for my future magazine cover. I could possibly get some pictures from some of the museums that we would be visiting, including MoMA, The Met, Central Park, Times Square, and all of the other attractions of which embody New York City.

However, the weather had a different idea and for the past week, there has not been a SINGLE day of sun due to the plunder of snow recently, (which is weird because spring is supposed to be, well you know, not have any snow). Normally, I really wouldn’t panic because seeing NYC interlaced with snow would get me some pretty cool shots. However, there have been three intense snowstorms in the past two weeks called “Nor'easters” and have closed down the airports at NYC for weeks in the end. Therefore, we may not even be able to get there, which is a real bummer because I had some cool shots planned for when we would have got there. Oh well then. At least we may be refunded our ticket and then we’ll be able to travel somewhere else where I can get some other shots.

In the meanwhile, I’ve been drawing up plans for what I want the layout of my insert to be. So far, I know that I really don’t want to clutter the page with too many words, but rather have my images keep the audience engaged and be as telling as the words that are on the page. I've been looking at websites like this one, and they've been very helpful in informing me of what I should create. I’ll post my sketches of the layout for the spread when I’m done ;).

That’s all for now and I’ll keep you guys posted if there are any updates. Thanks!

Cover Page????

Hey guys! We’re into week three of our process and I don’t know how I’m feeling about the end product. I mean, I know that I have somewhat of an idea of what I want to do but to be honest, I feel like I’m moving too slowly because some of the other kids in my class already have an outline for their projects and exactly know what they’re going to do. Me on the other hand, however, I’m just getting started with my magazine layout template. I’m not worrying too much, however. I know that during spring break next week (which I’m so hyped for), I’ll have a lot of time to properly put all the elements of my project into place if I work hard and work smart.

Anyways, today I have started to draw up what I want my cover page should look like. Just a warning: it’s just a really rough sketch of what I am envisioning.

Sorry if you guys can't see some of my writing. Whenever sketch a drawing or a future plan, I usually lightly press my pencil on to the paper so that I can easily change what I want when I mess up on something.
As you can see, I have included a border that surrounds my cover page, just like what National Geographic Traveller did, I have my main cover line on the left corner, and I have my secondary cover lines on the center-right of the magazine. I was thinking of adding some artistic elements to my drawing, such as some lines or some random shapes in order to give the magazine a more youthful, playful vibe.
Some issues that I have: I don't know what color I'm going to make the background yet, I have no clue what font I'm going to use for the masthead yet, and I'm not sure about what to make the cover image yet. Everything comes with time, right? So I'm hoping within the next week or so I get my act together.

TIC TOC (Table Of Contents)

Hey everyone! Another component that requires some attention is the table of contents of my magazine. In my official table of contents, I have to include the page numbers and excerpts of all of my hypothetical topics if I were to create all of the pages of the spread. At the beginning of the project, I thought that I had to write the articles for around ten articles. Thank goodness I don't have to do all of that, but I still have to include all of the titles of the potential articles in the table of contents. 

In my table of contents, I would like to have a good balance of images and text together. There does not necessarily need to be an image for each title, but all of the images should be rooted in the table of contents. Therefore, I will need to take pictures of multiple locations of different places in order for me to make my table of contents work. 

I am surfing through a few layout designs for the different table of contents layouts and some of them have really peaked my interest. 

I'm a huge fan of this sample table of contents for a few different reasons. First of all, the design is really clean and all of the images are precisely placed with clear attention to mathematics. Also, all of the embedded images do seem to represent the content of some of the titles, but there are are not pictures for every title that is in the table of contents. I might use this table of contents later as a guide when I'm designing my very own table of contents. 

I also really like this table of contents because even though there is only one image that is shown in the table of contents, the sheer design of table of contents is so sleek and smooth that it actually works in the favor of how the overall layout should be. The title of the magazine is in a color that c complements the landscape behind and the line of the containing the table of contents does not take away from the sheer beauty of the table of contents. Therefore, I really really do like how this table of contents looks. In the future, I will probably draw from this table of contents as well. 

My target audience, which ranges form 34-50, will probably like to see a mixture of the two examples I have provided because the first examples gives the reader a quick overview in their minds of how the current of the magazine will go down and they will probably like the cleanness and clear-cut design of the second example.  

Cover Images

Hey guys! So it’s come to the time where I actually have to start designing my magazine cover and the magazine in general in order for me to create my magazine. I feel like there are a whole bunch of different routes that I can go with my cover image, but thankfully my research in photography has limited me to a few simple choices. I have been searching for Canva for inspiration on what I can do with my cover images. One path that I can travel is that I can use an establishing shot that can capture the entirety of a landscape. For instance, I am trying to capture the Sahara Desert, the Grand Canyon, or a cityscape such as Miami, I would use this type of shot.

The other way I can do is that I take a medium angle shot of everyday life or special events and center the focus on people, not just the landscape. This will be transgressing on topics like different cultures and customs, which can help me build up some content for my future article (which I have to start sooner than later).

When searching through Canva, I saw this magazine cover, titled “walk the earth.” I really love the geometric elements that are added to the cover, which kind of makes the cover look like it is from some sort of scrapbook, which I really like. It obviously also attracts directly to a younger audience, which is the target audience I want to engage with.

Squad Up

Hey everyone! Today everyone gathered into groups of four or five to talk about our journey so far in our projects. In my group was Morgan Weintraub, Adi Ben-Dayan, Nicholas Yanez, and  Brian Kaye, Each person quickly informed the group of what they have completed so far in their projects while the other group members gave feedback and criticisms to help guide each other.

Personally, I am so happy that we got the opportunity to meet up in these small groups because I was able to get some insight on how to spice up my creative process and lead myself in the right direction. For instance, the other members of the group told me that I should add some more images to my posts so that, you, my followers can get some more insight into what I’m envisioning in my project. They also informed me that I can add different widgets and gadgets to my home screen page so that I can personalize my page.

Two of the members of my group, Adi and Morgan, are also doing magazines. After hearing what they have done so far with their magazines, I got some inspiration on how to start setting up my layout. For instance, Morgan created a few samples of what she wanted for her project on Canva so that she has a baseline for what she wants to create. I found this brilliant and I might play around with Canva a little bit so that I can dive into the second step in my magazine creation process: planning.

What Adi did that I found smart was that she was looking up different sample images that were composed of different types of shots that she can use for her cover page and was testing to see if they would work. I might also do something like this because cover images are extremely important in the travel magazine world.

The Camera Goes Snap Snap

Hey everyone! I hope you all have had a great week for far! This week I’ve been culminating all the information I could find about what it takes to make a great travel magazine. So far I have covered most of the important problems I have needed to discuss, but there is one topic I haven’t digressed on yet: photography, which may be the most important element to a travel magazine.  When it comes to travel magazines is that the images are usually bright, top-notch and In contrast, travel magazines do not contain many numbers to describe their information. Therefore the information presented tend to be more qualitative rather than quantitative, which draw the reader into the destination and into the content.

According to the University of Massachusetts Amherst Travel and Tourism Association, “travel experience is generally pleasure-based and consumed through images such as photographs and stories (Boorstin, 1961; Urry, 1990). It is often assumed that travel-oriented publications such as travel magazines have substantial effects on people’s travel decisions.” In other words, due to the fact that travel is usually a way for tourists to rewind and escape from their everyday lives when images from a travel magazine are enticing enough, they can draw the reader in and make decisions based on what information they have consumed. Therefore, in order for my project to work, I’m going to have some pretty good shots to use in my future magazine spread.
There may be one slight problem though, my photography skills are kind of lacking. I mean, yes I know how to aim my phone towards a certain direction and click a button to capture a photo on my phone, but that’s more or less the extent of my photography skills. Freaking out, I turned to the Internet to search for an ailment to my disease. Thankfully enough, I found dozens of guides online that show you how to take amazing pictures with just your ordinary phone camera. One of the guides came from National Geographic, the same company that issues a new edition of National Geographic Traveller every month. The site has tips for a range of photography learners, from learning the basic etiquette of photography to specific, detailed guides on how to take photographs based on the environment, location, and time of day.

I really want to get some nice shots for my magazine, so I’m going to try to follow all the tips of photography, like avoiding direct sunlight when taking my photos, so that when the time comes for me to get all my shots for the magazine cover, I won’t be regretting my choice to do a travel magazine.

Websites to Improve Photography Skills:

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/photography/photo-tips/

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/photography/photo-tips/camera-phone-photos/

https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/good-pictures-phone-tips

The Effect of Travel Magazine Features and Photos on Tourist Decision Making. scholarworks.umass.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1448&context=ttra.

Target Audience

Hey all! So far, I know that I would like to create a magazine addressing how to have a nice trip with the cheapest budget possible. I’m not really interested in copying notorious travel magazines that mainly attract an older, upper-class crowd, like Travel and Leisure or Lonely Planet.

After I first established that I wanted to do a travel magazine, I figured that I wanted to attract the millennial audience ranging from around 20-40 and having an income of around $50,000 a year. After doing some solid research, I realize this may not be realistic. I may not be able to attract an audience this young that would go to magazines as a source when trying to figure out where to go on vacation. Millennial audiences tend to be influenced by social media sites such as Tumblr, Instagram, and Pinterest. The type of content tends to be “wanderlust”, and according to Forbes magazine, “Millennials will increasingly seek transformational trips. Millennial travelers are looking for transformational experiences while they travel, even if it’s only during a seven to 14-day trip. This is demonstrated by the growth in adventure travel, which continues to be one of the most popular and fastest-growing types of travel for Millennials” Therefore, their type of travel seems to be less structured and more of a free- for- all kind of experience. They do not seem to care to read magazines for a structured trip.

If I were to attract a slightly older audience, however, I might be able to make my vision work. According to National Geographic’s Media Information Kit, National Geographic Travelled mainly attracts those within the age group of 35-65. "Our readers can afford to travel up to three times a year, on short breaks and to once-in-a-lifetime destinations on an annual or biannual basis. They believe travel is a necessity, not a luxury.”  This is exactly what I am looking for. Although the age group of 35-65 is a bit older than I was planning on attracting, this can actually work in my favor.

“Travel and Leisure Magazine Analysis.” Mereavery's Blog, 7 Feb. 2012,

metdenver.wordpress.com/2012/02/07/56/.

“National Geographic Australia/ New Zealand Travel Kit.” Http://Www.natgeotraveller.com.au/NationalGeographic/Media/National-Geographic/Winter%202014/National-Geographic-Traveller-AUNZ-Media-Kit_2014.Pdf.

Media, MNI Targeted. “Time MNI Thought Leadership.” Thought Leadership, insightlab.mnitargetedmedia.com/document/millennial-consumers-trends-and-insights/?download_key=f3e16f4f-33d8-4855-a9ce-1843b51aee4d&document_id=409.

Ferree, Michael. “18 Statistics That Marketers Need to Know about Millennials.” LeadsCon, LeadsCon, 2 Nov. 2015, www.leadscon.com/18-statistics-that-marketers-need-to-know-about-millennials/.

Fromm, Jeff. “Why Millennials Are The Most Important Consumer Generation For The Travel Industry.” Forbes, Forbes Magazine, 8 Nov. 2017, www.forbes.com/sites/jefffromm/2017/11/08/why-millennials-are-the-most-important-consumer-generation-for-the-travel-industry/#3ed5d7a4e1f1.

It's All About the Discourse

Hey everyone! Recently, I've been delving deeper into my research and I’m learning so much about the different components that are required to create a travel magazine. First of all, it is essential for a great travel magazine to have high-quality writing. Whatever the topic is on, the writing needs to be descriptive and have a lot of embedded sensory images so that the audience can truly get a grasp of what the author is describing and the reader can envision that they are truly are in the place they are describing. According to the article 12 Characteristics of Successful Travel Writers by Roy Stevenson, “Good travel writing involves using all your senses when visiting a place.  The photographs that accompany your article give a good sense of visuals. But without using your other senses it only provides one dimension for your article.”

While the writing needs to be descriptive, the writing should not be too difficult to understand for ordinary people to understand at the same time. For example in the article Adventures all Around, in the October/November edition of National Geographic Traveller, the author quotes, “I breathe in time with my animal, inhaling the damp northern wind as we skirt the glassy Sauðafellsvatn lake. Iceland is remarkably elemental like this—at any moment, you see and feel the earth, air, water, and fire.” This excerpt truly shows the level of skill necessary to truly completely express your experiences.

This will be it for now for my ranting about magazine writing. I hope to inform you all soon what information I find about travel photography and the actual target audience for my future magazine spread.

Stevenson, Roy. “12 Characteristics of Successful Travel Writers .” 12 Characteristics of Successful Travel Writers, www.pitchtravelwrite.com/travel-writers-characteristics.html.

And The Winner Is...

As I promised last post, I think I have come up with a topic that I can work with! The final result is… travel! As of right now, I’m feeling pretty confident in doing a travel magazine because I have a great experience traveling around the world and I have seen sights that have forever changed who I am. Also, during Spring Break (which I cannot absolutely wait for), I am going to be doing a little bit of traveling myself. This gives me a perfect opportunity to collect some pictures and information that can truly spice up my magazine spread. I’ll keep you guys in suspense as to where I’m headed for now :). That being said, I can’t wait to finally get down to some serious research on travel magazines!

Even though I have an overall theme I am going with, I still have to decide specifically how the information on travel will be presented. I have been looking at different types of travel magazines and I ran into the following dilemma: should I create a high-quality magazine that will mainly attract older, wealthier readers, such as Travel and Leisure, or if I should make a quirky, fun travel magazine that will be more directed towards millennials and younger readers with a more humble income, such as National Geographic Traveller.

I’m kind of torn between the two directions I can go, but I think I might end up going in the more humble route of National Geographic Traveller because it gives me more of an opportunity to personalize the contents of the magazine by having personal accounts of trips people have taken, rather than only having the editors sharing their knowledge about travel aspects.

In addition, I really do like the National Geographic Traveller magazine because the cover has the iconic yellow border that encloses the cover page. I would like to have a specific design that goes around the page that when readers glimpse at the cover page at a distance, they can immediately recognize my magazine. Another magazine that actually does this is TIME, which has an iconic red border that encloses the page. If I want to stick with traditional magazine covers, however, I am restricted to using colors that are warmer and less confrontational than the color red, such as light blue, green, and yellow.

In the upcoming posts, I will delve much deeper into my research in order to get a much better understanding of what I really need to do to embody the travel magazine style, as well as come up with a specific design for the magazine spread, including what I will title my magazine. I was thinking of maybe titling my magazine cover something along the lines of "Coloring Outside the Lines," or "Looking Outside the Box," to signify that the magazine will be different and unique from any other ordinary travel magazine. Anyways, I gotta run, so I'll chat with you later.

Brainstorming

I have so many different ideas for my future magazine spread, but it's like they're all playing their own game of tug-of-war in my head, all trying to be the one idea that will prevail at the end of my brainstorming process. However, in the past few days, I’ve been mining away at my writer’s block for the topic of my magazine and envisioning the product I wish to produce. All the thinking I have done has made me realize that if I really want to create the best magazine spread I possibly can, to be well-informed and accurate for its specific genre, the spread needs to be about a topic that I am somewhat interested in and know a great deal about. This leaves me with a few directions I can explore:

• science
• math
• current events
• history
• fitness
• travel

Each of these topics has prime examples of magazines that I can draw from and make a possible decision. I’ve also devised a couple of further steps to take that can help me choose a theme for my magazine spread that will allow for me to narrow down my list of possible selections:

Genre:
When it comes to genre, I want to pick a genre that can be widely disseminated and can be a household name.  At the same time, I don’t want my magazine on a top that is too vague; there needs to be a sense of purpose that guides the reader through the magazine. Also, the type of magazine that I primarily would like to produce would not be heavily distributed in public places such as supermarkets and gas stations. Rather, I envision my magazine to be distributed on a subscription basis, which can be accessed in print and online.

Target Audience:Ideally, I want for the target audience of my magazine to attract a wide range of age groups, from teenagers all the way to adults roughly in their 50s. I want to pick a topic that can speak levels to multiple audiences. I also want to direct my attention to an audience that is somewhat educated and does not live under a rock.

Ability to Execute:This criterion I have set for myself is the most important one because the guidelines for my magazine cover requires that all the content on the spread has to come from me and nobody else. I must implement the tools and skills that I personally have to create the best spread I physically can. Therefore, I must have some ability to take pictures of the topics that I am discussing. Thus, it would be in my best interest to stray away from topics such as science/math because each of these topics require a great amount of knowledge in these areas and I do not have much access to the latest breakthroughs in science, where I can just walk in and take pictures of what is happening.

With all of these considerations to take into mind, I plan to narrow down the choices and make a final decision. Stay tuned for my next blog post, where I hopefully figure out at least what theme I want to venture. Until next time!

Foreword

Hey everyone! My name is Azhar Ali and welcome to my official Foundation Portfolio Blog! In this blog, I plan to share the entire process of creating my future magazine spread. Speaking of which, I wish I could say that I had some idea of where to even start, but unfortunately, this doesn't seem to be the case. Maybe if I was working with a partner or two, this probably wouldn't be so difficult. Nevertheless, I will not lose hope and I know that soon, I will decide on what direction I will be taking for my future magazine spread. 

During this journey, I plan to spread out my responsibilities I have to accomplish over the next six weeks, rather than leaving everything at the last minute (which I'm really used to doing). First off, I plan on handling research different genres of magazines and various types of routes I could go with the magazine, which will take place around 2/27- 3/8. I plan to plan (non-intentional pun) the specifics of the magazine spread, gather topics to cover in the magazine spread, and completely create a sample layout for the spread from 3/8-3/18. The production process of creating the actual magazine spread and its contents should happen around 3/18-4/1. The week of 4/1-4/8 will be dedicated to revising the spread, while the week after will be to wrap up the project and complete my Creative Critical Reflection (CCR). 

As of right now, I am in the process of brainstorming directions I could go for my magazine spread, and I will admit, it hasn't been easy so far, but I will not give up and I wish to post again when I make some headway with my creative process. Thanks for reading and I'll see y'all later.