Final Brief Submission

 Hi blog! This will be my last post about my project, including all elements like the Cover, Table of Contents, and Feature Article.

Here they are! Im really proud of how this project turned out, and had a lot of fun executing it in the end! See you guys soon for my CCR.

Production - Editing Feature Article

 Hi Blog! Today I'm finishing and editing my feature article! 

First, I started by rereading my dominant copy, and found a few sentences to clean up and change the wording of. I also found some spelling and grammatical errors, so I switched those too. 

Then, I wrote out the mini-copy for the Nini mod. Here's the finished copy just to have a duplicate on here -

Polydactyly is a genetic condition affecting roughly ~15% of the feline population worldwide. As one of the affected cats, Nini Paredes lives her life to the fullest, still swiping just as much off the counter as any other cat. “It doesn’t hinder her abilities per se, she’s still able to climb, jump, and do regular cat activities however her having extra toes does require more maintenance than a cat that doesn’t,” Paredes said.

Then, finally, I did the last module and the folio elements. I realized I didn't have enough original photos across the whole magazine, so I added a photo to the final treat mod about Winnie. 

Here's how it came out!

Production - Editing Table of Contents

 Hi Blog! This is probably going to be my biggest edit to anything. I just found out that the Table of Contents has to be a whole spread, so I had to add another page and extend it to 2 pages.

First, I just added another page on the InDesign file so I had another page. Luckily, the shapes carried over to the other side so I didn't have to add anymore. I also came up with new article names, but kept the theme of funny little cat puns for generational songs and music artists.

For some reason, it deleted my photos, but this is how it looked half way through when I had my article titles layed out and the shaped all done.

After adding all my pictures, this is how it came out. I don't know if I love them being fully geometric photos, but I did say I would use a mix of full photos and cutouts, so I think they will probably stay.

If I do change anything, you'll see it in my final brief! Yay part two!!!

Production - Editing Cover

 Hey guys! Today, I'm taking a bit of a break from the feature article to finish editing my cover page. I noticed a few details that were wrong, so I'm gonna write about them.

Nothing big, but I got the amount of toes on Nini wrong somehow? I don't know why I put seven, but I changed it to 5. I also didn't really like the snacks puff name, so I changed to something a little more whimsical to really push the voice of the magazine. 

That was really all I found wrong with the cover, so this is how it looks now! After this, whatever changes I make will be posted in my final brief! Yay!!

Production - Feature Article Day 1

Hi Blog! Today, I began inputting pictures and writing copy for my dominant story for my feature article. 

I tried using my template from a few weeks ago, but ran into some problems while trying to format the page. Since the picture I used as a placeholder was more vertically oriented than horizontally, switching to the picture I chose of Tigger was hard to use and needed a lot of tweaking.

So, to do this, I reformatted the copy to be below the dominant photo and reworked the shapes to make sure it still took up sufficient spacing on the page. After that, I wrote the copy about Tigger and his love for catnip along with some context around catnip. I tried to make it as comically inclined as possible, so I kept the writing informal and conversational, but still journalistic. 

After a while, this is what I came up with. In my next post about the feature article, I'll be finishing the modules and copy editing what I have right now.

Production - Table of Contents

 Hi Blog! Today I'm filling in my Table of Contents page using the template I made a few weeks ago. After some conversation with my partner, I decided to get rid of some pictures and just use 1 really good one that I'm not currently using on the feature article.

I made up some article names, and made sure to make some meme-y names to keep up with comical conventions of pet magazines. That's all I got up to today, I think I'll probably have to go back and play with formatting to make it exactly how I want it.

Production - Cover Page

 Hi Blog! Today I'm going to be using my cover template to make a new one using the picture of Tigger. I ended up settling on this idea because I got more high quality pictures of Tigger than I got of Nini, even though the story is more interesting.

But, I am still using Nini in a module. I think I'll make it a larger module, with a lot of writing so I can make a proper inclusion of polydactyly. I started by just shoving in the picture of Tigger into the indesign template, but some stuff needed to be moved around.

This is how it looked originally, and the puff and plug were messed up so I had to take a while to rearrange layering and placement so that Tigger wouldn't block anything. He's a bigger cat, so I had to play around with it for a while.

This is how it ended up today! I think I'm going to go back and look if I need to make any changes to the cover if need be. I can't spot anything right now, but I'll dedicate a day to editing.

Production - Gaby's Interview

 Hi Blog! Today I interviewed Gaby about polydactyly, and she had a lot more info about the condition than I initially thought, so it'll be easy to write about. 

She gave a lot of info written into text, so I don't think I'll need to follow up like I did for Lana.

She also sent a voice note, so listening to that gave a lot of context about the condition and how it can affect her sometimes, but her quality of life is mostly unaffected. The fact about Ernest Hemingway was actually really interesting, so I think I'll include it somehow.

Production - Picture Day 2

 Hi Blog! Today I went to take pictures of Gaby's cat, Nini. While there, she had another cat over to pet sit, so I took advantage and took some pictures. I don't know the cat, so I think I'm just gonna use the pictures to fill up my table of contents.

This is my favorite picture of Nini! I tried to focus on her toes, but I couldn't get a solid picture of her full body. So, I'm gonna shift from a main story on polydactyl cats to catnip for Tigger. It'll be much easier, since I have better pictures.

This is my favorite picture I got of Nini! The lighting isn't great because she wouldn't come inside, but I think the quality turned out alright.

I'm gonna make a more informational mod for this, since the condition is kind of rare and apparently genetic, since her sister kitty also has it.

Production - Lana's Interview

 Hi Blog! After the picture taking earlier, I began interviewing Lana over text, then called her to get some more elaboration.

It isn't much, but I got her to explain catnip and the effects it has on her cats. I think I'll have to get more research on my own to get enough information for copy, but I think this is good for now.

Since we used a lot of treats, I also interviewed her about the treats we gave Winnie for a module about cats and their favorite treat flavors.

Production - Picture Day 1

 Hi Blog! Today, I went to take pictures of the first cats, Lana's cats. I had to reschedule Gaby's cat to tomorrow, so that's when I'll update the blog.

Lighting was harder than I expected, and the room was dim. So, we changed plans and starting using camera flash instead. I tried to get photos that didn't have red eyes, and I got a few that I think are really good.

We used treats to get them to do different little movements and I found out that Tigger really likes catnip, so I think I'm gonna settle on a dominant story on catnip. Here's my favorite photo from today.

Here's my favorite of Tigger, I think I'm going to use it for my cover image.

Planning - Table of Contents Design

 Table of Contents Layout

Hi Blog! Today Im also making my table of contents before I have the actual pictures just to make a mockup. It won't need too much changing other than placing the pictures in the placeholder squares.

In InDesign, I started with just a basic layout and we decided to have a vertical headline.

Then, I added placeholder page names and boxes to put unused pictures in.

Then, to finish it off, I added color and our design elements. We also decided to add page numbers as a marketing tactic for our future responses to CCR.

This takes a lot off my plate during production, so I'm hopeful that I will have plenty of extra pictures to use for these placeholders.

Planning - Cover Design

COVER DESIGN

Hi Blog! Today I'm gonna make a rough draft of my cover before I have my pictures to have it all laid out ready. 

Im starting in InDesign and going to use the first cover I made to make sure I make it conforming to all conventions.

I started with this sample picture and added a masthead using Paw Post (the title we decided on) and some preliminary design elements like the shapes.

Then, using canva and shapes, I made some puffs and plugs to make some article names and a bar at the bottom. For readability, I also included white boxes so it could contrast from the cover image.

This is gonna be really useful when I have the images and the articles decided so I can just plug it in quickly without much thought.

Planning - Photo Dates

 Photo Dates

Hello Blog! Short post today, I've been talking to some friends to figure out dates we can use their pets as models. Below is a list of dates I have to go take pictures! Along with poses I'm thinking of.

Lana

- Thursday March 12 @ 2:00 PM

    - Winnie outside maybe? or just walking to focus on her active personality.

Gaby

-  Thursday March 12 @ 12:00 PM

    - Focus on 7 toes, maybe pawing the camera

Aunt

-  Friday March 13 @ 12:00 PM

    - Baby and Cat together hopefully

Planning - Feature Article Design

Feature Article Design

Hi Blog! Today I'm planning the layout for my feature article and kinda learning more about how to use InDesign. I'm also gonna use photoshop and canva to make some cutouts and graphics to import.

Starting in InDesign, I'm making a double-page spread in InDesign and gathering some stock-images to use as placeholders for my actual photography.

    Here are the stock pictures I chose!!

  

  I'm going to use the one pawing the camera as the main dominant photo, kinda to simulate the 7-Toe Paw idea for the main coverage. First, I'm going to pack the dominant package including copy and the largest photo.

This is how it came out! I had to research how to text wrap, and found out I have to go in the WINDOW -> Text Wrap -> Text Wrap around Subject. I also figured out that InDesign only takes CMYK colors, so I converted all of our Hex Codes to CMYKs, here is a list of them :

Sweet Salmon - C: 0 M: 60 Y: 45 K: 0

Cornflower - C: 86 M: 56 Y: 16 K: 1

Banana Cream - C: 2 M: 1 Y: 59 K: 0

Using these colors, I'm gonna make a few graphics for my spread. I made a circle, square, and triangle of each color. By making them 80% opaque in InDesign, I made an overlaying effect on the shapes and headline. This is my finished dominant package!

Using a stock photo and the module font, I created 2 mods! One is an advice mod, and the other is another smaller story about a cat. This is my first finished template!

Looking back, I learned a lot about the little features of InDesign like text wrap, layering, and typography I didn't know before, so practicing it before making my final draft was really useful!