CCR

Here is my Creative Critical Reflection, enjoy!!!

Final Product

Click on Final Product to see my complete product, hope you enjoy it as much as I did !!!

Defining Two page spread

When defining the layout of my magazine, I first conducted further research in the layout of other  traveling magazines and saw that they all mainly communicate with their readers through the use of imagery. But what I noticed is that there are two types:

Those magazines that display lots of pictures in small sizes. Like the one Above

And those that display just a couple of large ones which usually take big portions of the whole layout...if not all.

When designing my two page spread layout,  I not only took into consideration my target audience. But also the fact that the magazines that go for the “small sized pictures” usually look very crammed and cause in the viewer an overwhelming sensation. Obviously I didn’t want that so I went for the “large-single picture” format.

On my next post I’ll show you guys my COMPLETE FINAL PRODUCT. So stay tuned!!!

Defining Table of Contents

I here are my two options for my table of content:

Option 1                                      Option 2

They are pretty similar, in terms that they display the content in visual way, not relying so much in text. But what varies is the arrangement of the images. Personally, I like a lot the one on the right because the order seems more dynamic, and the arrows aren’t jumping all around. But, that is just me personally. Both of them are perfectly fine because they follow along with the visual presentation of content. So, I might end up going for the one on the right.

Lastly, let me just clarify that my TOC just displays the featured article of my magazine. A lot of my classmates have suggested to incorporate the label of "featured" somewhere beneath the title of Contents. But I will first have to discuss it with my partners and then see.

PS: the are just a rough draft, as you can see there are a couple missing the images and the correct names. and the numbers are all messed up.

Defining Cover!!!

Initially, last week I posted a sample I designed with Canva, of my cover page layout showing which cover lines I was going to use, and how the masthead font and the general composition of the cover was going to look like. This is my cover after just incorporating the picture I took, the Masthead, and one cover line I designed at the moment.

Still, I decided to make some changes to the font of the Masthead, because, based on the traveling magazine conventions traveling magazines go for a formal, thin, pointy font. And somehow I felt that the one I used before was very bold and round and gave viewers the first impression of a sports magazine (based on a survey I did, plus my classmates opinion).

Cover, after changing Masthead's font and incorporating the other cover line 

Now I was deciding between a mustard yellow colored font, or a coral red. Finally after asking many people and judging by what I thought would be more effective at catching the viewer's attention, I went for the Coral Red. The reason behind it was because I wanted to create contrast with the landscape being displayed and the yellow wasn’t really efficient at that, or at visually capturing the attention. In relation to the cover lines, I decided to display few coverlines in order to keep the  image neat and as the main focus, while still maintaining the same font and style. So now I have it TA DA!!! My magazine cover.

Final cover!!!

Meet the savior

On my last day taking pictures in Miami. I went to Dodge Island, from where i was going to capture Miami's epic skyline which I intended to put as the cover image of my magazine. This was a critical task, which needed to be done RIGHT.  "A picture is worth a thousand words." The cover image of a magazine is one of the most important ,if not the most important, component of the whole cover. It's plays a crucial role in drawing the readers attention, and ultimately making them want to consume our product.

The night before going to Dodge island, I checked the weather and there was 20-30% chance of rainfall late in the afternoon. Therefore I decided to go early in the morning. Although it said "late afternoon" there I was, 10:30 am, and there was a big black cloud blocking the sun light and coloring the scenic view with a grey hue.

This situation was completely out of hands and there was nothing I could do to modify it. Still I carried on with my task, just in case there was something I could do. Later that week I decided to talk to a fellow classmate (Vanessa Chiquito) about my issues with the pictures and she suggested me an editing app called Snapseed.

Snapseed has been my savior, my guardian angel, my real "mvp", however you want to call it. This app LEGIT saved my day. And as a proof I'll show you the following picture, which I am using as my cover image.

The picture in the left is the one I originally took. As you can see the image is completely impregnated with a grey hue. While the image on the right ,which I edited with Snapseed, displays the proper lighting. I must confess, that at the beginning I was daunted by the idea of editing, but the app resulted to be really easy to use and manage, in order to come with the your ideal picture. And trust me when I say it's super easy to navigate through. I am the least "tech savy" person.

Not only did I use this app to edit the cover image, but I'm also  using it to enhance the colors of my other images.

Catch me up in my next post!

CVI CHE 105

After leaving Brickell City Centre, my mom and I were really hungry so we proceeded to move to our

next stop. CVI CHE 105. Before selecting which restaurant I was going to pick for my “Trending Restaurant” section, I conducted an extended research on this restaurant which particularly catched my attention.

During the second week of this project, I researched on local restaurants that 1) had a prestigious reputation, worthy of the title “Trending restaurant” and 2) and most importantly take into consideration the type of prices the restaurant assess so that they appeal to our target audience (couples with an annual income of $60,000 to $97,170). But one thing I was sure of, I wanted to choose a restaurant that accurately represented Miami’s cultural heritage. The choices I presented during the second week followed along with the two requirements, but they failed at representing Miami’s diverse heritage.Therefore, I engaged in a more in depth research that lead me to CVI CHE 105.

Entrance lounge

CVI CHE 105, is a restaurant that will completely transport you to the back to the Incan era. With its beautifully decorated lounge, ropes hanging from the ceiling and vertical garden walls, delightfully contrast with the Peruvian tapestry of the cushions. This superb traditional Peruvian cuisine restaurant has become one of Miami’s most popular culinary hotspots in the past recent years. Mainly attracting clients for their famous ceviches. This ceviches has granted the restaurant the award of Best Ceviche for 5 consecutive years. And award hosted by Miami New Time Readers Choice. In addition to this award, CVI CHE 105 has been honored with Best Restaurant Downtown Miami, Top 15 Mami by Zagat Survey 2015, Best Peruvian Restaurant Miami, and Top 5 Trendiest Restaurants Miami 2015.

The plate I ordered was Fuente Pacifico 

Besides being a very acclaimed which perfectly fits to the interest of my target audience, the restaurant is an accurate representation of Miami’s diverse hispanic heritage. Which PERFECTLY meets my standards.

"CVI.CHE 105 Downtown Miami by Juan Chipoco." CVICHE 105 Downtown Miami. N.p., n.d. Web. 4 Apr. 2017.

Brickell City Centre

 One of the places I went to visit was Brickell City Centre. I previously went with my family in December for the first time, just one month after its inauguration, and had the opportunity of getting to know the place first before shooting for my magazine. This time I went with my mom, who drove 45 min all the way from Weston to Miami, just so I could take the picture. Thanks mom!

I got there around noon of this past Saturday. It seemed to me this was the perfect day to take picture; the sun was shining at the top of a deep blue sky, which set the perfect lighting to capture this site.   

When first entering the building, what immediately comes in sight is the larger-than-life sculpture that hangs as a ceiling. The Climate Ribbon, designed by architect Hugh Dutton is one of the largest permanent horizontal sculptures in the world, which has the purpose to shelter, shade, and cool the shopping center. Yes cooling. And it's because this sculpture aims to make the whole building, energy efficient by capturing the salty ocean breeze blowing in from the southeast and use it to cool the building in those hot Miami days. The intricate, white, abstract curves of the structure, clearly steps away from the traditional Art Deco architecture and blends into Miami’s 21st century dynamic minimalistic architecture.  But more so, The Climate Ribbon transcend art and strives to embrace and better utilize the powers of nature.     

I noticed how the architectural features of the building paired with these high-end stores, such as Giuseppe Zanotti, Stuart Weitzman and retail department store Saks Fifth Avenue, created a contrast  which helped establish a high lux environment where shoppers could spend a nice weekend afternoon.

The pictures were awesome, and everything went just as I expected.

-Viglucciaviglucci@MiamiHerald.com, Andres. "The Vice Effect: 30 years after the show that changed Miami." Miamiherald. N.p., n.d. Web. 03 Apr. 2017.

-"Miami's Architectural Guide." GMCVB. N.p., n.d. Web. 03 Apr. 2017.

-"TIME LAPSE." HDA Climate Ribbon. N.p., n.d. Web. 03 Apr. 2017.

Polisphilia

Finally I took my pictures!!!

Not only I feel a GREAT relief, but I also feel proud of myself. It not about getting it done. It’s about getting it done and making it right.  In the course of this weekend, I literally went down from Weston to Miami FOUR TIMES, in order to get all the pictures done. Four times I went down to Miami and I still don't get tired of that city. I don’t know if I would risk saying that it’s my favorite city in the world, cause i still have a lot to see. But there’s sure something special about Miami. It’s architectural landscape juxtaposed with the blue sea, is a perfect reflection of the diverse cultural and artistic development that has transformed the city throughout the decades. At a small scale, the diversity in this area has contributed to a transformation that can be seen in the kitchen of Miami’s most acclaimed restaurants. The art of combining different culinary elements from cultures around the world and fusing them into one single plate is the so called Fusion cuisine, which has quite literally turned Miami into some sort of “Taste Capital”.  This and SO many more things make me fall in love with that city every time I go.  

Throughout the weekend these visits to Miami were certainly reinvigorating. They helped me to reset the focus of my mind and allowed me to rethink how I wanted to portray the city so that the audience can feel their getting the best of the city.  On my next blogs I'll give more details related to each stops.

Urban Spots sample

Hey guys!!

So, as I mentioned in my last post, I was going to start working in the layout of my cover based on the information I gather from my previous case study. Below is the sample of the cover I worked on. Before moving into discussing the design and arrangement of the elements, I must clear that fact that this is a sample, I have not yet taken the picture that will be displayed as the cover image, so I worked with some internet pictures. This sample represents what will figuratively be our next city edition after Miami: Los Angeles.  

First of all let me clarify that we changed the title of our magazine. It was mainly due to some technical difficulties we were going to face when creating the “i” of “Cities”, with a magnifying glass. We were afraid it would look odd and therefore we came up with “Urban Spots” a name we believe is going to fit more into our theme and into the broad characteristics of cities around the world. to design the cover I used the software of Canva, which I found extremely easy to use and surf through.

For the cover image I chose a picture of LA’s downtown area at night, where the city lights are being shown reflecting on the clouds. The clouds are impregnated of an orange light, which makes white the perfect color for the font in order to create contrast. Once again the font is rigid and straight, portraying a sense of formality. Just below the title, we name the city edition, so that the readers know what city is being issued on. Following our sketch, I then proceeded to locate “Top things to do…” the name of an article in my two page spread, in the left edge of the cover. And then the name of the other two articles in my two page spread, “Most visited” & “Trending Restaurant”  at the far right edge. Again, I made use of extreme language and made sure that the extreme words were colored in a different color, in order to make them stand out even more and effectively grab the reader’s attention.

SOMETHING BIG IS COMING!!! Stay tuned.

Traveling Magazine Case Study

Good morning guys!!

So before we get into the nitty-gritty part of this project, early this week, I decided to buy two traveling/ tourism magazines and use them as a case study. This would help me decided upon the final details of displacement and arrangement of the different components of my magazine.

                                                                              

Lets first start with the cover. We can see that in both magazines the title is centered at the top and font the editors chose lacks curvatures and is a mainly characterized by straight lines and rigid edges, which gives the audience a sense of seriousness and formality. On the other hand the font is counterposed with very attractive landscape photography, displayed as the cover image, which is really the catch of the magazine. When making some research about magazines in general, I came across a website that studied the different type of covers for the different types of magazines they suggested that, “With a travel magazine obvious choice can be some beautiful landscape photography,”

Moving on into the cover lines, I identified two main characteristics: use of extreme language and use of numbers. Traveling magazines mainly rely in the use of extreme language on the selling and cover lines, but they’re not only limited to single words such as “unique”, “exquisite”, “best”, they also expand to the use of interrogative phrases, like “Why we’re all obsessed with this Lowcounty gem?”. This type of selling line entices the reader to wonder inside the magazine and find out the answer for the question. Numbers are the most efficient way to catch your reader’s attention in a short period of time. We must remember that our magazine is going to be displayed among many others, therefore we must strive to grab their attention the quickest way possible.   

For now, this information is enough to start working on the layouts of my own cover. Later, I will continue this case study in another blog, digging into the the science behind the displacement and arrangement of the main article’s info.

See you soon!!!

Very busy weekend...

Overall this weekend I’ve been working in my “Things to do” section. I decided I was going to do this section of my two page spread on the Miami Music Week, most specifically, Ultra Music Festival, which is the biggest event of this whole festivity.

Ultra Music Festival is one of world’s most famous electronic music festival. The festival has a duration of three days that traditionally go from Friday to Sunday right after or before Spring Break. Ultra attracts tourist from all around the world, who gather at Bayfront Park in Downtown Miami, to enjoy live music from world known DJ’s.

During this weekend I mainly went down to Miami to take pictures of the event and its organization.

I’ll talk a little bit more about what I saw on my next post!!!

Defining the design

Days after we gathered to reconsider the theme of the magazine, my group met a second time, but this time to start discussing things more related to the layout and design of the publications.

Obviously our three magazines share the same title, but have different content. The layout has to share certain similarities. This similarities are going to be in the presentation and arrangement of the content, font and colors. Here is a sample of cover.

The cover is going to have the title “Cities” centered at the top. “Cities” is going to be written in cursive font, and the “i” is going to be a magnifying glass. The magnifying glass represents the detailed content we are presenting on every city and sector. Below the title, the name of the city edition is presented.

The layout is might vary a little, but mainly this is the rough draft we are going to be using as a guide when building our magazines. The two page spread is going to contain, in one page, the “things to do” article which informs the viewer on activities that are going on in the area around the release time. On the right page, three small horizontal articles are going to be displayed. First one displays an acclaimed restaurant of the zone, second one the most frequented area/ activity of the zone, and third is going to include and individual activity/ area fitted to the zone. For example: Anabela is doing Miami Beach, as a choice for her individual article she might choose the beach, as it is something that’s unique of her zone.   

Constructive Criticism from our peers:

Hey everyone!!

Updates on this past week: my peers and I gathered up to discuss improvements in each others project and exchanged some ideas. So the groups we choosen by our teacher and they were mainly 6 to 8 people from our same class, but with different groups and projects.

When I went ahead and discussed general things related to my magazine, there was a uncertainty among my classmates: how were we managing to create a traveling magazine just for Miami and how many editions could we plan to make in the future with such a limited space? Apparently I wasn’t the only one to be asked that, my other partner Maria, who was in a different group, was asked about the same ideas.

After the meeting Anabela, Maria and Me decided to gathered separately in order to discuss the feedback we received from our peers. Based on that, we decided to make important structural changes to our magazine.

Among the most important changes we made to the magazine, was the fact that we expanded our theme from a “local Miami” magazine to a “cities of the world” magazine. That way we could ensure that our magazine brand can continue to produce copies of different cities around the world without being restricted to one in particular.  Secondly, we decided to release 3 editions per city, dividing the city in 3 different sectors. When dividing the cities in three sectors and releasing individual contents about that sector, we ensure that our audience gets detailed information about that area of the city in specific. In the case of Miami, we are going to divide it in: Brickell, Miami Beach and Wynwood. Same as we previously decided.

Now we can continue with the production of our magazine, with a more clear view of our product.

Keep you guys updated of what’s coming!!!

FOOD

Hello!!

Surprisingly, when I was compiling the research for my last post, I was looking at the Brickell City Centre semi-annual magazine, in which they include general facts of nearby restaurants. On them, an article named “Miami’s Top 3 Chefs” gave a brief background of each chef, the location of their restaurant, and the type of food they specialized on.

As a first option they presented Chef Bradley Kilgore, that although his dishes looked fantastic on the article, he’s restaurant is located at Wynwood. I’ll make sure i refer him to my partner Maria as an option for the restaurant section of her issue. As a second option the article presented the spanish Chef Jose Andres, the winner of the James Beard Award. These award known as “The Oscar’s of Food” annual recognizes chefs, wine professionals, cookbook authors and other food experts in the United States. Working in different areas of Miami, Andres now owns his own restaurant Bazaar Mar, at the SLS Brickell Hotel & Residences. His restaurant is identified as one of the “Miami’s most popular and lucrative restaurant”. Lastly, the article presented another James Beard Award winner, who also owns a restaurant at the SLS Brickell Hotel & Residences, Chef Michael Schwartz. Schwartz, is more inclined towards the Italian cuisine, but gives it an unusual approach, by imposing the “farm-to-the-table” concept.

As I researched on these chefs, individually, I realized that these guys are as busy as any doctor or engineer. Reading on Chef Andres, he presides over 25 RESTAURANTS throughout the nation in cities like Washington DC, LA, Las Vegas, and Philadelphia. I mean, that’s CRAZY!!! So, although I would LOVE to interview these chefs and gain further insight to the type of food they create and what they want to transmit to their clients, the probability that I could schedule an encounter with them, within the next three weeks is close to zero. I’ll still try and see if I'm lucky or if not, I could schedule an interview with the restaurant manager, which I’m sure he could help by providing general information relevant in my article.

Yet, I have other restaurants in mind, which are really popular in town and still provide their clients with a unique, tasteful experience. Among them I have “La Mar by Gaston Acurio”, “CVI.CHE 105”, “Perricone's”, “KOMODO” and “Tamarina Restaurant and Bar”.

I’ll keep you guys updated on how this one goes.

- https://www.jamesbeard.org/awards/about 

- Editor@miami.com, Fred Gonzalez |. "Chef Michael Schwartz to open Fi'lia, a new Italian concept, in Brickell in fall of 2016." Miami.com. N.p., 17 Dec. 2016. Web. 20 Mar. 2017.

- McLaughlin, Katy (2009-12-10). "Restaurant of the Future?". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 2013-06-07.

What the Brainstorm brought!

Hey there!!

So, since I decided I was going to work in the Brickell/Downtown Miami area, I’ve been researching and compiling information about possible places I could center my issue on. The article, as I stated on my previous blog, is going to display a wide range of activities in which adults can engage in their visit  Brickell and Downtown Miami. The types of activities range from fancy dinners at the city’s most acclaimed restaurant, to shopping in the most popular mall.

Among the possible sites I’ve been researching on is Brickell City Centre. This  shopping/ mixed-use project opened it doors on November 3, 2016 offering their public an “unparalleled experience of shopping, dining and entertainment.”, according to the Brickell City Centre website. The structure is located in South Miami Avenue between Eighth Street and Sixth Street, which is a very transited area.Shops of all different types are opening their doors, ranging from the most renowned labels, such as Giuseppe Zanotti and retail department store Saks Fifth Avenue, to the must-haves of an American shopping center, like Victoria Secret. On the other hand, restaurants and bars comprise the third and fourth level of the building offering the public VIP services of food and entertainment.

I would really like to include this place in my issue as I feel it immerses the public in an exclusive shopping experience and truly represents the uniqueness of the Miami vibe. Secondly because the type of audience that is most likely to attend this site, is similar to those that targets my magazine: people with an income of $60,000- $97,170. Yet, I only want to approach this place for the entertainment section of my issue. Although this place includes pretty much everything that I’m looking for, will not focus too much in the restaurants when conducting further research in this place. The reason is because, if I do, I would be making an issue on Brickell City Centre and not a traveling guide that gets you the best of Brickell and Downtown Miami.  I rather explore more dining options elsewhere across the city.

Our Decision has been made!!!

So this week we finally decided on our theme: Tourism/ Traveling magazine.

As the week went on,  we proceeded to discuss the things our magazines had to have in common. These things not only included the title, font, logo and design, but also the content of our two page spread issue. We thought that it would be much better if we first decided on the content related to the issues, and then discuss upon the graphic elements of our magazine. That way we could adjust the graphic and design elements to the content displayed; and besides, it allowed us to spend more time working and researching on our individual content.

For the content, as I posted in my previous blog, our magazine is going to be local, and it going to focus in the city of Miami. With that being said, each of us selected a particular site within the city, in which we would base and develop our individual issues. For instance, I choose the Brickell/ Downtown Miami area, my partner Maria chose the nearby neighborhood of Wynwood, and my other partner Anabela chose Miami Beach.

Though the areas we’re working on are different, each with their own unique vibe and varying in terms of activities, our content had to share similarities. Therefore we decided to focus on activities, in which our target audience would commonly engage around our designated areas, meaning: restaurant, shopping centers, museums, among other recreational activities.

Now that we were clear on our duties, we were now able to start our research in our individual issues.    

Opps!! Change of Plans

So, as weird as it sounds, after all we went through, we are considering changing the topic of our magazine. Yes. I know, that's what happens when three women work together. We never make up our minds.

Although it not 100% sure that we’re changing it. We are considering another topic that never came into our minds, and that the three of us seem interested on: Tourism. Tourism magazines, or traveling journals, as the word says, are magazines that focus in exhibiting different traveling destinations and activities associated to each site.  Mainly there are two types of traveling magazines: “Adventure magazines” and “city-guides magazines”. When studying both types of magazines we immediately decided on the “city-guides magazine”, mainly because we wanted to take advantage of our close proximity to the city of Miami. Still, I researched a little bit more and found that, according to the World Tourism Organization over the past few decades eco- or adventure tourism has become more mainstream and experts predict the nature-based tourism to increase from a 25% to a 30% in the upcoming years.  

With this statistics, you might ask: Do we still want to do a traveling magazine that’s more guided towards the city? Well, the answer is simple. Yes. We are a local magazine. And locally, in Miami, besides the Everglades and scuba diving at the beach, there’s nothing else adventurous you could do. So capturing tourist seeking for adventures is not really an option. Therefore we’ve decided to go for more of a city guide. Besides over the past few years, we’ve seen an increase in the amount of tourist visiting Miami. According to the Miami New Times, 14.6 million people visited the city in 2014 since then, there number of visitors increased to 15.8 million in 2016, according to Greater Miami and the Beaches. So the need of creating a magazine that guide our tourist through the city, seems more urgent than ever.

When analyzing our target audience, we found that most “city-guide magazine” readers have

jobs with an income ranging from $60,000 - $97,170. Our magazines target men, more specifically MARRIED men!! At first sight this level of detail seems absurd, but going further into detail, it make perfect sense. These magazines provide ideal sites and leisure activities for the perfect honeymoon or 10th anniversary trip!
Still, we have to decide whether we’re moving on with the fitness magazine or if we’re going to stick to the traveling magazine. I’ll let you guys know in my next post!

-Munzenrieder, Kyle. "Miami Tourism Breaks Records Again: 14.6 Million People Visited in 2014." Miami New Times. N.p., 02 Apr. 2016. Web. 12 Mar. 2017.

-(http://articles.baltimoresun.com/1998-11-11/business/1998315034_1_geographic-adventure-national-geographic-geographic-traveler )

- (https://metdenver.wordpress.com/2012/02/07/56/ )

Getting it together

Over the past week my group and I have been discussing possible themes we would like to explore in our magazines. We each started to brainstorm themes we were either personally attracted to or simply interested on their process of creation. Among the many option we came with were: Food, Fashion, Health/Fitness. Some of us were reluctant to the idea of working in a fashion magazine, as they rely a lot in the clothing aspect and not as much in the techniques being displayed. These types of magazines require the proper exhibition of a wardrobe that appeals to the audience, and that we clearly do not have. On the other hand, one of our group members argued that working on a food magazine and photographing food, required many details like: light, color, textures, etc, which demanded a lot of meticulous job. For the first time we were facing, what I predicted was going to be an obstacle, collectively agreeing on something.

But then we noticed that we could fit all those themes, into one: a Fitness magazine. Where we could talk about the importance of having a balanced nutrition, the most efficient gym exercises, and of course, address the fashion aspect with the newest trend in gymwear. Each of us would pick one of the three subjects and develop it into their own magazine issue. This way we could satisfy those who wanted to do fashion and those who wanted to do food.

After our decision, we proceeded to discuss what our magazines and issues had to have in common and shared suggestions on how each could approach their theme in a  better way. Working in groups can sometimes be a pain, but in real life, these magazines are the product of teamwork, in which they constructively critique and help each other in order to come up with something great. Everywhere you go, no matter what job, career or profession you choose, at some point you’re going to have to team up and create something. So sometimes it’s better to start working on those skills at an early age

Luckily this time we ended on a happy note. I’ll let you know about the next.