This week I focused mainly on sourcing resources for my shoots that will happen later in the year. I had this scheduled at a later time in my project gannt chart, but think that is an extremely important factor in the success of Fawn Magazine, and would like to secure resources as soon as possible to avoid last minute panic.
I contacted a few of the Public Relations companies I was in contact with when I was working at Who Magazine. I outlined the magazine and that I would like to borrow product from them if possible. So far I have only heard back from one company who has agreed to lend me product. This company stocks several great local brands, so would be perfect to use in my shoots.
I also contacted several people in regards to helping produce the shoots with me. Through contacting friends that work within the fashion industry I have been able to confirm two models, one to appear in each shoot. I have also secured photographic and styling assistants that will assist me on the shoots, as well as a make up artist friend of mine that has agreed to help. At the moment the only resource I am missing is a hair stylist, so I am currently in the process of contacting a few more people in regards to that. Although I have secured all these resources I will continue to search for more people that would be willing to contribute, in case for any reason some one decides to pull out.
Over the weekend I also met with my friend Candice Basa who is Fine Arts graduate. Candice has agreed to contribute to the magazine as a guest Illustrator that we will feature in our Art section. Candice and I discussed her art style, as well as possible ideas for the illustrations within the magazine. I also mentioned to her the possibility of a launch party for Fawn at the end of the year. She mentioned that one of her friends had just opened an Art Gallery on Oxford St that could be a suitable venue for the launch. I had never seriously considered having a launch party as it would exceed my available budget. I am still looking into this as it would be ideal to have a launch party, and if I am able to find someone that is willing to offer me their venue as well as gain alcoholic sponsorship, it would cut costs dramatically.
As well as coordinating content, I also worked on my project documentation that is due at the end of next week. I started developing a budget, that will reflect how many hours each task within the project will take, and how much that would be charged at.I found this difficult as it is hard to accurately predict how many hours you will need for each specific task.
I also started working on my Style Guide, by doing some preliminary sketches and layouts with the Kuler colour schemes I found last week. I'm finding deciding on a particular style extremely difficult as I want my design to appeal to a large audience, and feel that certain designs might turn readers off the magazine. I need to develop a layout that is not only interesting but also visually appealing to a large audience.
Once I have gathered all of my market research from Survey Monkey I will be able to more accurately predict what my readers expect in a layout which will help me decide on the design style.
That's all for this week.
JB
Monday, June 27, 2011
Monday, June 20, 2011
Fawn Magazine - Week 3
This week I spent a lot of time researching content ideas as well as the Wordpress platform which I will be using to produce a blog style website.
I spent approximately 5 hours following Wordpress tutorials from Lynda.com. Originally I was following tutorials for an older version of Wordpress. I found these helpful with helping me learn about the interface, but they were very basic and I didn't think they would help me very much with changing the design and css of my website.
I decided to sign up to Lydna.com at home, so that I am able to use the newer version of the tutorials for this. I'm planning on following the tutorials using the exercise files, so that I can accurately learn how to change the design. Once I have done this, I will then do changes to my own website.
I am planning on producing my website this trimester, so that I am able to build interest and market the magazine. Once the website is finished I will be able to direct people to it, as well as update regular content posts to give readers a taste of what to expect from the magazine.
Over the weekend I spent some time researching emerging designers that I could possibly feature in the magazine. From my initial search I found two particularly good websites that housed databases of young Australian designers. Both Young Republic and The Hanging Space have extensive lists of fashion designers, of which I have selected several that I will contact in regards to content for the magazine.
Through this search I also found several great fashion and design blogs that provided me with content ideas, as well as several more designers that I could possibly contact for product and interviews. The best thing about the blogs I found is that they weren't solely focused on fashion, many of them showcased creative media of other forms, such as art, illustration, design and photography. I found it very helpful as this is the type of content I want to showcase in my magazine.
To ensure that my magazine is appropriate for my target market, I will be conducting some market research in the form of an online survey. I already conducted a preliminary survey a few months ago to establish what magazine consumers liked, as well as what they thought was missing on the current market. Over the past week I researched different survey questions and developed two new surveys to give me a greater understanding of my target demographic. It will help me to clearly define my target market as well as establish what style of design and content they would like within a magazine.
Below are two screen-shots from my first survey which helped give me a good indication of the main topics I should include in Fawn Magazine. An over-whelming response of surveyed readers said their ideal magazine would include several fashion related sections as well as lots of photography. Using this research I developed a rough topic outline focusing the magazine on visual creative media. I thought it would be good to focus on a particular area rather than add in all the elements that readers said they wanted. This allows the magazine to have a stronger brand vision, and gives the content a more unified feel.
As well as continuing to work on my project documentation to hand in in Week 6, I also visited Adobe's Kuler site to help me develop a colour scheme for my magazine. I have selected several possible colour schemes to work with, and will narrow it down once I have received more information from my surveys.
That's about it for my Week 3 wrap up.
JB
I spent approximately 5 hours following Wordpress tutorials from Lynda.com. Originally I was following tutorials for an older version of Wordpress. I found these helpful with helping me learn about the interface, but they were very basic and I didn't think they would help me very much with changing the design and css of my website.
I decided to sign up to Lydna.com at home, so that I am able to use the newer version of the tutorials for this. I'm planning on following the tutorials using the exercise files, so that I can accurately learn how to change the design. Once I have done this, I will then do changes to my own website.
I am planning on producing my website this trimester, so that I am able to build interest and market the magazine. Once the website is finished I will be able to direct people to it, as well as update regular content posts to give readers a taste of what to expect from the magazine.
Over the weekend I spent some time researching emerging designers that I could possibly feature in the magazine. From my initial search I found two particularly good websites that housed databases of young Australian designers. Both Young Republic and The Hanging Space have extensive lists of fashion designers, of which I have selected several that I will contact in regards to content for the magazine.
Through this search I also found several great fashion and design blogs that provided me with content ideas, as well as several more designers that I could possibly contact for product and interviews. The best thing about the blogs I found is that they weren't solely focused on fashion, many of them showcased creative media of other forms, such as art, illustration, design and photography. I found it very helpful as this is the type of content I want to showcase in my magazine.
To ensure that my magazine is appropriate for my target market, I will be conducting some market research in the form of an online survey. I already conducted a preliminary survey a few months ago to establish what magazine consumers liked, as well as what they thought was missing on the current market. Over the past week I researched different survey questions and developed two new surveys to give me a greater understanding of my target demographic. It will help me to clearly define my target market as well as establish what style of design and content they would like within a magazine.
Below are two screen-shots from my first survey which helped give me a good indication of the main topics I should include in Fawn Magazine. An over-whelming response of surveyed readers said their ideal magazine would include several fashion related sections as well as lots of photography. Using this research I developed a rough topic outline focusing the magazine on visual creative media. I thought it would be good to focus on a particular area rather than add in all the elements that readers said they wanted. This allows the magazine to have a stronger brand vision, and gives the content a more unified feel.
As well as continuing to work on my project documentation to hand in in Week 6, I also visited Adobe's Kuler site to help me develop a colour scheme for my magazine. I have selected several possible colour schemes to work with, and will narrow it down once I have received more information from my surveys.
That's about it for my Week 3 wrap up.
JB
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
Photographic Visual Diary
For one of my units this trimester I am completing an independent study project, where we the students are in charge of setting our own assessment criteria on a topic of our choice. I have chosen to study Photography for this unit, as it is something I have always wanted to learn about but never had the chance to study.
For the past week I have been researching different styles that I find appealing, analysing them and compiling them into a visual diary. Here is a sneak peak of my visual diary, I'm hoping to add a couple more spreads to the end of it.
JB
Monday, June 13, 2011
Fawn Magazine - Week 2
As the end of Week 2 draws to a close, I feel I have had a rather productive past couple of days.
I have been finalising my Scope document and Gannt chart, which I began working on last week. I felt that the Gannt chart I produced last week was not detailed enough so to help make a more thorough chart for this week, I completed a work breakdown structure for the projects key deliverables. Using the work break down structure document as a guide I can now update my Gannt chart with the new information.
I also thought I would start working on my Marketing strategy/Promotional plan, which details the differing ways that Fawn will be promoted to the public. With no surprise there is a large emphasis on digital promotion which I feel would be the most effective medium to promote a digital magazine.
I wanted to test out the interactive button capability in Adobe Indesign CS5, so I made a dummy document and turned the text into a button that would link to a URL. I completed this test to see if I would be able to create links to stockist websites through the magazine. I exported the Indesign document as an interactive PDF and the button worked by opening the link in my internet browser, so it seems feasible that this will work in the final PDF. I will however need to test another PDF on a live web page to make sure it does work.
Finally I did a bit of research into emerging designers to see if there were any designers that I could possibly lend product from to shoot. I found a company called styleXpose that aims at exposing up and coming Australian designers and models. I emailed the Director Amy asking her if she knew of any designers or models that may be interested in helping out with Fawn Magazine. I had a great response from her saying that she would be all to happy to help and would pass my email onto a few models, designers and a PR agency.
Amy then went on to ask if I would be interested in judging one of the heats in the styleXpose fashion shows in September. I have agreed to be a judge in the second heat which takes place on the 7th of September. It is an amazing opportunity for me not only as I will be judging the collections of some of Sydney's most promising new designers, but it will also be great exposure for Fawn Magazine.
So that is something exciting to look forward to in September, but in the mean time it is back to work as there is a lot to do in between now and then.
JB
I have been finalising my Scope document and Gannt chart, which I began working on last week. I felt that the Gannt chart I produced last week was not detailed enough so to help make a more thorough chart for this week, I completed a work breakdown structure for the projects key deliverables. Using the work break down structure document as a guide I can now update my Gannt chart with the new information.
I also thought I would start working on my Marketing strategy/Promotional plan, which details the differing ways that Fawn will be promoted to the public. With no surprise there is a large emphasis on digital promotion which I feel would be the most effective medium to promote a digital magazine.
I wanted to test out the interactive button capability in Adobe Indesign CS5, so I made a dummy document and turned the text into a button that would link to a URL. I completed this test to see if I would be able to create links to stockist websites through the magazine. I exported the Indesign document as an interactive PDF and the button worked by opening the link in my internet browser, so it seems feasible that this will work in the final PDF. I will however need to test another PDF on a live web page to make sure it does work.
Finally I did a bit of research into emerging designers to see if there were any designers that I could possibly lend product from to shoot. I found a company called styleXpose that aims at exposing up and coming Australian designers and models. I emailed the Director Amy asking her if she knew of any designers or models that may be interested in helping out with Fawn Magazine. I had a great response from her saying that she would be all to happy to help and would pass my email onto a few models, designers and a PR agency.
Amy then went on to ask if I would be interested in judging one of the heats in the styleXpose fashion shows in September. I have agreed to be a judge in the second heat which takes place on the 7th of September. It is an amazing opportunity for me not only as I will be judging the collections of some of Sydney's most promising new designers, but it will also be great exposure for Fawn Magazine.
So that is something exciting to look forward to in September, but in the mean time it is back to work as there is a lot to do in between now and then.
JB
Monday, June 6, 2011
Fawn Magazine - Week 1
Well after a busy first week back at college, I have some good news. My idea for Fawn Magazine has been approved, I was given an amber light on my project, meaning that I am able to proceed with project planning, with some minor additions and changes.
I have to say it is a major relief for me, considering all the thought and research I have already put into the project over my break.
We have been asked to document our project progress with a blog post, so not only can my lecturers keep up to date with my my progress on Fawn Magazine, but so too can you, my readers.
Since it's initial conception stage the idea for Fawn has developed, and I now feel I have a solid structure to start building on. My main aim for this magazine is to create a tool for fellow creatives to aid and build their careers in their chosen industry. Not only will the magazine act as a form of fresh inspiration to them, but it will also give them valuable insight into other creative careers and the creative processes that they involve.
In this first week I have completed a basic timeline for the planning, design and production of the magazine. I have also started writing the scope document, which states what it is I will deliver at the end of this project. Over the next week, both these elements will develop further to become more thorough.
Stay tuned for more news on the progress of Fawn Magazine.
JB
I have to say it is a major relief for me, considering all the thought and research I have already put into the project over my break.
We have been asked to document our project progress with a blog post, so not only can my lecturers keep up to date with my my progress on Fawn Magazine, but so too can you, my readers.
Since it's initial conception stage the idea for Fawn has developed, and I now feel I have a solid structure to start building on. My main aim for this magazine is to create a tool for fellow creatives to aid and build their careers in their chosen industry. Not only will the magazine act as a form of fresh inspiration to them, but it will also give them valuable insight into other creative careers and the creative processes that they involve.
In this first week I have completed a basic timeline for the planning, design and production of the magazine. I have also started writing the scope document, which states what it is I will deliver at the end of this project. Over the next week, both these elements will develop further to become more thorough.
Stay tuned for more news on the progress of Fawn Magazine.
JB
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