Table of contents (Update)

In an earlier blog post I discussed what was going inside my table of contents but I never updated and explained it. This is the new and improved updated table of contents.
 

The only changes I made was to add colors and I had to change the fonts due to working from home. Once I changed the fonts, I thought that it would look so much better if I added some color since I already started adding some to the double page spread and the cover page had color too. I picked colors that were found in multiple pictures and that I felt matched with them well. I chose green for the headings since there isn't a lot of green in the pictures but there is little pops of that color so I wanted to bring it out more by choosing it for the headings. I also thought green was a good color because its all healthy and green can make people think of healthy foods and can relate with that well too. Then I chose a pinkish salmon color to put on the numbers. This color is in a lot of the pictures and I didn't want to drown the page in this color, so i thought the numbers would look good that color since they're small. Lastly for the table of contents title, I thought orange would be good since it is in a lot of the pictures too. I wanted the orange to be more of a lighter orange because I didn't want it to make the page overwhelming but have the color still pop and look cohesive with the page.

Overall, I was kind of skeptical of changing the colors at first but I did it and I enjoyed the way it looked and I think it also fit well with what I am trying to achieve. With all the pages having their own pops of color, but all following the same formats and fonts makes everything look well put together but then makes every page unique due to the different pops of colors. Also after talking to my classmates, they enjoyed the way it looked with the color also and thought that it fit my theme of the magazine very well.

Classmate feedback

Since I have now gotten to the point where I am finalizing everything, I talked with my one of my friends from class Tom about both of our final projects. I sent him pictures and he responded with how he felt about all of my work I completed




These were his responses to everything I sent him, (which was all the pages I posted in the past few blogs.) Tom has also helped me out a lot with the magazine along with my other classmate Jake. if I was ever stuck on any decision making, I knew they would be good people to help me out since its coming from an outside perspective. And they might not fit my exact target audience (since they are boys and I feel like my magazine was more feminine ), but they still fit in the age range I wanted for my magazine.

With Tom's responses, in his second point I did happen to fix the boxes on the front cover page to make them more even and also raised one higher so it didn't interfere as much with the photo. I thought this was good advice because I honestly did not even notice the boxes being uneven but I did not like how one of them was on the picture so much. With his first point about adding the black border around the title, I tried it out and the cover looked more fake and didn't have the real look that it had before. I sent him another picture and he agreed with what I said about it not looking as real and then said to change it back to how it was before. With his final point, I agreed with him about the colors giving off a summer vibe and it was not like that a few days ago. At first, I initially thought that if I added a lot of color that it would look too crazy and too much. But then I rethought about what I am trying to achieve and it fits perfect with that.

double page spread content (update)

For the double page spread I needed make sure I listed everything needed for the recipe. For the açaí recipe, I had used one that I made before at my house. The recipe is simple along with all the others and goes along with the theme of this magazine which is summer. I also wanted to use bright and summer like colors to match the theme but then also go with the photos, The title color matches the cloth background of the photo and is the same font used in the orange bubble on the top right side of the left page. With the color of that bubble, matches well with the color of the mango shown in the photo on the right side page. Lastly, the pink font color is from the color of the dragonfruit skin. Everything in all of the boxes and bubble is written in the same fonts I used on the cover page. By separating everything out into boxes makes it very clear and easy to read. Under the prep section, I wrote that it is suggested to pre freeze the fruit you are going to mix with the açaí the night before going to make it. With the ingredients I listed everything I used to make my açaí which is one frozen açaí packet, one whole frozen banana, frozen berries, apple juice, and a blender. I also listed that you need one whole pineapple to make the EDIBOWL. Then for the toppings I put granola, honey, and a variety of chopped fruits. In the steps section I listed everything the needed to be done after the prepping the frozen fruits. I explained the steps how to do everything from blending the açaí to how to cut the pineapple. I did not explain much on the toppings because toppings are more something that you can choose to your likings so I just said how I did it which was with banana, strawberries, blackberries, granola, and lightly drizzled honey.

I think that this page flows very well with the look of the other 2 pages. With all the colors it makes the look overall more summer-like and attracts my target audience due to the bright colors and bolder fonts. I also made the recipe simple since I wanted to attract younger people and this is something quick and easy anyone can do. It also went well with the health girl summer theme, since the colors are so bright are the foods are all healthy.

Fonts

Due to coronavirus school was cancelled and I have to complete my magazine at home. When I begun the at home process, all of the fronts I chose on the computers at school were not available on my computer. Fonts play a huge role in the overall look of the magazine and I was really upset that I had lost the fonts from school. Then, I spend about an hour and a half analyzing all the available fonts on my computer (which were just NOT that good but its fine) and I was playing around with the page I had with the most words at the moment, and figured out a good look. For the title on the cover page I am now using the font Impact, which is very bold and thats what caught my attention. I thought the bold title would be good to attract a younger audience. The only thing I did not like so much was the spacing of the letters so i spaced them out more and also stretched out the letters. Then for all of the headings Im using the font Phosphate, which is all caps and bold and thick and has an inline in each letter. The line in the letters is what caught my attention in this font and I also thought it would be a good font for more of a younger audience . For all of the numbers on all the pages I used Impact since it was bold and easy to read. Lastly for the text font I used the font Copperplate. This font took me a while to find because I was not sure if I liked how it was all caps, that meant everything would be in caps. But, I placed the font in all the boxes on that page and I didn't hate how it looked. Even though the font is all caps, the letters are all very small and one hight. They were also spaced very close to each other so I expanded the letters spacing and made them a little taller and wider. This made the font a lot easier to read due to it being so small. After I fixed the letters, I didn't think that the font would look better since it was in all caps like the other one was. But the letters were still very small the font is not too overwhelming.

If we still were at school, I would not have ran into this issue but it was not that difficult to fix. There are man other worse things that could've happened like having to start over completely. But luckily I spent time looking through them and finding ones that can flow really well together and help attract my target audience along with fitting the theme and look. I am not disappointed with the way all of the fonts look together and I think that it will create the look and target the right audience.

cover page content (update)

For My cover, I wanted all the colors to flow well and have a good pop of color for the title. I chose  red because of the red tomatoes in the photo. The yellowish green color in Hot Girl Summer pops from the color of the lemon and even a little from the avocado. I also thought that red and yellow would be good colors to have on the cover of my magazine because from the color research noted we took in class at the beginning of the year, it said those colors are associated with foods and make people hungry. Then lastly on the cover I added 2 features of 2 recipes that will be featured in the magazine.The both give the title of their page, page number, and a brief 1 sentence description on what the pages will be about.  The boxes that they are in are similar to all the boxes on the following pages. I did that so everything can now and have one cohesive look. All the fonts used the are the same on the other pages too. The bubble around health girl summer is also incorporated on the following pages.


I am going to discuss what I have completed with classmates and friends to see their views on the magazine. I am really interested to see what my friends have to say since I want this magazine to challenge some of the conventions of a traditional food magazine and have it attracts more of a younger audience rather than older. I think that th language, fonts, color schemes and layouts used throughout the will all attract my ideal audience.

Update

For the past  2 weeks now we have been out of school due to the coronavirus. As I explained in my last blog, this virus and not having school has effected my project. When we ended school two Fridays ago, I sent myself what I had so far of my magazine so I was able to access it at home.

It was a struggle getting Indesign on my computer but after 4 hours, I was able to access the project. Everything was laid out how I had it in school, but none of the fonts I chose were available so I decided to just pick out some new ones. THIS TOOK FOEVER. I was really satisfied with most of the fonts I had chosen and picking out new ones were not fun and it was hard to find fonts that matched well together. I finally found some that flowed.

Everything would have been much easier if we still had school. Having school gave me convenient access to InDesign without having to sign up for a 7 day free trial. The program took very long to instal to my computer because at first, it was not updated to download the software. I could have had my final project completed last week if we still had school and I would have been able to begin my CCR way earlier. The virus pushed back my work timeline and made it more difficult to get done.

As of right now I am 3/4 the way done with the magazine and I will be completed by Sunday. I updated everything on the table of contents page, half of the double page spread, and then I did a few changes to cover. Then once the magazine is complete on Sunday, I am going to FaceTime a classmate to get feedback on my final project which I will then make another blog about including our call and also get feedback from another friend which I have been staying with and create a separate blog out of that. Lastly Monday, I will begin my CCR and get in depth answers of what I want to talk about in my CCR and complete it the next day.

covid 19

COVID-19 is absolutely ruining my project. I was very on track to finishing my whole project by April 3, but within the last week, we have found out that school has been cancelled until around April 15. I have not figured out how to even get indesign onto my computer to finish everything up. I at the moment I had everything laid out how I wanted, but I was just trying to write the descriptions and the recipes to the table of contents and the main double page spread. I also wanted to maybe switch some photos around to make everything look more cohesive but, I have not gotten the chance to do that as of today. I was very shocked to hear school was cancelled because of the virus also. Nothing like this has ever happened before to us teenagers, and we have all just been in shock. Having off of school makes me so grateful to be at school because I personally hate being at home leaning by myself at home. At school, I actually get to interact with my friends and they provide us with what we need for success. Having to do everything online is hard because with asking questions, you most likely won't get instant feedback. Overall, I miss going to school right now and interacting with my friends and actually being able to learn. It is going to be a struggle completing this exam, but somehow I will have to push to get this done.

Editing and Filtering pictures (my favorite part)

When I took and selected my photos, I knew editing and filtering them would make each photo look so much more colorful and to have them stand out. I love to edit my pictures and I choose to use the same app as I use to edit and filter the photos I take of myself. VSCO makes editing for me way easier and does not take long for me to do at all. With every photo I edited them on VSCO and now I will show you my finished edited photos and explain the editing process.

Picture 1: Avocado toast 

I began editing this photo and all the rest of my photos by choosing a filter which best brings out the colors in my pictures. On VSCO theres a tab that selects the filters that the app thinks will look best on that photo and I used that feature on all of the rest of the pictures also. This filter K2 brings out the reds and greens from the tomatoes and avocado. I lowered the filtering down to 7.0 so it is not too bright and overwhelming to look at.


After filtering I then lowered the exposure of the photo to make the background not super bright and so the colors can pop even more without a crazy amount of color altering filters. This helps make the photo look like it could have been taken in natural lighting rather than using the flash like I did. I wanted to make the lighting in every photo look as natural as possible so it does not look overly exposed and so you can focus more on the food plated rather than the background.


The last thing I did to this picture is sharpen it. Sharpening the photo brins out the little details in all the foods. You can see all the lines and bumps on the lemon and even the lines in the mint leaves. As if they almost look like theyre so perfectly detailed that they look like they could be fake. I think this brings out the little details that your eye would not normally see and just add a finishing touch on the picture


This is the final edited photo and I am in love with the way it looks. The colors all pop out in different ways but it does not look like too much.

Picture 2: Nut Butter Bowl


I began editing this picture by choosing the filter J5, which brought out the brown tones in the photo and lightened the bananas. I choose this one because I liked how the entire picture has that brown tone and it even goes with the wood platter too.

I then edited the highlights and shadows of this picture.  By bringing the shadows up to 2.3, it neutralized the shadows as if they were not even there and then adding the highlights to 3.5 that just made the high points of the photo like the banana stand out a little more.


Acai Bowl Picture 1

I first used a filter called Vibrant Accents to bring out all the pretty colors of the fruits. This really made the colors pop and more bright and summer like. I like using this filter because it was not too dramatic and does not look too bright and vibrant.


After putting a filter on the photo, I then turned the exposure down -1.5. This made the fruits stand out more and not as bright because of the flash. I feel like turning the exposure down made the lighting in this picture look more natural instead of being fully able to tell it is a flash photo.


Next, I turned the sharpness up +10. I feel like this did a lot to the photo. It really brought out every detail in all the fruits shown in the picture. It actually lets you see the lines in the fruits and overall makes the photo look even more real.


The last thing I did to this picture was turn the saturation up +2. This made everything look more bright which was my goal. It brought out all the shades of colors in the photo and made it stand out even more. I felt like doing this finalized the look of the photo I was trying to achieve.





Avocado Toast Picture 2



The first thing I did to edit my picture was to use a filter called Mixed Soften. This filter brought out all the colors like the greens and reds but, not too dramatically. It gave the photo a softer but brighter look which was a good start.



After choosing the filter, I turned the exposure down -1.4. This brought out the green of the avocado and also made the lighting look more natural. I did not want the photos to look like they were taken with a flashed camera because I feel as if that gives everything more of a fake look or it was all set up, rather than looking more like natural light and more of a natural feel.


I turned the highlights of the photo up +4 and the shadows +.5. This evened out the lighting more and gave the photo the natural lighting look that I was aiming for. It balanced out all the colors making them look not too bright and filtered, but makes them still stand out.


I lastly turned the sharpness up +12. I turned it up all the way because this photo has a lot of details that could not be seen before the sharpness was turned up. It brought out the details on the lemon in the drink very well, and also the leaves of mint on the toast. I thought that this made the photo look as real looking as it possibly could.


Juice Photo

On this picture, I did not find a filter that looked that good on it so I just began to edit it. I started by turning the exposure down -1.0. This gave a base to brighten the colors and and make the flash not as bright.


I next turned the sharpness up +12 and this made the photo look really good. This brought out all the small details and made the photo look more clear and how your eye would see the photo in real life.


The next thing I did was turn the saturation up +1.4. I knew I would be using saturation especially since I did not use any filters. I like using the saturation feature because it really just brightens the colors and makes all the colors look more appealing to your eyes.



Shrimp Photo 1


I began by adding a filter called Valley. This filter complimented the orange shades in the picture. I also wanted a filter that would bring out the colors of the shrimp.



Next I brought the exposure down like I did in all the previous photos. I have done this to make the lighting look as natural as possible. I do not want the photos to look like they were taken with the flash and turning down the exposure made the lighting look a lot more natural.



I brought the sharpness up because I wanted to bring the details of the photo out. I do that in most of the photos because it makes the food look more real.


Next, I turned the clarity up. The photo was not blurry to begin with but it overall made it even more sharp than just turning up the sharpness. I thought that this made the picture look more sharp.


I turned the saturation up. This made the orange table cloth compliment the color of the shrimp more and made both look more bright.


I evened out the highlights and shadows to make it look like there were no shadows at all. I did this to eliminate the look of it being taken with flash. I think doing this created the effect I wanted.





Shrimp Photo 2

I did not filter this picture but I began by turning the sharpness up to give the photo the clear effect that the other pictures have.



I turned the saturation up to compliment the orange colors and make them more bright just like I did in the last picture.



Acai Photo 2

I first filtered the photo by using the filter chromatic. This filter brings out blues and orange tones in pictures. I liked the way it made the table cloth look, along with the mango I used as a decoration.


I turned the exposure down to eliminate the flash look.

Whats Going Inside

The page I have the most planned out so far is my table of contents page. This page has 6 pictures with brief descriptions of each photo. Back at the beginning stages of planning my magazine, when I was analyzing other food magazines table of contents, I realized that there is not every page specifically talked about on in the contents. It was more of the most featured recipes and that is what I made mine like. I was trying to attract a younger audience so I gave each section a little name that a younger audience would like. The language of the section names are very slang like talk and the way teenagers now a days speak like. That was my number one key to attracting a younger audience was to speak to them the way they understand best. Each section is sectioned out like an Instagram post with a corresponding caption. This was another way I was trying to attract a younger audience, since teenagers and young adults surround their lives around social media.

My first section is toast up
I described it as "Thinly sliced, perfectly toasted, sourdough bread topped with slices of avocado, diced cherry tomatoes, and home made balsamic glaze. " This was just a brief description of the dish that would later be described and shown exactly how to make on a later page. All the features on the table of contents will be recipes that are on later pages, so I figured I should just describe the dish to get the audience interested in the dishes and want to read longer.


The second feature was the EDIbowls. That is the recipe I am using for my double page spread. This was described as "Frozen acai blended with pitaya, mango and pineapple. Topped with vanilla almond granola, honey and a variety of fruit of your choosing, all put in half of a pineapple that you can eat."

The third box was called Wrap it Up. I described this as "Thai Shrimp Lettuce Wraps with a mix of veggies, Thai seasoning and lime wedges." All the features I had in the bottom row were smaller features and their descriptions were more brief.


The fourth box was called health nut. This box described the home made almond butter recipe. I described this page as "How to make your own almond butter at home!! Dressed with bananas to eat with."


The fifth box is titled #Juicyyy. This box was speaking about the page talking aboout the DIY juice cleanse recipes. I described this box as " DIY Juice Cleanse> 7 days of juices that you can make yourself."

The last box was called Say Cheese. This box was describing the recipe to the fetta cheese and watermelon salad. I described this as "Juicy watermelon salad with fetta cheese topped with mint leaves."


This is all the exact content I have so far for my table of contents page so far. There is not any more words that I need to put on this page but I will probably work on the wording of some of the features. Below is a photo of my page so far. I like the way it looks so far but I am still working on adding some more colors and some better word choice.

Putting things together

After I took and edited my photos, I had been working on the basic design of my pages. I followed my sketched out designs for both the table of contents and the cover page so far. Selecting my fonts was very hard and at the moment, I am still not sure of how I feel about some of them. I like the way my table of contents page is laid out the best. I think it attracts a younger audience very well. The fonts are bold but thin and modern. Some of the fonts are more bubbly but still thin and not too dramatic. The bright colors of the photos I also feel attracts a younger audience too. There is a total of 6 photos on my table of contents page and a younger audience is more attracted to photos rather than a lot of words. The pictures are set up like instagram pictures with little captions and descriptions of each item in the photo. I gave each picture a creative name too, trying to attract a young audience. For the avocado toast its titled Toast Up, for the acai bowl its titled EDIbowls, for the lettuce wraps its titled Wrap It Up, for the almond butter its titled Health Nut, for the juice cleanses its titled #Juicyyy and for the fetta cheese watermelon salad its titled Say Cheese. In the boxes of the, I put small brief descriptions of each recipe. I also followed the same boxes that were put in the cover on the cover page to carry certain features from page to page.
So far, all the text in the table of contents is in black font, but I am working on changing it and pulling out certain shades from certain photos to make the page pop even more. I did a discussion with my classmates on my page so far and, my friend Jake and I both said that we thought a very faint blue background would match very well with the page. I took the advice and i put it as the background and I asked classmates how they thought it looked and they all said they liked the look.

I am mainly taking advice from my classmates and friends since I was aiming to attract a young audience and all my friends are in my target audience. They have been really helpful helping me out since I was very unsure of what to do at first and kept being indecisive of my ideas. My classmates have helped me out a lot from choosing photos, fonts, colors, coming up with ideas, and page layouts and ways to make my magazine unique to me.


I have a preliminary design of my double page spread, I designed it out but i am not sure exactly how I feel about it. I discussed the page with a few of my classmates and they said that they liked the design and that it looks good and don't see anything wrong with it. Since I used a faint blue on the table of contents page, I figured it would make the pages flow more if I made the double page spread a different color too. After discussing with my classmates, I came to the decision on making it a faint purple color for now. This color may change by the time I finalize my magazine. As of right now I also have only words on the left side page and one photo that is on the right side page. I might change that design and make it different because I feel like that look is kind of basic looking and many other food magazines follow that design. In a way, I want to challenge the basic food magazine since I am aiming towards a younger audience. Food magazines typically are not aimed towards teenagers to young adults but that was what I was trying to aim at. I feel like I have been able to achieve this for the most part so far by using my classmates advice and by just adding more color and pictures which typically attracts a younger audience.

Classmate Feedback

Today in class I talked with my friend Jake about my magazine. He gave me feedback about my table of contents spread that I have been working on and said that he liked how it looked so far. He suggested that I change the background color of the page to a light blue-ish color because he thought it would make the colors in my photo stand out. He also thought it would look good if i made each sectioned box a different color which I will try to do and see how it looks. Jake also said he thought my pictures were taken really well and liked how everything is turning out.

Then I talked to Jake about his film that he is doing with Tom and Jason. They are filming a horror film and Jake explained the plot to me. Their group has not filmed yet but Jake said that they are filming on Saturday. He also said that they are very prepared to film and have everything planned out from the types of shots to the background music. Jake said he is very excited to film and see how the project turns out. I suggested him to use suspenseful music and he agreed with that.

Getting and giving feedback was helpful because the advice Jake gave me, turned to be actually really good and is making the page already look better. I am glad we spoke about our projects and I think that we will both have very good outcomes with the final product.

How I took my photos

When I was shooting, I ran into a few complications and difficulties. To start off, I initially wanted to shoot everything outside since after my research I came across shooting food photos will look the best in the natural lighting. We were not able to shoot outside because where we were shooting at had no outside table. So I shot everything on the kitchen counter. Since I am kind of short (5'3'') I had to stand on a step stool and would get above the foods to try and take overhead photos. With some of them, I would have to get at level with the counter to get the best perspectives. Here are some photos of me shooting the dishes.

Photo Shoot Time

Yesterday, my dad and I shot my photos for my magazine. I thought by having my dad help me would be a good idea since he has been a professional chef since after high school. My dad likes to dress up the food and make it look as pretty as possible for the photos. Overall I think we did an amazing job and I am honesty very proud of myself for being capable of doing all of this.

The 1st thing I shot was the photo of the "home-made nut butter"











This is the photo before the editing stages. My dad thought that the peanut butter would look good next too a banana and a spoon of peanut butter to add some more to the picture and make it not as boring of a picture since it is just of peanut butter. We also paired it with banana because peanut butter and banana go well together and we had both thought that this would overall make a great photo inside of my table of contents. My dad also had the circular wood platter and I thought that it would match the brown tones in the peanut butter in the photo so thats why we decided to place it on there.


The next thing I shot were of my "Juice cleanses"

This is the original photo of my juice cleanses. My dad bought me 2 juices one strawberry lemonade and one mango pineapple juice. I had told him originally to buy three juices and when I saw only 2 I needed to come up with a solution. I decided to mix the juices to make it more of an orange color and placed it in the largest cup in the back. The 2 smaller cups towards the front have the solid juices. Then my dad said to me that the juices look sort of boring without the fruit decorations in the front. So my dad placed the dragon fruit, strawberries, blackberries, starfruit and mint to add more colors and make the photo look nicer. We did not decide to lay anything on the counter for this specific photo and the colors of the counter make the fruits pop even more too. Overall this photo turned out very well in my opinion and looked even better after I filtered and edited it. 

The 3rd thing I shot was my cover photo pictures which was of the avocado toast

I will be using the photos of the avocado toast in both my front cover and also my table of contents. I am not sure which will be used for which but what I have thought so far is to use the first one in the table of contents and then the second photo on the front cover, but I will try both out and make a vote on which one looks better. This was one of the harder dishes to take a photo since the toast aspect of the photo can barely be seen. My dad cut the crusts off of the toast and that made the bread pieces smaller and less shown. But I am very much in love with these photos and the way they turned out after they got edited. The colors all work so well together in my opinion and none of the colors overwhelm each other. I originally placed the platter on a green table cloth but it was very overwhelming since the avocados are so green. We also placed this on the circular wood platter to give it more of an earthy feel and have more of a healthy woodsy aesthetic. I  love the way they did turn out though since they did very much fit the visions that were going in my head. 

The 4th thing I shot was for my double page spread and my table of contents and that was my acai bowl. 

This was for sure the hardest dish we shot. We purchased acai and pitaya from a local store and kept them in the freezer at home until we were ready to use it. My dad took out the center of the pineapple and cut up a bunch of mixed fruits. I thought that this one would look the best laid out on the table cloth since the color of the cloth was bright and pretty. We just scattered the fruits around the pineapple and tried making it look cool and pretty. After editing the photos they looked absolutely amazing. I also facetuned the second picture to get the blue table cloth on the entire picture. 

The 5th thing was a watermelon salad that will be in my table of contents

When first looking at this picture, I really did not like it. The colors of everything seemed to all just be blended together and I just could not get a good photo or angle of the salad. I took the most time shooting this dish but I picked out this specific picture to further edit and enhance the colors to make the photo more alive. Once i edited it, the picture really came together and I got to actually see all the salad parts.

Lastly, I shot photos of the Lettuce wraps and that was my final dish that will be featured in my table of contents

These are some of my favorite out of all the pictures I took. I decided to place the orange table cloth to pop out the colors of the shrimp.  I also chose the yellow polka dotted platter because I wanted to have a color scheme going for this dish. All the colors in this dish go very well together and make the main parts of the dish stand out. After editing these photos I really started to love them since all the colors just go very well together.