Actually change of plans!

Hey y'all,
So for two days, I have been cleaning, taking pictures and baking for the pictures for my article and cover. So, I made some changes to the original recipes because I realized they were quite difficult to actually do. I changed the recipes to simpler and better recipes; it was unrealistic of me to actually bake all of the recipes with the magazine and not spend so much money.
Here all the changes:

Black and white cookies: a twist on a classic recipe of chocolate chip cookies adding white chocolate chips

CHANGES: CLASSIC CHOCOLATE CHUNK WITH NO WHITE ONES

*Strawberry dream cake: a vanilla cake with strawberries inside the dough and whipped cream in the middle and outside

CHANGES: ONLY IN THE OUTSIDE NO INSIDE ICING

*Rainbow cupcakes: Vanilla cupcake with food coloring in the dough coloring like a rainbow with marshmallow fluff icing

CHANGES: VANILLA CUPCAKES WITH whipped CREAM ICING AND SPRINKLES ON TOP

Pot of Gold cake: a vanilla cake with gold chocolate coins in the middle and gold colored icing on the outside

CHANGES: VANILLA CAKE WITH CHOCOLATE CHIPS AND BUTTERCREAM ICING WITH CHIPS ON TOP

Cookies and creme cupcakes: chocolate cupcakes with an Oreo buttercream icing

CHANGES: CHOCOLATE CUPCAKES WITH chocolate in middle BUTTERCREAM ICING

These changes made the process 100 times better and easier. I also got nice pictures from them by the help from my friend Alexa and asking my friend Gabriel for his opinion.

Here are some of the pics:

anyways bye Y'all :)

Cover reveal!!

Hey Y'all,
After the 2 days of baking and taking pictures, I finally have a cover! But I am not completely sure about the fonts because I think they are too plain for a food magazine so I might change the color to make it more exciting. But I like this cover because it makes the magazine look really classy and sleek. But the magazine also looks kinda boring which would not do well if it had to be sold. The font also might change because of the many different fonts on canva. Currently still working on the layout on the rest of the pages too.
 See you next week :)

Editing pics and layouts!

Hey Y'all,
I am realizing that making the double page spread layout is challenging. I thought of using this picture but because the picture is horizontal, it does not fit with the layout of the page. The Ken Hom picture is my model for how I want my spread to look like. But, since a professional made this page I am really going to try hard to make some creative swaps. The picture which I am going to use is the one with (you spin me right round baby). The problem is how the photo was taken because I took it horizontally thus I am going to have to crop it to fit the page. I'm debating whether to include the phrase but I think it looks pretty cute so maybe I will keep it. This would be the front page and I will be including a phrase such as a decorator Samurai, knight or queen whichever sounds better. Right now, I think the queen sounds better. I have pictures of some of her work which I'm including which she deserves the title. Anyways, the final product of that page is not done because I got a little bit frustrated so I decided to take a break and work on the layouts of the article. I decided to include a quote in the first page to start the article "Every person has a bad baking experience that's how you learn" because a quote is used to grab the reader's attention and is better for the double page spread to begin.

Bye Y'all :) 

double page spread writting

Hey Y'all,
I focused on doing today was trying to see how the pictures were going to be taken. I am borrowing my friend's camera to take pictures because she is an expert. She will also help me create the recipes which I am going to try to finish the project by this week because of how this spring break I am going to have little to no plans. But, I looked at different kinds of interviews on the web by famous magazines. I already have the answers to the questions I asked, I just have to write the article. I plan to write it in google docs before because of how establishing everything I want to say and then cleaning it up for the article. This is better because the article can come out better without the irrelevant comments. My plan is to first write the recipes first then take pictures because of knowing how many I have to do so I can plan it. This is my goal this week to finish the whole creative process and next week do the CCR and Reflection.
Bye yall :)

Critic sesson!

Hey Y'all,
So today in class we had a critic session in my group were 3 film openings and 3 magazines. So, we first viewed a magazine named Seeker. The magazine was about the different places in Miami, so she asked if she should include the different people, for example, those who love art or history. We all agreed that idea was a great idea to include in her magazine. She also recommended vsco for editing pictures and we saw the different pictures she had taken. I loved how the pictures came out using vsco so I am using that for my pictures. The next project was a film opening about a girl who was abused and her father killed her bf and she went to jail for no reason. The project was really good and she just needed help with he actors and how to record the sound. Then, was another film opening and they needed help with sound and someone said to record sound before and then place when editing. Which everyone said was a good idea for the movie because sound is a difficult to handle. Then, was a magazine which was about healthy eating and we gave her ideas for a cover which we decided about an acai bowl which she thought was a good idea. She asked of what to include as a main article: I gave the idea of doing an interview and then have recipes which she liked but is not sure yet. Then, was another film opening and she needed help with sound also, so she decided of doing the recording like the other girl decided too. Then, it was my turn they helped me decide of what to do in the front cover! Which is a picture of a cake but in the middle there is going to be things coming out of it. I think I am going to go with candy or sprinkles but I am not sure yet. The session was really helpful towards my project and they were very nice to have criticism from. The idea was there but just needed some help coming out and the session was helpful for everyone
Bye y'all :)

Pictures!

Hey Y'all,
So this week its time to get that bread! I am focusing on finishing the entire creative part of the project during spring break. So I am researching how to take pictures and actually write an interview! I know how to take pictures but I will ask my photographer friend to come to help me because she knows how to take pictures better and can show me how to get a better quality picture. But, I went on a couple of sites and food bloggers because they always know how to take the best pictures since it's their specialty. But quickly realizing that food bloggers websites were not helpful towards my project because of not showing me how to take quality pictures for the cover. She is also going to help with the baking part of it because of how its a lot for one person to do. The articles have tips on how to take quality food pics which they all recommended using a camera to shoot the pictures which I agree because they have better quality pictures than the iPhone I have. The articles also said to change the angles to make the picture interesting. They recommended using an app to edit them after which I am going to use VSCO. The articles had examples of the pictures and on Instagram, there is plenty of picture examples which have ideas.

I start taking pictures tomorrow!

Wish me luck!
Bye Y'all

sources:
Bonisteel, Sara. “11 Ways to Take a Better Food Photo on Instagram.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 18 Oct. 2016, www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/10/18/dining/instagram-food-photography-tips.html.

Schonberger, Chris. “The 20 Greatest Food Bloggers of All Time.” First We Feast, First We Feast, 20 Oct. 2016, firstwefeast.com/eat/2013/08/best-food-bloggers-ever/.

Fantozzi, Joanna. “A Food Stylist Reveals 10 Tricks That Will Take Your Food Photos to the next Level.” INSIDER, INSIDER, 25 Aug. 2017, www.thisisinsider.com/how-to-take-better-food-photos-2017-8.

Double page spread again? aw man!

Hey yall,
So now that I have actually grounded myself in this project, I have decided to do an interview with a girl named Talia. She is a well-known baker at our school who really enjoys baking with any emotion. I have chosen her because I already knew she liked baking and she would bring an interesting perspective in the magazine. But before I ask her if I can interview her first I came up with some fun questions to ask her about her hobby.
Questions:
1.) Who taught you how to bake?
2.) Since when have you been baking?
3.) What part of baking makes it fun for you to do?
4.)When do you usally find yourself baking a dessert?
5.) Do you bake specific things based on your emotion such as when you are happy: baking cookies?
6.) How many times a week do you usually bake something?
7.) For starting bakers, what tools do you recommed they should buy or use?
8.) What are your favorite tools you use when you bake?
9.) How would you describe yourself?
10.) What is your favorite thing to make? Why?
11.) What is your favorite dessert?
12.) Would you get a job in the future becoming a chief in a famous researunt or is baking your hobby?
13.) Would you rather make the dessert or have someone else make the dessert?
14.) Have you ever had a rut or a goof when baking a dessert?
15.) What tips do you have while baking that make it go better for beginners?
Last Question: What tips do you have for any baker?

I plan on doing this interview on Tuesday but I'm not sure because of how we have different schedules. Also, only included a 16 questions because I want to make sure that I have enough questions for the article to be two pages. But, if I have more room I will add more questions in the interview.
Thanks Y'all!

Fake article names and table of contents design!

Hey Y'all,
I forgot to say to y'all that I am changing my software because after exploring Joomag, it was hard to use and I really didn't enjoy using it. So, I have decided to use Canva partially because of seeing past projects using the software which turned out really nice and the different templates
it includes for free for ideas of what to use. Which I found two templates, I really liked:
Both are minimalistic and not crowded with their styles. I'm leaning more on the left because the magazine would only have three articles but instead of the little explanation, I would change it to pictures side by side with the article names. I decided to use this concept because the table of contents, I believe becomes too crowded with the different pictures and articles like the right one. The table of contents would be harder to read as well because of the 100 pictures and articles.

I realized I had been going about this all wrong because of how I want to create like 100 recipes but really I only have to create like 5-10 because the magazine would only have to do the front cover, table of contents, and double page spread! So, I narrowed down my actual recipes I am going to use instead of creating like 20. The recipes are:
*Black and white cookies: a twist on a classic recipe of chocolate chip cookies adding white chocolate chips
*Strawberry dream cake: a vanilla cake with strawberries inside the dough and whipped cream in the middle and outside
*Rainbow cupcakes: Vanilla cupcake with food coloring in the dough coloring like a rainbow with marshmallow fluff icing
*Pot of Gold cake: a vanilla cake with gold chocolate coins in the middle and gold colored icing on the outside
*Cookies and creme cupcakes: marbled vanilla and chocolate cupcakes with a Oreo butter cream icing
*Chocolate cake with a surprise: Chocolate cake with a fresh bananas inside and Dulce de Leche icing in the outside
I chose these recipes because of how some of these combinations have never been made together in a baked dessert and are interesting to try. These recipes are going to be test tasted when made to see if actually good, but until then the recipes sound pretty good for the readers who loove desserts!
Bye Y'all!

Research :)

Hey y'all,
I realized that I had not thought of my table of contents for my magazine! So I was actually confused of what I have to include in my magazine because I believed I would have to create at least another article to the double page spread but I quickly headed to my teacher's website to check out some. The examples posted were very helpful in what I wanted to create for my magazine. The two creators here actually aren't in my genre but they used a very simple approach for their table of contents. But since they weren't in my genre, I wanted to look at food magazines table of contents for some ideas because I want to have a similar approach. I really liked the picture on the right because the uniqueness of a quick little blurb of the articles. I think I want to have that kind of approach with my table of contents. Minimal style but also includes pictures for the readers to know what the recipe looks like without having to flip back and fourth. I loved the table of contents from Madeleine. I thought it the pictures helped with the table of contents look really nice epically with the color scheme. I am going to do like hers: the style of having a picture next to the article instead of the main idea of the article. After, deciding this now I am going to decide my articles and my main article!!

By: Madeleine Zarfati

Food Network 

See Y'all later!

RECIPEEEES!

Hey Y'all,
So today I started with the process of coming up with recipes of what to include in my magazine. I decided to start with the actual content because this helps to narrow down what I want my articles to include. The recipes are mixtures of all things dessert. I also am going to include a few Hispanic desserts because of the unique aspect they bring to ordinary recipes in every magazine. The new recipes also bring some culture into the magazine. The Hispanic recipes are going to be included are

Alfajores: round almond cookies with Dulce De Leche (caramel) in between them
Polvorosas: butter cookies
Rice Pudding or Arroz con Leche

 For my other recipes, I am going to combine elements for unique combinations to create new fun recipes rather than generic recipes in cooking magazines. Most cooking magazines actually have twists on new recipes which gravitate to new audiences. This marketing strategy helps these magazines with their audiences to become more widespread to new cultures and ethnicities. So far I have created some recipes that I am excited to try together. My family is definitely going to be happy with these new treats in the house.

Bye, Y'all!

Schedules?

Hey Y'all,

So today we are going to talk about how we are actually going to do the project with my busy schedule. Since, my Tuesdays - Thursdays are always filled with after school activities, I decided to make a schedule of when I would do my project and how to manage my time doing it. The schedule would focus on Saturdays and Sundays doing most of the work because of the most time I have during these days. I broke up the task I have to complete into a list:

• Decide on the front cover 
• Take pictures for the front cover 
• The recipes included or interview with the 'celebrity Chef'
• The double page spread
• The whole magazine complete 

Since there are 3 weeks and five days when the project is due, I have to plan accordingly. My first step is to finally decide what am I going to do with the front cover. I have a lot of ideas but I have to think realistically in what I can do in my time frame and age. Also, if I pick like a Christmas theme: I have to consider that I will need to make the desserts because of not being able to find them in the store. I am going to research nearby holidays to maybe make the magazine about that (ex: french fry day or fourth of July). The double page spread is what is kinda hard to decide on because of how I should interview or should the whole magazine be only about the recipes. I have two people in mind but they have busy schedules and would have to coordinate with them to interview them. But if the cover is the food, its easier on me because of the little planning needed. The magazine isn't going to be very long thus, having only 15 pages is the correct amount for the whole magazine. The main article being two pages with a cover of two pages also.

Anyways, I have a lot to do to make this happen. I have to plan accordingly.

Bye, Y'all :)

Softwares!

Hey Y'all,
So today I am looking now what website I am actually doing the magazine in. Here's the problem: I forgot to ask my teacher for her subscription to Madmag. So, I have to wait for Monday to ask her, but I went online playing with there products. I clicked through many but are going to review the big three: Canva, lucid press, and blurb.

When I typed in magazine creator to google, Canva was one of the first to show up. The website is not helpful for this specific type of print. But after finally getting to the design studio, the website was super helpful! The help tab has detailed instructions for magazine creating. The website also has sample covers by genre!! To get an idea of how to use it, I created a sample cover with the ones included in the software. The creator was not helpful in the aspect of wanting to copy a picture of the sample I made in this blog post. Also, it's hard to share this with people without paying for a subscription.

Lucid press was not good at all for the sample cover. The software was super hard to use and was not helpful instructions to design the cover. I tried to make a picture of cupcakes as the background-not knowing how- the software instructions were not clear enough to help me make this the background. Not useable or recommendable with people who have to create magazines.

Blurb was in the middle because the software was OK with the different fonts and layouts to use. But, after creating I found out that the total to create this was 100$ without the additional page. I was not going to spend for a service I did not really enjoy. This software was OK and was only for those who wanted to pay to get more benefits, which weren't even really worth that money.

In conclusion, I'm leaning towards using Canva but I will ask my teacher on Monday for her subscription before having a commitment to Canva.

Bye, Y'all

critic session !

Hey, Y'all!
So today in class we had a critic session about our projects. The idea was we would be split up in groups and discuss our project ideas: how our progress is going and if there should be any changes to the project. So, I went in a group with people I had never interacted with, discussing my ideas for my magazine: the concept, design, story. We began with Ariana who was going to a dramatic film opening about two wrestlers. The ideas were amazing and the blog posts were very through with their decisions for the opening. Then, we judged another opening which was also a drama about being lost in the woods. The idea was good but not developed enough on the plot of the film opening. The group started saying ideas on how to improve the idea: a monster or villain in the woods scares the children. Then, it was a girl with an idea of a healthy eating magazine who described her double page spread as an interview with a famous Instagram star. She just needed help on who to interview so the group started saying their ideas. We came up with a person from Raw Juice (a super trendy smoothie place) or one of her friends who are one of those salads over everything. My magazine was a baking magazine so they helped me come up with some ideas on what to include as the cover and main article: recipes for Christmas but I would have to make them, summer birthdays, thanksgiving recipes. Also, helping me with my cover which I discovered that I could buy the dessert and just take a picture of it without the label. I have to clarify but that is so much easier than what I had thought. Anyways, it was super helpful so thanks, Mrs. Marchetti!

Fonts, layouts galore!!

Hey Y'all,
So I realized that I actually forgot to make a name for my magazine. For my magazine, I wanted a name that would be cool possible in another language so it could stand out more to the public.
What I did was went around my house asking my family members what they associated with the word cake. Since my family is Hispanic, many thought of the equivalent of cake in Spanish being torta. My family members had said all of the same words: delicious, spongy, soft. So, I decided to do it on myself finding the only word coming up would be Ducle meaning sweet in Spanish. Deciding to play on google translate for a few minutes to come up with a cool sounding name because of the many languages being available. After, playing around with the different words describing the cake, I decided to name it Dolci meaning sweet in Italian. The name fits perfectly to the concept because of the name meaning dessert in Italian which is the magazine's main focus. Testing the name out to my family members all agreeing on the name is good for the magazine.

Now that I had my name, I started looking for the colors of what the magazine cover should have. The colors cannot be too dark for the magazine to seem depressing to the audience. Since most of the colors of the magazine covers are bright should be attractive towards the audience. The background would have to be the main dessert in the double page spread. I think I am going to go with a Christmas type of recipes because the holiday has more options than any other season. Then again, Thanksgiving is also a contender for the season because of that flexibility towards desserts. But, the font will be more of a food network with a mix of BBC Good Food font kind because of the better the fonts would look on a dessert magazine rather than the food network logo which is a circle with the name in different colors.

Anyways, more on this next post!

Bye, Y'all!

Covers!!

Hey Y'all,

The cover is still in progress but I did look at covers of different magazines. The covers I researched were very helpful in what specifically I wanted for my cover. Being a dessert magazine usually covers will feature the main recipe in the cover with bright colors. The font is also bright colored to grab the readers attention. The magazines all had similar covers expect Sauveur which has a simpler approach to their covers. Sauveur's website actually had an article about how to make a good magazine cover! I was delightfully surprised at this discovery. This helped me realize how covers are actually hard work for these companies. Also, helping me realize the color, placement, fonts, and realistic pictures matter for a cover. The article includes a video on what the team goes through to create a cover. This article is 100% recommendable to anyone doing this project.

• Food Network: Source: https://www.foodnetwork.com/magazine 

                   

• Saveur Covers: https://www.saveur.com/summer-issue-cover-shoot

        

• Martha Stewart Magazine: https://www.marthastewart.com/1502284/dessert-recipes

          

• BBC Good Food: https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes

        


Bye, Y'all!!

Desserts, now what? double page spread!

Hey Y'all,
So recap: last post, I decided my topic which is a desserts magazine!
Now the real job begins, choosing my double page spread, cover and decoration. Now that I have my topic it was easier to pick the specific magazines to research using Google. I clicked through a couple of websites and search up past cover of magazines such as Martha Stewart, BBC Good Food and Food Network. I researched their websites because I wanted an idea of what recipes and layout I wanted for the double page spread. The recipes had the ideas to expand my own recipes. These magazines being the most popular having desserts having a main tab for countless recipes on their websites.

BBC Good Food was very helpful and had countless recipes separated based on dessert: brownies, cookies, cakes etc. There was three main things included were the ingredients, cooking time, and experience level. Which I thought was great because of the different levels of people trying to bake and the reader would know if they can handle it with their skills or not. Also, the rating given by audiences which all of them included this but is helpful to know if they were good or not.

Food Network was interesting because of how they included holidays and events in the following months. Also, having a tab named the Worst Cooks of America which is a television show teaching people how to cook? The website is so unorganized to navigate; I had to look very hard for the specific baking tab. The magazines are equally unorganized as the recipes are separated by weird categories.

So I didn't know about the magazine being a lifestyle magazine with fashion, food etc. The Martha Stewart magazine website showed specifically the new recipes in desserts at the top of the page. The tab under food was very simple in the organization and recipes had the usual: time, ingredients etc.

Bye y'all!

OH FOOOOOOD!

Hey Y'all!

So since my last post I have researched a little more about some ideas. I went to the super market buying a couple magazines to flip through: their names are Food Network and Food and Wine magazine. I flipped through them trying to get some ideas for what to write about; narrowing down two choices either a magazine about desserts like Martha Stewart or a Hispanic cooking magazine like this magazine named Sabor (less popular).

The magazines are totally different in the way of material and culture. Both magazines would be in English featuring a exclusive dish or theme. The Baking magazine would be fun because of the fact I love baking. But the Hispanic magazine would be fun too because of the double page spread could be a recipe from each Latin American country which would be so interesting to learn about. Both magazines have their pros and cons so, I am going to make a pro and con list to decide because I have no idea of what I am going to chose.

Hispanic magazine: 
Pro: 
The magazine's recipes are easier to obtain because of my family and friends being from different countries.
Con:
The original idea was for the recipes included from all the countries of Latin America.
Do I have people from every Latin American country to get the recipes from?
Pro:
Expanding knowledge of different cultures because of how isolated the countries are from each others conflicts and is better for the magazine's double page spread
Con: 
You have no idea how to cook these and are not going to make them how an experienced person would and how is the double page spread going to work?

Desserts magazine: 
Pro:
You enjoy baking, and thus will be done with more passion than cooking
Con: 
Do you have time to bake all these recipes?
Pro: 
You know how to make the recipes and will be easier to make perfect
Con: 
Where are you going to get the recipes? What is going to be your double page spread?

After reviewing these reasons, I have decided to do a desserts magazine because of the easier chance of having these recipes. Also, there is this girl in my math class who loves baking and I am sure would help me with the recipes. You know what people say that the more passion you have, the more effort you will put in to your project. Now the real work starts!!

Bye Y'all!