Just Some Exciting Stuffs

Option 2 

Option1

Hi everyone!

On Thursday in class Cali and I started working on our layouts and finished up our table of contents. I am stuck in a pickle. I need to figure out what to do for the title of my page. As posted to the right you will see the two options but if I don't do option 1 as the title the technique will be used throughout the article part on the two pages in quotes from first hand experience.

With option 2...
this allows the reader to fully enjoy the picture of the active volcano, and the title also pops off the page.

With option 1...
This technique is extremely unique and allows the font to really pop off the page and catch the eye.


I really like both, hence the reason I am stuck in a pickle. I will decide tomorrow with my partner and update you guys tomorrow!!!

Thanks for reading see you again soon!!

AND....... we have hit a brick wall

Cover Photo (larger space on top)

Today in class while we met in groups I was given several critiques. To start off, the layout for the cover, that Cali and I absolutely fell in love with, needs several changes. Starting with the masthead (title), EXCURSIONIST, we were told by our peers that it is to long and doesn't look right. Also my cover photo which I took while in Costa Rica is of an extremely colorful parrot. The title cut off the poor guys head so we MUST change something about it. Also I have 2 forms of the picture and while looking at both I realized the one picked has much less room at the top. By switching the two, I was able to tackle one problem by adding some more room for the Masthead. Although there is some more room at the top of the cover the title EXCURSIONIST is just way to long and made the page look extremely off. After taking off the IST in Excursionist now giving us our new title EXCURSION the page looks clean and fits everything very well. I had to rearrange the layout of the page but I really like it a lot more than the original one that I loved.

Cover Photo (not much room at top)

Reflecting Weeks 1&2

In this post, I have decided to reflect on the past few weeks. Week two of the blogging and magazine making process has been an absolute blast. This week, we had several more "ups" than "downs", which really helped Cali and I to keep going and pushing to do more and more each day. I am really proud of working on compromising and coming to several conclusions which further enhanced the look of our magazine. 

Most of you have never met us or have never seen pictures of us; but if you had, you would see we are complete opposites. From the way we think and act all the way down to our looks and the way we dress. Cali: tall with black hair. Me: really short with dark blonde hair. Being complete opposites, the way we want things to look and workout for the magazine are completely different. Due to this, there has been some back and fourth bickering; and yes, that will continue. I have a lot of hope that it will be amazing in the end and completely worth it. 

Putting all this aside, we are doing it for the magazine so usually when either of us has an opinion, we stick behind it. I feel I have personally reached this goal, as stated in my first post of wanting to achieve, I have accomplished this in  a tremendous way. Yes, I feel I have done more research and gone further into all the technicalities of the layouts and stuff but I know by the end of this or I'm hoping for that matter that it will be equal and I feel we are on the right track already.  I haven't portrayed much research throughout my blog, as in linking websites and stuff but I just feel for what we have researched thus far there isn't much for you as a reader to need further explanation on. This coming week a few of my posts will definitely dive much deeper into the researching and maybe even a social media page, but that's still up for some more discussion, but if it was up to me completely it would already be done. 

Well that is all for tonight thanks for tuning in again or if it's your first time here welcome and hope to see you back here soon! 

EXCURSIONIST 2.0

I was so excited to talk about the magazine itself, that I completely forgot to give the big reveal of the title...DRUM ROLL PLEASE........EXCURSIONIST!!!!!

We felt this title was a better fit than Nomadic, which was my final pick, because when a person hears the word nomad, they might think of a rundown person or as my mom says a hippie from the 1960s. There could also be a positive connotation such as a wanderer or adventurist, but I didn't want a person to turn down our magazine because of how they perceive the title. Therefore, we chose Excursionist because we wanted to emphasize the small excursions of a big adventure. We want to share first hand experiences with our readers. With leisure and adventure we hope our readers can fall as in love with these places as we have throughout our expeditions.

As the famous saying from Costa Rica, ¡PURA VIDA, Adios Lectóres!

EXCURSIONIST

Hi Everyone! This week Cali and I sketched our layouts for the cover and table of contents. We got our inspiration for the cover from looking through several travel magazines and other magazines that focus of one specific thing on the cover with very few cover lines, such as Cultured. 

While looking through these magazines and really coming across what I want to pursue as a career, I was offered an internship for Venice and Cultured magazines!!! Which I am extremely excited about and will be taking that on over the summer and next fall! 

Sorry for that side note... I am just extremely excited and can't wait to further my education in this field.

Back to the magazine... so after looking through these high end brand magazines, we decided to go with a very clean cover and bold title. Unlike some magazines, like people, that are extremely known, since no one knows us we felt it was best to have our title large and bolded in front of the bright and beautiful picture. Also a choice that was made for the cover was to have the location each magazine focuses on to the bottom right of the title. This was chosen instead of a sell line because we felt with our title we didn't need to elaborate more on our brand as much as what can be expected inside each magazine issue. For our table of contents, we also decided to go with a very clean looking 2 page spread. The table of contents still needs a lot of work but as of this point in time everything is coming along very well!! I am having a remarkable time with this project so far and couldn't be any happier with the way its turning out. Yes, there have been a few bumps here and there but nothing to major so far. Cali and I have been really working smoothly together and had a spectacular  time in class on Friday getting our covers done!! You can expect lots of colors and cute sayings, as well as articles full of personal experience and breath-taking adventures. 

Below are our sketches of the layouts. 

I know you are all eagerly awaiting the big reveal, but tha'ts going to be another couple of weeks. Stay tuned for more about our endeavors through this process. 

Thanks for reading! Hope to meet you here again soon!!!!

Square 1 Part 2

To start this post off, I hope everyone has had an extremely relaxing Sunday. I had a really good day and I am truly enjoying blogging, even though I don't think anyone has read my posts yet! 

Cali and I have started to discuss title ideas. -side note, sometimes you just gotta go with the flow and not get to attached to your ideas, especially if your'e working with someone who doesn't like change.- WE have come down to two titles, of course one of mine and one of hers. I think you can interpret the rest... obviously I want to use mine and she wants hers but mine just makes more sense. whatever... Tomorrow I plan to win the battle between the two titles and share it with you in my next post. We did pick our two additions of our magazines. One is going to be based on New Orleans, Louisiana, and mine is based in Costa Rica, one of my favorite places. 

Tomorrow I will dive deep into the research and will need some words of encouragement to keep going. being optimistic is this best thing to do in situations like this so this is what I will do.  Hopefully a sketch of the cover page will be done and the layouts for the two-page spreads as well.  

Well, that will be all for tonight goodnight sleep tight and get ready for a great week! 

Hope to meet you here again soon!

Square 1 Part 1

AND.... we are off... 

The brainstorming has begun and the research has kicked into gear. Cali, my partner, and I had the ideas flowing, nothing too good... THEN the ideas just came to us! We were stuck in between a fitness fashion and food type magazine, Similar to Women's Health, and a travel magazine with amazing site seeings and adventures around the globe, similar to Travel and leisure. 

In the end, of the back and fourth debate, we have decided to go with... traveling!!!

As seen in the pictures below, our pros and cons list along with extra info about picking our topic.

The compromise came down to the fact that I am a gym junkie and my partner would rather be anywhere but the gym, but we both absolutely love to travel. I wish I could say it was an easy decision but we did bicker throughout and it complicated some things.

Fancy meeting you here!

Welcome to my blog! My name is Melanie Louis, but I go by Mel or Mellie most of the time. I am extremely excited about the start of this blogging process. 

A bit about me...
I am a full time high school student in Florida, I am captain of the Varsity lacrosse team, traveling is my passion and my family and friends mean everything to me.

Why I'm creating this blog...
This blog is being created to go along side a magazine I will be creating for one of my classes, AICE Media Studies. In this class we were given the option for a magazine or a film opener as our portfolio project and given the option to work in a group of up to four or individually. I have decided to work with one of my classmates, Cali Kaufman, and our final decision was made months before the start of this project, a magazine won our interests.

What to expect...
Well quite honestly I'm not really sure. This is the first writing blog I have taken part in, I have made blogs through pictures but never like this. I can promise you there will be at least 3 posts every week until the end of April. Together we will go through several ups and downs, successes and failures, I'm hoping several more successes, but ya know Sh*t happens and sometimes things go wrong.

Throughout this process I want to...

• truly accept that its okay to fail even when working hard
• WOW myself, teammate, teacher, and classmates with my final project
• look back at this and be able to feel I did the best I could possibly do
• work on being open to new ideas and not being as stubborn when I'm extremely passionate about something
• work on my communication with my partner 
• create an atmosphere on my blog that makes people feel good and like what they read