Test Shots Minnie(pt 2)

 Hey welcome back. I attempted to take some amateur pictures of Minnie again, as i felt i needed more diversity with her pictures as she is almost like the main star of this magazine. If i include any advertisements like for Fancy Feast, i wanted to ensure i got a picture of her with it and sure enough i managed to do it! here it goes!:

Now, to address the elephant in the room, it clearly looks like shes giving attitude and sass in this picture, however its a great beginning! Ill make sure i get her to smile or look into the camera atleast next time, i think she was a bit mad i wasnt actually feeding her the food yet.....

Here go 2 more without her looking in the camera, but i managed to capture her trying to sneak a bite in during the photoshoot.. although she does struggle keeping focus and staying on task, she did her very best for this attempt and i do believe ill be able to salvage some pictures from this shoot. See you guys next time!

Lighting

 For my lighting of my pictures, I will try to incorporate as much natural light as possible, as the natural light creates the feeling of nature and animal-y feel, although i would love to include some shots of each animal with professional lighting, i believe the best option is to not overuse this type of lighting. However i did learn about the use of tin foil for lighting and heres an example:

Heres a picture i found using a sort of professional lighting, which i can recreate at home aswell

This picture looks amazing in the end result, and all they used was a green screen(green background for editing purposes), a lamp shining downwards with a tinfoil sheet pointing up and away. I find this picture amazing, and i would like to recreate it at home aswell. Im advertising about my animals and how i treat them, so close-ups and detailed shots can help enhance the looks of the pets im including.

The article gave me amazing tips about this DIY reflector, and even gave me the steps to creating one and how to use it properly, it states",Get a 3 feet by 4 feet piece of thick cardboard or foam board to use as your reflector. Create a smooth white surface on one side of the board and adhere tin foil to the opposite side. The tinfoil side will reflect a brighter, more specular light, while the white side will reflect a gentler, more even light."

The article went on to say that if i want to show lighter fur, i should use the white side and for darker fur i should use the tin foil side, which helps me alot as i have a dog with very light fur and a cat with dark-ish fur.

Furthermore, my research also told me about the use of many other types of lighting, so i will list them all here and give a short description of them

1. Continuous Lighting

    - (LEDS especially), these lights stay on which keeps the pet calm and non frightened by a random flash of light, LEDS and other continuous lights do not emit/create much heat so it is very optimal

2. Broad Lighting

    - The most simple setup for lighting, simply when the pet is looking in the camera, and the light is shining from the same exact side as the camera making the face of the pet the focal point and shows the details of their face.

3. Short Lighting

    - Same set up as the previous one, however this time the light is on the opposite side of the pet, which creates more detail in their fur/body features more than anything. Can include a DIY reflector for better results aswell.

I will use mostly the natural lighting(outside pictures, window lighting etc.), however i will try to create a DIY reflector at home as the idea really interested me and i believe can help me achieve a professional-ish look in my pictures!

Test shots p.3 Raggy

 This week. i FINALLY managed to get my hands back on my bearded dragon to take some pictures for the magazine production process. here is how it went:

Raggy overall is a very chill one, especially when her heating lamp is on and bearded dragons in general often dont cause much of a hassle unless you rattle them yourself. here are some of the pictures i took:

Above is a blooper, but i kept this as if i ever mention the habitat of Raggy, i can include this picture of his wooden log that he occasionally rests ontop of. here are some real pictures of him though! :

Honestly, i am VERY happy that Raggy was so curious to look at the camera i was holding to look directly into the lens, all i needed was a few pictures of him looking at the camera and i knew the rest of the photoshoot would go smoothly. i have many more pictures, but they are mostly boring and identical to the others, and Raggy is not the type to give me any good smiles. Thank you for joining me!

Test shots pt.2 Kona

hey bloggers, welcome back to my blog this time we will be doing test shots for my dog Kona. Kona is more of a shy dog, so it was hard for her to open up at first so here are 

Test shots pt.1 Minnie

For this week, i was taking pictures of my animals, specifically my cat, minnie. i was attempting to get

pictures of my cat in the sunlight, however we ran into some issues like in this one she wasnt really positioned well, and she was all in the shade. i ended up taking a much better one, but this was just a quick test shot. 

another failed attempt at this picture, she wasnt looking at the camera or at a good angle that would look good, still barely sitting in the shade.

this picture below is another example of a failed attempt at a good picture. Everything in this picture looks bad, the only great thing about this was the face she was making and the camera angle. the background is just my floor tile, and the lighting was poor however i attempted using this picture for a cutout and it wasnt bad, however it likely wouldnt make the cut.

Experimenting with layouts

whats going on everyone! Today, i am once again working on the production of my magazine, however i need to figure out a nice layout for my magazine, as my main concerns is if i want the table of contents as a two page thing, if i want a picture of my cat as the background or any picture as a background, etc. 

I also was contemplating my cover, for example how many words is too many on the front page? How big should eyecatchers be? How big should my main picture be?

But here i am, to experiment with some of the layouts and research some more! here are some results that i found:

I LOVE this cover, for how simple it is specifcially. My previous blog about finding covers only started my brainstorm process, however here is the finalized look i will be shooting for, as the simplicity doesnt strain any eyes of any extraneous reading, and keeps the focus on the cute little dog on the cover. The cherry on top is the suprisingly easy but nice background, a simple color with darkening around the edges.

This is the table of contents i will be aiming to accomplish. The incorporation of pictures doesnt encourage too much stress about reading, and also can help maintain organization by keeping the cats on one side of the table of contents to show these pages will include info about cats, whilst maybe the other page could be another animal. this will make navigation much easier.

The double page spread, however is where it gets tricky. No matter how much i think about it, the double page spread must include many words, however i can do my best to calm them down with cute pictures of my animals such as this cute dog with a bowl in its mouth. i will aim to do something of this sort, however i will definetely include subheadings and subtitles to make things look more appealing and organized.

Thank you! see you guys later!

Timeline

Welcome back bloggers, today i made a calendar to keep myself on track, ensuring to not fall so far behind by keeping myself accountable! Here is my calendar:

As you can see it is very simple and self explanatory, but one specific thing i would like to point out is the arrival of spring break which is can be one of two things for me. Either an opportunity to get more ahead and work on my project diligently, or have too much fun during the break and try to stay on track after break. Honestly, i have no problem working throughout spring break as i know its what i have to do to be on track to finish on time.

Once again, thank you for reading bloggers have a great rest of your day!

Color research

To my loyal blog readers, welcome back to my lovely magazine journey, on a blog.

Today i am figuring out which color patterns i will be using throughout my whole magazine, so lets get started with my decisions that i came to throughout my research of colors.

Heres the first palette:

I chose these particular colors, as the lavender pink background evokes feelings of care and playfulness, which connects with the nurturing relationship between pets and their owners. Paired with the white text, which goes very well with pink background, the clean white text is sublime when it comes to readability and makes the information a bit more digestible and less overwhelming compared to other colors. I chose bright yellow specifically for the visual eye-catchers, for example some pieces of text on the cover will be in this bright yellow color to ensure it catches eyes as it may include key details. Yellow connotes happiness as-well, which reflects the feeling of joy that pets bring to their owners.

Heres my second palette:

Personally, this one is in second place to the previous one, however the calm blue background with crisp white text with the aquamarine for advertisement purposes is a great combo. The blue i used connotes trust and peace, similar to the life of owning a pet. Once again, the white text is the easiest to read and gives a sense of clarity, also adds to the simplistic vibe. The aquamarine connotes compassion and playfulness, and all these colors together produces an amazing palette that is visually appealing.

Heres the last and third palette:

Finally, for the background once again im going with a blue, but a different shade. The robin egg blue background connotes a similar thing to the last blue, creates a sense of calmness and friendlyness. Nothing much more needs to be saids about the white text, its very simplistic and clean and provides a sense of familiarity to the readers. The tan-ish color is a very unique aspect of this palette, as it can be used for the boxes around pictures or any captions and sidelines. These colors work together strongly and is visually appealing and connotes every emotion i am trying to portray to the readers.

Thank you everyone for reading my blog, and see you on my next post.

 

Models

 for my pet magazine i had three models in mind. My cat Minnie, My dog Kona, and my bearded dragon Raggy. I picked these three specifically because they are pretty diverse and i think i can make my magazine pretty interesting using them. They each can be photographed in different areas and have different styles and vibes to fit my magazine. 

1. Minnie

 

My first choice was my cat Minnie because she is really cute and very photogenic, and i think the pictures  ill be able to take of her will come out good and will look good in my magazine. I also know about cats pretty well because I've had her for about 7 years so I'm pretty familiar with the food, toys, and different things she likes, and other things about cats i can talk about. 

2. Kona 

My second option is my dog Kona because she is also very photogenic and i can easily get pictures of her anywhere. I can also take her to local dog parks in the area and that can be a topic i talk about in my blog, there is also a lot of dog related topics like toys, food, and equipment like best collars and leashes to use. 

3. Raggy 

My third choice is my bearded dragon Raggy because i think it will add an interesting look into my magazine by talking about an animal that not many people have or even know, so it can get people intrigued and reading more. I can talk about their enclosures and what's they need, like their diet and sunbathing. 

Masthead

 Today, my assignment is to choose one of 6 elements of my magazine to focus on to actually start designing for my actual personal magazine that i am creating. I have to make sure i consider the font, and find examples from other magazines that would inspire me.

My first inspiration for a masthead is the Happy Paws magazine.

I specifically chose this one because of the incorporation of the paw print in the title adds to the whole pet magazine vibe and is a sort of subtle but important feature that makes the masthead feel fitting and lets the readers know that this magazine will be focused on dogs. I believe i can incorporate something similar in my title, however it will be insanely difficult as i will feature 3 different animals but i was thinking about including some sort of cat symbol as my cat will be featured on the cover.

These 2 covers, as you can see, also match in many ways with the first one. They all have simple but neat fonts, with many eyecatchers and bits of texts (supporting cover lines) that all help catch readers attention. I strongly side with these ideas, as i believe the simple look complements these types of magazines without doing too much and drawing away too much attention from the cute animal that will be on the cover.

Idea #1: My masthead will be "Petopia" and i chose this as it was the most popular voted on my survey and i personally love the simplicity

This is my ideal use of a cat symbol on a letter. I like the simplicity but also the cuteness of this and i believe other cat lovers will as-well especially considering the majority age demographic.

Idea #2: Another font idea for my masthead is the cooper black font, which is lowkey very simple and neat which may complement the picture on the cover.

The bubbly-ish letters make the font look more cute and gives off playful vibes, this one is one of my favorites. I may change the colors of any of these, however i am very focused on the font as of now and this one may be a personal favorite and i strongly believe it will look nice on my cover.

Market research

For this week, we were introduced to a new way of finding ideas, which was to conduct an online survey and provide simple questions and to get responses to find out what is widely preferred by the common people. Here's how my own went:

My first question was obviously what should my title be, im super glad that Petopia was chosen as its not too long, but also includes the word pet in the title. Personally, i believe Petopia is also the perfect length aswell for the look im going for.

My next question was going to be which of my four pets should I include in my magazine, and honestly i expected my dog to be picked much more but the clear "big 3" is my cat minnie, my bearded dragon Raggy and my dog Kona.

This question i knew was going to be diverse and not a clear winner, however out of all the options I was very suprised to see that Brown and green/nature colors was the most popular one however i dont have much issue with it.  Instead of a simple one color, i think i will vary the color schemes for the different pets im doing, for example the nature color for my bearded dragon as it fits better for him.

For my masthead, i provided 4 options of fonts to use. This is very important because i was genuinely stuck between these 3, however i included a font called "cattino" but i actually think i cannot include this sadly, as its not only about my cat and the software im using doesnt paste it in properly unfortunately. I will go with the other popular option which is Cooper Black.

Similar to the last question, however i wanted to find a proper body font and honestly i dont care too much about which one of these won, as-long as it isn't the same one as the masthead font, as im okay with any of these options.

This question was just to see my target audience's age, as expected the vast majority of people are 16 and older but under 19. All GEN Z

This is my most important question in my opinion, and i am so relieved to see that my cat has to pose in a playful pose as she always rolls around in a playful way so hopefully capturing the best magazine cover picture of her will be easy and obviously very cute

As my last question, i asked about which brand i should advertise, honestly at home we mostly own fancy feast so i will most likely go with that, but i am extremely suprised by how much Chewy was voted, made me seriously consider it as a great option and may have just convinced me to check out the Chewy brand more.

My Audience Profile

Because my magazine is a pet magazine, I will research many things about the target audience, and make a canva presentation about all the features ive dug up from my extensive research: 

To do this, however i will start with researching each aspect of a target audience one by one. Starting from the gender of the audience, to age, race, religion, education, average income, purchasing habits, and their common likes and dislikes.

https://www.canva.com/design/DAGeKEKOKJA/9Mp0JmbR_zyDbyUPg9Frkw/edit?utm_content=DAGeKEKOKJA&utm_campaign=designshare&utm_medium=link2&utm_source=sharebutton