Learning About the Tools

At the beginning of October, I began to learn about StudioWorks. This is an online publishing program that I will be using to create my magazine design and layout. The first thing I learned about was the Navigation Bar which is located at the top of StudioWorks. This is where all major sections could be accessed including the dashboard, pages, content, planner, and more. I completed a Padlet in class where I wrote down what some of these things do.

In my next assignments, I learned how to do many things such as…

- Choose a font

- Select a text size

- Create a text box

- Make a picture box

- Create a colored background

- Add a picture

- Find the bleed mark

- Find the gutter

- Add a stroke

- Measure things in picas

- Use the measurement tool

After I continued to learn more about StudioWorks and complete more assignments with it, by mid-October I learned how to…

- Locate the trim

- Flip an image

- Invert an image

- Add a rounding radius

- Change the transparency

- Add a drop shadow

- Add a gradient to a drop shadow

- Adjust the softness

- Use text-wrapping

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Creating a Practice Spread

Around the end of January, I created a practice spread about myself to help me prepare for my final spread for my magazine. Completing this spread helped me get a sense of putting all of my photos, captions, secondary coverage, and article altogether to create something that looks presentable and is completed. Working on this practice spread helped me experiment with the different ways I could use fonts and colors in my headline, subheadline, and secondary coverage titles. Practice using the three types of spacing (micro, conventional, and macro) came out of making this spread as well. After completing this spread for practice, it helped me realize the things that I need to work on such as having more of a color theme, a better dominant photo, and making sure I can fit my article and captions in their spaces on the spread. Below is a picture of my completed practice spread.

Getting Started

One of the first things our magazine project centered on was creating a publication at the beginning of September. I learned how important a publication is to a magazine and the role it plays. Publications are used as a reference to magazines, saves memories, and documents their history. Some popular examples include People Magazine, Vogue Magazine, and Women’s Health Magazine. After learning about the importance of a publication and reviewing some examples, my partner and I decided that Black Art Magazine would be a great name for our own.

Designing a Layout

By the middle of October, it was time for me to start thinking about the design layout of my magazine. I began to learn about the many different elements of design. This includes pictures, copy and white space, column designs, external and internal margins, placement of the eyeline, dominant photo, copy area, vertical axis, and captions. After that, I started learning about adding more information to my layout by using secondary coverage, how to use micro, conventional, and macro spacing, and the importance of visual/verbal connections which involves the headline and dominant picture. In early November, I began to study fonts. I completed an assignment where I chose five different types of secondary coverage and then I explained how the different font I chose for each secondary coverage would add contrast, where the text will be placed, how drop and raised caps would be used, if transparency and text-wrapping will be used, and the aligning of the text. Creating a good headline was the ...

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