Deciding what to do for my table of contents

 Hello everyone!

So lately I've been really thinking about what I should include in my table of contents, so far I understand that I mainly want to have a feature article and the cover but the other content is not something I included so the brainstorming process starts now!

I want my table of contents to be fun and include design elements that correspond with what each section is talking about, for example:

- pages 13-15 are about childrens toys so next to it will be a bouncy ball

- page 8 is about dinosaurs so there'll be a toy dinosaur included

I want my magazine to appeal to both parents and children even though its highly unlikely a child will read it.

Thinking of a table of contents really helps me figure out what else I want to include in my magazine, because since I really started thinking about it I realized that I want to include a short kids story in the magazine with some creative drawings in it. The drawings of course will be made by other kids so I will most definitely be asking my brother to draw some things for me. I think that incorporating fun elements in my magazine will really draw attention to it from parents.

Anyway, going into more detail with the table of contents I think I'll have it listed as such

Terrible twos, are they true? - page 3

Kids catalog clothing - page 5

Tips and tricks from one parent to another - page 9

How being a single mother made me stronger (feature article) - page 11

Kids short story (still needs to be named and written) - page 13

these are the ideas I have for my magazine/table of contents so far. Of course its all subject to change and I will most definitely be adding more but this is just the basis for it. I'm very excited to see where this project will take me and for the actually creating process!

See you later! Over and out!

Picking the poses for my pictures

Hey everyone!

 For my front cover I was thinking of having a specific pose but there's not much I can do with a four year old. Initially the poses I had in mind were the following:

and while I dont think they're that hard to instruct him to do, I feel like each photo carries a message and this message wont be able to be fully portrayed through my brother.

Because of this, I instructed him to do some poses that I found fitting for my magazine

So far, I really like the first pose as I believe it is very childlike and carries that sort of innocent demanor. While the second pose is cute it seems as if he may be posing to be the next spiderman (lol!) The last two poses are ones that I may incorporate inside the magazine such as in my table of contents slide or just as small place holders for things. Soon i'll be gathering his clothes for the photoshoot so I am very excited for it.

See you later! Over and out!

Layout for my cover page

Hey everyone!

My main priority right now during the planning stage is how my cover is going to be. I believe the cover is the most crucial part for a magazine because its what draws people into your reading your magazine. I've already chosen a title so now I just need to bring all my design elements to life.

So far, I've created a rough draft of the design without any pictures. This rough draft fits the mood board theme I want to create. I want it too look fun and whimsical but not to jam packed and I think I've done a pretty good job at implementing that.

Obviously I'm going to include elements like the coverline and the barcodes, and the little boy on the front will be a picture of my brother posing, but so far I like the initial layout of of my cover. My only main concern is the small teddy bear and star elements but we'll have to see what it looks like after I add text.

After adding the text I first didn't really like how the design turned out because I thought it was too cluttered, however after viewing it now I think it looks fine! After I actually add the photo of my brother and information onto the coverlines and the puff I believe the cover will actually start fully coming together. 

Next week I am going to be taking pictures of my brother to see what angles will work best for the cover of the magazine.

See you later! Over and out!

Looking at outfit inspiration

 Hello everyone!

While my parenting magazine is typically one that mainly includes information I decided I wanted to included a kids fashion part of the magazine that included my brother as the model. Since I've decided this I've been viewing outfit inspiration.

The outfits chosen are those that fit the current trends and taste of the age range I'm hoping to influence in my magazine. Many of these outfits are stylish and just kids sized versions of clothes I would typically wear so I believe they're fitting. Today I went through my brothers closet to see if he had any clothes that might've fit the trendy design that I was looking for and I did luckily happen to find some outfits.

Soon though I'll most likely be going online shopping to make sure I fully have the clothes I'm looking for, such as jersey t-shirts and jeans that fit. I also wanted to include some accessories to his outfit such as this hat that perfectly fits the mood of my article.

This hat slightly made me rethink my idea of how I wanted the clothing to be, now I think I want to incorporate more colorful clothing just like the design of the magazine. Preferably clothing such as listed below:

However in the end I think I'm going to use both designs as they both are something I want to include in my magazine and I think will be beneficial and relate to the audience.

See you later! Over and out!

Creating a style guide

 Hey everyone!

This week we'll be talking about a style guide for my magazine. While I researched parenting magazines before I noticed that most of them had a nature type of style. For example:

I believe that parenting magazines use this design choice because nature is seen as something pure and that ties into children. Because of these commonality I want to make my article stand out.

This is the mood board that I created, it concludes childlike designs from an aesthetic called kidcore. I chose this design because I felt it still included the pureness of typically parenting magazine yet it also included a more interesting design like how I wanted my article to be. However for my feature article I will most likely tone down on the childlike whimsy as it'll be a more serious article. The design will keep the colorful elements but there will be less rainbows and crayons and what not.

For example something simple like this, it'll include small colorful elements but these wont take away from the serious themes of the article. I'm excited to include my design into my magazine soon!

See you later! Over and out!

Project Proposal!

 

Hello everyone!

My name is Jaliyah Young and for my AICE media studies project I will be doing a magazine.

The magazine genre that I chose to do was a parenting magazine. Usually these types of magazines are typically popular with my age group, typically you'd expect for a teenager to create a fashion and/or music magazine but I thought that a parenting magazine was an interesting concept and the action of researching it would be fun. I'm also heavily influenced by the fact that I have a four year old brother and have been observing the way that my mom has been taking care of him since he was born.

The target audience for my magazine will be millennial/genz parents and aspiring parents who're looking for advice about their children or their potential children as well as other's who may just be interested in how other people take care of their own children. My brief however will discuss the hardships of being a parent and the complications that come with it, I plan to include first hand interviews of these struggles to make it more authentic.

Software and hardware I plan to use during this process is primarily indesign and possibly the use of photoshop to lighten images. I may also use Canva to create designs such as borders and such for my magazine cover especially to include accents.

The basic plan I have for my magazine so far are its title being:

The cover image including a photo of my own brother posing, and a feature article talking about the struggles of parentings said by my mother. Soon, I will begin the process of creating my magazine.

See you later! Over and out!

Deciding on my feature article

 Hello everyone, when I was planning my magazine I knew I needed to include a feature article, however the topic and who it should be about stumped me.

Obviously, it would have to relate to parenting since I am making a parenting magazine but the topic that will be talked about is something Ive been considering.

At first I wanted to talk about the day to day of being a parent and how that is for parents around the world. I was thinking I'd interview at least three parents on their day to day and take pictures of them interacting, I also wanted to include quotes that might be inspiring to other parents/ future parents who are curious as to how other parents deal with their kids. An example image of the photos taken would probably be something like this of a parents average day with their kids.

After some consideration I decided to make my feature article an interview style work that talks about the hardships of being a parent. I got my inspiration from my own mother since she is a single mom who takes care of my brother and I. I believe her story is very inspiring and will be able to bring emotion out of the parents who read it. I'll also include a photo of my mother, maybe with one of her coming from work and interacting with my brother. An example photo would be something like this, with my mom still in her work clothes and her playing with my brother despite being tired. 

The questions I'll ask during the interview will most likely be:

"what are some of the struggles of parenting that aren't talked about?"

"whats advice that you'd give to upcoming parents"

"do you believe that the parenthood shown online doesn't represent what it is in real life?"

I feel like these questions really incapsulate the theme I'm going for in my article and carry on the inspirational aspects.

See you later! Over and out!

Naming ceremony!

 Wow! the researching portion is finally over, now its finally time to start planning my magazine!

When I initially thought of my magazine my first idea was to have a title similar to "Parents", and while I found this title to be short and to the point I also thought it was pretty anticlimactic. 

Most parenting magazines have the word parenting in them so guardians know how to identify them, so I think I'll follow that structure for my magazine.

Now for the big reveal, the name of my magazine will be....

This title was thought up by my mother and I, and as we researched I realized that this title fit what I wanted to portray in my magazine.

The meaning of Parentage is "the origin of ones parents" and this definition really stuck with me since all parents start out somewhere and nobody is perfectly perfect.

The next steps in my process of planning will be the pick a design concept that I will keep throughout my article, as well as who my feature article will be about.

See you later! Over and out!

Similar media company to my brief idea

 Dotdash Meredith/People Inc. is the media company that publishes Parents. They're the largest digital and print publisher in America and more than 175 million people trust their work.

They're magazine, Parents is a leading publication that focuses on teaching caregivers and parents the questions that society may not give them. As, the digital world takes storm the Parents magazine has become primarily online.

Their website includes photos and design elements that draw attention to each article and highlight specific issues that only parents may go through. For example:

The bottom left article of this image talks about the struggles of getting your child a dog and having to take care of it; this is an issue that many parents go through and may be seeking advice for. Which is something that Parents provides.

The website also includes more social media elements, such as their latest videos on their social media and current articles that are trending amongst their audiences. These factors may bring in new parents who have no idea where to start in their process of viewing the website.

The factors also relate to their target demographic as most parents are millennials who have experience with the internet and often are drawn towards more technological aspects and the latests trends.

The website also includes toy products and promotes them to their audience, via recommendations from the editors, assumingely, these products represent ads that may be seen in an actual magazine, just electronically.

See you later! Over and out!

Who's the target audience for my parenting magazine?

 The target audience when writing a parenting magazine is obviously parents yet the age range for these magazine seem to be millennials as according to indianprintpublisher

The website states that the Meredith brand has the ability to create content for their millennial viewers, which is a high advantage because, "There is this huge tsunami of parents, mostly women, who are moving into the parenting space. There are 17 million millennial moms in the US and it's continuing to grow by about a million a year." meaning their content speaks to all these millennial moms.

The website then explains how it adheres to their audiences' age group, for example they've researched millennials with social listening and figured out that millennials want to spend more time with their children, which causes for the magazine to advertise for more "mommy and me" activities that can accommodate this need.

 

The website then goes onto state, "Parents magazine covers food in every section of the magazine. Culturally nostalgic food is a popular content topic, for example. Parents magazine covers food from school lunches to family dinners, and always try to go deeper into the content, because Millennial parents want food all of the time," this quote is proven with a little internet research, for example:

The article explains the wants and needs of the current parenting group and how to adhere to that which is something I will have to heavily consider when writing my magazine in order to have a successful "sale" of it.

See you later! Over and out!

https://indianprinterpublisher.com/blog/2019/06/how-merediths-parents-magazine-creates-content-for-millennial-moms/#:~:text=Parennials%20want%20to%20maximise%20their,and%20memories%20in%20those%20moments.%E2%80%9D

Parenting magazine covers and notes

 

When researching a magazine cover I came across many conventions.

First, I realized that the cover should include a mast head, which as stated makes the magazine recognizable to the company. The website also states that it is tied to the targeted audience, meaning that my mast head should incorporate something to pull in parents.

Next, the cover model is something that I have considered well. As stated on the website the cover model often enables the reader the determine the genre of the magazine upon viewing the model, which is something to think about when considering your model and who you want your target audience to be.

Additionally, another very important factor is the subheadings as they often disclose the information that is included in the magazine, giving readers an easier way of knowing what is to be expected as stated in the website.

Finally, the barcode is an essential tool as it is simply what allows for people to purchase the magazine which is what all these attractions are about. As the website states it is often in a place that doesn't obscure the view yet is visible to the eye, making it easier for transactions.

See you later! Over and out!

https://www.slideshare.net/slideshow/codes-and-conventions-of-magazines-61504976/61504976