Website softwares and name ideas!

Having good ideas and concepts for my magazine is very good, but not knowing how to bring those
ideas to life, is a problem. Considering multiple options for the making of the magazine is essential.
When searching ‘magazine making software’, many choices come up. One website called “5 Must
Know Magazine Layout Maker Software to Design Impressive Magazines” gives great options. A few
of them appear quite complicated so I make sure to try and find one that I will be able to navigate easily.
One website that catches my eye at first is called FlipHTML5. This appears to be a software that converts
‘plain PDFs into interactive digital magazines with page-flipping effect’. It is made so that a reader would
be able to click on links and watch videos. After looking further, I realized this website isn’t exactly what I
need for this project.

Another website that catches my attention is called Blurb. At first glance, the website appears to fit my
needs so I download the software. Once installed, it prompts me to make a name for my magazine. Since
I hadn’t begun to think of names, ideas now come to my head. One of my first ideas is to look up
synonyms for the word fashion. A word that stood out to me was ‘craze’. I liked it because it’s a word
that people don’t hear too often and it embodies the genre of the magazine which is fashion. This is my
initial title for my magazine. Also, I am looking forward to playing with my magazine making software.

Source: 5 Must Know Magazine Layout Maker Software to Design Impressive Magazines. Retrieved from http://fliphtml5.com/learning-center/5-must-know-magazine-layout-maker-software-to-design-impressive-magazines/

Initial research...

Today, I have begun to do my primary research on fashion magazines. My teacher advised that the first
thing that we should consider when researching is genre and target audience. These have been a main
focus for other projects that have been done in the past as well such as our music project. The first thing
I googled when beginning research is “how do fashion magazines target their audience.” This seemed to
me like a good place to start seeing as it incorporates both genre and target audience. I learned that
fashion magazines tend to downplay luxurious things. They focus on promoting cheaper and easier
alternatives instead of trying to make the reader feel pressured to acquire an expensive item. An example
would be a headline from Elle magazine: “Style for Less: The Best Under $50!” This would be a good
strategy to use for cover lines in my magazine.

Source: Voltolina, V. (2009, January 19). Fashion Magazines’ New Target Audience: ‘Recessionistas.’
Retrieved from https://www.foliomag.com/fashion-magazines-new-target-audience-recessionistas/

My thought process...

Right now my partner Maya and I are in the process of deciding what we want our magazine to
incorporate. Doing a fashion magazine is our initial thought process. This seems like one of the simpler
options especially since we’ve done some prior research on this genre. Since we fall under the target
audience of fashion magazines as well, I think it might make creating our own a bit simpler. Since we
live in Florida where the weather is mostly tropical, we want to make our magazine editions in either
one of the spring or summer months.

The most difficult part of this project for me will be coming up with a story for the two page spread of

my edition. I want to make mine about something that I’d thoroughly enjoy writing about. The element
of this project I’m most excited about is the design of the magazine. Playing with color schemes and
layout has always been things I’ve enjoyed. Being able to do that for my own magazine edition seems
like something that would be fun and interesting.  

Some magazines that I will be researching and getting inspiration from in this blog will be Elle, Vogue,

Glamour, Cosmopolitan, etc. These already very established magazines will be a good place to start
when trying to think of ideas for my own edition.