Karla Perez

So... after lots of people's criticism, I'm (once again) doubting and rethinking everything. I truly want to make this project perfect--not just for the end-of-course grade and AICE credit, but also for the satisfaction and pride that I feel when I work on this magazine or when I think that my unique concept could be made into a reality. I'm thinking that I should completely re-do the entire Table of Contents and just change a few things on the cover. As for the spread, I'm thinking of rewriting the article and changing the topic--I'd write about it on a different blog post more in detail. I hope everything works out and ends up as perfect as humanly possible for my standards and limitations.

Front Page: Table of Contents: Spread:

So, today I met up with my focus group and further reviewed and critiqued deeper than the first time and here's what I was told: change the saturation of your pictures to make them brighter; edit your content a bit more so that it fits the vibe of the magazine better change the placement of the captions in the TOC and check grammar (on the left) consider making the page numbers red (TOC) possibly change the picture you used on the left of the TOC--something brighter and that screams music and Latin more put a low-opacity box for your captions (spread)--maybe make them the same pink as the title of the article put the "Article by" on the left, right above the article itself proofread I'm going to take all of these comments into account and see how it goes.

Today, I got some really helpful advice from a dear senior friend of mine who knows a fair amount about this kind of stuff. This is what she said: "The magazine's cover needs to be checked for font sizes. Use real a magazine as a reference but the hierarchy is very lopsided. The fonts are too large and competing with the title. Try making the table of contents' numbers the same red as the box to make them stand out more. And the title on the cover should be larger (think about Vogue or Rolling Stones)." I will be applying these comments to my next edits, so stay tuned!

Today I asked my AICE Media Studies teacher if I could present my first draft to my project to the class to get their feedback and she allowed me to. I was really nervous while presenting because I kept doubting my work and rethinking everything and already started planning on things I should change. Here's their commentary: For the most part, everyone liked the cover but just pointed out that the smaller text was kind of hard to read and that the "The Winter Issue" at the bottom was unnecessary. They also said that the Table of Contents didn't really seem to fit in well with the rest; someone called it "book-ish," saying that it looks more like a book's contents spread rather than a magazine's. They also reminded me that it would be much better if I added the different sections' titles, as well as of the fact that I need the full spread of the TOC. In terms of the spread, everyone seemed to really like it. They just pointed...

Cover:  Table of Contents: Spread:

I just wanted to offer the official summary of my magazine. Here it is: The title Ritmo Magzine The publication/product's personality--What is its purpose? Its voice? Its subject? To offer a platform specifically for those who love Latin music or wish to learn about it. It serves as both an entertaining and knowledgeable magazine that is youthful, bright, happy, simplistic and traditional, just like the culture it represents. Where is this sold/distributed? At least at first, the magazine will be sold digitally on its website and hopefully as it will gain more readership and thus obtain partners or sponsors or more advertisements to go to print. How will this product sustain itself? Subscription? Ads? Both? Neither? It will sustain itself as mentioned above. Additionally, it will thrive off the work of those who are simply passionate about this magazine's niche, as well as off submissions. In addition, the magazine would have marketing staff who focus on getting ads...

Happy New Year! I've been a bit MIA because I wanted to enjoy the break but now that we're back in school, it's time to keep my head in the game. This is a project for a class, but regardless of that, I feel like having a complete package of what you anticipate and have planned for other issues or even for the magazine as a whole. I followed the steps from this link , and here's my media package: Editorial Calendar  ("Yearly overview with concepts and themes by month for each issue") - For this, I had coincidentally already thought about this and mentioned it in one of my past blog posts. It's an idea of mine to make my magazine's niche its focus on a different country each month. For example, in the issue I'm working on the main focus would be Cuba, so one of my articles will be about Cuban music's history (I specifically focused on salsa for my article) and Cuban artists will be specially featured throughout the issue. Staff List (...