week 9 post 2

 After weeks of planning, designing, writing, and editing... my fashion magazine is finally finished! It feels kind of amazing to hold something that I made from start to end. I still can’t believe it’s real. When I opened the final version in InDesign, I just stared at it for a few minutes. Every page looked so clean and organized. The colors matched, the fonts felt stylish, and the photos popped. I thought, Wow—I actually made this!

I really overall loved how this came out and how much I learned using Adobe InDesign. All the different tools were fun to explore, and I was able to understand how to use them firsthand. I feel like I got a strong understanding of how to actually create a magazine—from planning the content to designing it—and how to make it connect with a certain audience.

I think one of the coolest parts was being able to take my ideas and turn them into real pages. I learned how to arrange text and images, choose styles that match a fashion theme, and make it all look neat and stylish. It wasn’t always easy though. I struggled the most with formatting and figuring out where to place the cut-outs. Choosing the right color scheme and matching fonts also took a lot of thinking and testing.

But even with the challenges, I feel proud of how it turned out. The final product looks really nice and clean, and it shows how much time and effort I put into it. I think all the hard work was definitely worth it, and now I feel more confident if I ever want to design something like this again.

week 9 post 1

 Creating my fashion magazine was super fun—but it definitely didn’t come out perfect the first time. That’s where the editing and feedback part came in. This stage was all about taking what I already made and making it even better. I used Adobe InDesign to put everything together. At first, I thought it looked pretty cool. But once I stepped back and looked at it again—and shared it with a few people—I realized some things needed to change. Some pages looked a little too crowded or messy. InDesign makes it easy to move things around, so I changed how the text and pictures were placed. I gave some parts more space to “breathe” so they weren’t so squished.

I had a few fonts that didn’t match the fashion vibe I wanted. After getting some advice, I picked cleaner, more stylish fonts that looked more like real fashion magazines. It made everything feel more professional.I used some bright colors at first, but they didn’t really fit the overall look. I switched to more neutral tones and pastels that felt softer and more elegant—just like the mood I wanted the magazine to have. My friends told me which pages were their favorites and which ones were confusing. One friend said a photo was really cool but kind of got lost in the background, so I made it bigger to let it stand out.

creative criticial reflections

 Now that I finally have my magazine finished, I will be answering some very important questions relating to it in creative ways.     

1. How does your product use or challenge conventions and how does it represent social groups or issues?

I answered this question in a podcast format, explaining how my magazine challenges conventions and how it represents social groups and issues. 

Hi everyone, and welcome back to the Fashion-Forward 2025 podcast. Here, we delve into the background of the fashion-forward 2025 movement, how it originated, and its future developments, and address any questions you may have. Today, we will explore how the fashion-forward 2025 movement challenges conventions and represents various social groups and issues. To provide some context, I designed this magazine as a blend of beauty, fashion, and lifestyle.  Inspired by renowned magazines such as Forbes and ELLE, I aim to present young teenage girls in a fashionable light while inspiring younger girls. My magazine draws inspiration from the recent trend known as the " clean girl aesthetic, “which emphasizes self-care and self-love.

 Although this trend originated on social media, I embraced it throughout my magazine because it fosters a healthy mindset, healthy habits, and a healthy lifestyle- something I believe is a challenge for girls in today's world due to social media. Given the society we live in today, I advocate for body positivity and diverse beauty standards by featuring girls in my magazine with varied appearances, including different body shapes, ethnicities, and abilities that challenge conventional ideals of beauty. In the subsequent pages of my magazine, I showcase unedited photos to counteract the unrealistic beauty standards perpetuated by social media and advertising. I also highlight inspiring women to share their personal stories about self-acceptance and confidence. Throughout my magazine, I consistently feature encouraging gender-fluid fashion, breaking the stereotypes that dictate certain clothing is exclusive to specific genders. I wanted my magazine to be inclusive of all genders. Although my title is Her Era, I still included pages that portray girls in roles traditionally occupied by men, showcasing them in fashion-forward, non-traditional attire. 

Another great part about this magazine that helped to break regular societal norms and conventions is that it addresses mental health and the well-being of young adolescent people in our world. Normalizing conversations about anxiety, depression, and body dysmorphia helps resonate with teenagers and helps to inform them in a creative way that these things are not taboo and can be spoken about safely.  Providing self-care tips and real stories from young people navigating mental health challenges also helps to break society, norms, and conventions in my magazine. All the tips and tricks that I’ve included in my magazine help to build girls, confidence and boys’ confidence to be OK with their bodies, to help make themselves feel better and look better. I believe that looking good and feeling good is a healthy mindset that a bunch of young adolescent people should follow because it helps to build confidence, self-worth, and love. 

 

That’s why, in Her Era, we make it our priority not to influence people to look a certain way but to brace their uniqueness and their unique beauty by giving them tips and tricks. I think that my magazine is very accepting of all aspects of beauty, as well as unrestricted to boundaries such as financial stability, as we include expensive and non-expensive options regarding makeup products, beauty products, skincare products, and dupes that all ranges of people could purchase. I think that’s something that a bunch of girls struggle with when they’re young, trying to be someone they’re not at such a young age, meaning trying to grow up so fast without appreciating the beauty that they have at their age. I included pages in my magazine that are targeted at even younger girls to help them feel comfortable in their skin and accept themselves as young women.  I love the final product of this magazine and how amazing and impactful it can be in our modern-day world. In her era, we hope to continue breaking social norms as our magazine gets put on a wider stage. if you guys have any questions or would like to be featured on our podcast on Instagram, her era, remember, self-love, and confidence will lead you to success!! 

https://youtube.com/shorts/0bGfKzVhjR0?feature=share

2. How did you integrate technologies-software, hardware, and online-in this project?

I answered this question through an infographic which I explained each technological aspect of the processes I used to put my magazine together. Here is a picture of my infographic. 

3. How did your production skills develop through this project?

I answered this question through a canva presentation in which I went through the different aspects of my magazine, the difficulties I faced, and how I overcame them. I added pictures of the slides and added a link:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1n4aXCLt60HnO-s4EpiC5q2T7xq1NxAoZ/view?usp=sharing

here is a quick video of my explaning and introdcuing my presentation i xreated to answer the question , "How did your production skills develop through this project? :

https://youtube.com/shorts/NxkMd2ux6lk?si=OcgEhJngqwQV5HZ0

4. How does your product engage with audiences and how would it be distributed as a real media text?

I answered this question through a media kit in which I went into detail about how I would give my target audience options to include their photos, and videos, and get further access to my magazine.