Creative Critical Reflection

Final Project

I am officially done creating my magazine! This is the link to a site where you can view it, and there are pictures below.

http://joom.ag/2gWQ

       

           

My Two-Page Spread

For my two-page spread, I wanted to keep the layout clean, but also be able to add pictures and things that the words could go around. I decided to do another picture that takes up the whole page, because I loved the high angle and the proportionment of the cake. This is how the layout ended up looking:

My Table of Contents

Editor's Note:

For this page, I am going to put an old black and white picture of my Great Uncle Jesse in his bakery, and a text box of a shortened version of what I put in my previous blog post, "Background Story" on the page in the layout that I have already chosen which is in the blog post, "Planning My Table of Contents."  This format and page is similar to Southern Living: Our Best Recipes' first page.

Here is the finished page!

On the Cover:

For this page, I am simply going to use a close up of the Blueberry and Lemon Genoise Muffins, and include the recipe and story behind the recipe, which was included in my previous blog, "Cover Page Recipe."

Here it is!

Table of Contents:

This part is going to follow a similar format to Kraft: Food & Family's table of contents page. I will use colors and an image to make the page more visually appealing.

Here is my table of contents page!

Table of Contents Recipe

For my table of contents dessert image, I decided to make a Texas Sheet Cake. When I was younger, my immediate family flew to Texas like we did about once or twice every year. Once we arrived, my whole family hopped in a few cars and started driving to Oklahoma. We rented a huge cabin with bunk bed, open living spaces, and most importantly, a huge kitchen. It was summer time, and my brother's birthday was during our trip. My grandma and I got busy in the kitchen, making my brother's Texas Sheet Cake birthday cake. This trip is a fond family memory I have, especially baking and spending time with my grandmother because she lives in another state.

I followed my grandmothers recipe and once I was finished, I prepared my set with lights and a camera and began taking pictures!

                                               

Planning my Table of Contents

I have analyzed two magazine's table of contents and have created an idea in my head of what I want mine to look like. This is what I want the basic layout to look like:

       

I decided to copy the layout of the "Editor's Note" from Southern Living: Our Best Recipes because I loved the simplicity of it. It is simply a picture and text on a white background. I think it perfectly allows the story to be heard and stand out with a picture to make it more appealing. 

Both magazines had a "On the Cover" section of some sort, which I thought was also important to have for my magazine as well. I also want to add a solid color text box like Kraft did to add color to the page while giving a background story to the recipe, which is the overall goal of my magazine. For the layout, I used a similar one to Kraft because I thought the large picture taking up half the page was just the right placement.

I also decided I wanted to use the same text format as Kraft: Food & Family's table of contents because I think it also does a good job of getting the titles and page numbers across but making certain words/letters bolded or colored adds a visual appeal to the page. I also want to add a picture at the bottom just to add another item to the page. 

Analysis of Table of Contents

Southern Living: Our Best Recipes:
The first page of the magazine is an editor's note that explains the baker's/cook's passion for what she does. I really like this edition, and think I can adapt it to my magazine's "purpose" well.
The second page is the "On Our Cover" recipe of the cinnamon rolls. It also gives credit to the photographer and stylers of the cover page. This is on the left half of the page with a white background. The right half of the page are more credits like the editors, directors, etc. This side is a bright orange color, which adds a nice amount of brightness to the page. I think I will add a text box of color on my magazine's table of contents.
The third page has a picture of a pasta bowl taking up the whole page. The "Contents" title is in the top right hand corner in pink letters, contrasting against the light background. The table of contents part is in a white, translucent text box with pink and black text and page numbers. I don't like the picture covering the entire page, I won't be using this type of layout in my magazine. I think I will add a picture on the page, but figure out something else for the rest of the layout.

Kraft: Food & Family:
The first table of contents page in this magazine is a picture of Creamy Lemon Pasta with Shaved Asparagus. The green in the asparagus is brought out by using green font at the top that says, "spring '14 content." The picture also has a napkin peeking through and asparagus on the sides of the plate that help tie all the colors together and make the picture look complete.
The second page is of the table contents. The left side reads, "the latest" in green text, and below it are the stories/recipes in bold and a description underneath. To the left of every title is a larger font of the page number. The middle and right column is the "on the menu" section, also in green with the same format for the page numbers, story titles, and descriptions.
The bottom of both pages is the "Recipe Index" with three different sections of: Appetizers & Snacks, Salads & Sides, and Entrées & Sandwiches. Under each of these sections are multiple tiny pictures of food recipes with small text to the left of the pictures listing the calories, fat/sodium, carbs, fiber, protein, vitamins, etc. I do not like this portion of the table of contents for my magazine because I think it is distracting. I will use a very similar layout for the other sections, however. I think that the table of contents pages (excluding the recipe index) looked very clean, and were easy to read.