Creative Critical Reflection

Here's my creative critical reflection podcast.

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Final Magazine Project

Here's a link to my final magazine project for Belle Visage edition for May 2015.

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The Cover Makeup

The makeup I am going to do for the cover image is going to be very top heavy, meaning the upper half of the face will have all of the detail. The eyes will have a very smoked out effect that extend from the corner of the eye to toward the temples with eyeshadows and glitter. I am still unsure whether to have the makeup be the colors of the magazine (re, black, and white) or have the makeup match with the cover story about skin care (using light blue, white, and silver).
Here I've planned the overall look on a facechart. Facecharts are used by makeup artists to plan extravagant makeups, listing the products that they will use.
My facechart shows the makeup with the blue theme, but I may change it to red to fit the magazine better. I will base my decision on the color of my model's eyes and her skin tone, and see which one looks more flattering.

The Double Page Spread

example of a double page spread with the main image on the

left page.

The topic of the double page spread is something that I feel should be one of the parts of beauty that I know the most about and that it should be helpful to all of the readers. Therefore, i've decided to do the article on skincare and how makeup can help or damage one's skin.
Since this topic can vary from teens to mature skin, the article will be divided into subheadings so that the reader can find what interests them find what suits their needs. Which is why i decided on making it on skin care because of all the different types of skin (fair, dark, mature, young, oily, dry, and combination).

The Layout

I was looking at images for examples of double page spreads and i found that many of them are comprised of one full page image related to the article on the next page.

For my double page spread on skin care, a full page image of the cover model with clean, moisturized, glowing skin looking at the camera smiling to show that she's happy in her own skin, and then the following page with go into detail about each skin type, divided by subheadings, in three columns. 

This image's colors help create a sense of clean

purity which is why i've decided to use this color scheme 

for my double page spread.

The Color Scheme

The background of the entire double page spread will be white, the heading will be light blue with a drop shadow, and the article text will be black. Having the light touch of blue against the white creates a sense of cleanliness and purity.

First Impressions

The Color Scheme

I've been experimenting with how the magazine's overall "look" should be to convey elegance and luxury as well as beauty. Colors that are always associated with makeup and beauty are black, white, and, occasionally, red; examples are the Sephora and MAC stores' decor and geometric, simple design. These colors give a sense of clean, elegant beauty. I want to use these connotations associated with these bold color to my advantage when creating the magazine.

The Cover Image

The model I will be using is my little sister, whose bone structure and features work to my advantage when trying to create an abstract makeup with bold colors. I will be creating a very geometric inspired makeup with the colors that i've selected for the magazine. I want to keep the makeup very top heavy, meaning that the eyes and brows are the strong focus of the face, and the lips are kept simple. The model will be looking down are the camera, to convey a sense that she is much more elegant and regal, and this will also make the model's eyes be more of a focal point, as her eyes are nearly closed. 

The Layout

As the cover image is going to be very top heavy, I am going to place the cover lines mostly toward the bottom to balance the cover. Having balance and symmetry is key to achieving something that comes off as beautiful. Also, the cover lines will be strictly white font with a slight drop shadow so that they stand out, but aren't the main focal point. 
As for the cover story, it will be placed on the left hand side of the cover image, in red font, so that it is set apart from everything else. 

The Main Message & the Target Audience

The makeup industry has been a work in progress for centuries. But in the past couple of decades the marketing of cosmetics has gotten a makeover itself in a sense.

I looked up when the big cosmetic stores all began, and the big companies that reign over the world of makeup today, like MAC and Sephora, started in the late 1900s. Before then, makeup wasn't as readily available, so nowadays one can walk into a store that's dedicated to just selling cosmetics for skin care, skin decor, or fragrance. Back in the 1960s, makeup artists were a rarity, so this career, as well as this way it's sold, are still fairly new.
There's one thing that's always been constant with makeup, and that is that makeup is a luxury, and it is, in a sense, meant to emotionally empower someone, or in some cases, meant to disguise. So, with the font, the articles, and the images, I want to portray what makeup is. To do this, I wanted to use my makeup skills and experience to my advantage. Since I've grown up with the modern marketing for makeup, and I'm familiar with what people want with makeup and skin care, I felt that I should target my magazine to women who are interested with makeup and are looking for something to teach them and give inspiration. This would cover topics such as which product is right for which people, which tools to use to get a certain effect, and what things are trending lately.
Using "pictorials," photo collages that teach how to do something step by step, would be best for the makeup inspiration articles so the readers can easily understand the technique used to create the final look. This technique also takes away all the hassle of having to write a huge article explaining each and every step. The article paired with the pictorial would be focusing of which type of brushes and product to use, and explaining the science of the makeup. This would really connect with the target audience by showing them what they can achieve and how they can do it, plus giving them a visual incentive to read the text to find out more about it.

The Name

I've been pondering about what exactly the name of this magazine would be. I want it to sound chic, appealing, and have a meaning other than just a name, since it's one of the first things people notice about a magazine.
My thoughts were that it needed to be at most two words, that were packed with meaning. So, as I was fishing through ideas, i googled the name i picked to make sure it wasn't taken. But, pretty much every idea i had was taken. So what I did was i took the same names i was thinking about and just made them in French. So i started looking on Google and came up with "Belle Visage," which translates to "Beautiful Face." Having it in French makes it softer, and seem more chic. I am very happy with this title. But, since this is a work in process, it is subject to change in the future, most likely.

Define beauty

I googled the definition of the word "beauty" to try to get a clear meaning of the concept that everyone can agree on. But, what I found, as expected, was that there is no set meaning. It's like trying to describe a color to a blind person. You can't describe the color yellow to someone, it just is. Sure there's a dictionary definition, but the actual concept is difficult, maybe impossible, to fully get across in words.
Google defined beauty as "a combination of qualities, such as shape, color, or form, that pleases the aesthetic senses, especially the sight." But what qualifies a quality as beautiful? How come some things are beautiful, and some aren't? This got me really thinking, "how is this magazine going to get this concept across?"
But then I think about what this magazine is supposed to do; it's supposed to be able to be published monthly, so the concept has to both appeal to the audience, and have a broad enough topic that can have multiple issues; which is why i feel this magazine should focus on informational articles and tutorial articles on makeup and beauty.