Layouts!

A note from your fellow group...

DEAREST READERS,

We, the VINYL staff, invite you with open arms to ask questions for our new ADVICE COLUMN.

Any and all* questions will be accepted and answered to the best of our ability.

...With some introduction at the front, if you'd like.

Please send these cries for help to vinylstaff@gmail.com.

MUCH THANKS,

Vinyl Staff

*And by all we mean most."

Vote!

Visit form here

And the winners are...

Congratulations to 25K, Aux Cable, and Current Magazines! You three groups are the Media Kit contest winners. See me in class (or email me) about your prize.

I saw some truly excellent media kits, so all of you should be very proud of yourselves. We'll have future design contests, so stay tuned!

~ Mrs. Young

Mrs. Young Out - Day 2

Happy late start day to you, happy late start day to you, happy laaaate start day to you.... Happy late start day to you.

Hope you all enjoyed sleeping in. I'm bright-eyed (after much coffee) and back at my technology workshop today, but I wanted to give you a couple of heads-up for tomorrow:

1) Media Kits are due (emailed) to me by the end of class Friday. You'll be presenting your kit on Monday to the class.

2) Designers are visiting after the quiz.

1st period: Adrian will be meeting with Forum and Blizz. I'm still waiting to hear back from Melissa (Street Magic's designer); I'll email your group if I hear from her today. If she doesn't respond, I'll see if we can get some designers from The Liberator to come critique your media kits before you present Monday.

5th period: Josh will be meeting with Now Magazine, and Victor will be meeting with Vinyl

Magazine.

7th: Kara will be meeting with True Colors Magazine, and Sarita will be meeting with the Daily Muncher. Ron will be meeting with Dischord on Monday, Feb. 14. I'm still waiting to hear back from Greg, Chia-Wen, Stephanie, and Kirk. If they don't respond, I'll see if we can get some designers from The Liberator to come critique your media kits before you present Monday.

3) You're having a quiz on the terms we've covered in the last couple of weeks. The newsworthiness examples were posted in Tuesday's quiz review (on the calendar and yesterday's blog post), and you can refresh your memory regarding leads with this handout. Both the leads and the newsworthiness questions will be multiple choice.

The design identification portion of the quiz will not be multiple choice, nor will it have a word bank... because life does not have a word bank. Actually, it's because you'll need to know these terms when talking design in your group.

Here's a link to a design review. You'll need to download the pdf and then click on the comments to see what each part of the design is called. (Depending on what version of Adobe Acrobat you have, you may not be able to access this at home, so take notes in class if needed.)

A few parts are not identified. For example, you'll need to know what a document grid does (allows the designer to create logical spatial relationships between objects and text) and how column guides work to dictate how many columns of text should exist and how large an image should be.

4) I'm still looking over your outlines and leads and should have commented on all of them tomorrow so you can proceed with concessions and supporting paragraphs, both of which we'll cover in class.

5) Have a wonderful day! I'm learning a lot of interesting things about Photoshop and podcasting, and I look forward to showing you guys some new stuff!

~ Mrs. Young

Mrs. Young Out - Day 1

Good morning/afternoon, Eziners. I'm out at a technology conference today, but you have plenty to do in good ol' room 258 without me. You'll need to email me your finished media kits (both the pdf and the written paper) by the end of class Friday. Here's a link to the assignment if you want to double-check to make sure you've covered everything. Remember, it's a major grade (one of only two for this grading period), so you'll want to make sure it's polished and professional.

Don't forget that you also have a quiz Friday over newsworthiness, design, and lead terms. Refer to yesterday's quiz review for a refresher.

Ok, I think that's it for today. Please email me if you have any questions, and I'll check in with you tomorrow via the blog regarding your outlines and leads.

~ Mrs. Young

Student Poll!

Please take this poll to help out your fellow Eziner:

http://auxcable.blogspot.com/

Why We Need to Reimagine Masculinity

Read this article from Newsweek -- which is PACKED with sources. Then, in your turn-in folder, turn in a document (labeled with your name and the assignment) that lists all of the sources that the author used.

Impressive Ads

Wow! I just graded your ads, and I saw some really cool designs. Below are a few great examples:

Check out the rest of our class's ads here

Ms. Richey's classes ads are posted here

Opinion Ideas

When it comes to opinions, we all have one. Just think of sites like Yelp and CitySearch where people post their (unpaid and unsolicited) reviews. If you look at a week's worth of your Facebook statuses, you'd probably see somewhere that you posted an opinion (probably something like "Ezine is the best class ever!" Right? Right??)

But when it comes to writing a 600-word piece, it can seem difficult to find a good idea.

Here's what you need to think about when you're coming up with your idea:
1. Is it newsworthy in some way?
Example: A student yesterday wanted to do a piece on gay marriage but felt it was overdone. But, once he searched Google News for "gay marriage," he found that there had been many developments with regard to how states were addressing the issue. Then, he felt he could write a piece about how Texas was still really far behind the curve. His idea now has the elements of proximity (most of his readers are here in the Lonestar State) and impact -- since most people will, at some point, get married and are therefore inherently interested in the topic.

2. Is it focused?
It's easy to want to take on the world (e.g., "We should all shop local!") but it's hard to come up with specific reasons that back up your point. Here is a good example from last semester of a focused argument.
The Vibe: Why we should use libraries for books rather than bookstores.

3. Can you find plenty of research to back up your opinion?
Sorry, you're not the only expert source you can use. Sure, you can cite personal experience, but you'll need outside sources -- and credible ones at that -- to support your stance.

Some other good examples:
Sports (The goal line piece)
A pro-con piece

Fonts in Use...

Here's a cool site that showcases all of the fonts that are used in mass marketing right now.

How Pixels Work...

Check out an informative video here.

Color can be so moody...

How does your perception of this layout change when the colors are adjusted?

Font Fun

Favorite Font Videos
Here are a couple of fun font videos. Enjoy and remember: Typography matters!

http://vimeo.com/m/#/18499580

http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1823766

When brainstorming what kind of magazine you want to do, we have to get a couple of things in order first: Who is your target audience, what is your mission, and what kind of content can readers expect to see? 

Current magazine have all of that together so they can target potential advertisers for their publication. Conde Nast is one of the largest media marketing companies in the world. Take some time to look at the media kits of some of the most famous magazines in existence. 

Magazine Applications

Fill out the magazine application here. I'll look over all of these and will put you into groups first thing Monday morning.

C'mon, everybody! Let's play the Logo Game!

www.joeykatzen.com/alpha

Assignment #1: The Magazine Cover

In an effort to help you understand your classmates' interests and personalities, you'll each be creating a magazine cover. You'll also turn in an explanation of the elements you used and will give a brief description of it during class Thursday. Here's the assignment.

Need some inspiration? No problem.

Above, you can see the cover I made. Here's a link to my description of it.

Once you're ready to turn everything in, you can give me your cover and then email your description to me (as a Google doc or a Word doc -- it's up to you) at lasaezine@gmail.com. The subject should read: Name_Assignment_Class Period. So if I were in 1st/2nd block, my subject would read "Kendra Young_Magazine Cover_1.2."

Thanks, and I look forward to hearing about your magazines tomorrow in class!

Welcome!

In this class, you'll learn Adobe CS5 programs, how to write journalistic pieces, and how to make a professional quality magazine. Get excited: It's going to be awesome.

An article about white space...

‘Space is the breath of art.’ ~Frank Lloyd Wright

http://www.alistapart.com/articles/whitespace