In this blog post, I will first share what I learned from my interview with Ms. Lee. Second, I will share the first advertisement I wrote for the station and describe how I used Ms. Lee’s advice to write it.

Valerie Lee’s Advice

The main message that Ms. Lee presented to me throughout her interview was that I should always write advertisements with the end-consumer in mind. For instance, she said that I should use words such as ‘you’ and ‘your’ so that I can appeal directly to consumers. She also said that I use concise, clear, and understandable verbiage. Unlike school, Ms. Lee noted, I should refrain from using large words and language that is too flowery. With this idea in mind, Ms. Lee noted that I should write my advertisements to sound like a conversation and to keep them short, sweet, and simple. Because the advertisements I wrote for the station were aired on the radio, Ms. Lee noted that I ultimately needed to keep my advertisements quick and informative so that I can gain the consumer’s interest in the client I am writing about and make them perform the action the advertisement asks them to do.

Ms. Lee also noted that evoking emotion is a great way to communicate to consumers through a quick advertisement. She said the tricky part is to pick the right emotion for the topic of the advertisement; however, she said that if I could master the appeal of emotion I would be able to grab and keep readers attention.

With this information in mind, I wrote my first advertisement.

My First Advertisement

My first advertisement was for Rob-N-Son Motors, Inc, a family owned and operated car dealer in Christiansburg, Virginia. The client wanted to air and advertisement during tax season that called out to consumers to invest their tax return in a new car. Below you will find the copy I wrote for the advertisement:

Have you been looking for ways to turn your tax return into a smart investment? Maximize your tax return by finally getting that new vehicle you want. Rob-N-Son provides high-quality and reliable used vehicles at a great price. They take care of you before and after the sale so you get the car you want at a price you’ll love. In-house or bank financing options make it easy. Rob-N-Son Motors, family owned and operated for over twenty years. Call 382-2242 or visit them at 109 Depot Street in Christiansburg, or at robnsonmotors.com.

You can also listen to the produced at by clicking here.

What I Did

I spent most of the class time today preparing for my presentation, which required me to pick which pages of my magazine I want to show the class. I also began writing out the answers/script for my presentation so that I can be sure that I communicate to the class exactly what I want them to know about my project.

I also finally chose the web tool that I will use to make my magazine pages flip like a real magazine– FlipSnack.

Why I Did It

I spent most of the class time today preparing for my presentation because most of my presentation is done, I just have to go through and perform final edits on all of the pages. I picked specific pages to show the class that will best depict my design choices as well as the modes of communication I used.

I chose FlipSnack as my web based tool because it allows users to zoom in or out on my pages, which will be convenient for my audience. I also chose FlipSnack because it is easy to share and easy for me to use. I will simply have to convert my InDesign documents to PDFs and then upload them to the site. The site then creates a sharable URL that anyone can use to view my project.

What I Did

I spent 50 minutes this afternoon working on my the cover page of my magazine, as seen in the image to the right. Although the cover still looks rather bare, the work you see in the image actually took a very long time! I’m excited to keep working on it over break!

Why I Did It

I began working on the cover of my project because I finally finished writing all the body copy for my entire magazine. Now all I have to do is design all of my pages! I will continue working on this over break so that the weeks after break can be spent editing and deciding on a tool I can use to make my magazine flip like a real magazine.

What I Did

I met with two other class members today who were also doing revision plans of Disney Princesses, which made our discussion interesting. I showed my revision group members my mock-up plan, showed them the body copy I have written, and described to them my plan for designing my magazine.

Why I Did It

Because I did not have any design elements of my project completed to show my group today, I cannot create a revision based on the strengths and weaknesses of my design choices. However, I was able to show the group how much body copy I have written and discuss with them all of the pages I want to include in my magazine. My group members really liked my idea and thought that my body copy executed my ideas well, but they did have one main concern— I was trying to get too much done in too little time. My group members understood how much time it would take me to design around 10 pages in InDesign and Photoshop and suggested that I decide if all of these pages are really essential to my remix and focus on the ones that are absolutely necessary to the success of my process. From this information, I have developed the only revision plan I can at this point:

I will look at all the pages I wish to include in my magazine spread and number them in importance. Doing so will allow me to get all of the necessary pages done first, and all the fun or additional ones later  if time permits.

What I Did

Today I signed up for a presentation slot on the last day of presentations and continued working on the body copy of my magazine. I spent more time researching dialog of the princesses whose pages I have not completed. I am almost finished writing all of the body copy for my magazine!

Why I Did It

I signed up for a late presentation slot because I have yet to start designing any of my magazine pages and I know that doing so will take me a very long time. I was hoping to have all of my body copy written in time for next class period, our peer feedback day, so I can have insight about how the actual textual remix of the stories appears to others.

I plan on having all of the body copy ready by next class period so that I can receive feedback and spend most of break designing pages of my magazines in InDesign and Photoshop.

What I Did

Since the last blog post, I have watched “The Little Mermaid” twice in order to gain the insight I need to write from Ariel’s point of view in my magazine pages. Although I haven’t had the time do that with the other two princess movies, I plan on doing that soon. I spent most of the class period today researching the dialog of the three princesses that I will want to include in my article. I also spent just a few minutes studying samples of interesting magazine layouts.

Why I Did It

I have spent so much time researching the dialog of the three princesses because I really want to capture direct quotes from them to include in their interviews that will appear on my magazine pages. I do not want to completely make up answers for my remix; instead, I would like to simply pull the parts out of the movie and place them in a question and answer format that remixes the story in a more feminist light and portrays the princesses as young women who chase after their own dreams.

What I Did

Upon reading in our textbook about the importance of documenting our assets and sources, I decided today that I will copy and paste the links to all of the sources and assets I use for each page of my magazine to the corresponding Word Document I have created to host the body copy for each page. When inserting these sources into my actual remixed magazine, I decided to simply add a source page at the very end of the magazine that lists all of my sources by page.

Since my last blog post, I have also decided to name my magazine “Belle” magazine. Additionally, I decided on the exact princesses I want to highlight and what feminist characteristic trait they contain that I will portray:

Ariel: Adventurous
Belle: Brilliant/Bright (NOTE: Ariel will “write” Belle’s interview as a special edition feature story)
Rapunzel: Courageous .

Why I Did It

I decided to keep track of my assets and sources by directly copying and pasting them into the Word Document draft of the body copy I have created for each page of my magazine so that later down the road I won’t have to worry about to which item on which page a source or asset belongs. With this organizational method, I am now able to easily go back to my source to find more information about the page as I am working on it.

I chose the title “Belle” magazine because I thought that was a nice play of of “Elle” magazine. I chose the three princesses mentioned above to portray as female role models because I love each of their stories and would like others to see them as the same interesting, powerful young women that I view them as.

Click here to view the mock-up I created for my remixed magazine.

What I Did

I created the mock-up for my remixed magazine over the weekend using Google Drive. This mock-up includes an explanation page that discusses why I formatted the mock-up the way I did, as well as what page layouts the mock-up includes.

Since I decided that the magazine will be published by Belle from Beauty and the Beast, I also spent a lot of time this weekend brainstorming titles for the magazine that correspond to her particular story. Although I came up with a few cute ideas, I did not feel strongly enough about any of them to make a solid decision.

Why I Did It

I created an explanatory page for my mock-up not only to make reading and understanding my layout choices easier for the instructor, but also so that I know what my thought process was at the beginning of the project.  I know that the layouts that I designed on  my mock-up will change drastically as I actually begin to use InDesign to structure the body copy I write and images I find for the interviews, quizzes, advertisements, and public service announcements, and I wanted my mock-up to be a reference tool for my project when these drastic changes inevitably occur.

I began thinking of magazine titles because I really need to start designing my documents! The due date will be here before I know it, and I want to get started on my graphic design as soon as possible.

Today, I experimented with the variety of mock-up tools listed in our class blog to see if I could easily use any of them to create a plan for my project. After careful consideration, I have decided that I will not use any of these tools and will simply use InDesign to create mock-ups for each page of my magazine.

Why I Did It

Although I will not use any of the mock-up tools I explored today with this particular project, I might be able to use them in the future for other projects. I decided to use InDesign to create mock-up pages of my magazine because I am most familiar with this platform. If I were to use one of the new tools, I would probably spend too much time learning the tool instead of working on my project.

I am very excited to begin creating my mock-ups and can’t wait to actually get started on my magazine!

I have created a timeline that includes the dates of all the remaining classes in this semester and what I need to have done by each class session. This timeline also incorporates the dates that we must have certain aspects of the projects completed.

Friday, November 7
Finalize a realistic timeline and adjust my magazine as needed based on the assessment of how many days I have left to complete it.

Monday, November 10
Complete an in-depth and strict storyboard for my magazine. This includes deciding exactly which princess stories I want to remix, the title of the magazine, and all other content that will go in my magazine.

Wednesday, November 12
Finish writing all of the content for the interview pages of my magazine. Once the content is written, I can begin the document design aspect of my project. I would also like to have figured out what tool I am going to use to make my pages ‘flip’ by this date.

What I Did

I spent a lot of time formulating the timeline above not only Wednesday in class, but also yesterday and this morning. I also decided that rather than having me be the writer and editor of the magazine, I want Belle from Beauty and the Beast to the be one “writing” the magazine. Essentially, I will create my project to be an issue of a magazine that Belle publishes monthly.

Why I Did It

I spent so much time formulating my time because I do not want to have to go back and redo it, nor do I want to find myself spending too much time on one aspect of the magazine and forgetting all the other components of my project. My timeline also helped me evaluate whether I will have enough time to complete all the components of the magazine that I desire. I designed my timeline so that in case I do run close on time, all the essential parts of my project are “due” at the beginning, and all the extra, not necessarily essential, components are at the end.

I decided that I want my magazine to be written from Belle from Beauty and the Beast because I felt that added an additional remix to the project. As Belle loved to read and had plenty of time to write as she was locked in the castle with the beast, I think it is perfectly fitting that she be the author of the magazine. I plan to create an ‘About the Author’ page that describes what she thinks about the issue (the magazine I create) and why she wanted to highlight her friends (other princesses) as empowered young women.