CCR Draft #1

In this rough draft of my creative critical reflection, I will be answering the question, "How does your project use or challenge conventions and how does it represent social groups or issues?" This will be the script I will be following when creating the voice over for my slideshow and it will aid in giving detail on each aspect of my magazine that mimicked the way real fashion magazines are created while still making it unique to my own vision.

The fashion and lifestyle magazine I made is called Belle Fleur, and throughout my process of researching, planning, and creating, I was able to include numerous conventions that are common among other fashion magazine publications such as Vogue, Elle, Marie Claire, Allure, and more in my own print media. An example of this is that for the front cover, I chose to use a mid shot of my model because during my research, I found that most commonly fashion magazines choose to use mid shots of the model due to the fact that it allows the reader to see more of the outfit, accessories, and expression. This adds to the appeal of how fashionable and trendy they are, also helping to sell the clothes or products showcased. Additionally, it's not too close or too far away, intriguing the reader and catching their eye when looking at it. I also used mid shots and long shots most prominently in the table of contents and the article pages because they've proven to be most appealing to readers and successful among print media. Furthermore, I made sure to research what topics and titles are most commonly used in and on fashion magazine, to which I found that all of them follow some sort of format that includes hair or makeup ideas, fashion trends of the month/season, celebrity articles, and one main article with an interview with a celebrity. For this reason, I incorporated many of these articles with similar titles. For example, I took inspiration from a magazine cover such as this Allure one, where one of the titles is, "The Hair Issue: Bangs from the Masters, Fall's Prettiest Trend, Genius Updo Hacks", to which I created my own of "Perfect Hair Hacks: Perky ponytails, messy buns, & curls galore." I opted to use pinks and purples of different shades for my main color scheme, as I found this is common among fashion magazines, as well as being attractive to my target audience of young women. However, I did find ways to challenge conventions, including by using yellow as a pop of color on the table of contents, as it matched some of the accent pieces my model was wearing and made them stand out. This is effective in grabbing the reader's attention due to the vibrancy and could make them more likely to read more.