Organising

At this point I am waiting on my Rg1 application form to be complete in order to continue with my project, this has forced me to focus my time on planning, planning planning. I have all the articles planned for the way in which I want to content to be laid out, I have focused on my photography and perfected all the interview questions so that I can make the most of the time that I spend with each of the interviewees. 

Image editing

Once I got back from a photoshoot I would take all the images I had from my camera and put them onto my laptop and back them up on my hard drive, this allowed me to have a better look at the images I took as well as being to choose the images that I was going to edit. Every photoshoot, day out, hike, event had it's own folder and it was labelled with the date this allowed me to stay organised and made for much easier planning. I wrote down the number of the image that I wanted to edit and from there I was able to keep track of each of the shoots.

Layout

By creating this grid format, it allowed me to stay organised. I was able to layout all my content and then tick it off when I knew I had a place for everything and it allowed me to see where I had extra space. I am a very visual person and being organised is one of my specialities, therefore this method is something that has worked in my favour for this project. I love digital work, I can see when my work is coming together when I have it on my laptop but in order for me to use my time wisely I needed to go back to the drawing board for this project. 

Introduction page

That feeling of being fully emerged in natural surroundings is something that no amount of money could ever buy. 

I designed my project through my combined fields of interest within design, photography, graphics and typography along with my hobbies that I am involved with in my spare time such as running, bouldering, hiking and camping; therefore creating an "outdoor lifestyle and creative culture" magazine used to inspire people.

The idea to create a magazine was something I was very interested in, I love reading books in my spare time and to combine all my interests into one printable magazine would be a dream. The reason to make it a print rather than digital also was very important to me as I feel that we have become a society who are super connected with this fictitious world and completely disconnected from the ‘real’ world, over engrossed with our phones, laptops, TVs and tablets. By making this a printable form, it can be an item that you take with you on your next weekend break or hike; filled with examples that people can survive without always being connected, highlighting those individuals who have lived their whole lives from the land.

The data that I will gather will be used to form articles that help to explain the experiences of those who have grown up in the beautiful surroundings that is, Sperrin, piecing together both the stories and memories of recent times and times long ago. The purpose is to educate those within this area of the upbringing that came before them and for people who are interested in learning more than what the tourist signs tell them.

Personal content

My love for the outdoors stem from a young age, the feeling of being completely emerged in nature was more rewarding than any number of play station games or gifted toys at that age and it seems as if nothing has changed swap the games and toys with a night of clubbing and I would still choose the freedom of hiking An Carn. I never felt that we had any restrictions growing up except being home before the street lights came on; a healthy doss of freedom to wonder and discover new places, to make decisions for myself and see the consequences, thats my definition of a balanced upbringing. 

I notice myself going for a run when college work gets to much to handle, a short walk or something as simple as taking the time to stand in the back yard and watch the sunset on the mountains that form the valley. Disconnecting for a day to climb Sawel, explore An carn or trekking the Mournes its my release, a way to press the restart button and begin again. I prefer to enjoy these moments without having any reason to do them but just have the want.

Growing up I never had one dream job instead I had many jobs that caught my eye, an air hostess, a pilot, an architect, a fashion designer, a motivational speaker (yes you read right, I wanted to be this at 7 years old) the list goes on. There was one piece of job advice my dad gave to my brother and I when we were no age, “find something that you love to do, doesn’t matter what it is and find a way to get paid doing it, as long as you are happy” because of this I never worried, I kept on the subjects that made me happy along with a few that I wished never existed, I had to put a huge amount of work into my academic studies to get even close to success.

There was one subject that I always veered towards, art. I remember designing houses on recycled paper with birds eye views of how they would look on the inside, I doodled over every blank space in my homework dairy and changed the layout and art work on my bedroom wall more times than you could imagine. I considered being a F1 designer working on formula 1 cars but I realised I needed to know more about engineering than design, I wanted to be a fashion designer but felt that the fashion world didn’t make me spark, I thought about product design for a long time but fell out of love with it and stumbled across photography through my foundation art and design course after A-level. I appreciated good photography but I didn’t have a huge amount of confidence in myself or any equipment to learn, when I went to college I found fields within design that really caught my interest such as typography and graphics, I bought myself a canon EOS 600D and taught myself the tricks of the trade. I studying in america for third year, it opened my eyes up to a whole new word, I was in the heart of the wide west, an hour north and I was hiking in some of colorado’s fourteeners, an hour west and I was in the desert and hour east and I was skiing, the possibilities for activities were endless. Here I began to merge my interests of being outdoors and my love of photography; the outdoors inspired me to take pictures and my photos inspired me to go outside. 

When I returned home there was nothing I wanted more that to emerge myself in the beautiful surrounds that so many of my international friends wanted to visit, we constantly look at far off countries being better than home instead we have simply become so used to them that they don’t seem special any more; ‘far off fields seem greener.’ I began exploring the places that I used to enjoy when I was hiking or orienteering with the scouts, between work and college I got the perfect balance of outdoor activities and adventures just like all those years ago.

In my final semester of college now and my last stretch towards the finish line it almost seems surreal to be here but this is my chance to show case all my interests and fields of art that I want to pursue, photography, typography, graphics and editorial design. Combined with my huge interest in caring for our environment, maintaining our heritage, story telling and the Sperrins, a place that I am proud to live. I brought my focus towards creating a printed magazine that focuses on this beautiful landscape and the people that help to shape it.

 

Photo shoot with musician

I like the idea of interviewing people and getting to know what inspires them, what keeps them creative and what excites them, in their work, in their daily life and how they combine to help each other out. What ties a really interested interview together is an interesting photograph that allows the people who were there to get a feeling of what it would have been like to hear these stories and pointers first hand. The important element is how good the photo is, I have been practising my photography and looking to hon my skills in on parts were my photography was weak. I have noticed since beginning this project my photography has automatically improved (from my own perspective).

Front cover

Working on the front cover was something that I put off for a long time. I wanted more than anything to have my front cover finished and finalised as soon as possible but I knew how important it was, it sums up the entire magazine and I want people to look at the cover and from that, it makes them WANT to pick it up and read it. I played around with one image and worked with the font 'DK Semarang' for this first sample.

I love this photograph and the name is perfect because it is one work (an element that I always wanted) although I feel that it needs some more work done to it. One part I do like a lot is the white font against the grey, cloudy sky it works really well and your able to read it clearly.