Beauty Fool evaluation

Evaluation

During this yellow week I had to write and design an article for this is FEED magazine. It had to respond to the theme obsession but we were also allowed to relate it to any theme from sport and health, to dance, to fashion and design. We were also able to write from a personal perspective or react to an ongoing situation in the world.
Working in small teams I followed creative writing techniques, understanding the style guide of FEED and to be able to analyse a range of target audiences and styles of journalism. My article had to be approximately 500 words. My theme was about plastic surgery and how girls want to change themselves because either they don’t like their body or because people tell them their isn’t the right way for a particular reason. I also used a personal experience within my article as I came very close to having plastic surgery to get into modelling.
Looking at headlines helped me to think about attracting the reader before they even read the article itself. My headline was Beauty Fool as it relates to Beautiful but they are a fool because they listen to other people and want to change when they have nothing to change because they are beautiful in their own way.
When I came to designing my article I decided to take a photograph of myself and use the perfect grid to show not everybody can have what they call the perfect face to be beautiful. I chose to use black and white throughout my design to emphasise the face and make up isn’t needed to make you beautiful.
If I was to do it again I would like more time on my designing as I think personally I had too much time on the writing itself.

Problem with uploading

I cannot upload a printscreen of my spread as I saved it to my hotmail and it will not open on my computer.

Evaluation

Evaluation.

For yellow week I decided to choose journalism, the brief was based on obsession. We first had to write what we are obsessed with on a sticky note and mine was my blackberry. So then we got told to a write 500 word draft about our obsession then when we returned we would edit it and so forth. The article would be published in the Feed magazine. I based it on overall technology so I could then include social networks in and it would be able to relate to a lot more people than just blackberry owners.

I wrote around 520 words explaining how obsessed I am with technology. I enjoyed writing this article as my fingers where just typing away because it was personal to me about my previous and current happenings. My first heading was obsessions but after going through it with my group I then changed it and went through a lot of different headings from technology; a constant obsession to Yesterdays black and white... tomorrows animated but I finally decided to choose another heading which was “has tomorrow already come?” as I thought it was effective and would make the reader want to know what the article was about.

While using the InDesign program for the first time I found difficulties on how would be a suitable way to lay my article out across a spread. After many changes and a bit of help from a graphic student I then created the layout. I inserted a picture I took earlier of my hand using my blackberry and a Facebook homepage as the background to make it clear what my article was about.

If I could do this over I would probably think more about the layout and try many different layouts until the perfect one.

After this yellow week it has definetly made me more assured doing magazine or fashion journalism at uni is the right choice because when i had my final article written and how easily I found to write, I enjoyed it.

Image i used on my final layout

This goes perfect with my artice as I took it and it is of my blackberry and a facebook page background which is whats my article is about.

Has tomorrow already come?

Technology has taken over my life. Whether it’s a text message, phone call, Facebook or my Blackberry Messenger, I just can’t get enough.

Over the years I’ve always kept up with the latest social networks, I’ve gone through Piczo, Myspace and now currently I’m using Facebook. I can’t go a day without checking. I feel lost without it, like I don’t know what’s going on in the world. I could stay on for hours…well, actually I do: talking on Chat, updating my status about how my day’s been going so far and what I’ve been up to. Even a quote from a song and especially uploading pictures to keep my Facebook profile current. It’s like an addiction of knowing what everyone else is doing, quite nosey really, but I just can’t help it. Even when I’m watching television my Facebook is just on next to me to see if I get any notifications. Also for quick access I have an application on my phone for Facebook, which notifies me when someone tries to contact me.

My Blackberry: yet another way technology has taken over my life. Sleek and efficient, I’ve had my phone since December 2010 and since then it has never left my side. Everywhere. Anytime. It doesn’t matter if I’m going to the bathroom to use the toilet, brush my teeth or have a bath, eating, talking in person to a friend, my phone always comes first. If it pings on Blackberry Messenger I will answer it in the same few seconds and when I don’t get the same in return from the person I get frustrated. If it came to it and I was running late and when I got to the bus stop and realised my phone wasn’t with me, I’d run all the way back but I wouldn’t do this for my bus pass I’d pay, but I always make sure before I leave I have it, like my phone is first priority because my day wouldn’t flow without it. With no communication and no music on the bus to listen to, I wouldn’t know what to do with myself. From making too many phone calls (when my bill came in I went over my 1200 minute barrier and my bill that would normally cost me £35 I faced myself having to pay £143!) because I have a problem with having endless phone conversations and not checking the amount of minutes I have left.

Even though this probably isn’t the healthiest obsession as it is scientifically proven that computer screens can cause bad eyesight, and phones can give off radiation, which can make you sick, I have become so obsessed that the consequences don’t bother me.

So now everyone who reads this will now know my obsession is technology and my problem is that I can’t overcome using technology in my everyday routine. The scariest thing of all is that technology gets bigger and better daily. So who knows in the next year to come how much technology I’ll be relying on and which gadgets I’ll be carrying around in my bag?

-Kerlisha

Beauty Fool

This is my final magazine article. I have used my own photograph and the perfect grid for my imagery. I have also stuck to black and white imagery and it fits in with the text that i have used.

Final layout

Based on my thumbnail sketch layout I went on to build my final spread. It worked out better than I thought I would and the image really screams 'obsessed psycho'.

Evaluation

For this project I was to write an article and create a spread based around the theme of Obsession. I started off with a mind map of obsession thinking about what would make to good topic to focus on when writing the article.

Class exercises such as comparing newspaper headlines helped me to think about audience and style of writing. I wanted to keep the reader in mind I so that I could understand the point of view that I was trying to communicate to.

When it came to actually writing the article I found it quite difficult to pinpoint what an obsession is which itself became the argument for my article. I wanted to look at what exactly can be called an obsession and what is just a mere interest. I mainly researched article on the Internet for my information.

When it came to designing the spread I drew a few ideas for layouts and selected the best one. I went straight to working on it rather than researching examples of layouts; although this makes my layout idea more unique.

At first I wanted to use an image that showed the contrast between extreme and minor obsession but I realized that this image concept would look cliché so I decided to focus more on the extreme end using an image of an actually stalker – Ricardo Lopez, featured in my article, who had stalked Björk in real life. I photographed it from the computer screen to add more realism and shock as it was a close up image which creates an intimidating effect.

Overall I think that my final spread works although my article could be more creative with the use of facts and quotes. 

Beauty Fool

I have used my own photograph and then layed the perfect grid over the top.

Beauty Fool

This is the perfect grid that i have used on my image.

Imagery

Following on from my last post I decided to photograph images from the computer screen to create an abstract pixellated effect. The range of colours is interesting and I am planning on using image DSCF7926 as it looks quite creepy. The person was actually pulling faces claiming he was a "monster"

Beauty Fool

This is my sample magazine article. I need to take my own photographs of my own model. This is just so I can see how the magazine article will look.

Beauty Fool

This is my layout of my article with all my changes made.

Beauty Fool

My image is based on the perfect face i collected the perfect face grid and picked a profile image and used photoshop to overlay them together.

Mind map about cosmetic surgery

A mind map to give me ideas on images that i could use with my magazine layout.

Headline (again)

I did think about the title Define Obsession... I will definitely keep going with ideas.

I came up with a few ideas for page layouts and started to think about imagery.
On the right page you can see that I was considering illustration but I think that photographic imagery sits better with this article to show how serious it is. One idea I had was to photograph up close off the computer screen images from Ricardo Lopez's suicidal video as it is mentioned in the the article. Other images I could shoot this way are images from the films also mentioned. Of all my ideas I will pick the eighth thumbnail as I think it will be interesting to see my image spread across two pages but interrupted by the text box.

Headline

The headline of my article will be The Verge of Obsession as in short it pretty much tells you what the article is about without being too vague. I think that Verge is an interesting word that has a strong sound it which is what gives my headline a bit of sophistication. I did try to stay away from the word Obsession but that too pops up a lot in my article so I guess it shows you what your in for. I would have liked to come up with something more interesting or less obvious than so I will keep my mind open for other headline ideas.

Below are copies of my draft article and my final one. The draft didn't have a lot to it and each paragraph seemed to sit well as opening paragraphs. The final obviously has a lot more to it and I tried to incorporate as much information from the draft into the final. 

Draft: 

We all have obsessions. Minor or major, habit or hobby, they exist in every one of us. 

My own obsession is turning off unused lights and appliances… although I would call it a habit rather than an obsession. Ah. So do we all really have obsessions? It is one of those words used quite commonly nowadays to express an admiration or a passion, not necessarily a psychological thing. 

Is what we call an obsession really extreme enough to be so-called? One thing about obsessions is that they tend to come and go although more than often they last a lifetime. Extreme cases like pyromania and monomania could be classed as OCD whereas a light obsession could just be an enthusiasm for a hobby such as painting.   

According to the Oxford dictionary an obsession is “an idea or thought that continually preoccupies or intrudes on a person's mind”. So unless it is on your mind most of the time then it is not really an obsession. Other words for obsession could be ‘fascination’, ‘addiction’ and ‘desire’ however ‘obsession’ remains to be ultimate level of those words.

Final:

Is what we call an obsession really extreme enough to warrant this description?

The Oxford dictionary definition of obsession as “an idea or thought that continually preoccupies or intrudes on a person’s mind.” So unless it is on your mind most of the time then it is not really an obsession.

Some obsessions tend to come and go based on trends, although there are manic fans whose obsessions drive them to extremes. In 1996 Ricardo López, who was infatuated by musician Björk, killed himself shortly after he sent a letter bomb to her home expressing a desire to die with her. He filmed the whole process of this including his death. This would be classed as a case of Monomania whereas an ordinary fan may just go as far as attending concert.

Monomania is when a person is fixated with one emotion or idea and was first recognised as a condition in the 1880’s. Researchers have discovered that it has three stages: the tension; the violence and the hearts and flowers stage that is usually temporary. Paranoia is a main aspect of this that can cause a person to believe that others want to ruin their obsession or that they are even in a relationship with a victim.

Ever since its discovery, Monomania has become the topic of books and films such as Misery, Fatal Attraction and a 2009 release named after the very topic of this article. All these films come under the horror genre depicting an extreme form of monomania where the character in pursuit of their obsession – often a person – will stalk and terrorise until they die trying to get what they desire. This is extreme. So what is minor?

Examples of a minor obsession could be a favourite television show or treat. My own obsession is turning off unused lights and appliances. It started about four years ago after watching a documentary on carbon footprints which made me feel the need to be greener and save energy. It’s not taking over my life and sometimes I do leave the odd light on which makes it more of a habit rather then an obsession.

Juxtaposing an avid interest with extreme Monomania creates a misuse of the word obsession. There are many words that hold similar meaning to the word obsession such as fascination, addiction and desire, but obsession has become the word to describe an ultimate fascination. What may appear to be an obsession might simply be a hobby or knowledgeable interest especially compared to the examples above. Unless clinically proven, your obsession may be nothing but a faint interest into everyday routine activity. 

Beauty Fool.

Beauty fool.

When you here plastic surgery, what do you think of? Hollywood stars trying to delay the effects of aging? People who want to change the size of their stomachs, breasts, or other body parts because they see it done on TV? Is it possible that the increased focus on cosmetic surgery has finally revealed how self-obsessed many of us really are?

Being a victim of it myself I came very close to wanting cosmetic surgery because I was told that my body was not the right shape, size and weight to become a model and people telling me that my nose was to big and my breasts were to small. It makes a person feel insecure and they feel the need to change things about them selves to please other people. Being told I wasn’t good enough and that I didn’t have the perfect face was disappointing but why should I change my looks and body just to fit into someone else world. I am who I am and if they don’t like it then that is not my problem. Everyone has their own individuality so why should I change?

Surgery can become an obsession because knowing that you can change something by going under the knife and feel so better about yourself gives you the confidence. People know that they can change their look with surgery so if they want to change it they know the option is there. Many people have different views on surgery, many people would advise against it but at the end of the day its your own body and you should do what you want with it. At the same time, though, many people feel that the majority of those who seek the absolute perfect versions of them need a psychiatrist rather than a surgeon.

After undergoing plastic surgery, many people finally feel accepted. By transforming into an ideal beauty, they earn the approval of others and receive positive attention. But while plastic surgery may appear to increase confidence, it’s often an illusion – even to the patients themselves, who might confuse real self-esteem with the joy of feeling as thought others approve of their appearance. The confidence that comes from a new nose, fake breasts, or liposuction is only temporary – physically (many procedures are not permanent and need to be repeated) as well as emotionally. Often, patients’ insecurities about their appearance are symptoms of underlying psychological issues, such as depression, and may be temporarily alleviated by surgery. But this temporary confidence is nothing in comparison to the confidence one can obtain by excelling in sports, academics, or a hobby. Marketing cosmetic surgery as a confidence-booster increases profits, but it also gives people unrealistic expectations. They believe that their life will change and are disappointed when it doesn’t.

Body image dissatisfaction is often associated with decreased self-esteem, self-confidence and psychological well-being. These emotional and psychological issues are what causes many women to turn to cosmetic surgery. If women feel they need a new face, a thinner waistline or bigger breasts to be likable and to feel good about themselves, cosmetic surgery may not be the answer. In fact, some studies show that extensive cosmetic surgery may make psychological issues worse. Understanding why you want to undergo cosmetic surgery may be the difference between a boost in self-esteem and disappointment at your decision. Women who are happy with their overall appearance but who seek cosmetic surgery to alter just one aspect of their body often find that cosmetic surgery meets their physical and emotional needs.

The message in all of this is to be cautious in your decisions regarding cosmetic surgery; don’t be pushed around by a pervasive media or let your emotions get the better of you. Seriously ask yourself why you are considering cosmetic surgery. And there’s perhaps one other thing you should think about if you are overly concerned about how you think others perceive you. If people are so concerned with their own looks, who is actually scrutinizing your looks other than yourself.

Writing headlines.

Shauni - Beauty Fool.

My article is about plastic surgery and how your image is looked apon. Turning to surgery can become obsessive because you want to keep changing your apperance.

• Revolution - makes reference to the french revolution. (Paris)
• Typical images of what we would expect.

• Unusual, something you wouldn't normally see.
• Lots of images.
• Informal- newspapers are surprised with the models size.

• No images.
• Straight to the point.
• Lady Gaga is the main figure.

• Not very creative.
• Tells you what the article straight away. Straight to the point.

Generating Ideas

I started off by coming up with subject ideas to look at under the theme of Obsession. during this process I did start to think about what you would consider to be an obsession which in itself formed the topic of my article. What is classed as obsessive and what is just a mere hobby.

Intro

This blog is our yellow week fashion journalism project looking at the theme of 'obsession'.