The Wire Magazine by Rory McGinty

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Contents

07 About me 08 IRB Statement 09 Abstract 10 Documentation 14 Execution 20 Results 22 Reflection

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About Me RORY MCGINTY

Hello! I am Rory and I am a DRT concentration graduating this quarter (Spring 2020). For the past year, I have served as the Graphic Production artist for the associative publication to Women in Business, The Wire. I rebranded it completely when I took over the role last summer to help The Wire gain a more appealing presence on Cal Poly’s campus.

My goal was to give it an aesthetic which was simple, feminine, and neutral. Once the rebrand was complete, I worked hard all year to maintain the new brand on all our social media platforms, website and printed marketing collateral to continuously be drawing in new readers.

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IRB STATEMENT

My project does not require review by the Cal Poly Institutional Review Board (IRB). After analyzing my project using the research decision chart, it was clear my project is not a systematic investigation and there is no data collection involved. Therefore, I determined that my project is not research and IRB review is not needed at this time.

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ABSTRACT

This project is a collaboration with The Wire, to strengthen their physical presence on campus and increase brand awareness. After huge strides in building a following this year, The Wire is looking for new ways to keep the momentum going and one way is through the production of this magazine. With a design forward magazine, members of our Cal Poly community will be inclined to pick it up and flip through our articles written over the past year. This will interest people to learn more about The Wire and follow us as well as help them recognize our brand the next time they see it around on campus.

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Problem STATEMENT

This project aims to produce a magazine composed of the stories written by the journalists of The Wire from this 2019 – 2020 school year.

The Wire is a publication associated with the Women in Business club on campus, and publishes weekly articles based on experiences of women in our Cal Poly community. I serve as The Wire’s graphic production artist on a board of creative writers, designers and marketers. Our articles live digitally on our website and our best marketing efforts are done through social media. With a lack of a strong physical presence on and around campus, The Wire is not reaching and retaining as big of an audience as it potentially could. While this project aims to showcase the writings and perspectives of our writers, it will also be used to promote our name by gaining a greater physical presence on campus and stronger recognition through the publication of a magazine.

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Project OBJECTIVE

Personal objectives I have set for my self include: Building a greater understanding of how to apply design principles to a large scale project while strengthening my design skills.

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Communicating and presenting clearly, concisely and eloquently.

Practicing better time management by laying out weekly tasks to which I hold myself responsible for completing on time and adjusting to any hiccups along the way.

3.

I have also set professional objectives which include: Advocating for myself and my ideas by providing sufficient research and reasoning on what works and what doesn’t and also putting into practice the advice given to me by my mentor, a professional in the design field, to come up with practical solutions.

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Creating a rigid work flow chart so that with each week I am closer to my goals.

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Exercising the hard and soft skills which I have accumulated the past four years in my classes and work experiences, so that I can show I am ready for real world projects come graduation.

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10 week quarter

TIMELINE WEEK ONE

WEEK TWO

- Choose topic

- Brainstorm mentors (Sam from CULK, Megan Heddinger from Wilde House Paper, or Ryann Kivel from Etna Interactive)

- Define problem - Set goals & scope

- Begin research (Users, conditions, competitors, limits, challenges, trends, success, etc.)

WEEK SIX

WEEK THREE - Continue research - Reach out to mentor & set up time to talk (Megan Heddinger) - Meet with mentor (ask for advice on what they think makes a beautiful, successful editorial magazine.)

WEEK SEVEN

- Create InDesign doc, begin importing content and designing layouts

- Continue designing magazine - Ideate cover design (choose photography that will be on front)

- Design artwork

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WEEK FOUR

WEEK FIVE

- Choose nine articles from The Wire this year

- Ideate & brainstorm layout designs

- Ask writers for the OK to republish their work

- Create mood board - Pick out photography

- Reformat articles in word docs for easy transition to InDesign

- Come up with a title - Meet with mentor (get feedback on mood board + photography)

WEEK EIGHT - Continue designing layouts & start wrapping things up

WEEK NINE - Complete magazine - Complete process book

FINALS WEEK - Submit presentation of final product - Submit process book

- Begin process book - Write reflection - Meet with mentor (show her nearly finished project to make last edits)

- Publish magazine digitally on Issuu - Senior showcase?

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PROJECT EXECUTION

Project Planning I began this project by structuring how/when each portion was going to get completed. On the following page is my Work Break Down Structure (WBS) chart which brakes up the project into four phases: Research, Organization, Ideation and Creation. Phase one, research was conducted on the magazine market, magazine design and magazine trends.

Phase two of organization consisted of gathering the content of the magazine by choosing which nine articles I would like to feature and getting confirmation from the writers that it is okay that I use their work.

After this, the most important phase, ideation, began with brainstorming type combinations, color palettes, layouts, and envisioning the imagery that would be paired with each article. Mood boards and looking to other peoples work for inspiration played a key role in this project to ensure each design was consistent and unified. Once the look and feel of my vision was solidified, I was able to dive into the final phase of creation.

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PROJECT EXECUTION

Budget Since I am unable to utilize the resources within the Graphic Communication department to print copies of the magazine myself on campus this quarter, the president and financial officers of Women in Business have graciously offered to give me around $500 dollars to print as many magazines possible from an outsourced printer. With that money, I estimate that I will be able to order about 40 to 50 copies. These will then be given to members of both the Women in Business leadership board as well as The Wire’s. I am also willing to spend at least $100 of my own money to have copies to give to friends, family, and all those who have helped me throughout the course of this project.

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PROJECT EXECUTION

Brainstorming As I previously mentioned, the third phase, ideation, was by far the most important. Even now, with my project completed, I feel as though I could have looked at a hundred more examples of type mixing, color combinations and layouts to help inspire me and add value to my designs. I began brainstorming on my own and then worked with my mentor, Megan Heddinger, to hone in on what I really wanted. Megan is the owner and designer of Wilde House Paper, a lifestyle stationary company located here in SLO. She is a GrC alumni and seemingly a perfect mentor option as she is also very involved with The Wire and Women in Business. Together we brainstormed different font, color and layout combinations which fit with my chosen aesthetic while still maintaining a portion of The Wire brand. Shown on the right, is an example of what we came up with.

The second font and color combination is what we felt fit best for this project, using Optima as our main header, Titling Gothic as a subhead, used mainly for standfirsts and by-lines, and Halyard for articles body text. As for color palettes, I wanted to use bright and captivating colors that would pop off that page and engage the reader. From there I gathered inspiration from magazines whose style I wanted to emulate to help me jump-start things. Other great resources of inspiration was Behance, Pinterest, and Instagram.

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Font / Color Combination - One Tenez

Campaign

Proxima Nova

Aa Bb Cc Dd Ee Ff Gg Hh Ii Jj Kk Ll Mm Nn Oo Pp Qq Rr Ss Tt Uu Vv Ww Xx Yy Zz

Aa Bb Cc Dd Ee Ff Gg

Aa Bb Cc Dd Ee Ff Gg Hh Ii Jj

Hh Ii Jj Kk Ll Mm Nn

Kk Ll Mm Nn Oo Pp Qq Rr Ss

Oo Pp Qq Rr Ss Tt Uu

Tt Uu Vv Ww Xx Yy Zz

Vv Ww Xx Yy Zz

Font / Color Combination - Two

Optima Aa Bb Cc Dd Ee Ff Gg Hh Ii Jj Kk Ll Mm Nn Oo Pp Qq Rr Ss Tt Uu Vv Ww Xx Yy Zz

TITLING GOTHIC Aa Bb Cc Dd Ee Ff Gg Hh Ii Jj Kk Ll Mm Nn Oo Pp Qq Rr Ss Tt Uu Vv Ww Xx Yy Zz

Halyard Aa Bb Cc Dd Ee Ff Gg Hh Ii Jj Kk Ll Mm Nn Oo Pp Qq Rr Ss Tt Uu Vv Ww Xx Yy Zz

Font / Color Combination - Three Meno Banner

Termina

Proxima Nova

Aa Bb Cc Dd Ee Ff Gg Hh Ii Jj Kk Ll Mm Nn Oo Pp Qq Rr Ss Tt Uu Vv Ww Xx Yy Zz

Aa Bb Cc Dd Ee Ff

Aa Bb Cc Dd Ee Ff Gg Hh Ii Jj

Gg Hh Ii Jj Kk Ll Mm

Kk Ll Mm Nn Oo Pp Qq Rr Ss

Nn Oo Pp Qq Rr Ss

Tt Uu Vv Ww Xx Yy Zz

Tt Uu Vv Ww Xx Yy Zz

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Project RESULTS

The final magazine has come out to be 114 pages in length and composed of one article from each of our ten writers and a showcase of the women who were nominated for this years 30 Under 30: Cal Poly’s Most Influential Women. Each page was designed with intention and originality that captures the messages of our writers and helps tell their stories. Although I was unable to finish the project far enough in advance to have them printed by finals week, it is still something that is going to be carried out soon after graduation so that the writers from this year have a printed version of their work forever. In the mean time however, I have published the magazine digitally via Issuu at: https://issuu.com/rorymcginty/docs/_wire-mag

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Project REFLECTION

Over a hundred pages designed and produced. I can’t believe its done.

I am so proud of its end result as each article took hours of work and consideration. I tried to push myself and my design skills to a new level which presented many challenges. I owe so much of this projects success to my mentor, Megan, who pushed me to reiterate each design to add as much value as possible to every page and really show what I am capable of as a designer. Throughout the course of this project, I feel there was a lot that I did well, but also some things I have realized I could have worked on to make things go smoother. First thing that I was very successful at was brainstorming. As I have mentioned, this portion of the project was key. Taking generous amounts of time to analyze other peoples work and getting inspired helped me so much in developing the look and feel of my magazine. Communication was another skill that I felt helped me a lot in this project, surprisingly as well. Being in contact with Megan almost every week to hear her opinion allowed me to make decisions quicker and also forced me to get things done and stay on task. I think what hurt me the most however was my time management.

The last couple weeks of the quarter, I was feeling the pressure of the deadline approaching and I felt as though I did not do the best job of accomplishing milestones I set for myself. The last week of the quarter was when a very large portion of this magazine got designed, and I wish I had started the creation phase sooner. Regardless, it is completed, beautiful and ready to be read!

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Looking at the FUTURE

This project has been something I have anticipated doing for a year now after, GrC alumni, Kaelyn Richards so successfully completed the same project in 462 the year before. She passed on her role as graphic production artist on to me and was so excited to take Senior Project and make a volume two or The Wire magazine. As I graduate and pass along my role, I see how far The Wire has come since I took it over and am so excited to see where it is a year from now as someone new takes it over.

My hope is that a senior next year finds this project as fun, challenging and interesting as Kaelyn and I did and carry on this tradition to create a volume three.

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