InLight

Fashion is all about feeling good. We believe that by genuinely loving ourselves, others and the world we live, we are rewarded with a blissful sense of well-being. We cover issues relating to fashion, sustainability, travel, in the hopes of helping you make the right decisions ultimately proving beneficial to your own mental health and well being and thus happier existence

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It’s all about feeling good!

https://inlightmag.com/2017/10/01/its-about-feeling-good/

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SWOT Analysis

Strengths:

- clean sophisticated look, easy to navigate, features that go hand in hand with magazine idea such as the little light moment when the homepage loads, unique perspective

Weaknesses:

-limited readership, only for ethically minded individuals

-Lack of playful features (mouse could become a light water ripple when clicks)

-About page is lacking

Opportunity:

-Ethical and sustainable fashion has been gaining a lot of popularity over the years and more and more people are becoming interested 

-Influencers on youtube and other social media platforms raising awareness on the importance of sustainable and ethical fashion

Which will lead to increased viewership

-Could have a category on Travel, traveling opens up your horizons and makes you more empathetic and is an amazing experience

Threats: competitors: Eluxe Magazine, Florum, 

- People tend to absorb information slower when it comes to online magazines compared to printed magazines

- Competitors have very playful content such as gifs, “click to see something unexpected!” widgets, fun polls, interactive content in general, my magazine is lacking in this.

How my magazine might rise up to competition:

The unique perspective: Humans tend to act on feelings. I think my magazine has a really unique perspective on sustainability and ethical fashion as its rooted on feeling good, meaning there’s something in it for them, you’re doing good and you're feeling good as a result My magazine can easily bump up it’s viewership by adding playful interactive content

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Cosmetic Articles:

Ways for you to help slow down fast fashion:

Weekly features on ways for the viewer to help slow down fast fashion: 

-Zero Waste Design

-Next level thirft stores such as Traid

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My 3 Articles Explanation

https://fernandajournal.tumblr.com/post/168520279889/my-3-article-choices

Article 1: Plastic is very harmful to the environment –> damaging the environment leads to guilt –> doesn’t make you feel good, so avoid it

Article 2: Consumerist mentality leaves you unhappy & unsatisfied, doesn’t feel good –> But minimalism might make you feel good, so here’s how you can start building a capsule wardrobe inspired by the minimalist concept.

Article 3: Handcraft is not damaging to the environment, putting value into what you make with your own hands /makes you appreciate others and their work –> makes you feel good

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Mood

My magazine is trying to transmit feelings of bliss and elation, simplicity, tenderness, warmth, comfort

https://fernandajournal.tumblr.com/post/167869992299/final-typeface-with-strapline

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How My Magazine is Different

Similar magazines: 

https://fernandajournal.tumblr.com/post/167763756329/online-magazine-homepages

There are a lot of ethical and sustainable fashion magazines out there, however My magazine takes a different approach to sustainability and ethical living. It puts an emphasis on the pleasure derived from choosing to do good to others and to the world.

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Brand Outline (For presentation)

I've decided to simplify the concept of my ideas in order to appeal to a wider audience

This is how I described my magazine:

“Fashion is all about feeling good! We believe that by genuinely loving ourselves, others and the world we live, we are rewarded with a blissful sense of well-being. We cover issues relating to fashion, sustainability, lifestyle and travel, in the hopes of helping you make the right decisions, ultimately leading to a fulfilling, happy existence.”

My magazine is aimed at young women who love fashion and want to enjoy life but are also ethically conscious and want to make a difference in the world.

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Fun Website Features

Eluxe Mag :https://eluxemagazine.com/

Widgets:

BuffaloZine: https://buffalozine.com/

Mouse Arrow becomes the word “Enter” in big letters and changes into a big arrows when it moves to the right of the homepage, suggesting a “flip of the page”

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Instagram Widget on Footer of Mag

About the Instagram widget at the bottom of my site:

Went to plugins in wordpress.org and looked for an Instagram widget and I found a one that has a lot of customisation options. 

The photos aligned reminds me of this page from the DigitalTemple online magazine, has a magazine page feel to it

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My 3 Article Choices

Content explanation:

I chose to write 3 different styles of articles

-A fashion show review

-A photoshoot/Top pieces

-An Interview

1st article: The Chanel S/S Dilemma

I wrote about how this show was very beautiful and all the references to organic forms in nature made it seem as if the show was about sustainable fashion/non damaging to nature, but then the highlight of the show was plastic. Mixed signals. 

Trail of thought about how it fits into my mag:

Plastic is very harmful to the environment --> damaging the environment leads to guilt --> doesn’t make you feel good, so avoid it

2nd article: Top 5 Capsule Wardrobe Pieces Inspired by the Minimalist Approach

I put a lot of effort into the group photoshoot and ended up really enjoying the process as well as the outcomes, so I wanted to showcase it on my site. It’s about the minimalist concept of owning fewer things, but things that you truly feel a connection to, things that are special to you. Investing in the more expensive and longer lasting items. It’s about escaping that consumerist mindset that never fulfils and never brings lasting joy.

Trail of thought about how it fits into my mag:

Consumerist mentality leaves you unhappy & unsatisfied, doesn’t feel good --> But minimalism might make you feel good, so here’s how you can start building a capsule wardrobe inspired by the minimalist concept.

3rd article: Beauty in the Overlooked with Lola Lely

Lola Lely is a multidisciplinary designer that did a workshop at Selfridges earlier this year, and is someone whom I have kept in touch with. The workshop was about using ancient Japanese techniques used by poor people who could not afford to buy new clothes and therefore turned to these dying and patch-working techniques in order to make their clothes look fresh and new. it’s about giving value to what you already own. I kept in touch and asked her if she could do a quick interview which she agreed to. My magazine appreciates and supports handcraft, which most of the time does not damage the environment and promotes individuality, which is contrary to fast fashion which is harmful for the environment and makes everybody look the same.  

Trail of thought about how it fits into my mag:

Handcraft is not damaging to the environment, putting value into what you make with your own hands /makes you appreciate others and their work --> makes you feel good 

My magazine appreciates and supports handcraft, which most of the time does not damage the environment and promotes individuality, which is contrary to fast fashion which is harmful for the environment and makes everybody look the same/gives no value to individuality

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Photography Use on Website

All other photography not referenced on this list was taken by:

-My photographer friend, Sam Mills, who has personally given me permission to use them on my site. 

-Lola Lely, who has personally given me permission to use them on my site. 

-Juliana Vasconcelos a friend

Photos References:

Li Elderkoort:

http://hey-woman.com/2016/top-10-li-edelkoort-on-the-emancipation-of-everything/

Chanel 2018 S/S Dilemma photos:

http://stylenoted.com/chanel-closes-paris-fashion-week-with-epic-couture-rainwear-show/

Lola Lely Photo

https://www.thenewcraftsmen.com/handmade-craft-makers/lola-lely-studio/

Eco Fashion Australia Photo

https://www.fremantlestory.com.au/your-story/event-festivals/exhibitions/eco-fashion-week-australia.html

http://www.ecofashionweekaustralia.com/

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Peer-Pressure Writing Methods

My magazine is about being more mindful and that includes thinking twice before making a purchase, so I’m trying to be careful not to use language that conveys to the audience that life won’t be good if they don’t have a specific item, e.g.   “Must-have items!” or ” “These are the pieces you need in your closet!”

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I changed to Wordpress.org

Frustrated & Unhappy

I got to week 9 and I just wasn’t satisfied with the way my online magazine was looking. My theme was called Argent, which was the closest match I could find to suit the idea I had for my online magazine. I had a specific colour in mind that I wanted to use and most templates offered limited colour palettes. I wanted to limit the use of the colour black on my website, only using it as the body text of my articles and I couldn’t find any themes that offered this kind of option.

Additionally, the widgets section just didn’t look right and it was REALLY bugging me. I dislike the black shadow over the widget, and the way they were floating so awkwardly at the bottom of the page, as you can see below, and the template had very limited customisation options. 

After many hours of playing around with different themes and trying to make something work, I couldn’t find anything that left me satisfied. 

I then went off and created a simple homepage proposal of what I wanted my online magazine to look like and decided to seek a friend who has some website design skills. I asked if he could help me to produce something similar to this proposal:

He told me that I’d be better off creating a site from wordpress.ORG as opposed to Wordpress.COM which is the commercial side of Wordpress. I read the brief and it states we are to use Wordpress but does not specifically say that it has to be Wordpress.COM. Even if it were not allowed to use Wordpress.ORG, I still wanted to create the page and use it as a site proposal. 

After speaking to James, he said that he doesn’t see a problem with using Wordpress.ORG, so I began developing my site from there.

What we did:

We created a private Wordpress website (which means it’s hosted by another web hosting provider, in this case I went with the the web hosting provider “1and1″) using the free Wordpress source code (which is the content management system of Wordpress) downloaded from Wordpress.org.

Here’s a guide as to what exactly we did to get my website up and running on Wordpress.ORG:

Went to wordpress.org —> Clicked on “Download Wordpress” —> Read information and downloaded the latest working version of Wordpress 

This way we were able to modify the Wordpress source code and themes through HTML and CSS (MaInly CSS) to suit what I had proposed. 

If someone would like to follow this route that allows you to change the CSS and HTML as opposed to using the wordpress.com templates offered, there is a support page available with all the instructions on how to install (https://codex.wordpress.org/Installing_WordPress). Once installed, you have full access to change the CSS and HTML codes.

I’m very pleased with the outcomes!

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Interview for one of my articles...

I was able to get in touch with Lola Lely, who is a multidisciplinary designer that hosted a pop up in Selfridges earlier this year about Japanese dye and patchwork techniques. She kindly agreed to do an interview over the phone.

I felt a little nervous but I tried to relax and let the conversation flow more naturally as opposed to just reading from my notes.

This was a very good experience learning experience and confidence booster for me.

What I learnt NOT to do:

- Don’t interrupt by giving prompt such as “hmm” every few seconds, let the person speak until they’re done

What went well:

- I researched my interviewee quite well and was able to plan before hand as a result, therefore the conversation was well structured and meaningful

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Photoshoot Outcomes & Editing Photos

I’m really pleased with the outcomes of our group photoshoot. It captured exactly what we wanted and had planned for, which is:

First 2 shots: Simple, minimal, sophisticated look 

Last 2 shots: Crazy, annoyed, discontented, encompassing the nature of fast fashion that leaves us unhappy and unsatisfied in the long run

I’m doing some editing on photos through photoshop. So for example, cleaning up the footprints on the studio floor, fixing the lighting, sharpening, smoothing out shirt creases, and other minor things, etc. 

Shot 1: Before & After editing

Shot 2: Before & After Editing

Shot 3: Before & After Editing

Shot 4: Before & After Editing

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Thoughts on first person writing...

I’ve been thinking about how to write my articles, in terms of whether or not i should be using “we”. I noticed that some magazines do use first person in the form of “we”, for example Cosmopolitan magazine often say: “We at Cosmo...”. I want to incorporate this into my magazine as it gives it more of an inclusive feel to the articles, reflecting the “love for the community” nature of my magazine.