Digital version of Owl magazine

Here is the final digital version of Owl magazine!

Open publication - Free publishing - More activity

Whats inside for £6

So, I have decided to sell my mags for £6 each. Ideally I would like to sell them for less than this but due to printing costs and only printing in small quantities, I am unable to do that.  Anyway, here is what you get if you buy one of my magazines!

Owl magazine

Two fold out colouring posters

A colouring pencil made of recycled wood

A double sided panda postcard

A gift label

A pack of sequins 

A packet of sunflower seeds

And this is the complete package .....

It comes in a clear cellophane bag with a gift label tied on with a piece of rafia

Hot off the press

I have been busy binding my magazines as I have had a few orders already! I am very excited to be selling some, makes me feel like the work is starting to pay off :) 

Owl magazine is printed!!

I am so pleased to say that my magazine has been printed! I was a bit nervous to see how it would come out, but the recycled paper I used has worked really well, and gives a nice overall feel to the publication.

I had to paginate all the pages so they would print in the right order, which was a very confusing task. But it has paid off, as they have all printed in the right place! I have bound them myself by sewing up the spine with threads that match the colours in the mag. My notepads and pencils are ready too, so the overall package is nearly complete :) I will also upload the completed digital file so you can see all the pages. 

Business Cards

These are my business cards I have designed, I thought it would be good to come up with a few rather than just one.

Two options for front cover

I also have two front cover designs and really don't know which one to use. A few people said the bottom one is too similar to Anorak.

Owl magazine Final edit

So here is the latest version of my magazine I have uploaded to Issuu.com. This will probably be the last time a draft gets posted on here as I will be taking it to get printed next week! So the next one up will be the final version. Any comments on how to improve it would be fab!

Open publication - Free publishing - More kids

Magazine in progress

I have uploaded my magazine to Issuu.com so you can see how it might look when it is finished.

New Logo and Merchandise Ideas

I have come up with a new logo for my magazine, I went off Pelican, and have renamed it Owl magazine instead. I prefer the look of this logo and it also means I can change the colour of it depending where it is used. As well as the mag I am making a few bits of merchandise. These will mainly be used for the degree show, but I am planning on making one of each item by the time I hand in. The apron is going to be screen printed with the owl picture and the notepads will either be screen printed or I will get stickers made with the logo. They are just designs at the moment, but when I get proper ones made I will post up the photos. There will also be more page layouts to come shortly.

Edited Page Layouts

I had a very helpful tutorial last week, lots of constructive criticism which is good I think. I have a lot to do to make my pages better and they have changed quite a bit since the last post. The main feedback I got was:

The borders aren't necessary, use of colourisation needs to be better (ie. I had lots of clashing colours!), make more use of white space, find fresh fonts, move some of the page titles around to mix it up a bit.  It is amazing what another pair of eyes can tell you!

Other suggestions included: Making the owl smaller on the bird wordsearch page, giving the child more space to draw. Using the butterflies and caterpillars across a double page, and using the green panel with butterflies on, on a separate page.

I have also changed the page size so it isn't A4 as I thought it would make it more bespoke.

And after taking all the advice on board, here is what I have come up with . . .

More Pages

Here are some more pages that I spent last week working on, I think I am nearly half way so getting there!

Update....

So I think it is time for another update on my magazine, here are some page layouts I have been working on. Making a magazine is a lot more challenging than I thought but I think I am beginning to get the hang of it! They are all double page spreads, and I have taken some of the advice on board from my last tutorial (to fill in sections of the fish picture with black). These aren't finished but I hope I am close as there are a lot more pages to go!!

Caterpillars and Butterflies

Here is a fun little puzzle I have made for my magazine. You have to count them to see if there are more caterpillars or butterflies.

Examples of Page Layouts

This is an example of what one of the double pages might look like. I have done one with the pelican flying across the page, and another with just the simple page numbers. However, after all that drawing I have a horrible feeling it looks better with the standard page numbers! I am going to play about with it a lot more before I decide on what to do.

More Pelicans!

To make my magazine more fun I am using my Pelican as a character who will appear on every page, working as an indication of where in the magazine you are. For example on the first page, the pelican will be standing on a post. On the second page he will be taking off,  and on the third he will flying etc etc. The images will be quite small on the page, so I hope these will work in that context. My plan is to put the page numbers on the tree stumps.

Pelican Logo Ideas

These are the ideas I have come up with for my logo design, which will be used on the front cover of the magazine and merchandise etc. I have kept the colours simple so that it will fit in with most colour schemes and I have included one on a blue background to show this. I am having trouble deciding which one is my favourite, but I think I am swaying towards the one with the stripy L. Any suggestions?