Farm visit . . .

I visited Gooduns Farm that I am hoping to use as the location for the Land Girls shoot. It is the perfect location, having the traditional black and white Freschian cows, he even had a 1950s tractor, perfect for the shoot. It also wasn't as far away as I was expecting, only taking half an hour, I just need to find someone else who could possibly provide transport for the day. We've penciled in the date in for the 30th April. I can' wait to do the shoot, it's going to be good!

The farmer suggested having one of the girls feeding one of the baby cows, which I would love to do, I just need to run it past the models first.

The milking machines that the farmers uses to milk the cows, he also suggested having one of the models milking a cow, although I think the machinery may well be a bit too modern for the 1940s time period of the shoot.

The 1950s tractor, that I'm hoping to use on the day, as well as the blue tractor below. I also would like a shoot of all three models sitting on the metal gate with the cows in the background.

Portfolio tutorial, business cards and CV . . .

I managed to figure out a way of laser cutting more than one business card at once. The first attempt didn't work quite so well, as I hadn't lined the page up properly, but the following cards worked really well. I've booked in again for May time so that I can have some more printed in time for GFW as well as a few spares for after I graduate, as I will no longer have access to a laser cutter. Below are the four finished chosen designs -

I also had a tutorial with Gail just going over the first steps to putting together my portfolio for this unit, everything is looking good so far. I've got a lot of samples to go into it, so I need to get these done over Easter. Gail came up with a good idea at making some of my image pages more tactile, by having one or two of the images printed onto fabric, relating to the publication and my own individual style.

Gail also looked through my updated CV, which is going to be printed on the same inscription paper I'm using within the publication, with my name at the top of the page stamped, again in keeping with the style of my publication. She only had time for a quick flick through, but said it was looking good. I'm going to wait to get it printed until we've had Anne's lecture on putting together a CV, just in case I've missed out or included something I shouldn't.

Proof reader . . .

I have found my second proof reader for the publication, she is a teacher of English so perfect for the role. The first proof read will hopefully be complete by the end of the week, but I've been editing the changes as and when I receive them to keep on top of it all, as it takes such a long time to make the alterations. I'm planning to print out the whole publication for my second proof reader to go over in the Easter break.

Jamie tutorial take two and publication content update . . .

I had another mini tutorial with Jamie today, after editing the layout of the publication over the weekend, he said it was looking a lot better and the layouts of the pages were a vast improvement on the originals.

There were still a few little things to change, some of the images I had missed taking the rounded edges off of, and he suggested having all of the text aligned to one side or another for the stand first instead of having the text centralised in the middle of the page.

I'm just struggling slightly with the how to guide Fran sent me for making cushions, as I can't get the layout right, as not all of the stages have pictures to go with them. I've also heard back from Lisa Tracey of Tricky Treats who is writing an article for me on home made Vs shop bought cakes and the benefits, which I should hopefully have by the 8th April, my penultimate bit of content to go into the publication.

Meeting with Phoebe . . .

I met up with Phoebe today, to pick the final images for the spread for the beach shoot, for her to edit for the publication. She was originally going to edit them all, but because she took so many and they came out so well, it will take too long to do them all. Hopefully she's going to have the chosen images edited by tomorrow if not Wednesday in time for my stage review on Thursday, and in time for me to put into the Indesign publication document. As I want to have as much work as possible to show on the day and get feedback on before we break up for Easter.

Phoebe also took a short film on the day which is amazing, I'm going to ask her if it's ok to put it on the web-site for the publication, as a behind the scenes feature, I've included a link below to the video -

Shoot ! ! !

Today was shoot day and it went really really well, I was a little apprehensive at the clothes that Vicky and Naomi had chosen for the shoot, but I had 100% confidence in them and it paid off, all of the outfits worked well, particularly the yellow dress, against the models red hair. I had only intended to shoot two outfits, but the day was going so well that we ended up shooting four, which was great, it also means that I will have more images to choose from when it comes to laying out the images in the spread in my publication. I've included some of the backstage images below -

Catch up with Jamie . . .

I haven't as of yet had a proper sit down tutorial with Jamie for him to look through my publication. I had pretty much got the content and layout sorted before going to see him, but he pointed out a few things regarding the layout that needed fixing, which I am going to rectify over the weekend, ready for stage review next week, below are the comments he made -

- Rounded corners on the images gets a bit monotonous as you go through the publication.

- Too much text, the ratio should be 60% image and white space to 40% text.

- There are no continuing layout features throughout the publication, each page is different, try and come up with some features that can be transferred from page to page. For example have a marker on pages where you will not put text above.

- Experiment with the placement of images, doesn't have to be the traditional layout.

- Pick a different font for the book shop shoot.

- Really like the layout of the contributors page, try and replicate this layout elsewhere in the publication.

- The Champagne Limousines font works well on the pages, nice clean look.

Jamie gave me a lot to think about, and I have made a start on some of the points made above, I've been told by a few people about the rounded corners on the images, so I've removed these from the majority of the images. I have also used the dashed line boxes (used on the recipe pages) to create more continuity throughout the publication, giving these boxes rounded edges instead, which now looks a lot better.