Magazine Project: Synergy Magazine
- Lauren Wiles
- May 17, 2022
- 4 min read
Updated: Jan 3, 2023
Here is some of the pages I designed for the Magazine Project:
The full magazine is linked here:
MAGAZINE PRODUCTION REFLECTIVE COMMENTARY
With the Magazine project coming to an end (finally), I can now reflect on the events that happened throughout this project, what roles I took on, and how we got to making the first and frankly only issue of Synergy.
We initially started the project as a group of 6. We are all very close friends so we thought it would be a fun project to do together. We all pitched that Lifestyle would be out of our comfort zone and a good genre to play all of our strengths as writers and possibly designers. However, with many small groups forming in class- a merge naturally happened between us, sports and film groups and we turned into this mega-entertainment amalgamation group under the umbrella of a ‘lifestyle mag’. Our group of 6 became 14. The biggest group in our year by a mile.
At first, it was full steam ahead- we were pitching ideas and articles we could do and it was all going well. With Sinnead organising a shared drive to sort everything out. However, by Easter everything went to a stalemate. Sinnead ended up with more roles than she asked for and due to stepping up on editorial duties such as overseeing the overall progress of the mag she was appointed as Head Editor.
I pitched 4 articles ideas I could write, however I scrapped 2 as increasing workload made it impossible to complete it all in time and also to give more room for other members of the group to write more than one article.
The initial role I had to start with during this project was a joint page designer with two other people. However, due to lack of communication, the page designing team fell through. I felt like I could’ve contributed more as I felt like I was waiting on other people instead of doing any productive work on the Magazine.
During the Holidays, I helped take the burden off Sinnead by joining her on the front cover designing team. I then volunteered to be the photographer and Head of Photography for the magazine as I had a professional camera and previous photography experience. However I was extremely aggravated when the same six people kept showing up to the photoshoots I had booked in the media studios when everyone was meant to be present. We did eventually get two more people than the same six to join the final photoshoot for the front cover which was a great relief.
Sinnead then asked for pitches of the magazine names, so I went on a magazine-naming A.I website and it suggested ‘Social Synergy’. Although among our peers it wasn’t a very popular name. As the weeks went by and the front cover design was ready, we still didn't have a name for the magazine. So I just suggested ‘Synergy’ as we were running out of time and explained why it would be a good name for the mag.
‘Synergy’ means the cooperation of two or more things to produce a combined effect greater than the sum of their separate effects. I thought with all different topics such as film, sport and beauty combined together would create something greater than those on their own and thus, Synergy Magazine was born.
As we progressed into Summer Term, I found myself getting properly into page design and turning up to every editorial meeting- sometimes completely on my own. This was when I was then automatically appointed as Co-Editor and Sinnead and I decided to work as an editorial unit. I was then bombarded with these roles:
Sub-editor
Front Cover Designer
Organised the drive
Created Master Copies
I was also getting confused with the copy list as it was difficult to read so I came up with a colour-coded system on an Excel spreadsheet to see what we needed to complete and to pinpoint who did what and that everyone could update us two on their individual progress. It was a very effective strategy and helped us know exactly what we needed to do.
Nonetheless, people in our group still didn’t get work done or didn’t show up to any editorial meetings which started to annoy Sinnead and I. Sinnead decided to take more of a firm approach and started to individually call out people in the group that haven’t done as much work. Each editorial meeting felt like we were herding cats and it also felt like we were all in counselling sessions as people in our group clashed several times, including one member walking out mid-meeting.
Due to the increasing mental breakdowns and burnouts. Me and Sinnead decided to make everyone design at least one page and be in charge of their own sections which turned into an semi-inconsistent design and a chaotic free-for-all on what everyone was doing. Admittedly, this pushed the work along immensely and was partially why we were able to send a formed magazine by the deadline. We both agreed that everyone must stick to the same style sheet and colour-code for their section of the magazine so everything still tied in with each other which was:
Fashion : Red
Food: Yellow/Gold
Lifestyle: Light Blue/Cyan
Sport: Green
Film: Purple
Beauty: Pink
We also made difficult decisions to either kick people out the group or cut them from the magazine entirely. In the last few weeks most people finally came around and pushed the project forward to what it is now.
As of writing this, truthfully, the magazine is still slightly unfinished. This is not to the fault of most of the members but due to a select few. What has been completed was a first magazine for mostly everyone in the group and everyone felt tremendously proud of what we all accomplished. I'm especially proud of what me and my editor partner Sinnead managed to reel in the last couple of weeks. I am open to working with Sinnead and the main designing team again with another magazine project but I think Synergy is ready to be put to bed.
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