I can still remember my first blog post, written when I was at Macdonald's for hours, stuck outside because I forgot my house keys and here I am typing once again, thankfully at home.

This writing lab journey has be a sheer joy to be a part of. I've had such wonderful teammates who make every Thursdays and Fridays so much fun, laughing like wackos for no reason in class all the time.

But when it came to grinding out the technicalities of our work which included story schedules, layout sketches, flat plans and photo-taking, we still had fun and got the job done.

Here's the lowdown on some of the things I've learnt through this practicum:

- Sometimes you have to craft your interview questions differently, according to the interviewee.

Some people are more open than others while some tend to need a bit of warming up before they can share their stories, so beginning an interview with small talk or a joke is actually a nice way of getting started.

- Cutting articles are not easy.

Word count: 789. Desired word count for magazine: 450. It was hard removing large chunks of text or quotes from already seemingly well written articles. The challenge was cutting it, while not diminishing the whole angle and purpose of the story. Through this, I've learnt to take out quotes that may seem long. Shorten sentences while keeping the meaning the same instead of removing them wholesale. And any digression from the topic has to be deleted. Tough, but manageable.


- Editing is not a one-time thing

After I proofread all the articles, I was confident that there were no errors. Boy was I wrong. It was like a new magical discovery that every time I scanned the new magazine again, my not-so-good eyesights somehow spots a typo or error in certain articles. So yes, editing has to be done over and over again until the magic show ends.

- That Byline Joy

I mean, it's always nice to see hard work paid off with a "By: Gerard Michael". Just these 3 words satisfy me.

- I need to brush up on my design skills

Yes, I'm still at it, not so long ago I complained about my lacking ability to design and here I am once again reiterating on my need to do better. I think I just need more practice.

- Make friends and be connected

I'm thankful for knowing certain friends who have helped me in this project. A couple of them are featured in the magazine. It can be frustrating not being able to find the right person to interview.


- I can't cook

So the salt and pepper crew decided to have a cooking session in Phoebe's house, to be featured in the magazine. Spaghetti and meatballs. I was in charge of handling the meatballs but I think the team would have been better off without me.



- Lots of room for improvement

I feel that at times I take too long pondering how to form my sentences or sometimes I make basic errors while writing, be it typos or grammatical mistakes. I aim to work on it, read more books and papers, and you know, better myself at it.


Conclusion:

I had no regrets taking up this practicum. Salt & Pepper magazine was just an idea. But as a team consisting of Justin, Sharen, Phoebe, Amanda and I, we made it come to fruition.

Regards,
Gerard Michael

The end of writing lab.
The end of all lessons in my Polytechnic life.
The end of working together with such amazing individuals.
But no, not the end of the beautiful friendships I forged all this while.

I can write a long paragraph on my experiences in writing lab but I am just going to summarize everything into one short and simple sentence, which is:

"Writing Lab is a choice I do not regret making."

We all have to make choices in life and sometimes, you find that you made the wrong decision and just feel angry or sad about it whereas at times, you just feel so happy about everything. You cannot possibly be at the winning end all the time, right? But I strongly believe that choosing writing lab wasn't a mistake and that I feel super blessed that I was given the opportunity to have worked with such great group members.

And I've definitely learned a lot throughout this journey. For instance, I learn about the different types of paper there are. (you might think this is ridiculous but this was really an eye-opener) Different papers have different feels to it so you have to be careful and cautious when using 2 different papers and ensure that both of them complement each other. Who would have thought that a small matter like paper, which we will always overlook, can be such a difficult task? So lesson learnt: DO NOT BE COMPLACENT!

Again, I do not wish to write a lot because clearly, I really love everything about this module and the assignments given. I wouldn't have want it any other way. And to my group members, thank you for being so co-operative, friendly and a funny bunch. I only had one chance to go through this and I'm extremely glad to have done this with you guys! From the bottom of my heart, thank you for everything! (:

piu piu piu

Hi all, I'm here to reflect my writing lab journey as a student and as a magazine designer.

two words: tough work

another two words: please persevere

I guess it's easy to slack off and will the urge to procrastinate since I have very little modules to tackle. But then again I've cultivated habits to finish things on time to not get myself into trouble or throw myself in a frenzy. It's really tough when that happens.

Being a student here in writing lab has thought me more than what I've imagined.
I thought it was all write this, here's a theme. Write that, according to ____.
But in class, I've learnt several techniques on coming up with titles, different ways to phrase a sentence, hilarious buzzfeed articles, more of what's in the news and also to also avoid dangling modifiers.


Being a writing lab student taught me to be resourceful on my own, to learn the different types of binding and also to be decisive of what direction the magazine should be steered in.

In writing lab, I've also managed to be more "fluent" in InDesign. Although I'm boycotting this software for about 3 months because of the pain I've suffered, nevertheless am glad I've managed to design something to the group's (and thankfully my) fancy.

What motivated me to choose writing lab was because I saw my seniors designing their magazine and have such an experimental and fruitful time with it made me chose this practicum.

I proudly say that I did not once regret taking up this module. Despite creating such a sleek and clean design, I did manage to play around and touch up on my design skills! (+1 brownie point to Phoebe).

Also glad that I've made friends from other classes and know more about others, something I'd always enjoy. Sad that I won't be able to see them more often but I do hope we'd hang out sometime in the future.

And why isn't the person in my reflection someone I don't know? It's because the reflection's the past and I've gained so much experience and joy in this past semester (god, I'm so cliché I need to be stopped)

Pardon that and I hope you've enjoyed the shenanigans superevoo brought you guys <3

Love always,
Phoebe

Ah hah, just joking about the help.

Had plentiful of constructive feedback from Mr Seow on Thursday during our design consult. I might have felt upset about his comments but it's because it hurts when your hard work doesn't seem to be approved by someone who is from a design background.

But nevertheless, I took in the comments like a man and tried working around what with have. Honestly, the group doesn't have time to change the layout (or rather I don't have the time because of FYP).

The feedback I've received from Mr Seow was:
 - monotonous layout
- clean
- no oomph (really just means the layout is too repetitive)
- should include a livery (sp? the category part to inform readers on what is this article about)


Would like to also reflect that my journey on designing a magazine was very fulfilling. As mentioned previously, I was very inspired by my seniors from writing lab when I saw them designing a magazine. With very little knowledge on designing, they have piqued my interest. I'd like to also thank my group for giving me the opportunity to design because it really is so satisfying to see my end results and like, WOAH it made me feel so happy.


I guess one analogy could be: trying to lose to your ideal weight and then enjoying a piece of cake. HAHA, but anyway despite the procrastinations and the feedback I've received (be it good or bad) I would say it really did fuel me to produce a better design fitting of the concept.

(And with that I'd like to point out that the concept of the magazine is you're entitled to feel atas. Look good, feel good!)


I shall now show the current layout because I have no idea where are the previous ones. Maybe I forgot to save them. Still in the midst of polishing (although the urge to procrastinate is very, very high)



Please excuse the dummy pictures, Shahren (photographer hasn't sent in the pictures) and Gerard (editor) is still in the midst of second cutting!


But I do hope you like how the layout is, might be more interesting. Will upload the soft copy online if possible :-)


love always,
Phoebe

We are!

Why were we at the printing store? 

WELL I'LL TELL YOU!

You see, putting the most riveting content on your magazine sometimes isn't enough. You have allow the reader's experience to come full circle. From words, designs, pictures, to even it's touch.

That's why Team Salt & Pepper ventured to the streets of Bugis.

Soon, we found ourselves on the second floor of Bras Basah complex, standing across a store named 'Unsual Printing'. Perfect.

The lady in the store offered us samples of paper to feel. And I'll be honest, I was more intimate with papers in those 10 minutes than anyone I've ever been with anyone in my entire life.








Above are pictures of Shahren and Phoebe springing into action. After deciding on which papers we felt most suitable for our magazine, we took out over very own piece of paper to jot it all down.

Cover Page - Grandeur Zen White 300gsm
Body of magazine - Meridien Silk 150gsm

Cost of printing 1 magazine - $42
Cost of acing this project  - priceless


After feeling satisfied with what we saw at that store, we got hungry. Hungry for the best deals of printing a magazine that is!

So we travelled to Sunshine Plaza's Colour Vizio. Though there were different kinds of paper to feel there, we were simply not 'feeling it' and decided to head next door, also a printing store (forgot the name) which offered similar papers with glue binding for a reasonable price of $23!

But after all the adventure we came to a consensus that we would print from Unusual Printing.

Hope it turns out great.

"Eh how ah?"

I'm at an utter loss despite being the desginer and so I gave a shot on the cover page