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ABOUT
Chrysalis is the 2021-2022 edition of Fine Lines Literary Magazine, encompassing a culmination of art, prose, video, and music by Richard Montgomery High School students.
TIME SPAN
MY ROLE
9 Months
Editor in Chief
Layout Artist
Fine Lines literary magazine is a Columbia Scholastic Press Association recognized literary work and organization, of which I was a member for four years, and Editor In Chief of for two of those four.
CHRYSALIS was our first magazine after a year off due to the COVID-19 Pandemic, so it focused on a theme of rebirth and renewal, like the process of caterpillar, chrysalis, and butterfly.
ABOUT FINE LINES
At the beginning of each school year, myself and the two other EICs advertised Editor applications to create a team that would assist in the creation of the year’s edition, as well as assist with the operations of various fundraisers that would occur throughout the year to raise money for the magazine.
Some editor roles include but are not limited to Photography Editor, Art Editor, Music Editor, Business Editor, and Publicity Editor, all of which were crucial to critiquing works and developing the magazine.
THE EDITOR TEAM
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CALL TO SUBMIT
In order to source media for the magazine, myself and the two other editors in chief created posters and online advertisements to encourage submissions of art, prose, video, and music via email. Submissions were only taken from Richard Montgomery High School students.
Weekly meetings were held to anonymously critique submissions. The works would be projected on a large board and corresponding editors would lead group critiques to discuss the works (i.e, Photo work critiques would be led by photography editors), and myself and the EICs recorded notes.
After the discussion for a work concluded, the work would be rated on a scale of 1 to 3, which means as follows:
CRITIQUING
Immediate addition to the magazine, no edits or revisions to be done.
Possible addition to the magazine given artist revision.
Rejection from addition to magazine.
3
2
1
Notes from the critiques were sent back to the original artists of the work, along with their given ratings; Works with 2 and 1 ratings were allowed to submit revised works back to be re-critiqued for addition to the magazine.
Submissions and critiques would run from the start of the school year (mid September) to mid April.
FUNDRAISERS
While critiques and submissions were occuring, I conducted a series of seasonal fundraising events and activities to raise money for the publishing of the magazine. Some of these include:
RM IDOL
Valentine’s Day ROSE SALE
Seasonal Coffeehouses (4).
While created with the main focus to raise money for the magazine in mind, these events are true passion projects and beloved traditions for all that were involved.
Following the closing of submissions and end of fundraising events in mid-April, myself and the editorial team moved into the layout phase.
LAYOUT PROCESSES
All physical pieces (visual arts) were sourced from artists to be professionally photographed, ensuring the best quality of images in the magazine as possible. The Editor board scheduled which days they would be able to come into the workroom to begin working on assigned spreads via Adobe InDesign, which myself and the other two EICs would delegate.
PREPATORY PHASE
Myself and the other two EICs looked over the sum of works that we had collected over the year, and identified main themes and motifs that we found common in order to generate a central theme and title for the magazine edition.
We took note that many of the pieces dealt with natural elements, like plants and landscapes, and additionally took note that many of the pieces were created during the COVID-19 pandemic era. With both of these in mind, we settled on the title Chrysalis, and a central theme of the metamorphosis of human beings as time changes.
With this, we were able to develop a cover and central colors of the magazine, as well.
DESIGN PHASE
MAIN COLORS
FONTS
NCT Granite
Arial
I then began pairing up different pieces that would work cohesively on a two page spread. This mockup was created and sent along to the Editor team, of which myself and the members developed designs to accompany the works on their pages.
The design choices for each page were based on artistic motifs seen in the works themselves, which would best accent the work on the page.
LAYOUT PHASE
After the page designs were finalized, the EICs began to finalize the firstmost and final informative and commemorative pages of the edition (foreword, colophon, acknowledgements, etc.). Once these were complete, the magazine design was completed.
We sent this finalized version to our advisors, who compiled the document into a proof. After looking this over, the magazine was then sent to print.
PROOF & PRINTING
Here are some of my favorite spreads from Chrysalis.
SALES & CONCLUSIONS
While critiques and submissions were occuring, I conducted a series of seasonal fundraising events and activities to raise money for the publishing of the magazine. Some of these include:
RM IDOL
Valentine’s Day Rose Sale
Seasonal Coffeehouses (4)
While created with the main focus to raise money for the magazine in mind, these events are true passion projects and beloved traditions for all that were involved.