Editing: Production Management
For my final year on Muse, I was given the privilege to work as the Production Managing Editor (ME).
This role has me working behind the scenes a whole lot more while overseeing design, multimedia, and parts of web/ social media. My role is to work with these sections to establish a cohesive brand for The Muse.
A personal goal of mine while taking up this position was to really connect with the Muse's staff on a more genuine level; as a staffer and editor, I never truly felt supported by (or even really got to know) past MEs, so I sought out to be the shoulder to rely on I wish I would have had.
Branding
This is a sticker I designed for our first Issue Distribution day! The phrase, "Be Your Own Muse", is our new slogan-- coined by our EICs
Part of my work as Production ME is to ensure all parts of the Muse share a consistent feel. As such, I worked with this year's Multimedia Editor, Brooke Yang, to make sure the same fonts we were using for our masthead and design issues were being incorporated onto our multimedia packages!
This is a sticker I designed for our first Issue Distribution day! The phrase, "Be Your Own Muse", is our new slogan-- coined by our EICs
Slideshow Lessons & Resources
My Vol 21.2 cover got nominated as an NSPA Cover Finalist, so I took that as an opportunity to showcase the work of fellow finalists and host a class discussion. Everyone got to share what they liked about each cover, and we looked for ways we could implement similar elements into our future covers. As a matter of fact, the cover by Messenger was a pretty big inspiration for our Vol 22.1 cover (designed by Kiara Benoit)!!!
My Vol 21.2 cover got nominated as an NSPA Cover Finalist, so I took that as an opportunity to showcase the work of fellow finalists and host a class discussion. Everyone got to share what they liked about each cover, and we looked for ways we could implement similar elements into our future covers. As a matter of fact, the cover by Messenger was a pretty big inspiration for our Vol 22.1 cover (designed by Kiara Benoit)!!!
This is a resource I made in collaboration with this year's design editor, Kiara Benoit. We both used our experience as design staffers and editors to see how we could make design editing become more efficient-- thus, this checklist was born to make sure we could focus on bigger edits rather than the basics throughout a draft cycle.
This is a resource I made in collaboration with this year's design editor, Kiara Benoit. We both used our experience as design staffers and editors to see how we could make design editing become more efficient-- thus, this checklist was born to make sure we could focus on bigger edits rather than the basics throughout a draft cycle.
(Web) Editing
Since becoming an ME, staffers from all sorts of sections look at me for guidance. This has led me to learn skills I otherwise wouldn't have had, such as managing Sno's interactive elements for web. For this story I helped out by teaching the contributing staffers how to set up a more dynamic gallery instead of using the default sliders.
I consider myself to be a very direct editor. Having experience in lots of visual mediums (design, illustration, film), I'm able to give very specific feedback for multimedia projects. Nevertheless, I also always love to highlight the positives in every draft I look at.
I've been pushing for more Muse podcasts for a while now, and I'm so glad we finally have them up and running!! Editing podcasts has easily become one of my favorite jobs as Production ME.
Since becoming an ME, staffers from all sorts of sections look at me for guidance. This has led me to learn skills I otherwise wouldn't have had, such as managing Sno's interactive elements for web. For this story I helped out by teaching the contributing staffers how to set up a more dynamic gallery instead of using the default sliders.
(Print) Editing
Beyond the Booths
This spread went through intense redesigns throughout all of the drafts, and there was even a change in who was designing it by the end: Ellie Symons, one of our Co-EICs this year, actually took this spread as her first design assignment. :) I showed her the ropes to working InDesign, and I got to teach her the principles of composition.
Seeing Ellie embrace the world of design was a huge win, not only for the publication as a whole, but also for me as the editor who got to guide her.
'As We Stumble Along'
The layout for this story also had a lot of reworking, but such is the way of design. :P
When editing this, the main thing I told Kayla Bobb, the designer, was to focus on establishing a visual hierarchy. I loved the photos she chose for this story-- especially the cutout!!-- she just needed to find the balance to give them all their time to shine.
This was one of Kayla's first spreads for The Muse, so she had to learn to trust the designing process, but I helped her find her voice and style in the end.
