Making the 2012 Magazine-- an inside look!

Last weekend, we, the Tapestry senior staff, dedicated a whole day to putting together the 2012 Tapestry magazine.  But this was no ordinary meeting.  As we entered Mrs. Green's room on the last day of Spring Break, we saw the room set up in a whole new way.  The desks were all pushed back to the outskirts of the room, and spread out all across the floor was what will become, with our hard work and dedication, the 2012 Tapestry magazine!  At first, the floor was simply a collage of poems and pictures on white printer paper, in no particular order.  But these poems and pictures are not just poems and pictures; they are the best pieces of literature and artwork that the students of Fox Chapel have to offer.

We spent the beginning of the meeting walking in between rows of these pieces.  We got a closer look at each poem and the picture it was paired with.  After some silent thinking and group discussions, we figured out the best combinations of picture and poem.  This process ensured that each pair was compatible in theme, mood, and topic, and this is important because each of these pairs will make up a full page spread in the magazine.

After finding a picture to fit with every poem, and vice versa, we set about forming the order of the pairs, while taking alot of factors into consideration.  We had to make sure that the color themes of each pair matched with those before and after it, that the strongest pieces were spread evenly throughout, that there were not too many long poems or too many short poems in a row, and that there were not too many sad poems or happy poems back to back.  Forming the order of pages was the bulk of the meeting and also the most challenging, but after a good amount of discussing and sliding pairs of one picture and one poem (or maybe even 2 pictures!) around the floor, we had found the perfect order of pairs for the magazine.

Having accomplished one of the biggest parts of putting together the magazine, we got to enjoy a delicious lunch of Chinese take-out!

Getting back business, we voted on the pictures for the front and back covers of the magazine.  We chose a format for the table of contents and the labeling of each piece.  And lastly, in closing of our meeting, we voted on the format of the senior staff page, as the last page in the magazine is dedicated to the senior staff every year.

Not many people know the work that goes into making the Tapestry magazine, but now you know what goes on behind the scenes in the making of it.  And with that you'll see how every color and every page in the book has a reason, vote, and/or discussion behind it. 

So, are you ready for the 2012 Tapestry magazine?!