Total Girl (a subsidiary of nextmedia) is a fun and entertaining tween print magazine, established in the early 2000s.
During my internship at Total Girl magazine, I assisted in designing pages used in several print issues. Some of these were based off existing template page designs and others were designed by me from scratch. I utilised the brand’s key typefaces, colours and aesthetic, while keeping in mind the target audience.
Note: As I did this at my internship, input was given to me throughout the design process. Some final edits were made to my designs by the Art Director.
Below is a collage-style A3 pull-out poster I designed by myself for the June issue. I had a lot of fun creating this and hope the readers love it too. The image on the right shows my name given as the art credit.
I also pitched and designed some social media graphics in their brand style for their Instagram account. An Instagram story is a feature on Instagram where a user can post something that others can view and it only lasts for 24 hours. Each graphic you share on your story plays for 15 seconds or less. Stories allow for re-sharing and users can mention other accounts. These Instagram stories I have designed are fun, interactive games that users can interact with. They allow for GIFs, tagging and are meant to be re-posted, which helps the Total Girl Instagram account to be shared and gain a following.
One of my ideas was an interactive quote game. After the "screenshot the next story" graphic (seen below), a video is played on the next story. The user is meant to randomly screenshot at a point in the video and then they go to their camera roll and see which inspirational quote they received. They can then share it on their story and tag Total Girl. A demo video is linked below for you to see an example of it.
Below is a link to a demo video of an Ariana Grande Quiz, as seen on Total Girl's Instagram story. It was designed by me, under the guidance of Total Girl's Editor. It features questions about Ariana Grande and users have to guess the correct answers. On the last story, the user drags the slider to share how many they got correct, in which it shows the average score of all users. Again, it encourages re-posting and tagging, which helps share the Total Girl Instagram account. Images of this quiz are also below.
During my internship, I learnt so many new things, presented ideas, received valuable feedback and I have definitely improved my design skills. It has truly been amazing to see how a magazine is made, especially one that I used to read when I was younger. It has been an exciting experience I will never forget!
