T
hat gorgeous magazine you see around KJ and the library? Sometimes in Opus? (And now, somewhere virtual…)The one you’re looking at right now? It looks sleek. Its design is refined. Hopefully (!) there are no typos. Ideally people know it as one of the iconic presences on campus. It is The Continental.
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o, what goes on behind the scenes? What is involved in the making of The Continental?
STEP ONE
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ecruitment! Role Assignment! With each new semester comes the issue of people arriving and leaving campus, thus positions open and refill periodically. The first step in building our magazine is crafting an editorial team, ideally a healthy mix of under- and upperclassmen, and filling the positions that we have open. We need Editors-in-chief, General Editors, 5 Section Editors, at least one Creative Director, a Director of Photography, Photographers, Layout Designers, and, of course, Writers. That’s a lot of positions to fill, and it is always a challenge. With Juniors going abroad and Seniors graduating out of their positions, each semester is a new challenge.
STEP TWO
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rainstorming! Once the positions are filled, the team meets weekly to brainstorm for the issue. What message are we trying to send to campus? How can we bring a fresh perspective to the table? What is not talked about enough on campus? How can we make The Continental topical and relatable to the entire Hamilton community? The process of finalizing a vision and articles takes about two to three weeks.
STEP THREE
and solidify the Table of Contents and the list of contributors to make sure each person receives the credit they deserve.
STEP FIVE
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ayout, Layout, Layout, Layout, Layout. This step takes the longest, and is arguably the most essential to the final product of The Continental. Even with the most captivating, thought-provoking articles, the design of the magazine is what compels a reader to pick it up off of a table or a bench and to flip through it. As such, the Creative Director and I hold the magazine to a very high aesthetic standard. We assign articles to our layout team, and one to two weeks later we finally compile the entire magazine, adding page numbers, ordering the articles, creating the section dividing pages, designing the cover, and carefully coordinating the interactions between colors and styles in the magazine.
STEP SIX
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inal Edits. Once the layout design is done, I take a step back, put the magazine down for a day or two, and try to completely distract myself. Once I am ready to return to it, I flip through every single page– looking at every single word, color, title, page number, and photo– to make sure that everything is perfect and as it should be. This process takes hours, and I typically find nearly 30 errors to fix last minute no matter how many times the content has been vetted. Finally, I send the PDF off to press, approve the proofs, and wait.
STEP SEVEN
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D
STEP FOUR
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atching writers and writing the articles. While this step may sound simple, it proves to be one of the most challenging. There are so many people to coordinate, and it is important that editors hold their writers accountable, and that I hold all of the editors accountable. Time is a virtue, and the clock is ticking!
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nce articles are sent in to the Section Editors, they all meticulously edit each article before handing it over to me for the final sweep. Once I receive all articles, I edit each of them, decide what I want the layout for the article to look like (What photographs do we need? What graphics would elevate the design?), and send them along to our layout team. During this stage, I write the Editor’s Note
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istribution! After lots of toil, the magazine finally arrives on campus in 8 small boxes that I lug up to the media office on the second floor of Sadove. I look through the magazine, excitedly send snapchats of it to my friends, and tell the team to help me distribute it across campus for everyone to see and read! hough the process is long and gruesome, it is one of the most rewarding projects in which I have invested my energy at Hamilton College. Seeing the magazine around campus brings me so much pride, and I know that without my entire team, the magazine would be nothing. Here’s to many more decades of distributing The Continental on Hamilton’s campus (& online)!
