Development Diary

Front Cover

Normally I would have started the design of my front cover with the main image, but due to poor weather conditions and my model being ill on the scheduled day of our photo-shoot, I consequently had to do the rest of the page before I could insert the images. I decided that the gradient-coloured background that I used for my mock-up design looked too unprofessional, so to start with, I used the Eyedropper tool to select a single colour from the original gradient background and then used the Bucket tool to fill a new layer above the original background layer. I chose to fill a new layer as I wanted to be able to adjust the opacity slightly until I found a colour that would be pale enough to read white writing off of.

The next section I wanted to focus on was the masthead – of which I wanted to start with the title. I

decided to keep the same font style I used in my mock-ups; Rainfall, as it reminded me of festivals and this

was the sort of style I wanted to go with throughout my whole magazine. The font was also very bold which makes reading the title easier to read from a distance,

but certain letters such as the ‘A’ had a very unique and quirky style to them which would allow my

magazine it’s own identity. I began by using the Text tool to draw a text box, and then I selected the font.

Originally, my magazine was going to be titled ‘Volume’ but it didn’t quite fit the genre, which caused

me to re-think my choice of title.

Once I had written out the title of the magazine, I highlighted the text to allow me to adjust the size and colour of the text. I decided to keep the text white like in my mock-up designs as it both compliments and contrasts quite well with the background colour. Also, in my mock-up front cover, I had the title big enough to fill just the top left corner of the page, but I took inspiration from Clash magazine, as I liked the way their title stretched across the whole width of the magazine and sat behind the image, which is why I made my final title big enough to fit across the whole page.

Taking inspiration from several magazines such as Q, I liked how they created specific shapes on the pages to give the magazine a brand and an identity. From the start of the research and planning process, I have used lines as a

method of separating text on a page but to also add a unique and quirky design. To suit this, I decided to draw a thick line to cut straight through the

title of my magazine, much like I did in my mock-ups. The line I used in the title for my mock-ups was quite thin, so for this final design I decided to make

the line using the rectangle shape tool. Once I had drawn the rectangle, I then used the Move tool to move the shape so it cut right through the ‘o’ of

the title. I then changed the colour of the shape to white so it blended in with the text and then I rearranged the layers so that it was underneath the

text. I liked this effect as the ‘o’ reminded me of the London Underground logo, which I feel is appropriate as my magazine is London/Essex based. If my

magazine had have been a different genre such as hip-hop or pop, I would have changed the colour of the letter to red and blue to match the logo more

clearly, but the colours would not have fit in with my house style.

I then used the same method to draw a slightly thinner rectangle and placed it at the very bottom of the page for my strap line. I decided on only one strap line as I thought another at the top would have made the page look too over-crowded. I decided on a beige/golden sort of colour as this fit in with the colour scheme my target audience picked in the questionnaire plus it also complimented the pinkish background quite well. The colour was slightly too intense so I reduced the opacity of the layer which caused the colour to blend in better with the colour of the background.

To finish off the masthead section of my front cover, I then chose to place the slogan of the magazine ‘Turn It Up’. In the very original practice designs for this magazine, I had the slogan sitting underneath the title, but because of the line cutting through the title, I decided that it looked eye-catching sitting here. I used the same technique I used to create the title with the text tool but instead I changed the font to my other house-style font; Bank Gothic, and made the size small enough to fit in the rectangle and black to stand out against white of the title.

I was then happy that the masthead was complete, as I knew I wanted to place details such as the date, price and issue number with the barcode. I then moved back to the bottom of the page, as I wanted to place the barcode. Using the rectangle shape tool again, I drew a small white rectangle to the dimensions of a barcode in the bottom left corner of the page, overlapping the strap line.

I then opened a barcode image I had saved to my computer in Photoshop, and copied the image over into my document.

I then used the Move tool to place the barcode over the white square. The barcode

filled the square but left space across the top and to the right for the date, price and issue

number to go. To create these features, I used the Text tool again to create separate

boxes for each piece of information and used the same font I used for the slogan to

keep the house style consistent. With the issue number, I used the transform option to

rotate the text so that the text aligned with the lines in the barcode.

I changed the original release date that I had put in my mock-up design to June as I thought that this was more appropriate as the magazine has an overall summery/festival feel to it.

Most magazines will include an insert on the front cover to persuade readers to buy the magazine. They are usually designed in the form of a geometric shape, so I used the same shape tool, but the Ellipse option instead to create a circular shape for my insert. Holding down the Shift key allowed for a ‘perfect’ proportional circle to be drawn.

Using the Move tool again, I placed the insert in the space just underneath the title, as this is where the breathing space was in my mock-up design, and I knew that image I wanted to use

would take up approximately the same amount of space on the page. Once in place, I used the

Text tool again in the same font as before to write in the information for the insert.

To allow more text to fit in the circle, I changed the line spacing so that the lines were closer together.

It is important for specific words or phrases to stand out more than others on a front cover of a magazine in order to maximize the

attention from the reader. With my mock-ups, I changed specific phrases on my contents page to red instead of black to make the text stand out better. I decided to use this technique on the final

front cover design as I thought it would help to make my insert stand out more. I opted for an orange colour rather than red

though as I thought it complimented the background colour better and it reminded me of the summery vibe I was looking for when

designing the magazine.

I also wanted to separate the different pieces of information, so I used the line option on the shape tool to draw black lines in-between the different phrases to also add to the identity I was creating for my magazine.

To finish off the main design of the front cover, I needed to add the coverlines, which I decided to keep the same as the

coverlines on my mock-up design, expect I changed the second coverline to something that would result in slightly less

words/text to allow more room for the image next to it. I used the same previous techniques of the text tool and the line tool

to create the layout and design of my coverlines. I also used the text tool to create the text for my strap line.

I then decided that the overall design of the front cover didn’t have the hippie-festival vibe that I wanted to portray, and I felt that it was because the background was too plain. I used the same technique I used on my mock-up design of the gradient tool to apply a warm sort of glow to the background colour but I decreased the opacity so it wasn’t so obvious or too distracting.

I was then happy with the appeal and design of the front cover, and once I had conducted my photo-shoot, I then went on to adding in the main image. First I opened the image (already edited) I wanted to use.

I chose the magnetic lasso tool to select around the main image. Then I used the quick

mask tool to neaten up the selection, as sections such as the hair and the ukulele were

hard to neatly select.

I then copied and pasted the selected image into my front cover design.

I then used the transform option to increase the size of my image to fill the empty space more.

I then re-arranged the layers so that the image

was no longer covered by the gradient layer on

the background.

Still on the layer the image was on, I then used the eraser and the blur tools again to neaten some of the rough edges of the image. I also used the clone tool to select sections of her hair and use them to cover some of the spaces that had been cut out when I originally edited the image.

I then decided that the image looked too intense for the design of my magazine and that I quite liked the effect the background gradient had originally given the image, so I applied a white gradient to just the corner of the image to also make the coverline more legible.

To finalize the image, I applied a warming filter to the image to adjust the colours slightly to fit in with the background colours and my summery theme.

Luckily, the image was a nice size and fit quite well with the text that was applied to the design. However, I adjusted the insert and the second coverline slightly so that they fit around the image a bit better.