Screen shots Magazine Production- Front CoverA step by step guide of how I achieved my final piece.

1. I chose my image, and edited it using the brightness/contrast tool. I then used curves tool to see if there were any other effects that I could apply to the image, to enhance colours. By brightening Jasmines face, it gave the illusion of her looking up at something bright. This was something that I incorporated into my design on the next few steps.

2. After looking at the colour contrast of my image I decided to use shades of colours within the image, to create a house style for my magazine. I then created blocks of colour using the shapes tool and made a new layer over this so I could apply a brush effect from ‘psbrushes.net’. The brush I used would be consistent throughout my magazine as if I used a number of different shapes, the magazine would look too busy. I liked the effect which this brush gave to my background and also the shape of the brush itself as they resemble a bubble style. This was another reason for using this brush in particular as you could say ‘it’s like the bubbles are floating out of her mind like thoughts’ as she appears to be looking up at something.

3. After completing my background, started my page layout using text from ‘dafont.com’ and personalised it myself using strokes and other shading effects. When choosing the colours of the stroke for the text, I extracted colour from my main image and applied it to my font. I also wanted each individual text to be a different colour representing a different page within the magazine, so that it would be easy for the reader to follow.

4. Next I applied my chosen masthead and again using extracted colours added a stroke effect onto it. I then put the date and price underneath this in a different font, colour and gradient shade, to help the masthead stand out. I then added final details to my image, such as with the eyes I selected them with the magic wand tool and increased the brightness/contrast and hue/saturation. After this I decided to put a stroke on parts of the image (scarf). I achieved this by duplicating the layer and erasing around the body. This made the selected part of the scarf show up in the white stroke effect, and gave the image more detail.

5. From my chosen masthead designs; I deleted the original H from the ‘Kravitz thermal’ font and applied my personal design to the text. This made the H stand out and gave more meaning and house style to the magazine. As the H resembles a guitar head (headstock) it also gives the audience a sense of what the magazine is about. To add texture to my design, I duplicated the layer and put a colour overlay on top to make it black then a stroke around this to make it stand out.

6. When my layout was complete, I added more images to cover, to illustrate the features within my magazine. The photos I used were from my other photo shoot of my chosen band ‘section six’ who are featured in my double page spread. I placed small images of them in the corners of the page to give the viewer an idea of the feel of magazine. When editing these images, I used a sepia tint, to blend in with the overall style of the page and also giving them more detail.

7. From my main image I could determine what pull quote to use on the cover and where to put it. I extracted more colours from the main image and edited them using the artistic effects tool- plastic wrap. I then applied more texture using the bevel/emboss application to make the text stand out on the page. I then curved the text around Jasmines line of sight, giving the illusion that she is looking up at the text.

8. This is the final outcome of my cover. After the text layout and background brushes, all I had done after this, was to add more text where the ‘plus’ is applied on the left third and made sure my main articles were within this boundary. I also added a stroke effect to ensure continuity throughout my magazine.