Front Covers
For this project, I have decided to create two front covers for my magazine. This is to showcase different stylistic approaches and to show off my skills in as many areas as possible. I intend to create a cover that features a more comic-like cadence, like Kerrang, and the other in a style similar to Billboard magazine, more simple and intended to a more mature audience. Following this, I have started to pre-visualise these concepts by a drawing a blueprint for both of these styles. Click each image to enlarge.
In terms of colour scheme and stylistic decisions like this, I have decided to wait until the production stage to finalise my choices. I would like to experement with different shades and textures during production to see which techniques suit the desired cadence of each magazine cover. For the font, I plan to keep my brand recognisable my using the same text style as the logo. This includes the Consolas font and the Chopsic font. Keeping this element consistant will make my magazine recognisable to the audience.
For the first draft of the first magazine cover I will be creating, I focused a lot of time into finding appropriate shades of my colour pallette. I experemented with a green background, a yellow background, but ultimately decided the crimson red background looked best. After this I used the ruler in Photoshop to create an invisable border. This will ensure that I place images and text in an evenly distributed manner around my entire magazine cover. Then I continued to add aspects like the 'New-Age' logo, important text and started general creation. I have recorded this process to document how I created this product.
As seen in the video, I adapted my original visual planning. The original idea was to have the title of "the 'queen of pop-rock' is back?!" inside of a box that had comic stylisations. I tried to complete this look, however I was not happy with how it was turning out. I decided that instead of resticting the title inside of a box where it might be easily missed, to have it featured larger and in the open space of my front cover. Without throwing away this idea completely, I decided to put the "reading and leeds festival lineups included inside" text inside of a similar box. This worked out a lot better as this text is less important and wont matter as much if a passerby misses it when compared to the main title.
One stylisation that I focused on, was adding a texture overlay to the background. This was to allow the colours to blend together better, as solid colours can be bold, boring and have the potential to ruin a project. To fix these problems, I added a crumbled paper texture to the top layer of everything and set the opacity to 7%. Doing so allowed the crimson background to bleed through, without removing the darkness of the shade. Alternatively, I could have used a blending mode on this layer so add a similar effect. After trying blend modes like 'overlay', 'hard light' and 'screen', I found that simply changing the opacity gave better results for the cadence I was aiming for. The blending mode technique is something I am not familiar with and is something I will research into further for future projects.
After this, I added drop-shadow effects to all my shapes to develop depth and realism in my front cover. When doing so, I ensured that the direction of my drop shadow was the same so that my product is consistant and symmetrical. This will make everything flow nicer and not look like a bunch of images shoved together. This will help in creating a professional look.
When planning, my intention was to use the fonts Chopsic and Consolas only. During production, I decided that the Consolas font was rather boring and didnt radiate enough excitement to the reader. This is why I have used the Outrun Future font to make up for this. This font can be seen in the green boxes describing what can be found inside the magazine. I believe that this stylistic font brings personality and will assist in attracting my target audience. Another feature with the text that I have incorporated, is making important and attractive words larger. Words like "FREE" and names like "AVRIL LAVIGNE" and "MODSUN". I have done this so that passerbys will be able to see this from a distance - persuading them to take a look. Another use for this is for the readers that skim read. The larger text describes what can be found inside this issue with haste.
For my second front cover design, I have made an effort to conceptualise a more professional-standard magazine. I have done this by using a very limited colour palette of black, white, and variations of pink in the artists clothing. I have done this to target the older and possibly more mature audiences that are interested in this genre of music. Along with this, I have made sure to use the more simple Consolas font in my subheadings. Doing so ensures that my older target audience is able to gather the information as quickly as possible without having to decypher what a stylistic font says. I have recorded most of this process once again to document how I created this peice and any mistakes that I overcame.
As seen in the video, I adapted my original visual planning. In the original plans, the layout of the text and images were different. However, after collecting the images of Yungblud, MGK and Maggie, I realised that there had to be a feature underneath the image because the images I used were cut off at the torso. To adapt to this, I grabbed the text box "POP PUNK IS BACK?!" and placed it to hide this cut-off. One downfall of this is that my original plan of having the text in the bottom left could not happen after I made these changes. Alternatively I decided to fill the space below the main header with these subheaders - and to divide them, used a basic black line.
One stylisation that I focused on, was adding a texture overlay to the background. This was to allow the colours to blend together better, as solid colours can be bold, boring and have the potential to ruin a project. To fix these problems, I added a crumbled paper texture to the top layer of everything and set the opacity to 7%. Doing so allowed the white background to bleed through, without making the backdrop too dark. Alternatively, I could have used a blending mode on this layer so add a similar effect. After trying blend modes like 'overlay', 'hard light' and 'screen', I found that simply changing the opacity gave better results for the cadence I was aiming for. The blending mode technique is something I am not familiar with and is something I will research into further for future projects.
When planning, my intention was to use the fonts Chopsic and Consolas only. During production, I decided that the Consolas font was rather boring and didnt radiate enough excitement to the reader. This is why I have used the CF PUNK POSTERS font to make up for this. This font can be seen in the black box in the centre where it features the main title. I believe that this stylistic font brings personality and will assist in attracting my target audience as it gives a grungy and very rock-oriented stylisation to this magazine cover. Going for a grungy vibe conforms to the colour palette used also.
Third Front Cover
After creating these two front covers, I was not happy with the quality of the images that I used. So I have decided to halt progress with those. I would much rather be able to take my own photographs to feature on my magazine covers. To tackle this, I have decided to create a third front cover to do this with. I will find a model to use and take pictures of to then feature on this front cover. Everything will be original and this will make it possible to create something that can exactly match a drawn plan and be of substantial quality.
As I have done for the two covers above, I have screen recorded the creation of this magazine cover to document exactly how my product was made.
I started off with making a texture that would make my magazine look as if it has been ripped on two. This was difficult as I was working with 3 different layers, with 3 independent effects that come together to make what is seen on the final piece. I created this effect by physically ripping a piece of paper so that I knew exactly what was needed. I used the top layer as the main piece of paper, the middle layer as the thin leftovers that are occasionally present and the bottom layer as the smaller ripped-off piece. Overall, I am very happy with how this texture came out.
After importing the logo, barcode, title, and other easy aspects, I added gradient overlays to these layers to increase excitement on initial viewing. Having a dark red cadence really gives my magazine cover a grungy effect which conforms to the cadence I am going for and will attract my desired target audience. Another effect I added on these key images is a drop shadow. This is to make my cover look 3D and make it come alive out of the paper. Doing so will make my front cover 'pop' and become more desirable to the eye.
Next, I created the little "PLUS" feature that is seen at the bottom of the page. This element gives the reader more information about the artists that are featured inside the magazine. It draws the attention away from the main artist that the front cover is focused on. I created this by merging a box with a text layer. Before merging I made sure to add a gradient overlay, with minimal fade between the 2 colours, that contrasts with the box that the text is intended to be over. This is to make the next readable. I then inserted the artists names into the box and added a gradient overlay once again. This time for consistency.
With the main feature of my magazine, the large image in the foreground of my cover, I had many issues. Firstly, I was indecisive on who would be featured. I had to bear in mind that whatever image I used had to be original and I had limited resources because of COVID. Although this slowed down the progress of my product a little, I believe that this was a necessary brainstorming point in this project. Inevitably, I ended my brainstorm with the idea of simply using myself as the front cover artist. The second issue that I had with this stage of production was that I could not take an image of myself that I was happy with that also conformed to my drawn plan. After taking many photos and playing around with effects, I scrapped the image I was initially going to use as I was not happy with how it looked and fit in my front cover. This is seen in the creation timelapse. Alternatively, I had an idea that I wanted to try in my free time but may have worked in this product. My idea was something that I have seen on platforms such as TikTok and Instagram by large influencers as an aesthetic feature of the grunge/punk stylisation. The idea is to take a photograph with a mirror in the background - with the person featured looking towards the camera. Using editing tricks, I wanted to make the person in the mirror also be facing towards the camera. Like a horror movie! I completed this idea by snapping two images. One looking at the camera, and the other looking at the mirror. As the colour of the wall was the same, I simply cut around the mirror and layered the two images on top of each other. Creating a seamless cut. This came out surprisingly well! This was an exciting concept that I would love to do again as I really enjoyed the creation and how it looked when it was finished. I was much happier with using this as my magazine cover, so I have done exactly that! This is how I have adapted my initial drawn plan.
The same as my previous two covers, I added the same paper texture overlay. However this time with a multiply blending mode at 50% opacity. As the background is light colours, the multiply blending mode works really well in making my product look like real paper! The reason I didnt not use blending modes in my previous front covers was because I could not find a blend mode that worked well with darker colours. This is something I am going to look in to and work on.
The last feature that I worked on for this cover was making the top of my head overlap the logo. This was to make it look as if I was infront of it. I done this by cutting the top of my head out using the quick select tool as the change in contrast between my hair and the wall was very prominent. I then pasted this onto a new layer and placed it above the logo layer. Making it look as if the title is in the background of the foreground image. This is a very simple effect that I have done before and that I have found to be very effective. I have also seen similar techniques used in magazine like Kerrang!
