Front cover production

 

1) This is the basic image I chose to be on my front cover. I chose this because I liked the composition; Ying is also making direct address to the audience by creating eye contact which builds a relationship between the reader and magazine. 

2) Once I had chosen my image, I started editing it. My first step was adjusting the brightness and contrast in order to make the picture clearer. Next, I changed the colour balance which simply eased the reds and yellows in the picture, giving it a brighter and more professional look.

The spot healing brush tool helped me to touch up some areas of the skin; I decided to do this as magazines conventionally Photoshop impurities out of the picture, in order to appeal to a wider audience as possible. 

Once the main image was edited, I cut it out using the lasso tool and feathered the edges which made the corners appear not as rigid and harsh. As some of the cutting out wasn't perfect, i simply took the rubber tool and neatened up around the body to make it look as professional as possible. I then added  a slight drop shadow and glow which just made the image stand out.

3)  I initially decided on a pink background, however, changed it to a light purple as it was brighter and would therefore stand out to the audience on a magazine shelf.

4) The next step was to place the mast head in. At this point I changed the text to white instead of black as I felt it stood out more and gave it a refreshing feel. I placed the title behind the main image; this is a convention and doesn't hide any of the image, suggesting that it has a high amount of significance to the magazine.

 5) I started to position the main cover line along the bottom/centre of the page. I initially went with a plain Century Gothic font , however, this was too plain and so I proceeded to add a stroke and drop shadow to the outside. This gave it an extra bit of prominence and allowed it to be clearly seen against the background.

6) I then added in the rest of the cover line in the same white bold font and added another drop shadow:

7) I chose the celebrity names in my cover lines to be in bright bold yellow font and inside a black rectangle box (Rita Ora example seen below).

The yellow text stands out from the rest of the magazine. it is brighter than any other colour features on the page and therefore would attract the audiences eye straight away; this is ideal because celebrities are the main attraction to my audience.

 8) I then carried on each cover line using the black box and yellow font. I put the rest of the text in black which allows only the yellow pieces of important info to stand out.






 












9) Here, I created a circle in which I placed a cover line in. I decided to do this as another way of making one of  the cover lines clearly visible. I thought it gave it a modern look and takes away the straight boxy element from the magazine.

To create this, I drew a circle using the shape tool, filled it in red and lowered the opacity and added a stroke to the shape.

10) Here I added a bar code by importing an image from Google.

11) The last thing I added to my front cover was a banner running across the bottom right corner which advertised a free Itunes download. I created the white banner by drawing a rectangle, rotating it and lowering the opacity. I then placed white font on top of it, making the main words stand out by changing their colour to purple.

This advertisement fits my target audience well as it involves online media which is current with the younger generation. Most teenagers are familiar with Itunes, making it a suitable freebie that will attract lots of people.