2. I started the magazine using an A4 template found in Photoshop. I decided I will do the whole of the front cover in Photoshop as I’m
confident with the use of Photoshop and it’s tools due to my experience gained through the preliminary task. Having decided I will
use a dark background due to the knowledge gained through my research that hip hop magazines usually apply a dark background
to there magazines, I found a black metallic background which fades into light grey in the middle and imported it onto my canvas
using the paste tool. I also used the free transform tool to spread it across my A4 canvas and create an effective background.
3. Having decided my colour scheme would be red, white and yellow I decided to work on the masthead. The font used
was „impact‟ and it is a bold font sans serif type font which would be easy for my audience to read. Using the text tool
and highlighting using the mouse I made the „I‟ in the masthead „ILiveLife‟ white in an attempt to remind the audience
of the abbreviation „ILL‟. It also differentiates it from other magazine which would usually use one colour for all the
words in the masthead. I changed the text size to 170 pt and using the move tool placed it at the top of the magazine
leaving space for the logo and the strapline to be above it. Having looked at the title it felt as if it was too plain so I
decided to add a white stroke to the text using the effects which were found by double clicking the layer at the right of
the page. I changed the size of the stoke to 3 px as I thought that was a suitable size that wasn‟t too large or too thin.
4. In my mock ups I had planned to have the abbreviation for the magazine faded in the background. Keeping to the
colour scheme of white, red and yellow I used the text tool to create the abbreviation in the colour of yellow and set
the text size at 400 pt. At this point the text was too strong and would clash with my plans for the main image and
cover-lines, so as a way to fade it into the background I changed the opacity of the text to 5% using the opacity feature
above the layers to the right of Photoshop. This allowed me to have the abbreviation on the page without making the
page look unorganised or messy and also allowed me to enhance the colour scheme of the front page. After this I went
on to add the logo, strapline and sub images which would enhance the masthead.
5. Strapline
As the masthead and background were sorted I decided to start on the text and finish the top half of the magazine. I
created a strapline using the text tool and the font impact which would create cohesion as it‟s the same font used for
the masthead. I used the move tool to place it above the masthead and align it in the middle. Having done the strapline
I decided to create and place the logo to the left of the strapline. The logo is an image of an ill smiley as a way to
remind the audience of the abbreviation for the magazine. Having found the smiley I felt it looked too plain and didn‟t
stand out enough. I double clicked the layer for the logo and added two effects being drop shadow and bevel and
emboss by ticking the text boxes. I didn‟t need to make any changes to the settings of these effects as they were ideal
from the start. After the effects were added I used to move tool to place it in position.
6. In my mock-up I had also planned to have an image faded in the background behind the masthead as a way to
enhance the background and make the masthead stand out more. I had taken an image of my friend posing and
imported it into Photoshop using the „open‟ option. Then using the polygon lasso tool I outline the character and right
clicked on my selection to bring up the feather option to make sure that the cut out would be soft. I set it to 1pixel and
use the delete button to cut out the background. Having cut out the background shown in the second image I used the
rectangular marquee tool to select the image, copy and paste it onto my magazine. I used the free transform tool to
make it just a bit larger than the masthead and went into effects and marked the colour overlay checkbox. I changed
the colour to dark grey to make it blend in with the background. I felt it didn‟t blend in enough so I changed the
opacity to 32% to make it fade it more. I then moved the layer to below the layer of the masthead so it would show
behind the masthead and placed it. I duplicated the layer so I could put the image on both sides of the masthead.
7. The image once
flipped
Having taken my main image it was time to import it onto my magazine. I opened the picture and selected the
rectangular marquee tool selecting around the image I was to use. I used the tools copy & past to copy it and paste it
onto my magazine. Once pasted on my magazine I used the polygonal lasso tool to outline the character in the image.
Once outlined and joined at the end around the background of the image, I right clicked and used the feather option
setting it to 0.5 pixels as a way to soften the cut out. I then pressed delete and cut out the background leaving just the
character in my image. Afterwards I felt the main image wasn‟t big enough in it‟s natural size, so I used the free
transform option by using the keyboard shortcut (ctrl + t) and went to the edge of the selection and dragged the photo
to make the image bigger. However, the image this way didn‟t suit my intentions as my plan for the main cover line
would cover the microphone around the characters neck. To change this I decided to mirror the image by selecting the
image and using the „Flip canvas horizontal‟ option. This make the image turn around making space for the main cover
line to not be covering the microphone in the main image. Also once flipped I duplicated the layer and added a
surface blur to it to make it softer. I then used the rubber
tool to delete the blur off any parts of the image I didn‟t
want it on.
8. Once the main image was added I decided to add the barcode. I found an image of a barcode and imported it into
Photoshop. Once imported I used the free transform tool to make the image smaller and used the move tool to move it
to the lower left of the front page. Image of the barcode
I started working on the cover-lines from here. As many hip-hop magazines used bold sans serif fonts in there
magazines, I decided to use the font „Bernard MT Condensed‟ as a way to challenge conventions. I used the text tool
and set the size to 18pt. I aligned the text to the left using the align option at the top of the program; however once
the text was typed there was too large of a gap between the cover-lines, so I had to go to character and change the
leading to 20pt. Once the texts were set to be closer I used the move tool to put it to the left of the magazine
underneath the masthead. Also to keep to the colour scheme of yellow, red and white I went to character and changed
each other cover-line to one of these colours. Starting with yellow, then red then white, The same was done for the 2nd
set of cover-lines. Using the move tool these were placed underneath the 1st set leaving a bit of space for the
sub-image.
9. I had taken a picture of Dre beats headphones and was to use this for my sub-image. I used the copy and paste
function to paste it on my front page. Having done this I used the move tool to place it in-between the two sets of
cover-lines. However as the edges of the image were too straight it seemed out of place, so I decided add a stroke to
the image using the effects option on the layer. I chose a red stroke to keep the colour scheme and chose the size of it
to be 3px. Once set I used the free transform tool to make it a bit smaller and used the move tool to place it in the
correct place.
10. The last part to do of my music magazine front page was the main cover line. Having decided what the main cover line
will be (This being „de‟niro music “best of the best!”‟) I used the text tool and entered in „De‟niro‟ still using the
Bernard MT Condensed font. I set the size to 95 and changed the colour to yellow using the dropper tool to pick the
same colour yellow used in my cover-lines. I then did the same for „Music‟ using the dropper tool to pick the same
shade of the white used in my cover-lines. I set the text size to 85 so it would be a bit smaller than „de‟niro‟. I then
used the move tool to music both texts into the correct position. Having done this I added a stroke using the effects
options found when clicking on the layer. I set the stroke to 3px and made the colour red for both texts. I then used
the text tool and used the font impact to write “Best of the Best!”. I used the move tool to position it underneath and I
the middle of „De‟niro‟ and „Music‟.
11. Note this is a 66% view
and not the full
quality.
