Final Front Cover

Creating the Front Cover.

First of all, I began by opeing my selected photograph in which I decided to utilise for the Front Cover. The image was a medium, long shot and featured lots of excess space around the edges, but before I cropped the image I made the decision to edit the image because it was too dark and elements of her expression were lacking because of the darkness of the photograph. Using the software iPhoto & Paintshop 2.0, I enhanced the sharpness of the image, brightened the image overall standard of light on the image so the Model and the colours were emphasized more. After this was completed, I enhanced the image by on Paintshop 2.0, using Effects> Photo Effects> Film and Filters... to enhance the look of the image to make it more glamorous. Ultimately, to complete the final editing stages of the image, to make the image more exciting I used Paint Brush Tool, then changed the shape to make it look like a sparkle, once I adjusted the Density and Size I placed it on her lip so it was as if the camera flash has caught the light on her lip. Once this element was complete, my next move was to begin to create the final Product. I opened an A4 page on Photoshop Elements, opened the newly edited image I wanted to utilise for my Front Cover, I cropped the image, eliminating any excess space then copied and pasted the image onto the A4 page. The image had to be squeezed slightly so it could fit onto the page, although it did not distort the image at all. Next, I wanted to add the title to the page, so I found the text I wished to use ("Will & Grace"), opened a seperate page and wrote out the title of the magazine, next I selected the image using the Selection Tool I highlighted the it, pressed delete to eliminate any background excess, inversed the image and then copied and pasted it onto my A4 page. I used the Move Tool to make the image larger, I then used the Hue/Saturation adjustment tool to get the Title the colour I wanted, which was a bright yellow. I added a dark shadow beneath the Title to make it more interesting and to emphasize it more significantly. I wanted to have a signature feature within my magazine to make it my own, so I found some images of Ink splatter, I opened them, cut them down using the selection tool, followed the same inversing process as I did with the Title Text, then copied and pasted onto my A4 page. I moved the layer of them so that they were underneath the title, re-positioned them and because they are the same colour as the shadow of the Title they blended and worked well with the design. My Model's position is slightly to the right, so based on her arrangement I decided that the main sotry should be placed in Top Left-hand side of the page. I followed the same style as I did with the Title for the Main story, but I used opposing colour so that the story could stand apart from the Title. I used the same "Will & Grace" font for it, and used the same shadow effect to convey continuity. I angled the Title slightly so it differentiated from the Main Title. It was positioned slightly over the model, but not largely so it did not domineer the image. To add more detail to the page, I found a barcode from Google.com and placed it in the Top Right-hand corner of the page so it did not dominate from other elements of the page. Just below this I added the date & issue number using the Font Tool, causing my magazine to seem more professional.

Before I added more stories to the page, I wanted to add the Title's of them first, before I decided what to write for the stories. I wanted to create a style for the Titles, which was diverse from the Main Titles on the page, which stood out yet did not dominate the main story. I used the Custom Shape Tool to create rectangular boxes as a backdrop for the text to lay on, and to as a contemporary style to emphasize the text. I created 3, 2 black and 1 pink, the was significantly bigger than the black rectangles because it was going to feature larger and more text. I positioned them at angles and in seperate locations on the page. For the Text, I decided to use the same Text style as used for the Main Titles ("Will & Grace"). I included 4 pieces of text (3 with block backdrops, 1 without), although they all say different things, they are all styled the same, I wanted to use the Black & white constrast to emphasize the titles, so I made the text white using the hue/saturation adjustment, then giving all the text shadows to use against the backgrounds, but not as heavy as the Main Title shadows to differentiate them, I finally used the move tool to position them in the places of choice.

Next, I needed to add detail to the stories featured so I chose a different font, this time I chose "Lauren Script" contrast to the contemporary text style I had used previously. I used the Font Tool to add the text to the page and then used the Move Tool to adjust the size and positioning of the Text. I done this so that the magazine featured slightly more detail to the magazine and so that it attracts the audience's attention more significantly towards the different stories featured.

Finally, to complete the process of creating the Front Cover I needed to make the magazine more attractive yet more professional looking so I decided I had to finsih it off with some PUGs. I created the PUGs by using the Custom Shape Tool, I used circles, 1 was an outline of a circle with the use of shadow to emphasize the text featured in the core, and the other was a black circle with the Text featured over the top of it. For the outlined circle PUG I used yellow and black to contrast one another so it would stand out more significantly. For the black circle PUG I used the "Will & Grace" styled text, I had subtle shadows behind it because I used a different style of highlight for the text, I gave it a chrome and metal effect so it appeared shiny to match the sparkle on her lip. I also used the colours of the main theme to follow the continuity of the page.