Construction Of Front Cover

Step 1) This is the first step I took for constructing my front page. I imported my chosen photo into photoshop and enhanced and experimented with different colours and styles. In the end I decided on enhancing the pink glasses into a medium red colour so it would match my chosen colour scheme. As well as making the rest of the image black and white, by the use of the "Hue/Saturation" toolbar.

Step 2) Afterwards, I then started experimenting with different shapes, fonts and colours for the design of my masthead. This

took a while before I finally got what I was after. I wanted to make my masthead loud, contrast and stand out, so that it was easily recognisable as "FTR Magazine". Just the "Q" from Q magazine.

Step 3) Once I had decided upon the final idea for my masthead and I was happy with it, I then started to think of ways I could show my information and headline on the page. As the font looked bad if it was placed straight onto the image, it became hard to read and thus became a strain on your eyes. So I decided on using torn paper, as this represented the punk rock genre and made my magazine stand out from the crowd. This involved importing the torn papger image into photoshop and cutting around it using the "Magic Wand Selection Tool" and the "Magnetic Lassoo Tool". Once this was done I copied it into the front page file where it was resized and placed into position. Also, a footer was placed at the bottom of the page with a promotional sentance about the magazine.

Step 4) I then repeated the cutting out of torn paper, so that all of the text that was being directly placed onto the main image, had a backing to be placed upon. Once this was completed, I moved it all into position along the left hand side of the page. I also added the barcode to the bottom left hand side of the page, which will be tweaked later on in the design process.

Step 5) This step was where I started adding the text onto the front page, where I started off with the headline. I used the text tool to draw a box, of which the text would then be placed. Once I had written it all out, I highlighted it and by the use of the "Text Toolbar" I changed it to the colour, size, font and angle I wanted it to be. To get the colour I wanted, I used the "Eye Dropper Selection Tool" to get the exact red pigment that was on the glasses. This gave the front colour a flow as well as abiding to the colour scheme. I then click and dragged the text over the torn paper backings, then when in position I adjusted the angle so they fitted correctly. In the step I also added the price, date and issue number to the bottom left hand corner which was incorporated into barcode.

Step 6) In this step I added the rest of the text I was going to be using on the front cover. This included the list of features down the left hand side of the page, which followed the same concept as the headline. I used the exact same process for the text as I described in 'step 5', by changing colour, moving and changing the angle. So that all the text now fitted perfectly in the backing I had given it. Once this was done, the text and backing required small nudges up and down in order to get an equal space between each one.

Step 7) My magazine was pretty much fully assembled by this stage of the production, all that needed to be done was the creation of a pug for the top left hand corner of the page. For this, I found an image of a union flag badge online, as they can often be used within the punk genre. I then loaded this into photoshop as the backbone of my pug. I then made a pink box and put yellow text inside it, explaining the special offer as pugs so often do. The reason for these two colours is that they both contrast with eachother, stand out from the front cover and are often used to resemble punk music. Once this was done, I rasterized the layer containing the pink box so that it became directly editable. I then cut away at the box to match the shape of the text, and adjusted the size so that it fitted within the boundry of the circular badge. I then imported this into the front cover file, resized it and moved it into position on the page. This ended the construstion of my front cover.