This was the first draft of my front cover, however after receiving feedback I came to the conclusion to re-design this completely. I wanted to make a post documenting what I did and how this would not work, explaining my choices to re-design.
To make my mast-head, I used a paint-style text in all-caps. I used gradient overlay to create two different shades of grey, and pasted this text layer underneath but used a pattern overlay to create a striped shadow. After this, as I wanted to use a blue color scheme, I created a clipping mask to the original text layers and set the layer mode to screen, adding fading blue circles. I changed the tracking of the text so that it filled the page vertically, before adding a banner to the background. I had a pattern overlay added to three rectangles that I made grey and placed them behind the text.
The problem with this, I found after receiving feedback, was that it didn't stand out like a mast-head should, and the colors clashed quite a lot. In the next design of my front-cover, I will make sure the mast-head is more noticeable.
I chose a close-up shot of my model and placed it to the left of my page. I chose to have this image above the mast-head, but below the grey and blue banner which I placed at the bottom, which I created using the polygonal lasso tool and the fill tool. I used the magic wand tool to cut out the image and the polygonal lasso tool to smoothen out some of the edges, but because of my models hair it was difficult to get a smooth cut-out. The image also has some lighting issues, with one side of my models face being much darker than the other so any adjustments caused the differences to be even bolder. In my next draft, I would like to use a different image as I don't think the image is as effective as it could be for its purpose.
To stick with the blue theme of my magazine, I decided that the clothes my model was wearing did not effectively compliment the colors so I created a clipping mask to the image and used the magic wand and polygonal lasso tool to select the red plaid shirt my model was wearing. After I had it selected, I chose a deep blue color and filled the selection with the color before setting the layer to the color mode. This changed the color of my models shirt from red to blue which complimented the theme better. Further than this, I changed the color of my models eyes to a deep blue from green to further suit the style. I added the levels adjustment after this to try to alter the lighting but after receiving feedback I realize that the image is now too dark. This is further reason to change my image to something more powerful.
To create my main sell-line, I used a fixed height font, which was originally black but as it was difficult to see I added a white glow to it so that it stood out from the image, however it is still quite hard to read. I then used a hand-written style font and used gradient overlay to add two shades of blue and then a drop shadow. The sell-line does not stand out enough from the image and so it would not draw in an audience's attention, next time I will make sure my sell-line is easier to read.
I wanted to create a plug for my article, so I used the ellipse tool to create three circles to create a shape that resembled a record. I then used a fixed width and height font to add a message to the plug, however some of the text is too dark and does not stand out. Because of this, I created a clipping mask and used the same technique as I did with the masthead to create blue tints so it fit with the color scheme. I struggled, however, to find a good place for it on my magazine and I don't quite like where I placed it.
I added my sell-lines next, using two different fonts in blue and black colors. I think the sell-lines are messy, however, and don't add much to the magazine. Some of them are cut off by the image and vary in size so I would definitely avoid this style in my final front cover.
As a whole, I have decided the color scheme of blue and grey doesn't work very well and created too dark of an effect. After receiving feedback, I decided to keep one common house style of black and red for my magazine so I will be using this for the next draft of my front cover. I need to make my mast-head and main sell-line more noticeable and the other sell-lines more visually appealing.
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