DEVELOPMENT - Magazine Cover 1

This is a screen shot of Adobe Illustrator CS3, the software I will be using to create my magazine cover.  

To find the Rolling Stone magazine font, I typed this into google and found the appropriate image. I saved this to my user area and imported it into Adobe Photoshop CS3.  

When the image was imported into Photoshop, I changed the background to transparent. This allowed me to use the magic wand tool to select the white background around the text and delete it with ease.

This screen shot shows the final edited image of the Rolling Stone text. Next, I saved this image and imported it into Illustrator.

On illustrator I set up a new print document which was a size A4 layout. I then used this as my template for my magazine cover. This screen shot shows the imported image of the Rolling Stone font placed at the top of the page, which is a convention of music magazines, including the Rolling Stone magazine. I also included the issue number, the date, the price and the magazine website in the top right hand corner, also conforming to the codes and conventions of a music magazine.

From the many pictures we took of our band, I chose a portrait image to use as the key image on the cover of the magazine. However, this image was not taken on a plain background as it was shot outside. Therefore, this made it slightly more difficult to erase the background around it. Instead of using the magic wand tool, I used the erase tool to delete the background. I changed the brush diameter size to 80 when erasing big sections, and a smaller diameter from 1 - 5 when erasing around the models.

Before importing the edited image from Photoshop onto the magazine cover in Illustrator, I added a brush stroke around the image to make the it stand out against the white background on the page. 

I added a main coverline to the magazine with the text 'Kings of Leon'. I used a white text in the font impact on a black background. This makes it stand out on the page and attracts the readers attention.

 I added other coverlines to the page down the left third of the pag so there is more information to interest the reader, conforming to the typical conventions of a magazine. These coverlines included recent news about Kings of Leon. I used a consistent colour scheme throughout the text and background block colours of red, black and white.  

This is a  zoomed screen shot of the coverlines on the page. There is a consistent house style used with the colours red, white and black. The  bold white impact text stands out on the red background and the white arial font is easy to read on the black background. I added a black stroke to the white font also.

I changed the font of the main coverline to 'Onyx' as the font on the Rolling Stone magazine is different to the other text on the page. By doing this my magazine cover is conforming to the codes and conventions of the Rolling Stone magazine.  



This is the finished final draft of my magazine front cover.

Here are some photos taken of myself creating my magazine cover and then importing the screen shots onto blogger: