Advert

I created the first half to advertise a music tour by Brad Easton, the same artist which I used on the front cover. I liked the shadow which was cast by the artist and the lighting on a blank white wall, it created a really professional look but also minimalist and modern, suitable for the young audience of my magazine's target audience.

I used a curvy minimalist font which complimented the minimalist image, I also used the dropper tool to choose a colour in Brad's top as the same colour for the font. I created to different individual layers for the words Brad and Easton so that I could rearrange them separately. This effect is eye-catching and creates a logo for the artist which could be recognised easily.

I took some creative and imaginative movement pictures to use in the second part of my split page advert, I love the body positions that this created, and used the same style to create cohesion from the front cover and of the genre of music being represented by using the same person and idea of blanking the face to create a mysteriousness.

Contents

These are my original photographs that I took of my brother, I played around with using different camera angles which I could use for different aspects of my music magazine. This image is the one that I thought would be most suitable for using on my contents page as there is space for a title at the top, features down the side but keeps the attention on the main feature - Brad Easton, a new modern/indie star who fits in perfectly with my magazine, and appeals best to my target audience who are also interested in this genre of music, from a younger age range. I chose to use a blank white background because this would emphasise the colours that the artist is wearing but also the minimalist look which connotes the indie genre of his music, this was influenced by the photoshoot I found on Q's website, I used lighting to create the gradient from bright to dark in the background.

I emphasised the colour of the image to make it look more appealing and fun. This effect was create by converting the image into LAB color instead of RGB, which I changed by going into Image > Mode > LAB Color. This divides the image into 'Lightness', 'a' and 'b' layers instead of RGB which by selecting the individual layers and changing the contrast levels will cause the colours to become emphasised.

I played around with the adjustments until I found a image which I was happy with.

Liams Face:

In photoshops I selected an area to fit within the paper of Liam's face, I then hid the layer of the paper image by clicking on the eye icon.

With only Liam's face selected I copied the selection by right clicking and chose 'layer via copy'.

Focusing on this layer, which I deselected (Ctrl + d), I right clicked on the visible layer and chose 'colour range...' I changed the selection to 90 instead of 17, and by using the eyedropper tool selected the brightest part on his face. This tool then selected all of the areas of the same colour, which I then filled with the colour e6d6a0.

Without deselecting, I selected the inverse (Shift + Ctrl + I) and desaturated the layer (Ctrl + Shift + U). With the layer as I wanted I then re-clicked the eye tool to show all the layers together.

I repeated this technique for all the image I used on the contents page which allowed the purple title and clothes of Liam to stand out, it also portrayed the genre of music throughout my magazine which is modern pop music with a quirky indie/retro style.

These images below show how by applying the technique to the photos made the page look more professional and effective in catching the eye, I used it on all the photos which represented sections of the magazine to give an insight.

I also added a title for the page - I used the same font to create cohesion throughout the magazine, I also kept the colours minimalistic but that complimented the colour of FTW, which I used on my front cover. The same techinque is used in magazines like 'Q' where they keep the colour scheme strictly red. I changed the outer glow and shadow of the text so that the title stood out eventhough being a subtle colour, and it also added to the contrast of indie and modern music I am portraying.

I also started to look at finer details such as page number, a border at the bottom of the page and information of the features included in a text format.

Cover

I chose this close up image of my friend for the front cover as she makes eye contact with the camera which would draw in the consumer if it was alongside many other magazines. I also like how the photo is fairly central, which provides a good layout to include information down the sides.

I like how the final appearance of my cover turned out because it has a coherent colour scheme which looks professional and minimalistic but also sophisticated and is appealing to the older generations from mid 20's onwards who are really into new music, the overall effect portrays the indie, pop genre of music that I want to advertise and base my magazine around. The cover needed to be really eye-catching and I feel I have achieved this because if this front cover was alongside others, the bold colour scheme and connection of eye contact brings in the audience's attention.

Finally I added the finishing touches of a barcode, price, issue number and byline.