Construction of magazine advertisment

(Click to enlarge each print screen)
Starting of the magazine advertisement
To edit the picture me and Sofia wanted to use for the magazine advertisement we started of by using a picture editing sight called 'Pic Monkey'.

Here I have uploaded the picture and used the editing techniques as followed:

• Brightness and Saturation-slightly
• Cross process to give a 'orangy' glow and make the Autumn leaves stand out
• Boost was used with a medium sized brush to highlight what they are wearing and hair colour so it pops.
• I cropped some of the images from the side on the left hand size because I didn't want to leave that much space behind them were you could see the building
• I used dark edges in a deep orange/brown to add a 3D effect and have a focal point on the band only.

 InDesign

 Me and Sofia were originally thinking of using InDesign for constructing a music magazine. We realised that using Photoshop instead would give us more options of 'creativity'. We chose Photoshop also because we were more used to creating projects on there and familiar with the tools.Whereas on InDesign there was some complication with the 'size' of the image which meant that we couldn't edit. It would have been nice to experiment on a different construction sight except for Photoshop to show are versatility in design.

We started the task

  by first making a background copy and a few new layers in A4 paper size on Photoshop.

The background colour that we used is a mustered yellow/orange. As you can see from the draft and questionnaire we think it will be a good idea to use 'earthy colours' as suggested.

The next step was creating a 'new layer' (Layer 1). We opened up the image and had to cut and paste it on to the background layer (which has been duplicated). If we wanted to edit the size and where it should be placed, we pressed 'transform' to bring it to the middle.

We then wanted to add a border at the bottom and top of the image. We clicked on the 'shapes' button on the side which came up with a 'rectangular' shape (Layer 3). We then had to 'right hand' click on the layer to get 'layer style' where we used a bevel effect to the frames. We then looked at the colour scheme, me and Sofia thought that a gold colour would compliment the Autumn leaves and make the picture look more 'grand'.

To get the same effect we duplicated the layer.

Then dragged it to the top. Already you can see that it looks more like my first draft of the magazine advert.

Me and Sofia thought it would be a good idea try and experiment with different design techniques to see if we could add other effects. We clicked on the 'paint brush' option which gave us 'stamp' options that looked like leaves.

Sofia suggested it would be a good idea to use this effect but in the in a darker colour the same colour as Alice's jeans. Here you can see I tried to use the tool to create a 'leaf' effect as it looks like it is falling.

After some consolidation we thought that maybe we should put on the title of the band and other texts before putting any other design features.

Here me and Sofia were looking at different fonts for the title of our magazine advertisement. Here we have tried a font called Palatino Linotype which is quite 'elegant' going with our audience's choice on what font to choose.

Here we are trying to see how different fonts would look with the format of the magazine advertisement. 

After some audience feedback on what we had constructed so far of the magazine advertisement, me and Sofia decided to change the background colour of the background. The audience said that he positives of the old background were that it went with the 'theme' of nature, but it looked slightly 'plain' and 'bland'. This is why I suggested that we used a 'gradient overy' on the background layer. The colours that we looked at were browns and whites to go with the 'earthy' theme still. After we had decided on the gradient pattern, we had to drag it across the page to get the right shade. This was done numerous times so that we got a effect that went from dark to light but also had some white peeping out.

Here you can see a number of changes already to our magazine advertisement. First of all the background gradient is in the right pattern and goes gradually from dark to light then back to very dark shade of brown. The reason why we left the background like this is because the colour effect made it seem more 'professional'  and darker colours such as 'brown' would more likely to be associated with Soul/RnB music. We also changed the borders on the page to a similar colour as the background, as some of our audience feed back from students suggested that the gold now looked 'odd' with the brown background and that 'attention went on the borders rather than the picture for the wrong reasons.' Sofia suggested that we tried a new font as we mutually decided to go against the 'convention' of having elegant writing just for Soul/RnB music, we still wanted the 'elegant' feel to the title but something 'different' and 'quirky' that went with their image and personalities, we didn't want to be too stereotypical therefore we went for this font (above). About 5 members from some audience feedback suggested that we try this font because it looked slightly 'retro' whereas the other looked 'too classical'.

We changed the font colour to black to experiment as black often goes with everything.

Here we used a slight effect on this layer by right hand clicking on the layer (the font) to create a 'under shadow'. But we realised it didn't make the font look that different, not the way we wanted anyway. 

We then right hand clicked again on the font layer and looked for the bevel effect. We quite liked the way the righting matched with the borders of the picture and made it look a little '3D'.

While looking at the 'bevel effect on the title layer, we then clicked on 'gradient' again and then 'blend mode' and scrolled down the list till we found 'overlay' this effect instantly created mixture of colour change within the text gradually. It was quite a clever way to show how the writing starts of with a dark colour then becomes lighter. We felt it still went with the theme.

Me and Sofia were contemplating what way we should present the information of the magazine advertisement. We then referred back to our first drafts once again were we used 'rectangular shapes' to look like 'strips' to present the information. I got this idea originally after looking at one of Madonna's magazine advertisement on one of her albums. The strips at the bottom gave a nice effect and I felt it was a 'simple' but effective way of presenting the idea. To do this on Photoshop, we had to create a 2 new layers and use the 'rectangular shape' equipment and draw it on to the background layer (which has been duplicated). Then we chose the colour, we wanted a 'creamy' colour from the start to make it look like 'coffe paper' in a way and also because browns and creams work well together. We then right hand clicked on each of the layers and clicked on 'shadows' this gave it a more 3D effect and was much like Madonna's magazine advertisement. We wanted one layer to be shorter than the other to look more like a 'notes' effect.

Here you can see we created a third layer which is smaller and also changed the angles of the shapes (by clicking on transform) again to give it that 'notes paper' effect. We are hoping to use writing in each of the boxes.

After some audience feedback of 4 people including a teacher they said that the font 'blendid' in too much with the background although it was a good effect. They suggested that we changed the colour of the font to make it 'stand out more'. Taking their feedback on board, me and Sofia started looking at different colours that would go with the theme. Sofia stated that 'black' would look good and it's a very basic colour. I thought that we should try and use a colour that matched with what is on the picture, this is why we chose a deep purple. It's still a dark colour but you would be able to link Soul/RnB with the colour.

Here you can see that we have started to add text to the boxes below. We clicked on transform to make the text fit with the boxes.

After looking at a few fonts we decided that we would go for a simple looking font a bit like Times New Roman, we didn't want everything to match like the title otherwise it will be 'unconvetional.' The text was the date of the album would be realised, it is important to make sure that it was bold.

Adding another text layer we changed the font size again to fit the smaller box.

For the last text layer we made sure the text font was bigger and bold.

This print screen is showing how we are adding the record label in the top left hand corner so that the attention is still on the main picture and text.

After some audience feedback of our final product, it was suggested that we change the colour of 'album' and the name of the album cover 'Unified Visions' so that the audience can link that Unified Visions is the name of the album. We changed it to the colour purple because it was closest to the title colour so it nicely links.