Reflection on how to do a magazine and banner ad in Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop. Feel free to use it as a guide.

1. Lydia Graham
Reflection
The first thing I did was take two images
from Canva.com and one from Pixabay.com. The
image from Canva is a picture of the Top View of
Amethyst Stones, by G lady of Pixabay. It says
no attribution is required; however, I did not take
this photo and always want to be sure I am honest
and follow the ethics guidelines so there is never
any question or problems with clients. The other
Canva image is a photo of Orange Petaled
Flowers on Person’s back by Life of Pix The third

2. image is a glass plate holding crystals and a
candle holder from Pixabay. It was a photo by
Mareefe s. says no attribution necessary.
I needed to set up magazine ad in Adobe
Illustrator (open new file, 8.5 by 11), and made sure
ppi is 300 and set up bleed as 0.125 on all sides.
This is generally the standard bleed, but may
change according to client need, always be sure to
check if there is one and if so, what the number
should be. If none is given or unknown, use the
0.125. Then open document.
Once opened, the red outline indicates the
bleed area. Anything we extend needs to go beyond
that red line to be sure it gets trimmed properly.
Use the PDF with the client info/pallet/typography
etc. Open so we can access those elements. Copy
and paste logo onto the magazine ad. When you do

3. this the colors for the logo are automatically added
to the swatches. This happens for any item copied
and pasted FYI.
Then we need to Place the image that we
prepared last week where we layered the two
images from Canva. The image should be over the
bleed by less than an inch and lessen the opacity to
65%. Lessening the opacity helps the other images
show up better when we bring it into the file. Leave
room at the top for the heading/title. Then we bring
in the carved out the background and place on top.
Week 4
For week four we had to create the text for
the banner ad for the magazine cover. There were
helpful tutorials, however I used a YouTube video
that I found called How to Create Fancy 3D Text in

4. Photoshop! Easy. I did not follow all the
instructions simply because I wanted my banner ad
to be clean and simple and some of the instructions
called for something that would not fit my focus for
the ad. I created a custom banner with the
background and text, no additional layers aside
from the color options. I used the 1280 by 300 for
the pixel size and 150 DPI. Once in the design I
chose Arial Bold for the text and rasterized the layer
for the text. I then did the following:
• Edit/Transform/Warp/Flag (I liked
this design a lot)
• I then changed the color of the text
by right clicking on the layer and choosing blending
options. Once there I clicked on the plus tab next to
where it says color overlay and changed the CMYK
for the text to the gray that is on the style guide. I

5. then changed the background layer to a very soft
gold to match the golden colors in my magazine
draft. I think this is a great option and will blend
nicely.
• I wanted to do the 3D but honestly
had a hard time and figured I have four weeks until
the project needs to be completed so I will practice
as that makes perfect.
• For now, I am happy with my
design.
I have saved as a photoshop image, and PDF
and will submit in a zip folder. This is a more
secure way to submit my drafts for an assignment
and for a potential client.
Week 5

6. For week five we had to create the draft of
the banner ad and include some animation using the
layered images and logo from the included
documentation for the class. We had to follow
these steps:
Instructions
Prepare one banner ad rough by modifying
the digital materials used in the magazine ad and
optimizing the imagery files into both a layered
Photoshop .psd file and a .gif of the animated
banner ad design. Your banner should be 1280
pixels by 300 pixels at 150 dpi.
• Adapt the banner ad from the
magazine ad to capture the tone and style of the
design while enhancing the call to action by using
some basic Photoshop animation techniques.

7. • When adapting the ad, consider
what makes an on-screen, interactive ad different
than a printed magazine ad and which tools in
Photoshop and Illustrator you will need to use
effectively to accomplish your goals.
• Focus on best use of color,
typography, imagery, and all the elements and
principles of design to draw the viewer's
attention.
• When adapting the ad, consider
what parts of the magazine ad design are no
longer needed when placed on screen or which
new elements might need to be introduced to
create a successful layout and structure.
The .gif should be optimized for on-screen
viewing, and as you did for Milestone One, take

8. screenshots of the tools that you used to
modify/adapt the magazine ad to become a Web
banner. I optimized by using the timeline
window. I clicked on the down arrow and chose
create frame animation. Then I clicked on the
button and it pulled up the frames that had the eye
on it (prior to this I hid the ones I wanted to
animate which were the title and the layer photo).
Now I choose the duplicated thumbnails
and choose the layers I want animated by
choosing them. I then click play, adjust the
timing and looping, optimize (by clicking on the
lines at the right corner of the box and choosing
Optimize Animation and click ok. Now we want
to save as a GIF, click on file/export and then
save for web/keep default settings/save. To see
the GIF, go to the image in desktop, right click

9. and open with Internet Explorer. I added the text,
resized, and did all the above steps, it came out
great!
The feedback from the instructor has been
all positive. Each assignment and discussion
grade has been a consistent A which leads me to
believe I am absorbing the material with Adobe
Illustrator and photoshop. The discussion threads
have been positive with my peers giving me
guidance and support with how to line things up
and/or make the color pop on the banner ad and
the magazine ad.
Copyright laws protect the rights of the
author, artist, or other originators of creative work
to control when and how they work can be copied
and disseminated, and it prevents others from
appropriating the work without permission. By

10. simply giving the true artist credit, your image
and reputation remain intact and you avoid legal
issues/being sued (Sarokin, D., 2019).
The four factors judges consider for fair
use law are:
• the purpose and character of your
use.
• the nature of the copyrighted work.
• the amount and substantiality of the
portion taken, and.
• the effect of the use upon the
potential market (Stanford University, N.D.).
This week was the final submission of the
banner ad and magazine ad. I simply finished
cleaning up the images. For the banner ad, I
changed the background color from white to light

11. purple to compliment the design. I also changed
the text to wave, so it stands out more.
I had to play around with each layer,
added the phone number and just took my time
adjusting the colors by clicking on the
background layer, edit, fill/and then changing the
color it was easy. I also changed the
background/bottom layer of the magazine ad. I
did a blue/white tinted color and added the
lettering and moved the images around – it looks
great! The following pages are the screenshots of
my images that I used.
Again, the images were used and
downloaded from Canva and Pixabay. See the
attribution at the top of the page.

12. Banner ad rough draft
Image of lady’s back and amethyst rock from
Canva

13. Amethyst Rock from Canva via Lady G, no
attribution needed

14. Dish with blue amethysts from Pixabay, no
attribution needed
Image of glass bowl with amethysts and jar
Image of layering for amethyst rock and lady with
flowers on her back for magazine ad

15. Draft of magazine ad
Blank template for magazine ad in Adobe
Illustrator

16. The company sample page for their logos and
color chart to be used for project
company logo

17. Banner ad rough

18. Image from Canva of bowl with amethyst rocks,
jar
Banner ad rough draft

19. Images of amethyst rocks and lady with flowers
on her back from Canva
Final banner ad submission

20. Final Magazine ad submission

21. References
Sarokin, D. (2019). Why Are Copyright Laws
Important? smallbusiness.cron.com. Retrie
ved
from https://smallbusiness.chron.com/copy
right-laws-important-52601.html.
Stanford (N.D.). Measuring Fair Use: The Four
Factors. fairuse.standford.edu. Retrieved
from https://fairuse.stanford.edu/overview/
fair-use/four-factors/.