The document summarizes experiments the author conducted to design magazine covers and double page spreads. For the magazine covers, the author experimented with traditional and blurred photographic styles, and found adjusting brightness, contrast and layer positioning helped make the designs look like real magazines. For the double page spread, the author kept the design simple with a background photo and writing over top, learning this created a realistic magazine look. The experiments informed elements the author will include in their final magazine product design.

1. Experiments
Amy Foster

2. Front Cover experiments

3. Front cover experiments

4. Reflection
• What elements of your experiments will you
include in your final product? For my experiments I really had a go
at two different styles of magazine as I didn’t know which one I wanted to play with and this experiment
helped me to deicide, in the first one I experimented with a traditional magazine front cover and stuck to
the basics so a simple picture with a ongoing colour theme and a person right in the middle, I think this
looks like a generic magazine and would attract an audience to buy it. I used the same colours as the
blossom tree and edited it into the text and boxes and I think that this works well and makes the magazine
look good and well put together, I also used the opacity and fill and decreased them to make the magazine
more like a magazine instead of things simply placed together. I also used my knowledge of headers and
placement to keep almost like a clear bubble around the model to make it seem like everything is placed
nicely around him, I think that this makes it more appealing to the viewer aswell as easier to pick out
information. For the second magazine cover/ photo I got the image of google images and moved it into
Photoshop after I had cropped it to the size I wanted I then I started playing around with the settings of it,
first of I turned the brightness up and put the contrast right down I did this as I think it makes the picture
look more colourful and bright, leading on from this I played with invert and didn't’t like it, I think this was
a good experience to learn as I got to see what lots of settings do ready for when I do my actual magazine
cover. After I was happy with the photo I then duplicated it and called it 2, I then clicked on the layer of 2
and shifted it 2mm I think this has created a moving/blurry picture, especially with all the colours I think
that this looks good. To get the masthead I went onto Dafonts and had a look through lots of different
fonts that I thought would go with this picture, after I had chose one I then downloaded it and started
playing with words that looked good, in the end I went with the celebrities stage name which is ASAP
rocky however to make the letters more individual I decided to put dots in-between them I think that this
is a good technique as it makes it more of a masthead/slogan than just a name.

5. Double Page Process

6. Reflection
• What elements of your experiments will you
include in your final product? For my double page spread
experiment I decided to keep it simple and stick to a basic look with a background of ASAP rocky with a
lower opacity so that you can still read all the writing and it isn’t too much to look at, I think this was
helpful as I think I would like to do this for my actual magazine with a background that I have taken myself
then make the picture softer and less attention grabbing, next to the picture and writing is another
picture, the line represents the parting in the pages of a magazine, therefore having a full picture that the
viewer can look at clearly and enjoy works for a double page spread I think. This helped me to decided
what looks like a realistic magazine double page spread as I think the big picture looks good but I also think
that using a picture as a background is more subtle and looks more sleek and professional. I think doing
this experiment helped me for when it comes to actually creating my magazine double page spread I will
know where things are on Photoshop and how to initially go about it.