The document describes Tamzin Twose's process for creating a magazine cover and feature article in Adobe Photoshop. Key steps included removing backgrounds from images, adding text and graphics elements, adjusting colors and formatting to create visual hierarchy and conform to magazine design conventions. The process was iterative, with adjustments made based on how elements looked together on the page. Guides and grids were used to help align elements consistently across pages.

1. Production Reflection
Tamzin Twose

2. Process
I opened a new A4 portrait document in Adobe Photoshop for my magazine cover.
In order to add my feature image to the front cover, I needed to remove the white
background.
I opened up a picture that I wanted to edit into a new document and used the magic
selection tool to select the white background. I then used the delete key to remove it,
creating a transparent background around the character. I did the same for the space
between the arm, leaving me with just the character.

3. Process
I created two selling lines, one at the top of the page and one at the bottom, using the
rectangle tool and coloured them blue temporarily so that they were visible. I then
inserted the feature image by dragging the layer from the other document. And then
rescaled the image in the centre of the page, leaving a space at the top for the
masthead.
I wrote my masthead using Sugo Pro Display font, which I sourced in my pre-production.
I set the text to bold and a 117pt size. I then realigned the masthead so that there was
an equal space between the selling line and the feature image.
Now that my masthead was created, I added rulers and guides to keep the masthead
and sub headings aligned as this is a common convention for creating a magazine cover.

4. Process
I added in a background but the resolution was too small so the picture was pixelated. I
decided to leave it in temporarily as a guide.
I inserted in the Sims 4 logo for the headline by dragging the image on to the cover. The
image had a white background so I used the magic selection tool to select and remove it
making the background transparent.
I also added in the anchorage using the text tool and changed the masthead to white so
that it would stand out from the background.

5. Process
Using the colour picker tool I altered the colour of the selling lines and anchorage to match
colours that I picked out of the headline. This not only themes the magazine in the colour
scheme of the featured game, but it will also make it appeal to my primary audience, males.
Now that the colour scheme has been added, I really feel like the cover is beginning to take
shape.
Next I added in two sub headings using the text tool. I realised I needed to get some of the
green colour from the headline into the cover so I added a plug line above each sub heading.
Following the guide I made sure that each sub heading was lined up correctly to ensure my
cover was conforming to common conventions.

6. Process
I added in a circle plug using the ellipse tool and changed it the deep fuchsia from the headline. I feel this
was a great way to incorporate this colour into the cover; it really breaks up the blues and greens.
I duplicated the circle plug and resized it to make it a bit bigger and then placed it in the bottom left
corner.
I inserted a picture of a gaming pc mouse and used the magic selection tool to remove the white
background. I added in the buzz word “WIN!” and curved the text around the mouse using the create
warped text feature and set it to an arch. By adding the buzz word, this will make my magazine appeal to
my secondary psychographic group, Needs Driven.
Now that the plug was complete I realised I didn’t like the blue selling line. I wanted to add a cover line
about the competition but I felt if I left the selling line blue it would look separate to the plug. I decided to
use the same colour for the selling line, but outlined it with the blue by duplicating the shapes, colouring
them blue and moving them slightly to create an outline.

7. Process
The masthead looked a little
plain, so I wanted to add a drop
shadow. I wanted it in the green
colour from my colour scheme
but it isn’t possible to achieve this
effect using the blending options.
Instead I duplicated the text and
then moved it to the right and
down slightly to create the effect
of a shadow. Using the colour
picker tool I picked the green
from the logo and plug lines to
further emphasise the colour
scheme.
I also added in sub images that
linked to the sub headings and
moved the second sub heading to
the left because I felt the right-
hand side was starting to look too
busy.

8. Process
I added in two kickers near the bottom of the page at the left and right to add additional
content for the magazine because there was a lot of empty space.
Next I worked on the formatting of the text. The cover lines seemed too spaced out so I altered
the character tracking and leading to make the text more uniformed and professional, in line
with common conventions of creating a magazine cover.
I also changed the font sizes, ensuring that sub headings where set to the same 28pt and the
kickers to 22pt. I set the anchorage to 36pt as well as I felt it was too small.

9. ProcessWhen I cut out the background for my
feature image, I hadn’t realised that because
of the shading and highlights to the image,
part of the arm had been selected and
removed with the background and also the
bottom of the dress was left with a white
edging that I didn’t want included.
I couldn’t recreate the pattern easily on the
arm so, instead, I opened the image up
again in Photoshop and this time, instead of
using the magic selection tool, I used the
polygonal lasso tool. This was very time
consuming, but it gave a much more
polished result and it ensure that the
character was cut out from the background,
intact.
I also added in a black background layer, so
that I could clearly see that the edges, as I
think the initial problem was because it was
hard to see any issues with the transparent
background being patterned and light
coloured.

10. Process
After resubmitting the newly edited feature image, I felt like the character looked odd. She
seemed small in comparison to the size of the page and also the fact that you could see the
bottom of her dress, gave the impression she was floating. It’s also not common to see a full
length feature character on a magazine cover, so I decided to resize the image by using
transform/scale and after making her a bit bigger, I repositioned the image so that the
bottom of the dress was no longer visible.

11. Process
Now that most of my magazine was complete, I removed the old background image and placed in a new
screenshot from the game. Seeing the two pictures side by side, I can see this was definitely a vast
improvement. I hadn’t realised just how dark the original background image was.
To emphasise the feature image, I used a gaussian blur filter on the background to blur it slightly and give
the impression of it being slightly out of focus, in the distance.
I then added in a barcode by inserting an image, added the price to the edge using the text tool and
flipped it 90° counter-clockwise. I also added in the date line, just below the masthead and lined it up to
the guide. These are all common conventions of a magazine cover and by adding them it also ensures that
my magazine is complying with legal requirements.

12. Process
For the final touch to the magazine cover, I wanted to emphasise the headline. In the Sims
4 the celebrities have a glow as they become more famous and I wanted to incorporate
that into the magazine. I had thought about placing a glow around the feature image, but I
thought this might look a bit out of place. So instead I opted to add a thin white stroke
around the headline and then added a glow to enhance it. This also disguised an issue I was
having with the logo, whereby the edges still had slight bits of white around them. This was
almost impossible to edit out, without going around every letter so that part of the logo
didn’t get deleted.

13. Process
For my feature article I created
an A3 landscape document in
Photoshop.
Using the rulers and guides I set
a guide to halve the page and
then began adding in guide for
each part of the article to create
the grid. I added a guide to
create an equal amount of white
spacing around the entire
article, then added guides to
create the running head at the
top of the pages and the folio at
the bottom.
Finally I set up guides to equally
space out the four columns and
one just below the picture. This
one is slightly off in this picture
because the feature image still
needs to be resized.

14. Process
Now that the guides are in place I added in the supporting images and resized them using
transform/scale until they fit neatly across the top of both pages. I also left a small amount
of white space to make them look more aesthetically pleasing to the eye.
Next, I began adding in my headline and some body text so that I could work out the layout
and format but I realised the text boxes needed to be a bit bigger, so I made the pictures
slightly smaller and resized my text boxes, ensuring that they had an equal amount of white
space around each edge.

15. ProcessIn real magazine articles, the first
letter of the kicker is written with
the first letter as a drop cap. This
isn’t possible to do using a text
box alone in Photoshop, so I
created a second textbox and
added in the first four lines of
text and made it slightly smaller
than the original. This created a
space in which I drew a square
using the rectangle tool and
placed the capital letter inside
with a third text box.
I also added in a rectangle
around the headline. To keep the
article in the same colour scheme
as the front cover, I coloured the
headline box in the same blue
from the cover headline and for
the drop cap box I used the green
from the cover kickers.

16. Process
In order to be able to fit my article into the four columns, I changed the font size from 14pt
to 12pt. This allowed me to fit the pull quote into the third column, which makes more
sense because it is a quote from that column of text.
I also changed the folio and running head slightly. I moved the masthead text to the
bottom left page and kept the date on the right. I then added the word “review” to the
running head, to make it clear what kind of article it is.

17. Process
Looking at my text as a whole, I felt
it looked too plain so I added some
lines in, using the line tool, to break
up the columns. I continued the
colour scheme from the front cover
by bringing in the pink from the
headline and plugs.
I feel this breaks up the columns,
and brings a bit more colour into the
article and also makes it easier to
read and look more professional.
I also added an indentation to the
first line of the paragraphs. This was
something that I saw in the existing
products that I researched and I feel
it also helps break up the text.

18. Process
Finally, I noticed that I had
missed out the caption on
my feature images.
This is important so that
they tie in to the article,
so I added text in using
the text tool and
highlighted it by creating
black rectangles behind
the white text.
I feel this really brings the
pictures and articles
together.