The document describes changes made to a magazine cover and interior pages in Photoshop to improve visual elements and readability for a young, festival-loving audience. Changes included adding colored shapes and black boxes behind text to make elements stand out, adjusting brightness and contrast, duplicating layers to add shadows, and altering fonts, positioning, and sizing of elements. The goal was to create an eye-catching yet cohesive design that flows well and represents the target audience through a vibrant yet laid-back artistic style.

3. Before
After
I wanted to brighten my main image to give the impression of sunlight
and vibrancy which represents my youthful, festival-loving audience. I
did this by selecting the main image and altering the brightness and
contrast on the right hand side panel in Photoshop.

4. Before
After
I felt the ‘before’ banner was to plain and not eye-catching
enough, which it needs to be to show off the urgent offers. To break up
the vast white space , I drew a black rectangle shape behind the banner
text layer which I feel gives a more finished look to the cover. I also
added white dots between each offer to make it easier to read and it is
also similar to ……

5. Before
After
Although the left-third cover-lines have colourful yellow and blue shading in
the background, I felt the heading in white font didn’t stand out enough to
catch the readers attention and entice them to buy this issue. Therefore, I
used the shape tool to create two black boxes positioned behind the text on
Photoshop.

6. Before
After
The pull quote on my front cover
is in a white font to create
synergy with the other cover
lines (also in white font.)
However, the text isn’t as visible
as it needs to be, particularly
when it overlaps the white top
worn by the model. Thus, I
decided to create a shadow by
duplicating the layer on the
bottom left bar in Photoshop,
then changing the font colour to
black. By placing this new layer
behind the original it creates a
shadowed effect that results in
the text being more readable.

7. I didn’t want the right-third to detract from the left third, yet I
needed to fill the space in order to give the impression that my
magazine is full of content and the reader is getting their moneys
worth. Thus, I added a Buzz word in the same font with a black
background that would attract the reader in purchasing the issue.
Before
After

8. Barcode’s are a conventional feature of magazines and I decided to add the
price and website onto mine with a black textbox and white font. By including
a website it demonstrates how my magazine is up-to-date with my modern
audience and since my niche target audience is young, they will be able to
read more articles and receive exclusive images easily through the magazines
website or by downloading the app. The price, £1.99, according to my target
research is on average what people are willing to pay.

9. In order to make the smaller images stand out and create synergy with the
yellow, blue, black and white house-style, I decided to add coloured shapes
behind the images in a slanted position. This creates a rough and laid-back
style that will appeal to my young adult audience. Afterwards, I also decided
to add another cover line ‘Backstage with…’ to correspond with the other
headings on my cover. By doing this I feel it makes the make flow more,
allowing ease of reading and also the image s add interest to the page
because my audience enjoy the visuality and experience of magazines.
Before
After

11. Before
After
The pull-quote overlaps my
double page spread image
however, although the font is
large, it isn’t easy to read.
Therefore, I decided to add
boxes in both blue and black
behind the text to create a
unique and quirky vibe to the
page. The font style is also
crooked and odd sized which
makes the quotes look
handwritten, as they would
on music festival posters and
boards. This gives familiarity
to my target audience and
also a personal touch to the
magazine.

12. The side panel is on my double page spread
and contains information about other
musicians mentioned later in the magazine.
Although the white font with bold images
does contrast the grey background, I felt they
would be easily missed whilst skimming
through the magazine. This would be a
problem, particularly because the heading
reads ‘Don’t Miss’ therefore the information
is crucial to the reader. I decided to tackle this
by creating a black box behind all the panel
layers so that it looked separate to my DPS
article., then I adjusted the size and
positioning using the transformation tool on
Photoshop It also allowed me to move the
font to curve around the images because the
black background blended into the images.

13. The columns that contain the main interview has a format where they
questions are in light blue and the response in black. Although it is colourful, I
did think it looked very one-dimensional and too much solid text, which would
defy my aim of trying to keep the magazine as visual as possible. Therefore I
added three translucent
columns in the foreground
so that there was more
definition and contrast to
the text, giving it more
dimension. I also added a
image of the musician and
cropped it into a circle which
I curved the text around to
keep the fluidity of my
article. This represents my
youthful audience because
it’s vibrant and fun.

14. Before
After
In the top right corner of this page there was a
blank area which I wanted to fill because
conventionally, double-page spreads have very
little empty space. Therefore, I decided to add a
puff containing information about the magazines
website. To do this I found an image of torn
notebook paper on google images which I saved
onto a Photoshop file. I then cropped it and
adjusted the size to fit in the corner. Next I deleted
the background using the magic background
eraser tool so that I could overlap my main image
without a white box surrounding the image. I then
tiled the paper using the transformation tool
before adjusting the brightness to make the paper
look worn. Finally I added the text on top in
Orator Std. font to create synergy throughout the
magazine.

15. The page numbers are crucial in aiding the navigation of a magazine, therefore they
need to be clear and chronological. I improved my previous number by going on the
shape tool in Photoshop and selecting the flags shape. I chose the colour black to
be contrasting and easy to read. I then used the line tool to create a ‘flag pole’
running between the flags and curving at the end. I then added the numbers 12
using Orator Std. I felt this added more of an artistic, decorative and personal touch
to the magazine that is completely unique to anything else, therefore represents my
target audience because they enjoy the quirky and unusual.
Before
After