The document provides a development diary for a magazine front cover design. It describes the process of designing and refining various elements of the cover such as the background color, masthead, title, strap line, barcode, date, issue number, insert, and coverlines. Photos were taken for the cover shoot but weather caused delays. The main image was selected, masked, resized and adjusted to fit the overall design. Colors, fonts, shapes and layout were refined iteratively based on inspiration from other magazines to create a cohesive design with a summer festival vibe.

1. Development Diary
Front Cover

2. Normally I would have started the design of my front cover with the main image, but due to
poor weather conditions and my model being ill on the scheduled day of our photo-shoot, I
consequently had to do the rest of the page before I could insert the images.
I decided that the gradient-coloured background that I used for my mock-up design looked too
unprofessional, so to start with, I used the Eyedropper tool to select a single colour from the
original gradient background and then used the Bucket tool to fill a new layer above the original
background layer. I chose to fill a new layer as I wanted to be able to adjust the opacity slightly
until I found a colour that would be pale enough to read white writing off of.
The next section I wanted to focus on was the
masthead – of which I wanted to start with the title. I
decided to keep the same font style I used in my mock-
ups; Rainfall, as it reminded me of festivals and this
was the sort of style I wanted to go with throughout
my whole magazine. The font was also very bold which
makes reading the title easier to read from a
distance, but certain letters such as the ‘A’ had a very
unique and quirky style to them which would allow my
magazine it’s own identity. I began by using the Text
tool to draw a text box, and then I selected the font.
Originally, my magazine was going to be titled
‘Volume’ but it didn’t quite fit the genre, which caused
me to re-think my choice of title.

3. Once I had written out the title of the magazine, I highlighted the text
to allow me to adjust the size and colour of the text. I decided to
keep the text white like in my mock-up designs as it both
compliments and contrasts quite well with the background colour.
Also, in my mock-up front cover, I had the title big enough to fill just
the top left corner of the page, but I took inspiration from Clash
magazine, as I liked the way their title stretched across the whole
width of the magazine and sat behind the image, which is why I made
my final title big enough to fit across the whole page.
Taking inspiration from several magazines such as Q, I liked how they created
specific shapes on the pages to give the magazine a brand and an identity.
From the start of the research and planning process, I have used lines as a
method of separating text on a page but to also add a unique and quirky
design. To suit this, I decided to draw a thick line to cut straight through the
title of my magazine, much like I did in my mock-ups. The line I used in the
title for my mock-ups was quite thin, so for this final design I decided to make
the line using the rectangle shape tool. Once I had drawn the rectangle, I
then used the Move tool to move the shape so it cut right through the ‘o’ of
the title. I then changed the colour of the shape to white so it blended in
with the text and then I rearranged the layers so that it was underneath the
text. I liked this effect as the ‘o’ reminded me of the London Underground
logo, which I feel is appropriate as my magazine is London/Essex based. If my
magazine had have been a different genre such as hip-hop or pop, I would
have changed the colour of the letter to red and blue to match the logo more
clearly, but the colours would not have fit in with my house style.

4. I then used the same method to draw a slightly thinner rectangle and placed
it at the very bottom of the page for my strap line. I decided on only one strap
line as I thought another at the top would have made the page look too over-
crowded. I decided on a beige/golden sort of colour as this fit in with the
colour scheme my target audience picked in the questionnaire plus it also
complimented the pinkish background quite well. The colour was slightly too
intense so I reduced the opacity of the layer which caused the colour to blend
in better with the colour of the background.
To finish off the masthead section of my front cover, I then chose to place the slogan of the
magazine ‘Turn It Up’. In the very original practice designs for this magazine, I had the slogan
sitting underneath the title, but because of the line cutting through the title, I decided that it
looked eye-catching sitting here. I used the same technique I used to create the title with the
text tool but instead I changed the font to my other house-style font; Bank Gothic, and made
the size small enough to fit in the rectangle and black to stand out against white of the title.

5. I was then happy that the masthead was complete, as I knew I
wanted to place details such as the date, price and issue number with
the barcode. I then moved back to the bottom of the page, as I
wanted to place the barcode. Using the rectangle shape tool again, I
drew a small white rectangle to the dimensions of a barcode in the
bottom left corner of the page, overlapping the strap line.
I then opened a barcode image I then used the Move tool to place the
I had saved to my computer in barcode over the white square. The barcode
Photoshop, and copied the filled the square but left space across the
image over into my document. top and to the right for the date, price and
issue number to go. To create these
features, I used the Text tool again to create
separate boxes for each piece of information
and used the same font I used for the slogan
to keep the house style consistent. With the
issue number, I used the transform option to
rotate the text so that the text aligned with
the lines in the barcode.
I changed the original release date that I had
put in my mock-up design to June as I
thought that this was more appropriate as
the magazine has an overall
summery/festival feel to it.

6. Most magazines will include an insert on the
front cover to persuade readers to buy the
magazine. They are usually designed in the
form of a geometric shape, so I used the same
shape tool, but the Ellipse option instead to
create a circular shape for my insert. Holding
down the Shift key allowed for a ‘perfect’ Using the Move tool again, I placed the insert
proportional circle to be drawn. in the space just underneath the title, as this is
To allow more text to fit in where the breathing space was in my mock-up
the circle, I changed the line design, and I knew that image I wanted to use
spacing so that the lines would take up approximately the same amount
were closer together. of space on the page. Once in place, I used the
Text tool again in the same font as before to
write in the information for the insert.
It is important for specific words or phrases to stand out more than
others on a front cover of a magazine in order to maximize the
attention from the reader. With my mock-ups, I changed specific
phrases on my contents page to red instead of black to make the
text stand out better. I decided to use this technique on the final
front cover design as I thought it would help to make my insert
stand out more. I opted for an orange colour rather than red
though as I thought it complimented the background colour better
and it reminded me of the summery vibe I was looking for when
designing the magazine.

7. I also wanted to separate the different pieces of information, so I used the line
option on the shape tool to draw black lines in-between the different phrases to
also add to the identity I was creating for my magazine.
To finish off the main design of the front cover, I needed to add
the coverlines, which I decided to keep the same as the
coverlines on my mock-up design, expect I changed the second
coverline to something that would result in slightly less
words/text to allow more room for the image next to it. I used
the same previous techniques of the text tool and the line tool
to create the layout and design of my coverlines. I also used the
text tool to create the text for my strap line.
I then decided that the overall design of the front cover didn’t have the
hippie-festival vibe that I wanted to portray, and I felt that it was
because the background was too plain. I used the same technique I used
on my mock-up design of the gradient tool to apply a warm sort of glow
to the background colour but I decreased the opacity so it wasn’t so
obvious or too distracting.

8. I was then happy with the appeal and design I chose the magnetic lasso tool to select
of the front cover, and once I had conducted around the main image. Then I used the quick
my photo-shoot, I then went on to adding in mask tool to neaten up the selection, as
the main image. First I opened the image sections such as the hair and the ukulele were
(already edited) I wanted to use. hard to neatly select.
I then copied and pasted the selected image into my front
cover design.

9. I then used the transform I then re-arranged the
option to increase the size of my layers so that the image
image to fill the empty space was no longer covered
more. by the gradient layer on
the background.
Still on the layer the image was on, I then used the eraser
and the blur tools again to neaten some of the rough edges
of the image. I also used the clone tool to select sections of
her hair and use them to cover some of the spaces that had
been cut out when I originally edited the image.

10. I then decided that the image looked too
intense for the design of my magazine and that
I quite liked the effect the background gradient
had originally given the image, so I applied a
white gradient to just the corner of the image
to also make the coverline more legible.
To finalize the image, I applied a warming filter
to the image to adjust the colours slightly to fit
in with the background colours and my
summery theme.
Luckily, the image was a nice size and fit quite well with the text that was applied to the
design. However, I adjusted the insert and the second coverline slightly so that they fit
around the image a bit better.