Jodie Wood conducted experiments to develop skills for creating magazine covers and double page spreads for her final product. For the covers, she edited over 100 photos in Photoshop and tried different fonts and color levels. She created three mock covers. For the double page spreads, she designed two layouts - a basic style with little color and a second with neutral colors and brighter photos. She edited photos in Photoshop, added text boxes, and arranged photos around the page. Her experiments helped her identify styles and techniques to include in her final product, such as photo editing, color schemes, and layouts that created a minimalist, professional look.

1. Experiments
Jodie Wood

2. Cover Process
• Before I had started the cover, I had made sure that the photos I was going to use were already
edited and ready to use. I edited them through Photoshop as I find it easier to use and the
Light Room and like the visuals that it gives you as you are adjusting.
• When doing the photoshoot, I took more then enough photos (over 100) to ensure that I had a
wide range of different poses/locations to be able to create alternative covers. Considering the
country is in lockdown, I have had to use my two sisters as my models. If I could have done this
the way I was going to, I would have had different models for each shoot. However, I cannot do
that and have had to adjust my project to fit with my available resources.
• After I had placed my photo into photoshop, i started playing around with different fonts to
see which would suit the cover the best. I changed the name of my magazine, so the title
covered more of the page, as the shorter name didn’t look aesthetically pleasing.
• I tried doing different styles for my cover, to see which worked better then others. For example
– changing the colour levels on the photos, making them look funky. This would help me
visualise what the best theme would be for my cover and displaying strengths or weaknesses
in my editing.
• The pictures I used were from a practice shoot with my sisters. I did 2 separate shoots so I
could have different covers using separate styles. This helped me see which shoot would work
better as a cover or for a double page spread. I tried to be diverse in making the mock
magazine as it would be more realistic when it came to create the final product.

3. Original picture
Cover 1

4. Original photo
Cover 2

5. Original photo
Cover 3

6. Double Page Spread (DPS) Process
• To begin my process for my DPS, I filtered through different photoshoots to see which shoot would
fit better as a double page spread or just as cover pictures. I chose two different shoots and
designed two different styles of article layouts. The first one was very basic – very little colours to
make the pictures stand out. I liked how this came out but I thought it was too basic and it wasn’t
niche enough, so I tried a different style. This was still basic but adding the colour made the page
look more professional and had a nicer finish. The neutral colour contrasted against the brighter
pictures, thus making them standout more against the background.
• It was important that I tried to develop my skills through my experiments so that when it came to
create the final product, I could see which style worked better then others. This also maximizes my
creativity in my final products, meaning I can make that jump to the better finish, rather then using
the basic format.
• I made sure before beginning this process that I had edited all the photos that I was going to use,
making it easy for me to be able to begin constructing the double page spread as soon as I could. I
used Photoshop to edit the photos, adjusting brightness/contrast or changing the levels. This made
the photos have a nicer aesthetic look, making them fit with the magazine aesthetic. I then
proceeded to add the text boxes for the article to go in. This gave the page structure, meaning I
could place the photos around the text boxes and move them around to where the looked best.
• The second structure allowed me to be able to use more pictures from my photoshoot as the layout
meant that the photos could be placed around the page rather then in just in one corner. I prefer
this structure as it shows the photoshoot off more and amplifies the pictures, making it look more
realistic to a magazine structure.

7. HEADLINE

9. Reflection
• What elements of your experiments will you include in your final product?
– I think for my final products, I will use a lot of the styles and editing techniques
that I used in my experiments. I will in particular use the aesthetics of my
double page spreads – ie, the structures, colour schemes, layouts – as they
came out the way I wanted them too. I found that in order to create a
minimalist look you have to put more work in to make it look effortless and
professional. This will come in useful when creating my final products as I
know that in order to make a successful, ‘basic’ double page spread, I must
edit almost twice as much to be able to create the aesthetics that a niche
magazine would have.
– For my cover, I will definitely use the same or very similar editing techniques in
my final products, as my experiments came out the way I would like my final
products to look like. However, I will have to keep in mind the actual cover
photo when doing the photoshoots for my final products as I was mainly
taking photos landscape and forgot to be taking portrait photos for the cover.
– All in all, I think that my experiments went well and it will hopefully it will
mean that my final products can be that much better, giving it that
professional finish a real magazine would have.