Photoshop: Phase 2

With the basics for my magazine cover sorted, the next stages would start to challenge my creative ability. I wanted to manipulate the image to give Tom's figure more depth and make the background more blurred, which would place visual emphasis on the pupil. Although it may be hard to distinguish, I used a method called 'Gaussian blur' which allows you to set a radius for how thick the blur will be. I did this for the whole image and then used the eraser tool to get rid of the blur over Tom's features, thus leaving him in a definitive position in comparison to the background. 

Additionally in the print screen below I have removed the spots on Tom's face (it was his personal request) but it also gives him a more mature, adolescent appearance. 

A common feature of magazines is the barcode and so I decided to place it in the bottom left corner. It is common for advertisers to situate the barcode at a 90 degree angle to leave more space, but for me I wanted to maintain order and straightforwardness in the structure, so I left this unchanged. 

Before moving onto the cover lines and secondary images, I wanted to get a general idea for the font and colour of my masthead, dateline and price tag. 

I concluded that the price tag should be reasonable but not too cheap. Anything sub £1 could be interpreted  as a flyer or a booklet, but if this was going to be a magazine I thought the price should be around the £2 mark. I settled for a figure of £1.95 since this avoids the bluntness of a rounded digit as well as keeps it at a reasonable rate.

In the dateline I aimed at sustaining simplicity. I wrote it as 'November 2015' since it allocates a month and year, which in my opinion is clarifying enough for a reader. It can be identified that these two features were written in the same aqua blue colour that my bordered edge has, thus keeping correlation across the cover.  

The masthead 'Pupil's Perspective' needed to stand out and so I gave it a toxic green colour as well as a different font to demonstrate its importance. Like I planned in my earlier posts, the 'U' and 'S' form the word 'Us', which I also changed the colour of in order to demonstrate the importance of the word. 

For me this font emits creativity without losing too much formality, giving it an aspect of youthful innovation which is supported by the natural colours.