Magazine Covers

Look at the magazine cover below. What familiar Photoshop techniques do you notice? List at least four. Prepare to share what you notice with the class.

Magazine Cover Assignment:

Create a new file in Adobe Photoshop 8 x 10 inches.

Name your file: Yourlastname-Magazine Cover

You are to create a magazine cover of your own. Create a new magazine that you would like to purchase. Include a picture cut out from the background, article teasers, bar code, a background picture, color, gradient or texture.

You are to use as many Photoshop techniques as you can (shapes, filters, lighting effects, text styles)

Make sure you label all your layers

When you are finished, please save your cover in the finished assignments folder as a .jpg file.

Sample magazines at:  http//www.magazines.com 

Rubric:

Winning Magazine Covers

What makes a winning magazine cover?

• clever, creative art, fun
• simple design
• compelling cover lines
• bold visuals

Simplicity Rules

"A magazine cover is not the place where you want to pull out all the stops. Have you ever seen a popular magazine with a cover that is visually cluttered? In order to put together an effective cover, try to stick to between 5-11 cover headings. Too few headings won't create enough interest for readers, but too many headings will overwhelm a reader. How many headings does your favorite magazine have on its cover?

Keep the colors simple. If the cover model's clothing or cover image has a lot of different colors in it, you won't want to have a background that has a lot of color in it. This would overwhelm the eyes of your potential reader. Instead, try to stick to 3 or so colors for your background and title."

(Source:http://www.brighthub.com/multimedia/publishing/articles/101001.aspx

Examples of winning magazine covers:

This contest is sponsored by Amazon.com

http://www.magazine.org/asme/magazine-cover-contests/2010-winners-finalist