(P5) Carry out post-production techniques and processes to produce a final original media product in line to the client brief

In order to maintain magazine conventions on my front cover, I used certain fonts, photos and graphics to make sure that the page i created is not only as realistic as possible, but would also be an ideal product for a client. I used industry standard software such as Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, Lightroom and InDesign to draft and create the final designs that I have exported.

1

I started off by picking a photo that I had taken in my photoshoot which would fit the theme and style of a front page cover. I chose a photo where the subject, the car, is in central frame. This makes sure that I have an established theme, as well as equal space around the photo to add text. I chose this type of image so that I could maintain a clean yet interesting design whilst also being visually pleasing.

2

After this, I added in my masthead to see if it would fit the style of my photo. Initially, I used a light grey for the masthead, but it blended with the sky which almost made it illegible, so I tried black and white. I decided on white as it reflected the colour of the car, and establishes a soft colour theme. I moved the masthead to the very top of the cover and filled the artboard from edge to edge.

3

After this, I wanted to add a tag-line. To keep the cover interesting, I changed the colour of the text to dark grey and the font of the text to Akira Expanded (dafont.com). I centralised the text underneath the masthead and made it smaller, so that it does not overweigh the title. I tried to think of some ideas for this tagline, but eventually decided on 'The Chaser Edition' as it references the main article of my magazine. This would change dependent on the theme of the product if this was a real magazine.

I also added a stylised text wrap around the back of the car by using the curvature tool option and then typed 'Who doesn't love a white Chaser?' which is a common joke amongst the car owners.

4

I then added the two most interesting articles from my magazine as shortened titles above and around the car. I used the Sherman font for this as it stays in theme with my title. I also highlighted some of the interesting words in each title in different colours, on one of them I used red and the other yellow/orange. This was to direct the reader's eyes to the interesting part of the page, and that part about the magazine contents, which I would want them to read.

5

Following this, I noticed that the top of the page above the masthead was completely negative space, and needed something to even the cover. I decided to use the Akira Expanded font (dafont.com) again in white and add some classes of cars at the top to show the reader which cars the magazine contents cover. I also added a full stop with spaces either side in-between each word, as I thought this made it more visually pleasing.

6

7

After this, I needed to add some more conventional aspects to the bottom of my magazine. In order to do this I looked at other magazines, and noticed that they had a timed of release, a Barcode and a price tag so that customers know how much the magazine will cost.

 I created the barcode using Adobe Illustrator, by using the shape tool to add lines of different thickness to create the bar code pattern. I then used the text tool and randomised numbers 7 times twice on the bottom of the barcode. This is a realistic portrayal of how a real barcode would look on the bottom of a magazine.

To in-keep with the theme of my magazine, for the time of magazine release and the price of the magazine, I re-used the Sherman font in white. I also made sure to centralise the text so that the magazine looked smart and finished.

Double Page Spread - 

For my double page spread, I wanted to make sure that it was relevant to the main article of my magazine from my front page. I decided to make my double page spread about the Toyota Chaser, which has been used on my front page. I used one of the photos I took at my photoshoot and placed it in the middle of both pages. This photo was in JPEG format so when I placed it into lightroom it did not show at full quality until exported.

TO create a distinct style, I then used the PNG version of the car that I created on Photoshop to overlay the image, so that the image has a '3D' effect to it. I created this design as I had the idea of text wrapping around the car in mind, so I decided this would look the most modern whilst also being the most stylised.

I also added the page numbers and 'chapters' which is a common convention used in magazines. To do this I created a text layer and made the text much smaller than the rest, as well as bold black.

In order to keep the text in a specific design, I created four columns of equal width to contain the text and information in the magazine. To create a modern style with these lines I added gradients to them so that they fade off into the magazine. I did not choose to do this with the white guidelines in the middle of the double page spread  in order to frame the car in the centre. I think this added a distinctive style to the guidelines of the magazine.

I also added a retro style design underneath the car in order to fill the negative space that would be there otherwise.

To start with the magazine article, I had to decide on a title. I chose to use a bold font for this as it must stick out on the page when all the other text is inserted. I chose the font 'Heavitas' from dafont.com as it was a very bold font, and also perfectly fit the style I wanted to achieve for my double page spread.

I also used a photo beneath it to fill space. I reused a photo that I used on the contents page. If I was to make this again, I would make sure I have more photos of the specific theme that I want the photos in.

This is where I added the first paragraph of my article. I wanted to text wrap the information around the car so I made sure that I used the fit to image section in the text wrap settings. I then adjusted the spread to -1mm so that the text would wrap closer to the image.

This perfectly achieved the design that I wanted, and looked more stylish than a normal boring line of text, which is good for a vehicle magazine.

I then added in the section section of text. I used the 'fit to middle' design for the text. This is because I wanted the text sections in the middle to be their own themes, so fitting the text to the middle rather than left or right had this effect.

Following the conventions of magazines, I also made the first letter of the text much larger than the average text size across my double page. The technical term for this is a 'dropped capital'. This is to make sure the reader knows exactly where the new section of text starts.

I also added a subtle gradient on this text using the gradient settings. I faded the text vertically from a mid-grey to completely black. I think this added a cool style to the text, and differentiates it from the rest.

I wanted to add some more PNG photos into the right side of my double page spread. I have pre-emptively created these PNGs in photoshop (shown above) and all i needed to do was import them into InDesign.

After I did this, I resized and fitted them to the page. I then used the effects menu to create a drop shadow with a 2mm blue on both of the photos.

In order to mirror the other side of the middle section, I set the text to fit to middle in the 3rd section of text, and also used the drop capital letter to start the text, as it is on a different page. I also added a new, smaller and lighter title here to show that the new section of text is a different chapter in the article.

I also added the grey to black gradient to this text to match the other.

This is the final version of my double page spread 

Finally, I added the last section of text into the double page spread. I used the text wrap feature once again and set it to 0mm, as close to the image as possible. I then pasted the last section of text into the text box that I had created. I wrapped this around both photos, as well as the section section of the bottom of the page.

I also added a bolder, but smaller title as this was the last section, but one of them most important ones which marked the end of the article.

Contents Page - 

This is the image that I have used for my contents page. I used this image as I think that it has enough space above in order to have a full contents page.

I added in the title using the Heavitas font, and then created some lines which were centered on the page to split the two sections of content. I made sure to include the contents title at the top of the page to avoid any confusion.

Using the same font, I created the page number locations. TO do this, I simply added the text in each section that they needed to be in. To differentiate from the rest of the text, I made these numbers outlines rather than full numbers. I did this by increasing the stroke to 2 pixels and changing the colour to white. This creating the effect displayed above.

The final step of the contents page process was inputting the title for each section of text that is in my magazine. To do this, once again I used the same font, and this time I use full block colour text to make it easier to read. I then wrote the title to each section down underneath the page numbers. This created an easy to read format and completed the creation of my contents page.

This is my completed version of the double page spread. I have used several designs and techniques here to keep my magazine up to date with the genre styles of conventions of auto magazines.