Magazine Cover

* Intended for grades 9-12 *

Overview

We are going to learn how to make an influential, eye-catching magazine cover by analyzing and following the styles of well known magazines and understanding how the styles effectively communicate main ideas to the audience. The suggested magazines to recreate are: TIME Magazine or National Geographic, but you may also take the creative liberty to come up with your own magazine name. The general composition will remain the same for whichever magazine you choose, but students are responsible for coming up with their content and goals. This tutorial will guide you, but ultimately you must determine the most effective technique to convey your message.

Learning Objectives

By the end of this tutorial, you will be able to:

• Perform basic Photoshop techniques
• Identify what makes an image eye-catching and how to change the emotions behind it using color
• Determine proper placement of text in a visually appealing way, as well as effectively write a message
• Explain how these elements communicate with an audience

Standards for Technological and Engineering Literacy

Core Disciplinary Standards:

• Design in Technology & Engineering Education
• This fundamental standard is the vessel in which people communicate their ideas and resolve issues. Designs can be changed, such as the layout of a magazine cover, to achieve the goal of evoking an emotion or catching someone's eye.

Practices:

• Systems Thinking
• Technology is interconnected with other technology and our social and natural environments. By having students design a magazine cover, they must understand how to use computer technology to operate the necessary software. They also must comprehend how the use of technology gives them the tools to create an effective medium (the magazine) to portray messages to those around them. Popular messages used in this selected medium often focus on people (ex. TIME Magazine) and on nature (ex. National Geographic).
• Creativity
• Engineers and students alike need to be able to use their creativity to communicate effectively. Through the medium of designing a magazine cover on Photoshop, students will have a rough guide to follow, but ultimately must come up with their own message and image, and determine how to portray them. This is how students will use their creativity in this project.
• Critical Thinking
• The project is designed to make students think. They must use critical thinking skills to answer questions like: What message is important to me? How do I portray that message visually for people to be interested?
• Communication
• Magazines, just like many forms of media, emphasize the importance of communication. Good and intriguing stories are told with strong communication skills, and these can be visual (how you portray an image or guide the eye) and through words (the way you write).

Contexts:

• Information and Communication
• Using software to design and type up a message, people have the ability to share their thoughts and ideas digitally or through print. Mediums such as magazines are ways for students to practice the idea of how to get their ideas across effectively. Good communication follows concepts like: who is the intended audience? Students need to understand the basics of gathering information and how to communicate that information by answering questions about the message and determining how you can reach a group of people with this message (this will depend on location, culture, and other dynamics).

• Computer and mouse
• Adobe Photoshop (as part of Creative Cloud suite)
• $19.99/month for students & teachers for the first year
• Subject image
• For personal and learning purposes like today, choose an image you like from a source like Google Images. For professional use, you would be required to purchase the rights to an image or use a royalty-free stock photo.

Before we begin, it is important to know the importance behind magazine layout and photo composition. Communication is a very important skill taught in STEL, specifically as a practice and context. It is a designer's job to understand what needs to be communicated and critically think about how to communicate it visually, which is why we will focus on the subject, framing/layout, and goal of the magazine cover. Research some well known magazines. For today's purposes, I will be looking at TIME Magazine and National Geographic. What do you notice about these famous magazines?

• The Subject: It is very common for magazines to use one living subject for their cover. The photographs frame the subject, allowing for copy space (where you will put your text). The most noticeable covers are the ones that use a photo with contrasting colors and clear focal points. Your visual subject is the first message you will be communicating with your audience so it is important that it visually conveys what you want to tell your potential viewer. For human subjects, it is very common to capture the subject making eye contact with the camera. Pay attention to what emotion the photograph conveys: Are the colors bright or gloomy? What can we noticed about the subject (gender, location, age, culture, etc.) and what does that tell us about the purpose of the photo? If you can see the eyes, do they seem mysterious or happy or sad?
• Framing: Most effective layouts (particularly with images) follow the "rule of thirds". This rule divides images with three evenly spaced horizontal and vertical lines. The intersections of these lines are "focal points" that the human eye is naturally drawn to. It is wise to frame your main "focal point" of your subject using this rule.
• Layout: Different magazines will create their brand using different layout styles. TIME and NatGeo both use a colored border around their cover page to quickly inform the audience that this magazine belongs to them before the audience even reads the title. Most magazines will use a large, bold font for their title at the top of the page. To hook the reader and encourage them to buy the magazine, headlines with brief but intriguing descriptions will frame the image (usually the image is directly related to the headlining story).
• The Goal: Finally, identify the goal of the magazine cover. What story does the magazine want you to read based on the subject image and the wording of the headlines? Is it political, entertaining, informative, etc.? What does this tell you about the magazine's target audience?

• First, decide your subject: Who/what do you want to show your audience? Do you have a particular animal or person in mind? What can you write to go along with this image? Keep these thoughts in the back of your head as you select and download a high-quality JPG of your subject.
• Open Adobe Photoshop and use the indicated preset details for your document. Once the document opens, choose the following preferences:
• View > Show > Grid
• View > Snap
• Ensure that all options are checked off in the "Snap To" category below "Snap"
• Click and drag your JPG onto the new document.

The photo is what will grab the attention of a potential buyer first, which is why a designer must make it appealing to the eye and encourage the viewer to want to know more. As we researched earlier, the most noticeable covers have images that play with contrast and/or vibrant colors. The colors and drama of a magazine cover photo evoke emotions in viewers, so think about what you want your photo to convey: If it is a serious or negative topic, decrease the saturation. If the goal is to reference something positive or eye-catching, increase the saturation. Much more can go into the visual effects of the image and the emotion it conveys, such as playing with shadows, but for today's lesson, we will play with the saturation of the colors.

• Select your image in the Layers panel
• Image > Adjustments > Hue/Saturation

Practice using your creativity. Do not change the saturation too drastically or the image will appear unprofessional and unattractive. The art is in the subtlety.

Framing is an important step in communication. Effective framing will guide the eyes where you want them to go. This step is where the grid comes in handy. Create a border around the magazine (using a border is a stylistic choice by some magazine companies to be recognizable so people are more likely to pick up their magazine). TIME Magazine and National Geographic both follow this technique. If you wish to duplicate one of those magazines, follow this CMYK guideline:

TIME Magazine red- C:6 M:100 Y:100 K:1

National Geographic yellow- C:0 M:28 Y:96 K:0

To make the colored border, select the Rectangle Tool on the sidebar.

• The settings should be: No fill; red or yellow selected for the stroke
• Drag from one corner diagonally to the opposite
• Set stroke size to 140 px

To align your image with the rule of thirds:

• Select your image and change the size of your image. Leave space for your text, but make sure your image is big enough to catch attention;
• Edit > Transform > Scale
• Use the Move Tool on the sidebar to align the focal point (ideally, the eyes) with one of the intersections in the rule of thirds. Visualize the grid dividing the image according to the rule of thirds.

Clean up the look.

• Mask the photo in order to create the classic white edge between the outer border that we added and the image
• Select image > Rectangular Marquee Tool (on side panel) > Click and drag around the subject so that there are two units of grid surrounding your image on all sides > Add layer mask

Add your magazine title (TIME, National Geographic, or whatever you come up with)

• Center the title and put it at the top of the page.

Add your headline

• Write a brief title for your headline that is related to your subject and grabs your attention (can be a name or a phrase, for example). This is another opportunity to think critically and creatively about your message and how to convey it.
• Below, write one sentence describing the main topic of your "article". It should be enticing so the reader wants to buy the magazine. Use action verbs and buzz words (these are words that grab attention and relate to the topic) when possible.
• Optional: write the author below (you)

Align the headline to the left when it is placed on to the left of your subject or at the bottom of the cover. Align the headline to be centered when it is placed to the right of your subject or also at the bottom of the cover.

***If you choose the TIME Magazine or National Geographic magazines as your inspiration, I recommend using Times New Roman for the magazine title and headline title. For the headline body, use Cambria (bold only the subject name). Play with key colors with your text: White, black, and/or the TIME Magazine red or National Geographic yellow.

Bonus challenge: Hide the title behind your subject.

• Duplicate the layer of your subject and drag it above the magazine title only in the righthand layers panel
• Click brush tool, select the color black, and paint over the mask of your duplicated layer. Paint the black where you want the words to appear (frame the subject so the text does not appear in front of the image)

Ctrl or Command S (save) your photoshop document and name it accordingly.

Export the cover:

• File > Export > Export As > Format: JPG > Export
• See image for details

Write a brief (3-5 sentences) description of your magazine cover. Explain the following:

• What magazine you followed (or the magazine you made up)
• What subject you chose and what the story is about
• How your photo editing conveys the emotions of the story
• What element of your magazine cover do you believe is the most enticing for an audience and why?