Front page construction

Front page construction
I began my production by choosing an image and then deciding what I wanted to do with it and what tools to use. This is my original image. I dropped this into photo shop and decided to use the quick selection tool. 

After I quick selected it I then dragged it into a separate photo shop file and began refining the photo in order to get rid of bits that had stayed on the image during the quick selection. I did this by enlarging it and then using the eraser tool.
After this was erased I then began to build my front cover around my image.

I then had to decide then what background colour I wanted to use as this then decided every other colour that I would use. This is my image after it was edited and then I began my background creation. I First of all drew a box around the background and made this box the background
Then I decided a filter colour, the colour I decided was a black/silver textured colour in order to give a metallic effect that I have seen in Vibe magazine on their front covers. I then selected the gradient tool
and dragged the line across the page in order to gradient the whole page and add the effect.

Font
I then researched my fonts and found my font on dafont and after this I decided to use hand typography and after looking through many colours I decided to use a gold colour in order to contrast but also link to the silver metallic background. I then had to decided on an area of the page to place the front cover and after reviewing many different angles I decided to place it just behind the head of the head of the character with a slightly faded effect.
I then had to work on my font and text positioning in order to ensure that my magazine is not to cluttered and also not too bare with too much wasted space.

This is an example of my text placing, with this section I spent a lot of time trying to discover where to put the large 99. After rather a lot of trial and error I decided to place it just above the artists shoulder as it fits in rather nicely and also leaves space to the right of it for the text, I wanted the number to be the same size as the three words 'Big indie hits" and so it fits together rather well and allows me to maximize my space. 

I then had to add several finishing touches in order to make the magazine resemble a professional magazine, these features were the two code stickers. My first code was the barcode, I placed this in the bottom right hand side of the page, After trying several different positions I decided that this was the best place to put this and by rotating it I was able to fit it into the space I had made with my image and so it allowed me to place it in without wasting space and losing content on my front page which is a connotation of all successful music magazines.

My second code was the competition barcode, this code is placed in the bottom left hand corner and I have sized it in order.