Magazine Cover: Part 2: My Creative Process

After having done my research, I began work on learning the basics of using programs like Photoshop and InDesign using YouTube and in-person resources offered by my teacher. While I worked on developing a solid grasp of these programs, I began the planning process, using what I had learned from analyzing Popular Science magazine and class presentations to guide my creative decisions.

You can see on reading these that there are a few things I decided to change with regards to the cover. I ended up choosing not to place a QR code as it would add clutter that is unconventional of the magazine I studied. I also decided to place the anchorage on the top of the page, above the title, versus on the sides. This was done because the anchorage would not have gone well with the image I had selected. I also personally preferred that the image be left unobstructed, which is also sometimes characteristic of the magazine I studied.

I wanted to brand my magazine to a slightly younger age range than Popular Science. In thinking about this and my experience as a young person with what I like and what my friends prefer, I decided to use fonts and a design motifs that were closer to what I am familiar with. The use of Proxima Nova, Open Sans, and Consolas, along with a more emphasized minimalism than Popular Science's aesthetic, was thus wholly intentional. In this regard, I was less afraid to bend those techniques and conventions that I learned about, as I understood that my magazine audience would be fundamentally different in reality than Popular Science's. I hope that this pulls off a unique sense of modern, "student-run" media. Seeing how I could develop this through building my pages in InDesign was very new and exciting to me.

It took a few hours to build my final pages. A lot of time was spent in trial and error, cross-referencing YouTube tutorials, and taking notes before I could achieve very much. However, I was able to finish everything by schedule, which is very satisfying given what I feel have been good results.