Design Skills 1

Completing my front cover and beginning my double page spread for my own music magazine has taught me a lot about design and production. These skills have helped the indie genre to effectively come through in what I currently have of my magazine. New skills that I have learnt in Photoshop to make my images look better and more suit the indie genre include:

  • Using the clone tool to erase imperfections in my image for example I erased spots on my cover star to make the star appear more spectacular and without flaws to add to his meta-narrative as a star.

Image result for clone tool photoshop

  • Using levels to change the saturation and hue of my image for example I changed the saturation of the image of my cover star to add a retro and vintage feel which is a convention of the indie genre.

See the source image

  • Using sharpen/blur tool to make the main focus of my image stand out for example I sharpened my cover star so that he stood out from his background to make him appear more lively and real and present for his audience.

  • Using crop to get rid of distractions on the edge of the image for example I cropped the image of my cover star so that the image was mainly my cover star and not the pink background making him seem important and worth of taking up space on the cover. This adds to his meta-narrative and makes him seem special and spectacular.                                             See the source image

I have also learnt how to use InDesign in order to make my magazine. Specific skills that I have used include:

  • Creating boxes of different shapes and sizes for example in my double page spread I created a unique box shape for a quote to go in to make my dps unique and funky which is a convention of the indie genre. Also I have used boxes when placing my images so that my images are the correct size on the page.

  • Adding text and changing typefaces, size, stroke and colour for example for my masthead I chose the font Orator standard to fit with the indie genre as it is bold and used a black font. However to contrast my cover star’s name is white with a black stroke to give a retro feel

 

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