My First Time Creating A Magazine Cover

Recently, I was assigned to create a custom magazine cover using an original photo, and in this blog post, I'll walk you through my experience creating it.

Here is the magazine cover I created.

In the process of creating my magazine cover, I learned about the basic contents of a magazine such as the masthead, coverlines, and placement so my cover looks organized. This helped me learn about the careful planning that goes into creating a good looking cover.

For this magazine, I chose the entertainment genre due to my cover being based on a theme park and upcoming Universal projects. To properly show off this genre, I used elements like bold wordings, bright colors, easy-to-read fonts, and an image of the park itself. The additional coverlines grab the reader's attention by mentioning behind-the-scenes looks, exclusive news, and early reactions, which are typically seen in a magazine of this genre.

The conventions required for this project were an original masthead, cover image, feature article coverline, 3 additional coverlines, a banner/strip, a puff/plug, barcode, and dateline. By using these conventions, it makes my cover interesting and neat.

I experienced many issues when creating this cover, some of which include making sure my text did not disappear behind the main image, choosing the correct font, and picking a color that is easily readable. My main takeaway with this project is that creating a magazine cover is a very careful process and in order to make an appealing cover, there must be careful consideration in your design choices. 

From this experience, it will help me with my next portfolio because I know how to make my designs more neat and easily readable.