After completing my final photoshoot, I was ready to start designing two magazine cover drafts. I used Adobe InDesign to create my cover drafts, a software for producing multi-page documents (such as magazines). I’ve never used this software before, yet I became familiar with its features through trial and error and watching online tutorials. Before creating my cover drafts, I referred to my magazine cover sketch (January 28) to prompt my ideas. I also considered ways to incorporate and challenge conventions in the Cooking, Food, and Beverage genre.
Planning:
I first created my magazine’s cover drafts on Google Slides, a crucial step as it allowed me to plan and lay out my ideas on a platform I am familiar with (I use it regularly). In doing so, I also saved myself time and experimented with fonts that InDesign doesn’t offer. The left image below shows my first cover image draft and the right image shows my second cover image draft on Google Slides.
Transferring Drafts to InDesign
Draft 1:
After opening an 8.5 x 11 inch file (the dimensions of a standard magazine) in InDesign, I added my main image (image 1), my masthead (image 2), and my barcode, dateline, and price. Before adding my main image, I needed to make its background transparent; I used the Quick Selection tool in Photoshop to do this process. To create the look I intended, I cropped my main image and moved it to the right side of the page. Cropping my cover image would organize my text onto one side of my magazine (making it neater) and create a better balance between my visuals and text. I then inserted my masthead and placed it at the top center of the page, leaving room for my skyline. As for my barcode, I customized it through an online ISSN barcode generator before inserting it onto my page (image 3). National Oreo Cookie Day (the inspiration for my magazine’s double-page spread) takes place in March, hence the dateline of my magazine. I located my barcode along with my dateline and price at the bottom left corner of the page to not distract from my content. I added a light pink rectangle under my dateline to add more color and a white rectangle under my magazine’s price and barcode to stand more clearly against the background. I used fonts in my magazine’s cover page that weren't available on InDesign, except for PT Sans Narrow (which I used for my skyline, the text below my masthead, most of my cover lines, my dateline, and my price). I had to download them onto FontBook to use them; image four shows my desktop of the fonts I downloaded. To recreate the interpunct in my skyline, I used the Glyphs feature on InDesign to add a “Bullet” in the PT Sans Narrow Bold Font (image 5). The image after shows me editing a polygon I created into a star to act as a bullet point for one of my cover lines; unlike Google Slides, InDesign doesn't have many premade tools, so I had to manually edit the number of sides of the polygon and the star insect to create the star. The following image is of me adding a surface—a photo of a tile in my house—to the page and layering it behind the other elements of my magazine cover. The original image of the surface was too dark, so I edited it on my phone by increasing the exposure, brilliance, and black point and slightly decreasing the contrast; by making these changes, the tile appeared whiter (image 7). I also added a light gray horizontal line above the surface to separate it from the light gray background (image 8). I also wanted to emphasize certain words in my magazine to attract my audience’s attention, which I accomplished through buzzwords. To make these words stand out from the rest of my content, I changed the color of these words to hot pink, one of the colors in my magazine’s color palette (image 9). To change the background color of my cover, I added a rectangle that fits the page and used the Eyedropper tool to find a color from the surface image that would match (image 10). The last step I took to design my first cover draft was to add a curved caption beside my main image; I watched an online tutorial to complete this step. After watching a video, I learned that I had to do the following to reach my intention: insert a circle using the Ellipse tool, change the fill and stroke color to “None,” use the Type on a Path Tool to add text around the shape, flip the text, and adjust where on the circle I want the text to be. The curved text didn't take up much space, flowed well with the circular plate (making it less distracting), and added diversity by varying from the horizontal text (image 11).
I achieved my goals for my first cover image draft since the version I created on InDesign matched my plan on Google Slides. It also met my overall goals by creating a neat, colorful magazine with persuasive text (such as buzzwords) that can attract my target audience of amateurs. I became more knowledgeable about using InDesign, which I applied when creating my second cover draft.
Draft 2:
I created my second magazine cover draft by first duplicating my first cover draft and then editing it; duplicating it would give me a baseline for my second cover draft, as I didn’t have to re-type the content and re-add the similarities between the two covers. After duplicating my first cover draft, I downloaded each font I needed through Google Fonts since none were available on InDesign (image 1). I then added a hot pink rectangle using the Rectangle tool (image 2); I wanted to experiment with a skyline that had a background. Although image three shows me only changing the font of “How-To” in one of my cover lines to the Kalam font, I changed most of the fonts in my second cover line. Image four is of me changing the background color to light pink instead of light gray, as I wanted to see what color my cover looks better in. I then scaled down my main image and moved it uncropped to the center of the page (image 5). Considering the cheesecake is a large part of my magazine (it is the focus of my double-page spread), I wanted to see if it looked better when the whole image was on the page. With the layout of my second cover draft, I wasn’t sure where to put my main cover line. Since there wasn’t much space, I tried placing it over the cake stand. I initially thought this wouldn’t look neat, the words wouldn’t appear clearly, and it would take away from the main image. However, this wasn’t the case after changing the color of the main cover line to white (image six). Despite my initial thoughts, I liked the format. Once I made the edits I wanted, I noticed at the bottom of the screen that my page had “errors.” In other words, my page had missing fonts and overset text, which I immediately changed (image 7). Like my first cover draft, my second cover draft met my expectations from my plan, and I am pleased with my result.
Final Product of Cover Drafts
First Draft (left) and Second Draft (right):
Of my two magazine cover draft options, I liked the first one the best. The light pink background and the hot pink rectangle under the skyline in my second cover draft are slightly distracting, while the light gray background in my first cover matches more with the light gray surface. The text in the first cover draft is also neater, as they are all located together on one side of the magazine, making it easier to read. I also like the fonts better, as they are more formal and suitable in that context (they make the content easier to read).
Using and Challenging Conventions:
My magazine cover uses conventions in the Cooking, Food, and Beverage genre since my masthead is the largest text on the page, stands out due to the color gradient, and corresponds to my color palette. The barcode and price are at the corner of the page, there are buzzwords to engage my audience, and my cover image is large and of food. On the other hand, my magazine cover challenges conventions since my cover image is cropped and isn’t an overhead shot like most Cooking, Food, and Beverage magazines. My magazine’s masthead challenges conventions since it has an exclamation mark (most magazine mastheads don’t have punctuation), is longer than most magazines and is in two lines (rather than one continuous line). It also has a color gradient, unlike most magazines in this genre which are one solid color. Whereas most magazines have few cover lines, my magazine cover has a large amount of text.
I met my goals when creating my two magazine cover drafts since my plan resembled the final products. Planning on Google Slides was a successful idea since it allowed me to organize my thoughts easier than if I only used InDesign, a software I'm unfamiliar with. With time, practice, and video tutorials, I understood how to navigate and create in InDesign. I also became more aware of how my magazines use and challenge conventions in the Cooking, Food, and Beverage genre while designing them.
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