Designing The Magazine- Shapes

Now that I have all the fonts and pictures I am going to need, I have started to place and position my text and images on the page of my front cover. However in order to make my front page more interesting and more like a real magazine, I have decided that I want to use different shapes in order to display information. Therefore the first thing I am going to do is create a simple banner, which I will fill in yellow as it is part of my oringinal colour scheme.

To do this I have used the rectangular tool. I have simply picked which shade of yellow I wanted and then I have drawn the retangle shape onto my page. As I want two of these banner shapes I will use the duplicate layer tool too create an identical shape, which I can place at the bottom as well as at the top of the page. I will resize my text so that it fits into the box I have drawn. I will also go to the drop down menu on the menu bar and I will select> arrange and bring to front so that my text is in front of my banner.

Image-word banner needed.

Here I have used the application Microsoft word to create the shape of a curling Banner. I have done this by clicking insert and choosing the shape I would like to create. I have then simply copied and pasted it into photoshop and have then used my magic eraser to get rid of the unecessary backgrond. I will now use the fill tool to turn the entire banner light blue. However because I have had to cut around the shape the actual edges of my banner are slightly blurred and out of focus, therefore to fix this problem I have decided to add a glow that will be placed around the banner shape.
I created the glow around my shape by simply selecting the outer glow option in the list of effects. I then picked a lighter blue shade so that it would contrast nicely with the banners overall color and I then changed the glows size and noise level. The idea being that my glow outline would be big and make the entire banner jump of the page because of the effect of the noise level.
The next shape I have decided to use is a cartoon explosion shape, as it maintains a fun entertaining theme, whilst still maintaining the slightly more sophisticated tastes of teenagers. In order to create this unique shape, I have used the "custom shapes" tool on the side tool bar. I have then selected the drop down shapes menu and have selected the expolsion shape. However I think perhaps there is too much yellow, therefore I have decided that I will create another explosion shape, however this one will be red and slightly smaller so that it can fit inside my yellow shape. I'm thinking that over the top of the red explosion I will have a piece of text that is short and will therefore draw the eye, something like "wow" or "win" and I will use white for this piece of text as it will contrast really nicely with the bright red and yellow background.

What i really love about this part of my magazine imparticular is the contrast of the three different colours and how well they compliment each other. I also think because my background colours are so eyecatching it makes my sub heading "win" stand out even more to my audience. However I have decided to put a black stroke effect on my text as it seperated it from simply blending in with my shape.

Laura