Magazine Cover Conventions Blog Reflection

Learning Process:

  Learning magazine conventions was easier than I expected. Initially, I saw a magazine as a complex thing and could never imagine myself making one until now. On the contrary, I enjoyed learning the different conventions, my favorite being the cover image and how celebrities are incorporated on the cover. What I didn’t like was using InDesign and designing my magazine cover.

Magazine Explanation:

  My magazine is called *America Daily*, where they talk about news happening in the United States. For my cover image, I used myself holding two American flags to celebrate the 4th of July, which my cover is based on. I used puffs and banners with a red, white, and blue pattern to represent the United States. Moreover, I made the masthead different colors representing the U.S. to show that the magazine focuses only on U.S. news.

Challenges/Successes:

 The main challenge I faced was learning how to use InDesign. I’m currently still confused about how to use all its functions, and it was difficult for me to convey my idea because I didn’t properly learn the app. Furthermore, using the effects InDesign provides was hard because I didn’t know their purpose. Overall, this was the biggest challenge I faced, but I was still able to make the cover, and I’m content with how it turned out.

  A success I had was learning how to change text color and fonts to better express and design my cover. I also learned how to integrate puffs and adjust their color and opacity, making it easier to blend the text with the background. All in all, this was the success I had while making my cover.

Main Take Away:

  In conclusion, I learned how complicated yet creative making a magazine cover can be. Although this experience was valuable, it made me not want to do a magazine for my portfolio project. It was stressful but very rewarding to finish the cover, even though I barely learned how to use InDesign. However, I learned that less is more; by only using what I knew, I created something I love, even if it’s not my best work. Being able to edit certain images in InDesign could be very helpful for future scenes or edits in my portfolio project.