Cover Mockups

After doing extensive research, it is now the time to construct a mockup design of the cover. In this process I made two different designs based off of my layout, color, and font research. For both mockups, I used Canva for the whole process.

Mockup #1 -

For this mockup, I decided to follow layout 1 that I drafted in the previous post.

Main Image and Background

The first thing I did was edit the main image in Canva in order to remove its background. Then, I aligned the main image to the right, but so it would not completely touch the bottom. After that, I decided to change the background color to correspond with the main image.  In this case, since there was a green color in the image, I chose purple since the two colors are complementary to each other. By doing this, I was able to find the color scheme for the cover, which would then lead on to the rest of the magazine.

This follows the tech conventions because it has color contrast between the blue and the purple, and the main image is a computer, which is featured very often in tech magazines.

Masthead

When it came time for making the masthead, I searched for sans serif fonts online until I came across Mont Bold, the font I decided to use for my cover. I positioned the masthead in a generic position at the top. I then tried changing its color to green to use the same color combination that the purple background and green image were following.

Sans serifs fonts are always in tech magazines for a modernistic feel, which is why this was implemented in my cover. The masthead position is also very typical in tech magazines as it is very simple for the reader and is straight to the point.

Headline, cover lines, and bar code

When making the headline, I simply positioned it on the left of the main image. I originally had the same color as the masthead and the same font. I then realized that it does like look pleasing to only have purple and green on the cover, so I decided to change the headline color to white, which ended with success. I also needed to increase the letter size for increased readability, so Once that was done, I put small bullet points underneath the headline as I have seen this design on other renowned magazines, and it caught my eye. For the bullet points, there was just basic information in order to hook the reader into being interested. I also made them the same green color as the masthead and made them the same font as the headline and masthead, but not bold.

In order to add the cover lines and the bar code, I added three small boxes that consist of just lines at the bottom of the cover. Finally, when it came time to actually put the cover lines into the cover line boxes, I made a simple title, added an image, and put filler text in. When adding images for both the main image and the cover lines I used Canva to remove the background with the ¨Background Remover"feature when editing an image. I decided to make the cover line titles white, just like the headline, and the cover line text green, just like the headline's bullet points.

The reason these new additions to the cover are very generic among tech magazines. The headline position is implemented very often, however the bullet points are not as common which can promote uniqueness. The cover lines are in a widely used spot, but the boxes that they are in and the images that are included are not as popular, which can also promote uniqueness.

Mockup #2 -

For this mockup, I followed layout 5 from the previous post.

Main Image and Background

For this main image, it was going to be a lot more difficult. I had to include a mixture of several images to make up my main image. Since there were multiple main images, figuring out the color scheme from the images would not work very well, so I decided to start with one color and base everything else on it. 

To begin with, I decided to make circles that I will later put around each one of the images. I figured that making the circles red would look appealing. I made each circle go in a diagonal line from left to right, with them all varying in size. In order to get the images themselves, I put seven images into Canva's photo editor and removed the background. Once that was done, I then put the images into the circles. I tilted each image slightly to the left and to the right to increase the level of excitement and prevent the reader from feeling bored. The images I used were just random pieces of technology I found around my house, such as headphones, a keyboard, and a video game controller. Once I finished putting the images in, it was then time to make the background color.

For the background, I simply used a complementary color combination again in order to get a light blue color.

Overall, the main image and background follow the conventions of tech magazines by being different. The main image concept is very unique and is not found on many magazines. Many of the greatest tech magazines always attempt to achieve individuality in their covers, which makes this cover specifically stand out.

Masthead

For the masthead, I simply positioned it at the top with Mont Bold as its font, just like the masthead in mockup #1. I also made it the same red as the red in the main image. This is so it can contrast against the light blue.

Headline, cover lines, and bar code

For the headline, I simply made it white, just like I did in mockup #1. The reason for this is because I figured that if I made it red to continue the color combination, it would not look good, so the only other color that fits in is white. Additionally, I positioned it right above the main image since the main image will be the center of attention and the reader will start reading the headline after they see the main image. As for the font, the headline was put in the same Mont Bold font as the masthead.

The cover lines and bar code were kept in the exact same format as they were in mockup #1. The only change that was made is that the color of the letters are all white, for the same reason that the headline is white.

The use of the headline and cover lines in this mockup keep things simple and straight to the point for readers. By doing this, the mockup contains elements that are shared among tech magazines.

Conclusion -

When both mockups finished, I was impressed on how they appeared. Using the color wheel to find color combinations worked very well. It also was very easier to cut out the background of the images because of the user friendly features Canva features. The most difficult part of this process was putting the images together for mockup #2. This is because there were so many of them that I had to position effectively all while I had to perfect the size of both the images and the circle. Both these mockups follow the conventions of tech magazines very well by showing a great amount of individuality. The mockups both have unique features such as colors and main images that are not found in just any magazine. A simple feature that has great impact is the font. The font of both mockups are in the sans serif typeface, which is a must for tech magazines in order to seem modern. In the future, I will be making changes on my images. Although all of the images are very relevant and have good quality, I was starting to run out of options for images in mockup #2, which is obviously because a total of nine images need to be used. I will attempt to produce more images until the time comes for the final cover.