Step 1: The entire construction of the magazine took place on the Adobe software Photoshop CS6. It started out by first selecting the appropriate image for the cover.
Step 8: The last two features were the bar code and selling line. The selling line was in white and black to add balance to the overall look of the cover. These two weren't aligned as too much alignment sometimes looks excessively neat. As odd as that sounds it's quite often where magazines don't follow conventions.
Step 2: The image had to be cropped of course and turned into vertical form in order to be more 'cover-like'. And then slightly add some changes to it like increasing exposure and adding contrast to give it that magazine look.
Step 3: Now to start things off, the masthead needed to be added first. This is because all the other features (side stories, cover stories etc) were to be aligned accordingly to its placement.The choice green and white were chosen to emphasize on the 'patriotic factor' and encourage local holidays.
Step 4: The 'Mountains Edition' kicker was placed to signify the magazine issue. It shows the target audience, be it loyal readers or newly attracted ones that the magazine covers not only the mountainous regions but all over the country. However a small patch of snow in the background next to where the text was to be placed was just simply irritating and removed using the clone tool as it felt too stranded and unappealing.
Step 5: The cover story really had to stand out from the other elements of the cover. In order to achieve this an attractive color and distinctive font was needed. And further editing was done to the text using the blending options such as using the 'stroke' option to increase visibility and adding 'drop shadow' to give it a more 'popping' feel.
Step 6: The side stories needed to be in a plain, normal color with the task of not being to captivating immediately. To make sure the reader's first glance isn't upon them, they were placed on the right side as majority of readers naturally look at a cover from the left side first. They were placed over the crystal blue lake to be more conspicuous and apprehendable. The design of it was constructed similarly to the magazine cover analysis.
(Cover used for analysis below)
Step 7: By making the cover story orange and distinctive, a plug in orange was added to prevent it from looking random or arbitrary.
Step 8: The last two features were the bar code and selling line. The selling line was in white and black to add balance to the overall look of the cover. These two weren't aligned as too much alignment sometimes looks excessively neat. As odd as that sounds it's quite often where magazines don't follow conventions.
Step 9: The last step wasn't planned during the construction. After the cover was presumably over it was compared to the covers that were used for analysis. And something did see off. On the left edge of the covers were an area of information about the magazine such as email, website, contact number and so on. That's when i decided to include this in my magazine too to give it that professional feel.
End of construction
