Contemporary Style - Designing Magazine Spread

Along with balancing my current job at Starbucks and working on a project at Whim Independent Studios, I also have been focusing on building a design portfolio.  I am still going back and forth between the idea of being an "Artist" and a "Designer" but until I sort out the specifics I have decided to keep giving myself projects, as if I had never finished school.

With my trusty selfie stick kit (don't laugh) I decided I would have my own little photo shoot because I loved my outfit that day.....and love taking pictures.  My outfit was modern, yet still fun and hipster-ish.  After editing some filters over it, the image reminded me of something I would see in a magazine.  Thus, the idea of a Magazine Mock-Up Spread come to mind.  I recorded a basic version of my process and the completed design down below:

 

Step 1: Prepare Photoshop File

Between InDesign and Photoshop, I decided to edit this on Photoshop since I knew this was mainly a concept and I was not going to actually need a final version.  However, for the future I would edit the images separately in Photoshop, then once I have all my pieces, I would set up the layout in InDesign.

I created a new document in Photoshop and set the dimensions for two 8 by 11 inch pages.

Step 2: Import Images for Editing

On the document I created layers (and folders for organization), then imported the images and placed them in their locations.  For the image of the model I copied the picture so I would have two of the same image.  On one of them I erased everything in the background except the shadow, and the second one I erased everything in the background including the shadow.  By doing this, the layer with image that included the shadow was underneath the image without the shadow, and I could change the opacity of the one layer without affecting the other layer.

Below is the original image:

Below is the design with two layers of the model with the outfit.  The layer on top is of just the person (with erased background), the layer underneath is the one with the person (with erased background, including shadow).  I used a magenta square while editing so I could better view the edits.

 

Step 3: Text and Font

For this part, I created text layers for "Contemporary" and "Style" titles.  Then I created the text layer of the main article.  I typed the article on Microsoft Word so that I could use spell check and edit any grammar errors.  Afterward, I copied and pasted the article on that text layer.  Lastly, I edited the font and font size . . . however that could be a whole other blog since I realized I did a lot of explaining on just editing the image.

Step 4: Review

This is only a mock up because on the final version I would have the pages actually separated and possibly a white border framing the page to keep the edges clean.  Also, I would have used InDesign for the laying out part.  Not only do I have this main post about creating the piece, but I also wrote a short article about the actual outfit and the inspiration for it.  So, that's like an extra piece of reading!

Please let me know your feedback, and questions, or suggestions for a project! Thank you!  Be creative! 

Photoshop GIF Just Because

So while taking a break from work I decided to play around on Photoshop with some images I recently shot with my handy-dandy selfie stick kit.  I was clicking the visibility option of the images I placed on Photoshop and realized it looked like I was moving.

And the GIF was born!