L03: Creating Production Materials

Front Cover:

The front cover of a magazine is supposed to give connotations of the contents of the magazine through the design aspects. Considering that the genre of the 'Adventurer's Guide' magazine is Tabletop Role Play Games (TTRPG's) there are a lot of aspects that I can relate the designs to.

Asset 1 - Puffs

In order to instantly represent the theme of TTRPG's, I used the polygon shape tool to create a hexagonal shape for these puffs. In most TTRPG's, a hexagonal grid map is used to show the overall world that you are playing in, and as these puffs show the overall theme of the articles they are referring to, it seemed fitting.

The red and yellow colours were chosen to connote danger and treasure. The red colour connotes fire and risk which are very common themes in TTRPG's. The yellow colour represents treasure as it denotes the colour of gold.

Asset 2 - Special Content Puff

I wanted to create a puff that shows off any temporary content that is only available in the current issue of the magazine. I decided that the best way to do this would be with a puff that looked like a sticker that is peeling away as it give the connotation that the opportunity to gain access to the content is nearly gone. 

I created this shape using the circle tool, and then I copy and pasted on of the corners onto another layer and applied filters to it to change the angle of the shadow to make it look like it is peeling up.

Asset 3 - Name Banner:

I wanted to include a banner that states the name of the model on the main cover image, I didn't want it to be too intrusive, but I still wanted it to fit in with the theme of the rest of the assets. 

I decided on the shape of the end of a ribbon, so I created a red rectangle using the rectangle shape tool and an equilateral triangle, using the triangle shape tool, which I used as a marker to cut out the end of the rectangle. I then added a yellow stroke and reduced the opacity of the banner.

Contents Page

Asset 1 - Puffs

The puff shown to the right is mainly a copy of the one from the front cover. I have done this as these puffs refer to the main article of the magazine, and that article talks about a shop which would stock the 'Adventurer's Guide' magazine which could increase sales (and therefore readership and circulation too).

Throughout the planning and pre-production of this magazine I have tried to make the magazine appealing to beginners, and I wanted to solidify this by creating a puff that specifically talks about a players first session of Dungeons and Dragons. Furthermore, in order to make this section more appealing, I have used a picture of the player where he looks happy and calm.

Asset 2 - Grave Stone

With there being an article about 'Deaths of the month,' I wanted to create a graphic that teased this. 

To create this graphic, I used the shape tool to create a rectangle and a circle, positioned them together and flattened their layers. To get the grey colour, I applied a colour overlay.

I then created another rectangle which I coloured black and positioned underneath

I added the text using the text tool. After creating the text, I added some filters and effects.

Asset 3 - Page Numbers

The most well-known convention of TTRPG's are dice. I wanted to denote this through the way that I reference page numbers. To create these, I used the line tool to draw the shape of the dice, and then I added the appropriate number and edited the perspective of the numbers so that they looked like they were in-line with the side of the dice.

Double Page Spread

Asset 1 - Heading

To create this heading, I created a polygon using the shape tool, and adjusted it to the size of the page. I changed the colour of it to a dark blue, and then applied a yellow stroke.

Asset 2 - Patriot Games Puff

Creating this puff was mostly the same as creating the heading. I created an octagon using the shape tool and then sized it using the transform tool, and positioned it where I wanted it. I then imported the Patriot Games logo and used the magic wand tool to remove the white background. For the text, I simply typed it out and then positioned it into the octagon.

Asset 3 - Picture Puff

This asset was simple to make, I used the shape tool to create a square, and positioned the image inside. I removed any excess image using the rectangular marquee tool.

Asset 4 - Page Numbers

I created these page numbers in the same way that I did for the contents page; used the line tool to draw out the shape of the dice, Added the correct numbers and then changed the perspective and rotation in order to make the numbers look like they are on the side of the dice.