I turned the original cover (below) into the cover to the left.

The design brief was to choose a magazine that I believed I could effectively re-design. Elements of the cover had to be changed, such as masthead, teaser copy, gimmicks and colour scheme. The completed cover was to be visually interesting, saleable, reflect the magazines content and be in tune with the magazines demographic. The programs to be used were Adobe Illustrator and Adobe Photoshop.

After quite some extensive research, I formulated the general direction I wished my design to develop in. I spent a lot of time looking at a variety of potentially useful images, and looked at contemporary magazines to further aid my decision-making. Having come up with a basic design that I felt was unique, understandable and practical, I decided on a colour scheme and created the actual images to be used on the cover. I then re-evaluated my layout and made some changes to maximise the cover’s visual appeal.

The first stage of my work was re-designing the masthead. The original magazine had a simple bold font proclaiming “Enterprise”. Plain, overly simple and not at all eye-catching. After sorting through my ideas I hit upon the perfect design – I would use the Enterprise ship itself as my basis. I saw that, should you look at the Enterprise ship from the top, you could make out an “e” from its hind sections. The next logical step is to have the rest of the word in the ship’s wake, bold against a gentle gradient trail. Not only is the final product bold and eye-catching, but also there is no other masthead like it in existence.

I chose light, metallic blue and black as my colour scheme cheifly because of their smooth appearance together. They are a very appropriate combination for a Science Fiction magazine, and also suit the subject matter of Leonard Nimoy very well, as he is a sedate and quiet person. Had, for example, I been putting William Shatner, a far more brash and dynamic personality, on the cover I would have turned to something more overtly passionate, such as red.

The collage component was made on Photoshop. I looked through my extensively comprehensive collection of Leonard Nimoy images, and chose the four most recent and highest quality ones I had. The reason I had four was that any more and the cover would have been over crowded, any less and it looked too sparse. I lightly tinted the pictures to fit with the colour scheme, and compiled them in a relatively simple and effective manner. I was sure to select pictures facing in different directions – had they all been front-on profile shots, the collage would become too repetitive.

The drawn art component began as a sketch and was inked and coloured on Photoshop. I chose to remain an element of the original cover in that the picture of Spock was based upon the main photo of the magazine. His mildly polite expression fit perfectly with the happy event the magazine was covering. Rendering the image took an extended amount of time, ensuring the finished product was perfect. My choice to include art on the cover was a firm artistic and design one, stemming from much consideration. Art, when drawn well and included effectively, serves to separate the magazine cover from its peers. Every magazine on the shelf has a photo, and whilst this is commonly a sound design choice, it can be highly beneficial to break the norm.

Having completed my two feature images, I compiled them on Adobe Illustrator. I read the magazine thoroughly before carefully wording my teaser copy, to ensure that they were both dynamic and reflected the content of the magazine. The “Special Leonard Nimoy Issue” is highlighted above all else, as it is the dominant theme of the magazine. I chose “Impact” as my main font because it is clean, regular, sans-serif and slightly uncommon. Teaser copy placement was experimented with, as was the colours used, until they fit perfectly with the visuals of the magazine.

Some final adjustments, such as the addition of curves and changing the shape of “Exclusive! Mark Leonard interview Sarek Tells All” gimmick background, were then made. These minor alterations completed the professional look and visual appeal of the cover.

I have taken the old “Enterprise” magazine cover and transformed it into a contemporary and unique cover. The masthead, teaser copy, gimmicks and base images have been changed to fit a new era of magazines and suit a new demographic. The finished fits, even exceeds, all expectations you could possibly have.

SELF EVALUATION

First things first – I’ve decided I don’t like the school computers very much anymore. Right in the middle of my project they decided to put all manner of obstructions in my way, until it got to the point where I had to re-do hours of work. Most of the problems stemmed from the large size of my two image files. I was forced to cut down the quality of the side collage so that the computers would cooperate in making the cover, so alas the final version will be of slightly lower quality than was possible.

In this project I heeded the advice of “More research, more planning”. It certainly produced different results to my usual “Attack it!” method of work, but I am unsure weather the extra hours taken produced a higher quality result. I did enjoy looking into the history of Sci Fi magazines, and it was great to feel that reading the latest issue of Doctor Who Magazine was homework. The thumbnail sketches weren’t as enjoyable, and I’m hoping that I ran through a sufficient amount of ideas.I’m quite happy with the finished result, though it didn’t turn out how I had originally envisaged. I think that I worked well, and am proud that I finished the project on time despite computer troubles and illness.

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