Design ideas and design process:

For my Photoshop debut, I wanted to start with a simple but eye-catching design that would attract my self-appointed target demographic of people under 25. I experimented with the effect that overlapping colours and opacity and it resulted in a blended watercolour effect. For the text I used opposing featured colours to add harmony to the division.

I created a more experimental background for my second design with the use of a textured paper background with a more colourful layer overlapping it. The layer on top has been blended so that the images seem merged. I used a pen graphic and created a silhouette with colour overlay- to emphasise the title I added the bevel and emboss effect.

For my favourite design, I aimed for an image without text that still clearly showed the brief. I created the platform for the centrepiece by collaging paper graphics. The centrepiece began as a radio microphone that I manipulated with layer masking to replace with a pencil head and emphasise that design is being discussed. Finer details involved more layer masking to give the effect that the microphone soundwaves were bursting out of the cover despite the layer being placed behind the collage (the stand isn’t fully visible). The background is red as that is often related to news, with a gradient to make it less harsh.

Software tutorials:

The tutorials that were suggested/found primarily aided me with layer masking and text effects. My inexperience meant I did not seek particularly experimental techniques as my primary goals were to learn and refine the basics. The Adobe site contains more concise tutorials than what I could find on LinkedIn Learning, which contained more detailed introductions.