A. First things first. Pick a striking image as the non-text focal point. In this case, it’s a full color photograph of a seemingly dead or unconscious woman.

B. Another non text element. The silouhette of a person standing over the seemingly dead or unconscious woman. This element was hand drawn and not a photograph.

C. The magazine/document title, “Lady Killers”.
This should be captivating and be the most important text object on the page.
This is obviously hand drawn, most likely with a pencil.
To achieve this, try a couple different pencils other than a standard #2 to determine what works best for you.
A good “cheat” would be to typeset the font that you want and print it on a white piece of paper with a 5% or 10% grayscale fill or a very thin stroke with no fill.
Scribble in the shapes of the letters to achieve the desired effect.
When you’re happy with the piece, scan it, then adjust the contrast and black/white levels of the scanned image in photoshop.
Also, take notice that the words “Lady” and “Killers” are separated by a small image of a syringe.

D. A small yellow banner across the top left corner with some text information.

E. Small upper-case/lower-case text above the secondary text object focal point.

F. Larger upper-case text object with an exclamation point for emphasis.

G. Morbid, eye-catching headlines, which describe the contents of the magazine, left justified and separated by white bullet-points.

H. Very small informational text object for the magazine’s cover price, not meant as a focal point.

Some other observations..
Only one font was used, aside from the custom lettering for the magazine’s title. I strongly recommend sticking to only one or 2 fonts when creating a page layout.
However, I can’t pick out this font. It’s not Helvetica or Arial, but I like it a lot.
The best way to identify a font that looks similar to others is by comparing the upper-case “R”s and I cant pick this one out right now.
Another observation.. Although the graphic includes a full color photograph, the colors are still very minimal. White and Golden Yellow are the only colors used in the text objects.
I also recommend keeping the text colors in most layouts to a minimum.
Thanks for reading.
Jasper

Graphic design. Playing and writing music. Podcasting. Woodworking/Building. Decorating/Organizing. Cooking. Business/Marketing projects and now, blogging/writing.

I’ve learned that when some things in my life are not properly aligned and there are no tangible consequences, I lose my motivation and inspiration to continue producing consistent work.

I feel super motivated this week because I created a gig poster for a band that I love and support, The Dollyrots. The poster is for their new record’s release party in Los Angeles, the city where they are based.

As a person who used to be in a band with a record, I’ll say that a record release show in your hometown is one of the more important and sentimental shows that you will ever play. You might get more gigs playing in front of a larger crowd or opening for your favorite band, but at a record release party in your hometown, all of your friends/fans show up and to hang out and appreciate the music that you spent hours and days and weeks writing and recording, not to mention the time that goes into package design and other things.

The graphic for the gig poster was mainly created to commemorate the event and hang onto as a keepsake for the fans, but more importantly the bands that played. I’ll post the image later.

As the designer, if I dont complete the job on time or give the band something they would be happy to share and admire for years after the event, I feel like I would have struck out in a big way and that would be my consequence.

Working on this project this week has both inspired me and motivated me to continue to produce creative work more regularly on some level whether there are consequences or not.

Whether it be something like a graphic design project or something as simple as attempting a new recipe or reorganizing the garage, I need to stay motivated and inspired to continue doing these things. I also need to stay aware of what inspires me, what motivates me and if I do not produce… what are the consequences?

If you share some of my personality traits, you should also continue to ask yourself these things…

What motivates you? What inspires you? Will you have consequences if you do not produce?

Make a list if necessary.

Thanks for reading.
Jasper.