Our first unit in Web Design was on Adobe Photoshop. In this unit, we learned how to use Photoshop in order to edit photos for our websites. However, we also learned how to use Photoshop for general uses, not just for the web. In order to showcase our skills, our final project for this unit was to recreate a magazine cover with us on the cover. I picked a rather complex Wired magazine cover with the founder of the 3D printing company Makerbot on the cover.
There were a couple of challenges in re-creating this magazine cover. The first challenge was actually the first piece of the cover that I replicated, the top line which says “The Maker Issue.” Finding the right font and color was a tedious process of guess and check. The color was the easier bit; it was just a matter of using the color sample tool and playing with the exact hue that was needed. The font, on the other hand, was a real challenge. It wasn’t just about finding the right lettering style but also about playing around with the lettering width, height, and spacing until they were just right. Finally, I got everything to look correct, and I could move onto the next step of the recreation.
The next challenge was making the lettering for “These Makers will Change the World.” There was no font in Photoshop that had the 45º cut offs that I needed for the lettering. What I ended up doing was using virtual rulers to measure out exactly where the text needed to go. Luckily the font was the same font that I used for the header. I edited the character spacing until it fit within the rulers and looked right. Then I rasterized the text. Text is usually what is called a vector element. That means that Photoshop does not measure it by the area of the screen it occupies, instead it measures it by distance between the corners. By rasterizing the text, I converted it from that vector measurement system to pixel measurements. That allowed me to take a one-pixel eraser tool and achieve that cut corner effect of the original magazine.
The last big challenge of this project was to get it to appear as though I was holding a 3D printer. I knew when I started this project that I wanted to be holding an Ultimaker 2 Extended. It is the top consumer printer on the market right now, so it seemed appropriate to put it on my recreation. Unfortunately, I did not have access to an Ultimaker to hold for the picture, so I had to get creative as to how to pull this effect off. I had to use a bit of Photoshop magic. I had a picture of me with my hands out as though they were holding something, and I had a picture of an Ultimaker. First, I took my finger tips and put them on separate layers. This allowed me to import the picture of the Ultimaker and slot it in between myself and my fingers to make it look as though I am holding the printer.
