For this project, I decided to make a magazine advertisement to portray the different aspects in the equestrian world. My topic is centered around how horseback riding is more than a sport, it is what happens behind the scenes that made such an impact in my life. This project relates to my topic because it is essentially advertising the key components of the equestrian world. The magazine ad features “Horse & Rider Bond”, “Riding Trills n’ Spills”, and “Jump into 2018 Fall Equestrian style”. Aside from googling “magazine advertisements on photoshop” and looking at images, I found a helpful website, https://www.creativebloq.com/graphic-design-tips/photoshop-tutorials-1232677 i This website had at least 50 tutorials on how to do a variety of different things. I mainly used the tutorial explaining color balance more in depth. The most helpful tool for me to use was the tutorials from last week. I went back to re-watch how to cut images out and adjust hue and saturation. There is a lot of significance in the images I chose to use, and what I used them for in my project. The most significant photo is the cropped photo that is attached to “Horse & Rider Bond”. I took this picture of my sister about 5 years ago. I always admired Sydney’s love for animals and her bond with her horse. She is the person who got me into riding horses and showed me the importance of having a relationship with your horse. The other image used for “Jump into 2018 Fall Equestrian styles” is of one of the first horses I fell in love with and tried to buy. Unfortunately, she had an issue with her back leg and we couldn’t get her. The photo is more sentimental but tied to a big part of the equestrian world…style. The two pictures used for “Riding Thrills n’ Spills” were just fun pictures I took of people almost falling off at horse shows to present the humorous side of horseback riding. My design process took me awhile until I figured out exactly what I wanted to do. I flip flopped between making a graphic and a magazine advertisement. The graphic was too hard for a photoshop beginner like me, at least too hard to make it look decent. So, I decided to stick with a magazine advertisement because I could construct more of a layout for my images and what I wanted to use. I edited each image with hue and saturation as well as brightness and contrast. For the cut-out images, I used the magnetic lasso tool and the magic wand. Then when it came to design, I chose a title “Equestrian 101: Behind the Scenes” then made sure I had all key/required materials on photoshop and designed them in a way that looked decluttered and organized (in my opinion). Collecting my images for the project was super easy. During my freshman and sophomore year of high school, I created a photography page on Facebook of all the pictures I took at horse shows. When I need an image for this class, I just sift through my pictures and choose the best ones. The technical challenges I encountered were mostly user error and frustration. Mostly the magnetic lasso tool and having trouble getting my cut-out the way I wanted it to be. My solution and advice is to watch the cut-out tutorial again and redo my cut-out zoomed in more and slower so I didn’t have to make any adjustments.
Graphic Design Draft
Logan Goetz 
Hey Logan, first of all, great work! Love the pictures, and your photoshop cutting with the lasso tool actually looks pretty clean! The color scheme is great! The white, and teal text look great over the grey background. My only critique would be to try to tie everything together? Right now it just doesn’t feel like a magazine cover in the sense that not everything is cohesive. It might just be that there’s a lot of negative space? Bottom line, I like the direction that you cover is going and with a few minor tweaks it’ll be even better!
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Thanks for the feedback! I agree that everything does not tie in well together and that it needs to be more cohesive. I am thinking of possibly completely changing my idea and adding an image as a background instead. I plan to do that if I can find an image I took that would work (as in it is simple enough to still add on more). I know it needs to flow better, which is why I’m thinking of making a background photo, I could maybe have more room to add images that look more like a magazine. Here is an example https://www.valuemags.com/magazine/discount-young_rider-subscription.html. This is an equestrian magazine that has more included in the cover than other magazines. The only reason I didn’t use an image as a background is because most hunter jumper equestrian magazines only have one picture with text on the side. I will keep working on it and look at these recommendations while I edit my magazine cover!
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Hello Logan,
It was fun to look at your design and read what you wrote about it. I had the same issue with the magnetic lasso tool on my project as well, I think that is a common issue to have for those of us who are beginners at this Photoshop thing. I think you have a good start on your magazine cover. It is clear what the topic is about because of the images of the horses and people riding them and the title which is large, easy to read, and located on the top of the cover. I would keep it that way, but I would suggest creating more visual unity by also making the color of the rest of the text white like the title. Also, I would suggest separating/spreading out each of your ideas more making it more clear which photos represent which topic title because it looks to me like it is all clustered together. But other than those details, I think this is a good start. I like the way that the photos of the horses stand out against the neutral background.
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Logan I think you did a really great job on your draft! I love how you used so many different pictures of you doing equestrian riding because it gives a really good look as to what you really do. I also think you did great at picking up things from the photoshop tutorials and using them in your work. I would say maybe to look at other horse magazines (if that is a thing) and see how they layout it to give it a more real feeling. I do think this tells a lot about your topic and gives people a good idea of what your other projects will be talking about. It shows that you really took time and effort into this project.
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