Artistic Process: Designing a Magazine Cover
The following works are the result of a class project within my graphic design master’s program: to conceive and design a magazine. My central concept, “Art has no Gender,” emphasizes that the value of art lies in its intrinsic qualities, independent of the artist’s ethnic or national origin, identity, or age.
For this issue, I concentrated on figurative painting, which inspired the creation of gender-neutral facial silhouettes, representing the universal human form.
The resulting magazine cover, which I am pleased to present, is an integration of my original paintings with the digital design tools of Illustrator, InDesign and Photoshop.
The idea for the cover originated from a personal painting—a silhouette portrait of my husband. I digitized this image in Illustrator and used it as a base. By combining and overlaying it with additional elements, I developed gender-neutral face silhouettes.
Here are the initial sketches:
The following are the first drafts of the cover design. After creating the silhouette in Illustrator, I began experimenting with mixing elements, adding textures and effects, and playing with the scale of the head to create contrast.
To enhance the dynamism of the cover, I chose two distinct fonts. The issue’s title features a more fluid and organic typeface, reflecting the artistic and expressive nature of figurative painting—the focus of this issue. For the magazine’s name, I opted for a clean yet personality-driven font. This combination ensures strong readability while establishing a modern and distinctive brand identity, creating a compelling visual hierarchy.
Afterwards, I adjusted the head’s form to achieve a more neutral representation. My process in Photoshop involved significant layering of the paintings and careful manipulation of their values.
Adding texture was a crucial element, enhancing the artistic feel of the main background as I aimed for a canvas-like appearance.
To finalize the cover, I completed the layout in InDesign to incorporate the necessary information, as this was part of a larger magazine project.
