Construction of My Billboard

For my Billboard the first thing which I had to do was create a new document in Photoshop. I wanted the Billboard to be a reasonable size so I opened a new document with an A3 size and then changed to orientation so that the canvas was of a landscape orientation. After this I put in an image which I wanted to use as the background for my Billboard. I then resized it so that it took up the whole canvas.

The next step in construction of my billboard was to sharpen my image to improve the overall picture quality and to apply a range of filter to make the image appear a higher quality after it had been resized. 

I then added a text layer which would be the base for the masthead which I wished to create. The font I chose was Cooper Std. I chose this font because it seemed fun and would appeal to my target audience. I also needed a bubbly font in order to get the text effect which I wanted to achieve at the end of construction. 

I then made this text transparent and then applied some different filters to give it this effect. I chose to do this because it uses the natural colour of the water as the background for the text. I chose to do this because I felt that my target audience will see this and be attracted to my magazine. This was because youth will stereotypically look for anything which can be seen as fun, as displayed by Hebdige's theory 'youth as fun'.

I then decided to add a splash effect onto the background behind the text so that it would create the effect that the text is causing the splash. I feel this makes the title appear more interesting and exciting which is something which I feel would attract my target audience. This is because as Hall said in 1904, "Youths must have excitement". this suggests that anything which can come across and portray excitement should appeal to young people. 

I then chose to add a slogan and the date of release. I thought the slogan was a good idea because it made the billboard seem more fun and interesting which would be vital in attracting my target audience. The date of release was important to include because my audience would need to know when the magazine was available so that they could read it when it came out.


After receiving some feedback from my target audience I came to the decision that I needed to make some changes to my billboard in order to appeal to them better.

I then decided to overlay an image of the sand which I had taken during a photoshop and cut the out the iconic coastline of Cornwall, in order to show the masthead for the billboard and part of the image below. I feel this works well because it can help my audience relate to my billboard as they will be able to instantly recognise the shape of Cornwall and instantly relate my magazine to this region. I chose to remove the text from the bottom of the billboard because this sort of layout seemed boring and would not appeal to my audience.

I then in a large, blocky font placed the tagline for my magazine is the space to the left hand side of my masthead. I used this font because it will be seen as fun by my target audience and will consequently attract them to my products. As the background in this text I chose to use an action shot of a surfer at a typical beach in the Cornish region. This is something which my audience will fin exciting and as the media theories Hall said "youths must have excitement".

Next I chose to include an image of my magazine cover in the bottom left corner of my magazine. I did this so that my audience could easily relate my billboard and my magazine, making it more likely for them to purchase any version of my magazine. 

Finally I added a piece of Cornish slang to reaffirm the points that the magazine is based in the Cornish region and that it is aimed at a young target audience. Then I added the release date for this magazine as I thought this would be important information to anyone wishing the purchase my magazine.