Graphic Design: "A Lyrical Life" Literary Magazine Cover Project

Premise: I have a great desire to show off the talent and the artistry of this class in the coming edition of the Literary Magazine. The best way to show this off is for a member of this class to have their work featured on the cover of the magazine. The cover will be in color. It would be great if OUR work could be featured there!

The Theme for this year’s Literary Magazine is "A Lyrical Life." The idea behind this theme is to demonstrate life through the eyes of an artist. In otherwords, how do we live our life in connection with the arts: Music, Visual Arts, Performance art, Literature, etc.

Your Assignment: Given that the theme is "A Lyrical Life" this year for the Literary Magazine, I would like everyone to create at least one, preferably more, piece of artwork that fit in with this theme. (The theme should give the visual impression of the ARTS and how LIFE connects and interacts with the ARTS.)

Artwork Rules: On your "A Lyrical Life” Artwork, you must follow a couple of rules:

  • The size of your pieces of artwork should be at least 8 1/2 inches wide x 11 inches tall on a 300 DPI canvas. Because the Magazine is now the size of a portrait piece of paper, you should plan on a "tall" canvas.
  • You should be as creative as possible in a creating work which you are proud of and which you feel confident in submitting to the literary magazine.
  • You should try to include a representation of the ARTS somewhere in your artwork.
  • The artwork that you create should be of your own design and work. Please do not simply grab some cool picture off of the internet and claim that it is your work. Any images used that are not created by the student should be significantly manipulated so as to be deemed a unique work.
  • You should try to apply the tools and techniques that you have been learning this year to the creation of your artwork:
  • Filters Layer Styles Blending Modes Brushes
    Gradients Masks and Image Cutouts Shapes Transform/Distort/Perspective
    Photo Collages Image Colorization Pattern Fill Typographic Tools

Final Product Expectations: This project will be a two day, 100 point assignment. However, this should be considered as creative outlet, instead of an assessment. Points for this project will be given based on creativity, work ethic and quality of the final product.

Additional Benefits to this Project: Traditionally, there have been awards for the students creating the FRONT cover and the BACK cover works. Usually, this is a gift certificate in the 25-50 dollar range.