A Commentary on 'The Big Issue' cover recreation

As a part of evaluating the house style of 'The Big Issue', we were challenged to create our own cover following their house style.

Firstly, i researched their house style and made sure to feature the most common elements were included: block background; the brand logo; date, price, and slogan; splash image with a glow.

Then i checked the news for interesting stories that would interest 'The Big Issue' audience, and found this story about police cuts causing a lack of support for officer's mental health.

So i got an image up of a UK police officer and made that my feature image. In hind sight, i should have used an image of a police officer in direct gaze, as most of 'The Big Issue' covers use it. After placing the cropped image on an orange background, to symbolise warning, i added a white flair and 'The Big Issue' standard elements; i.e., the logo, dates, price, and slogan.

Lastly, all i needed to do was add a cover line that relates to the cover story. I decided on "Budget cuts = police with PTSD", because its catchy and sounds slightly ridiculous, so will catch the eye of the audience.

In conclusion, this project gave me a great understanding of TBI house style and allowed me to develop my skills on photoshop and publisher. Similarly, i was able to improve my creative imagination in producing a realistic magazine.