The Fishtank Magazine
What is The Fishtank magazine?
When I decided I wanted to veer away from computer games and create new designs. The first thing that came to my mind was “What about magazine covers and spreads?”. I found magainzes to be a very good way do demonstrate a broad range of styles.
As a person that lacks the required enthusiasm for photography, the budget for costumes/gear, and…. friends 🥲 for models, I realised the best approach would be to use the MMORPG game Final Fantasy XIV as the character customisation and clothing options are really extensive and personal as it allows for modern/casual styles of clothing as well as your typical fantasy RPG equipment.
For models, I used members of my guild and named the magazine after them as a sweet little reference. I thought of it as a cool collaborative effort so I gave them a vague direction and it was up to them to interperate it as they saw fit and provide me screenshots of the result.
For more informatinon about the creation process click this link.
F.A.T.E Magazine
I had a few ideas which were a bit too silly for The Fishtank so I made a one-off spinoff called F.A.T.E.
This cover was created to emulate the style of tabliod gossip magazines, including the title “Fate” which follows suit of the references I used. Many of the references used short and basic singlular words. The fake magazine also features several perculiar bonuses to incentivise a potential customer.
For the art style, it’s visually busy and filled with many colours. If I was a real journalist I pick even more brighter colours especially eyecathing yellows and reds as I would lose my job if I used the colours I picked. But in this case I wanted to attatch my personal brand to the image to still call it my own.