Phashion Magazine Cover Design

This is something I did in my graphic design class. The assignment was to design a cover for a magazine based on the combination fashion and the internet. We were given a name to use, Phashion, and the rest was up to me. The assignment before this one was to create the logo. Once that was done I picked this photo of Joaquin Phoenix to be on the cover. Why? Umm.. I just felt it was a great photograph and it gave me something to go with for a headline. (Yes, I like Joaquin Phoenix.. that was another thing that motivated me to use a pic of him.... I also considered using a photograph of Elijah Wood but ultimately I felt this was the most interesting photo for a cover). Reds and greens were used for obvious reasons of being complements. I used a special website to create the barcode for the front. Ultimately I was pretty happy with how this came out. I also made a matching 2 page spread to go inside the magazine as the latter half of the assignment.

I was pretty happy with how this came out, but ultimately, my instructor felt it wasn't original enough in terms of design. She said it was too "Vanity Fair". Well about that; among the pile of magazines I bought to help give me ideas for fonts, text placement, etc., one of them was... Vanity Fair. -_-;