Creating a Masthead

To create my masthead I first looked at existing ones to get an idea of what mine should feel like. After I knew how it should feel I began to create something that fits into this.

I first started by creating the actual text. I did this by writing each letter separately and then flipping one of the rs and then the N. I then put them together to look like this.

After doing this, I added some effects onto the text. I started with adding a drop shadow as shown in this image:

I then added a bevel on the text to give it depth and make it look much more interesting than if it were flat. I did this as shown in this image:

Lastly, I added a stroke to, again, give it more depth and make it feel and look much more interesting, this was done as shown:

After doing this text, I added the image of some iron, as shown here:

I then tried around changing the opacity and other such things to make this look more interesting. In the end I added a vivid light to it. This is as shown:

This then ended up looking as below:

I then tried out the masthead on my cover and I found that it did not fit with both the style and the colour palette. I also tried it without the image of iron, and in black as opposed to gold, and without all the effects. This did not quite fit either.  I then decided to play around it with some more, changing the N and capitalising the Rs. I then also took away the iron and stylised the N in the centre. This ended up as shown here:

I tried this style however, it did not fit as well as the other one did and so I decided to change it around. 

When coming up with a title I first came up with some ideas and then narrowed them down to the three I thought best. I then did a SurveyMonkey for my target audience so they could choose their favorite. The results are as follows:

These results show that the title RNR was the most popular and so I decided to go with this as I know it would represent the target audience as this is their chosen title for my magazine.