More Fun With Photoshop

It's now expected that magazine cover girls are airbrushed in Photoshop to look younger and thinner, but when does retouching in Photoshop go too far?

Jezebel recently posted an image of actress Megan Fox and exposed all of the changes that were made to the photograph in Photoshop before it hit magazine stands. Before gracing the pages of InStyle, the young beauty's eye color, skin tone, pores, veins, chin and hair were altered.




Apparently, celebrities don't even meet magazines' standards these days.

Disc Cover Disaster

What in the sparkle motion is this?





Though the album was released some time ago, I finally caught a glimpse of it up close today at Starbucks. For a portrait album cover, there is way too much going on here. The pose, the colors and the "glitter" almost invoke Barbie packaging.




It is by far one of the worst album designs I've seen in a long time.

Fun With Photoshop?

Photoshop can help a designer achieve many things. Cropping, sharpening, extracting - the software's ability to enhance photographs feels like a lifesaver at times. However, the program also has a dark side. Certain designers airbrushing skills are something to marvel at and others' skills are quite the opposite.

Case in point: Avril Lavigne on the cover of Maxim.




At first glance Avril looks good, or appropriate for the cover of Maxim anyway. But then you catch of a glimpse of her right arm. In attempts to give Ms. Lavigne a slimmer waist some designer mutilated her arm. Trying to perfect a cover image is justifiable, but publishing a mistake this obvious is definitely not.

Please Photoshop responsibly.

Matter in Question

Artist Shana Moulton gathered logos from various women's organizations and her collection is now displayed in an image-based essay, Squiggles, Trees, Ribbons and Spirals: My Collection of Women’s Health, Beauty and Support Group Logos as the Stages of Life in Semi-Particular Order. All of the logos in the essay incorporate smooth lines,  and include an image of a body or some reference to nature.

Well-designed or not, are these logos simply targeting their audience or are they stereotypical?