A Red Bird of Yellow-Eyed Demise

Here, I was trying to accomplish a new look for the Slam magazine that was eye-popping, but also pertained to both the school and the magazine itself. The long-necked bird was inspired by the Raider's mascot, but I tried to make it look a little more scholarly. Like he was reading a book or something and gasping at it's incredible literary power. That's sorta self-gratifying, since those words in the background are from a novel I'm writing but can never put it in the magazine because of how huge it is. I used photoshop for this and drew the bird with my tablet at home. Then it was a simple task of using layers well and copy-pasting words. Overall, it was about a two to three hour endeavor. I'm happier than I thought I would be with this design, though it looks like crap in the blog. I liked it well enough that I didn't want to change much but wanted to experiment with color; the one with the light background is my favorite.