THE CHALLENGE – motion graphics digital magazine cover

When I was asked to help Blades helicopter magazine transition from the analogue print world to the digital iPad based world I jumped at the chance. The creative brief was very loose, and I had a free reign to create anything I wanted. This is great on one hand but often an open brief can be a curse. One of the key things I did was create the trademark animated covers. At the time no-one on the App store had thought to create an animation for the cover of a digital magazine, so this would be a first. 

Writing the music myself avoided any issues later with licensing, so I created a track in Apple Garage Band. The sound design was huge fun with all sorts of effects and layers being used. The engine sound effect is, in fact, a Pratt and Whitney PT6 being fired up and then reversed, It’s a sound I have in the playbox and have used many times.

I was able to help the team with finding a direction and steer the project towards ultimately winning the digital pioneer of the year award.

The finished cover was brought together with a combination of After Effects, InDesign, Photoshop, Garage Band and Premiere Pro.