The theme chosen for the magazine cover was a recent news event, local and international and for this I decided to focus on the phenomenon known as Mark Zuckerberg. As someone who is constantly mentioned in news headlines for various reasons including privacy scandals and most recently, ‘META’, he seemed rather fit. The main theme of the magazine cover I designed was based on the fundamentals of both the creation of Meta as well as the issues regarding privacy which essentially led to the concept of ‘Decoding Mark Zuckerberg’, analysing the mind of Mark Zuckerberg to make sense of why he does what he does. The selected colour palette for the magazine cover included shades of black and white as well as tints of red. A limited colour palette was selected as I believed it would be more effective in creating a strong statement, especially as the dark blacks create a powerful contrast against the stark whites within the piece. The text was written in a rather bright red with the purpose of capturing the viewers’ attention. The text in the background of the cover was written in a more dull red tint, with a lower opacity to create a sense of depth within the magazine cover. I created a torn paper effect on photoshop to make it appear as if one was tearing away at Mark Zuckerberg to uncover that which is at his core, this is what the skull symbolizes. A skull was chosen to symbolize his core as no matter how technologically minded, complicated or alien he may seem to the world, at the end of the day he is a human just like the rest of us. The form paper effect also aids in creating a sense of balance within the cover. The balance is symmetrical in terms of size yet asymmetrical in terms of content. The image of Mark Zuckerberg was resourced from Google Images, however I edited the blacks and whites using levels and curves on photoshop to increase the contrast and essentially produce a sharper image as the original was rather flat and I used contrast to enhance elements within the image such as his eye. Lastly, I placed a barcode over his mouth with the purpose of creating a visual paradox. The barcode links to the word ‘decoding’ within the text, however appears to question the idea of Mark Zuckerberg being viewed as a human. The barcode also brings about themes of capitalism and identity which go hand in hand with the concept of uncovering the core of Mark Zuckerberg.