Dude...I'm very, very sorry to say this, but given the description that you did it for your graphic design class...where I'm usually content to not say anything at all for fan art, I can't NOT say something as a graphic design and advertising major. I hope you've gotten used to critiques in class, and don't take this the wrong way--I'm probably going to sound like a jerk. *rolls up sleeves*

1) GRID: where is it? There is no evidence of one--everything just floats around, and does not align or relate to each other in any way. Along with that--where are your margins?? They seriously need to pushed in. A lot of your text goes right to the edge. This can be utilized with design flair, but this is just not considered. Grid may be the most important thing, even if this is a pretend magazine cover.

2) TYPOGRAPHY: how many fonts is that? Gotta be 5 a least! You are not choosing an aesthetic or style to stick with. Graphic design is NOT about making weird text with glowing or neon backgrounds! Why are some letter baselines shifted ("Character and Background art!!")? For a gaming magazine, it looks decidedly un-modern and un-technological--stick primarily with sans-serif with serif highlight text! Your leading needs serious overhaul--it's either too big or too small, an even inconsistent within one block of text ("An Inside Look"), and I would hazard a guess that your kerning is just whatever the program automatically did. Don't ever settle for default!

3) FOCUS / HIERARCHY: what is it? Sure, it's the middle image, but aside from that, it's just a jumble! Do I look at Molyneux's face? The oddly cut out image with the bar code? The over the top glowing quote? There is no hierarchy of information!

4) CONSISTENCY: aside from absent font consistency, make sure your written elements are the same--don't say "Pg. 42" in one place, and then "PG. 127" in the next! It's

5) EFFECTS: drop them--the glows, the neons, the text that pops out--great typography is bereft of tricks and gimmicks, and is clean, communicative, and clear. Typography note #2 for emphasis: do NOT mess with readability!

6) IMAGE QUALITY: your masthead, "Gamer Bible" stands out particularly as unconsidered--it looks misshapen, warped, and pixelated. So if Molyneux's portrait is important enough to cut out cleanly, why is the art on the opposite side not taken to that level?

7) COLOUR: the choice of combining green and orange is not a particularly comfortable paletter choice.

8) COMPOSITION: there is no fluid or considered movement / eye path in this--how are you leading viewers through this? It just jumps around, left-right-left-right, top to bottom. It is jagged and jarring.

/rant

Pay close, close attention to your instructor. There is a lot to learn if your goal is to score some freelance work someday, and even more to advance if you plan to apply to design agencies. Good luck.

Reminds me off the old mac magazines i used to get!                                                           Dont slate him too much, sure its not great but its for a graphics design class.                    Just keep improving on what you know and make sure you get a decent graphics/art program.                                                                                                                      Good Luck

As I said, sorry, but DanTheHobbe--that's exactly why I needed to critique it--it's for a graphics design class!

So I'm not sure what you mean by that. :P If it's for graphic design, there is still a lot of rules, theory, and layout to be observed.

Makes me sound like a noob, huh? XD

No not at all! Actually, we (the class) were just ranting about something today. See, I don't mind when I see average or bad design or illustration. But as soon as the person responsible actually charges for it, or claims he can "help" people with his great skills (NOT to the original artist here!!), reaction ranges from irritation to baffled rage. Baffled because, he has actually done commissioned work.

This guy we found online charges nearly 1000 Euro for his "help", and his work...is indescribably atrocious. And any average person can tell, never mind design education or sense. Any first year student here likely a decade younger could do better than this proud gentleman, and I am 100% positive if he applied to our program, he would be roundly rejected--it is THAT bad. I don't even have a word for it, it was stunning in its mediocrity.

Haha. There I go again. Forgive me, all!

Yeah its not that great. But aside from what esseffem said, I personally would have added a nice picture of bowerstone in the background. faded out so its.. backgroundy.

esseffem as a graphic design and advertising design major you've probably heard of a guy called David Carson right? well he used 7 different fonts on a magazine cover. think the magazine was called RayGun. so would you say that was bad design?

woooooooooooow im must be very bored...i read the WHOLE f****ng thing, lol and esseffem was the only one who talked about the picture (other than wrongfire of course)

hmmmmmm......it ok but it is not really fanart to me, b/c you don,t draw anything lol you just use photoshop

I agree with esseffem: when I first looked at the picture I didn't know what to read. Firtsly the title reads: "GAMEP BIBLE". Maybe you have decided to cut the 'R' a bit, yet leaving black & white boarderlines -- leading me to believe that it says "GAMEP BIBLE" until reading it in esseffem's 6th point. Finally, I quote from esseffem: "it's just a jumble!". I do not like it, unlike other artists here I don't see much effort in this one. It looks to me that you have got pictures from the site and put it all in MS Paint.

I know it has been a while since a last comment but I believe it would be some help to you if you remembered to spell check your work before making a finished project, as well. There are some very obvious grammatical mistakes on here which include:

"... where Gamers prey"
The randomly capitalized "Gamers" doesn't bother me so much as the "prey". You should have put "pray" if you mean something like "praying to the gods" since it's called "Gamer Bible". Unless you mean this is where gamers feast on their prey...

"Character and Backround art!'"
Aside from the typo on "Background", there is a stray "'". I'm not quite sure if that was an accident to put that there or if you forgot to add one to the beginning, as well. If you meant it to look like a quote from Peter Molyneux, you'd need to use "'s instead.

And HalfKnott already covered the "GAMEP BIBLE" thing.

These were probably all simple typos and you probably know better but I tend to ramble, anyways. Better be unnecessarily educated instead of lost, right?

Well unless your an actual label designer for a real magazine, you did fine. Its fable 2 fan art! But I would like to see the next issue of Gamer Bible.

okey... no comments.

esseffem your an *** hole!
ye it sucks but if you ask me it took him 10 mins for his homework or something and i bet it took you 3 hours to right your sad ass essay WTF do think your a teacher or do you just get off been up your own ***!