Preliminary Task

For my preliminary task, I had to create a school magazine, from looking at examples and thinking about target audience and magazine features.

 

This is the most professional looking magazine cover of the three. The central image is of the school itself, which looks very clean and modern and reflects natural beauty in the clear blue sky and lush green grass at the botttom, which I’m sure would have been created to look like this, it has a very exotic look about it, with the palm trees being in the picture as well. The masthead is at the top of the page in a very fancy font, which makes the school seem of a high standard, the masthead is visible eventhough it is only in white, as it stands out against the blue sky. Underneath the masthead is a strapline, however this isn’t a slogan it is the date of distribution of the magazine, this looks good as it matches the masthead. In the centre of the cover is the school crest, this is nice and big, to make it stand out and is in very bright colours which are very rich and positive looking. There is a banner at the bottom of the magazine which contrasts to the rest of the cover as it is plain white with plain black writing, these are contact details and it is good that they’ve made it so that this doesn’t attract the attention away from the main parts of the cover.

 This is the front cover for a school magazine. It incorporates some of the key features of a magazine front cover: A central image which is made up of two images being combined to portray one, which is clever as it makes it appear that one of the students is actually in the tree. The central image shows two girls at the bottom of the tree, both of which have smiles on their faces, this is a non-verbal code to show happiness and is a clever idea for the front of a school magazine as it reflects a positive image on the school. The green colours, which are splashed all over the cover, are associated with nature and therefore the school is being associated with beauty and peace.

The masthead isn’t very big or in a special font, it is plain and doesn’t relate to the central image, however, it is in black and therefore stands out well against the green background. There are four featured articles, which are of good size, although they need to be in different colours as some of them are difficult to see against the background. There are also stars on this front cover, which are indexical signs as we associate stars with high aspirations and achievements, this reinforces a positive image of the school and they stand out well against the green background.

This is another front cover for a school magazine, this one is a bit more professional looking than the previous one, even though it has been created to look like doodles which would be considered unprofessional looking, the doodles have been created with great care and with attention to detail, this is what makes it appear 'professional' looking. There isn’t a central image as such on this front cover, however the background is of ‘school’ paper which relates to the masthead which is in graffiti style writing and bright colours, which will appear to the student audience. There are flowers coming off of the masthead once again this is reflecting that the school is beautiful and peaceful. There is a strapline just below the masthead which read “Art. Creativity. Life” this reflects well on the school as these are very positive words and the shortness of them makes them very impressive, the strapline is big enough and in a fancy font, relating to the fact that it is an art school. There are featured articles yet again, however this time they are In both bubble and fancy font, once again reflecting the school’s artistic speciality, the yellow and the purple, which runs throughout the whole of the magazine cover, are colour codes for happiness and make the cover more appealing to the teenage audience. There is an ear at the top right hand side of the page just above the masthead, it is in two types of font and very colourful, this makes it eye-catching and draws attention to the year of distribution.

 I have created a front cover for a school magazine. I did this by drawing freehand a template of what I wanted on my magazine cover and where I wanted things to be, including the masthead. I decided to call my school magazine ‘The Rainbow’ as rainbows are often related to happiness and positive things. I have then placed a strapline underneath the masthead reading the “Brightening your day!” slogan. I then decided to incorporate my central image (which is a medium close-up) as being two young girls underneath an umbrella, which relates to the masthead and can be perceived as a shelter / protection, this relates to the school as a school is a form of protection as you should feel safe there. I tried to think of a way to make the central image stand out a lot, as young people concentrate on colours and imagery more than they do text. Therefore I decided that I would make everything above the umbrella, other than a flash, grey and then the colours under the umbrella would stand out more. I have placed a flash just above the masthead and this is in colour as flash’s are used for catching people’s attention and drawing them to a special offer and I thought putting a bright flash on the grey part of the background would make it seem even brighter.

I have used raindrops in my masthead and coloured these blue as blue is associated with water and thus associating blue with rain. I have got on my front cover, a box for inside articles, I have made this into an interesting shape instead of making it a plain square as shapes appeal to young people and I want the magazine to appeal to them.
I have then coloured this in green as green is associated with nature and it is very bright so this will catch attention.
At the bottom of my magazine cover I have placed some puffs (pictures of students having a good time) as young people like to look at pictures before they read anything and this will make them want to read the magazine. Next to the puffs is another raindrop, again in blue (for the same reason as the ones in the masthead), however this one is much larger as it has important information inside.
Overall I think my cover is both eye-catching and appealing to a school aged audience.

 

When taking this photograph I chose to change the picture from a medium close-up to a full body shot as I thought that incorporating the tree and grass in the shot portrayed a natural and happy environment well, they were also placed in front of one of the school buildings, so that you get the impression that they are school children. I wanted the girls to wear some blue items of clothing so that it resembled the raindrops. The girls are sharing the umbrella, showing a positive attribute for a school child to have and have happy expressions on their faces to portray positivity about the magazine.

I then went on to edit the photograph by using the burn tool to darken the background of the picture, this would make the colours seem even brighter when I de-saturated the background. I then added highlights to the shoes and clothing by using the dodge tool, this attracts attention to the blue in the clothing.

 

I then carried on with editing the photograph by using the sponge tool to extract the colour from the background surrounding the girls. I didn’t de-saturate the girl’s bodies and an area of grass on which they were stood, this made the girls and the colours of the green grass and blue clothing stand out.

When adding the extra parts to my final magazine cover, I decided to add a blue version of the school emblem with the price in, instead of my original plan of having a yellow flash advertising the pictures inside the magazine. I changed my mind because I thought that making the flash blue would make it tie in better with the other blue features of the magazine and would look more professional being blue than yellow because having so much blue on the cover and then a round patch of yellow I thought would make it look like a juvenile picture of sea and the sun. I made the price 60P as it is aimed at young people and they wouldn’t be able to afford much more than that.
I decided to make the writing a plain font but in rainbow colours, instead of plain with raindrops inside the letters, as I thought that I could portray the font as the rainbow linking with the theme of my magazine cover better. I then added the date of the magazine release in small writing beneath the masthead, this is the ‘strapline’ I made the writing white to stand out against the dark background I also did this to the list of inside articles as well so that, that would also stand out, I then placed this on the right hand side and curved it so it fit the bodies of the girls. I was really happy with the result of my final magazine cover, I think that it would be appealing to young people.

 Here is my contents page for my school magazine. I decided to use a light pastel-yellow colour, as yellow is neutral and can be liked by both girls and boys. I used a clear font for the list of contents, as the magazine is aimed at children, who may possibly find reading difficult and therefore by making the font clear, the copy is easier to read. I decided to make the pages and the information about them different colours and font sizes because young people tend to only read the names of the pages and then read the further information if they are interested in the page. I angled the 'Contents' strapline so that it resembled a rainbow, linking to the front cover so that they look like they belong in the same magazine, I also incorporated a picture of an umbrella in the bottom right-hand corner for the same reason.