Before I could start designing my own school magazine cover, I had to look at school magazine front covers that already exist.
These are two examples of an existing school magazine called the primary times. As this magazine has been produced for a primary school, it is brightly coloured with big pictures. In all the examples of this magazine I looked at the layout was the same. The main title was always in the same place, as well as the slogan and the logo of the clock.
I also found two examples of another school/college magazine for Guilford College. This magazine is aimed at older pupils, unlike the "Primary Times" which was aimed at primary students and their parents. The main title, the slogan and the season/date were also always in the same place. And the layout of the images on the front covers always looked the same. With this college magazine, its not as cluttered and brightly coloured. I think this is because its not based around the younger generation.
My School Magazine
We were set a task to design and create the front cover and contents page for our school magazine at Little Heath School. We had 2 weeks to complete this task. The front cover had to include:
- A photograph of a student (medium close up)
- 3 further images
- Some appropriatly laid out text
- A masthead/ title
The contents had to be designed on one separate page.
My school magazine relates to existing examples of other school magazines because they both contain the same sort of information, and similar images are used on the front cover. For example, images from around the school site. And also images of students are sometimes used on the front cover, just like my magazine cover.
I approached this task by putting together some ideas that I could come up with. For these ideas, I thought about images that I wanted to use on the front cover and possible features and stories to put inside the magazine. I also did four design ideas of my front cover before deciding what one I was going to do.
- A photograph of a student (medium close up)
- 3 further images
- Some appropriatly laid out text
- A masthead/ title
The contents had to be designed on one separate page.
My school magazine relates to existing examples of other school magazines because they both contain the same sort of information, and similar images are used on the front cover. For example, images from around the school site. And also images of students are sometimes used on the front cover, just like my magazine cover.
I approached this task by putting together some ideas that I could come up with. For these ideas, I thought about images that I wanted to use on the front cover and possible features and stories to put inside the magazine. I also did four design ideas of my front cover before deciding what one I was going to do.
From these four design ideas, I chose two that I liked and drew them bigger and in more detail.
My final outcome relates well to my draft design. I made a few changes, which were the background and the graphical feature. Once I made the magazine cover, I thought it looked dull and boring so I decided to add a background of snowflakes to relate to the season that the magazine would be released. On my draft design I put a graphical feature around the issues features, I decided not to put this on in the end because it looked a bit to cramped.
Technology extended my creative control because photoshop allowed me to do things on my magazine cover that I would not have been able to do on any other programme, such as the snowflakes in the background and the editing to the central, indirect image of the student. Technology also obstructed my creative control because I didn't have much experience with photoshop to start with. Therefore I found it difficult to use at first. I think I would have been able to carry out the task a lot better if I had more experience with the programme to start off with.
My ideas specifically represented school life because there were images of the school site, where students spend most of their time. And also my central image on the front cover was of a student doing work, this represents school life because that's what students are at school to do. The features inside the magazine also represent school life because the information inside is about Little Heath School in general and what happens there.
By looking at my final school magazine cover now, l would make some changes. These are changes like using more graphical features to make the cover look more interesting and bold. I could do this by also using more images in the blank spaces left on the front cover. By doing this, it would make the magazine cover look more attractive and eye catching.
My ideas specifically represented school life because there were images of the school site, where students spend most of their time. And also my central image on the front cover was of a student doing work, this represents school life because that's what students are at school to do. The features inside the magazine also represent school life because the information inside is about Little Heath School in general and what happens there.
By looking at my final school magazine cover now, l would make some changes. These are changes like using more graphical features to make the cover look more interesting and bold. I could do this by also using more images in the blank spaces left on the front cover. By doing this, it would make the magazine cover look more attractive and eye catching.
As I mentioned before, I also had to create a contents page for my school magazine. I decided to keep my contents page simple but bright. I related my contents page to the front cover that I created for the Heathsonian. I did this by keeping the ideas of the snowflakes to represent the winter season.
This is looking really good Lisa...keep going...scan in some more images. have you got some for the photo shoot?
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