Preliminary task

My AS Media preliminary task was to design a front cover and content page for school magazine. First I had to do the analysis of front covers and after, content

page. Following the analysis of the covers and content page, I had a questionnaire for the students from school to fill in.

The questionnaire was about color scheme, what the students like, would they read the school magazine etc. Magazines use different fonts that suit their kind of

the magazine, so school magazines should have something semi-formal. Once I have completed research task I have started with school magazine front

cover and content page initial designs using research findings. Once I have created initial designs I have produced final front page and content page using

Photoshop.

Research into school magazines

Analyses of the front coverHeading.The heading is always a short sentence indicating on what the magazine is about.

Price. the price is very important for a magazine. Magazines such as this one should not cost too much because they are school magazines and need to be affordable, so 80p is a really low price.

Cover photo.Cover photo is a student and behind him are the school walls. The boy is a teenager indicating that this magazine is for the secondary.

Strapline.Notifying the customers it

is their first issue.

Cover lines.Cover lines are there to inform the reader of

more topics inside.

Coat of arms.The symbol on the cover is there just to inform the reader from which school/college is the magazine.

Sub images.Sub images are related to sub headings, in this case there is one prom image and it is obviously informing the reader that more prom pics are inside.

Heading.It is very obvious that this heading is not as serious, so It is probably a primary school.

Prize button.It is a prize button to inform the customer of extras in this issue.

Main image.It is a girl that is not older than 13 probably, indicating again that it Is a primary school mag.

Main cover line.The main line is the biggest and in a most vivid color so It is very eye catching.

Cover lines.Cover lines or sub lines, are there for some extra information about the topics in the magazine.

Strapline.Here the strapline is a quote that is connected to teenagers and the stress they go through, it adds the seriousness to the magazine it was probably written for parents to attract them.

Heading.The heading is extremely vivid and eye catchy. It is in big letters and serif font. It is not simple at all, the letters are black framed with white color and blue shadow. Since the title is ‘CLASS’ it is obviously a school magazine, but due to the look of the title and whole cover, it is a senior magazine.

Strapline.In this case the strapline is a bate for customers because it is stating that it is the best choice that they can make, now, the only question is are the customers going to bite.

Main image.Main image here represents a senior student that is graduating. The photo is from the graduation since the student is wearing the traditional graduate clothes.

Main cover lines.Main cover lines are supposed to be just main topics from the inside of the magazine. But of course without saying too much, just enough to get the

reader interested.

Price.School magazines are never expensive and shouldn’t be, because it is important that they are affordable to everyone.

Notifying people of what is this page used for.

Main image of the content page is usually connected to the main topic in the magazine.

Number of the topic with the name of the person next to it indicating that, that topic is crucial.

Numbers are there to notify the customer on what pages are certain topic that might interest them to read it first. The numbers should always be eye catchy and larger so it is very clear for the customers.

Main line, Obviously this is the main topic since it says that it is the topic of the month. It is the top story about two top academic students, it is probably a motivational story that is supposed to motivate students to try harder. This is obviously a more serious school magazine, probably university magazine.

Content lines are there for the reader to see the other topics in the magazine and he can choose which he will read first.

Notifying people of what is this page used for.

Here we have three main images probably because they’re connected to the three main topics. It is very obvious that this magazine is a bit less serious because the images are of a different size and position including one of them being a Disney character.

This is the introduction that is briefly telling people what this issue is about. It is also notifying the reader about the exclusive interview with the beauty and the beast star.

Content lines are very messy in this case here. It is done very poorly and the reader might have a lot of problems to find his way here.

Website so the customers can go and find anything they are interested in.

Questionnaire; who is interested more

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q5 Q6 Q7 Q8 Q9 Q10

lower classes

upper classes

Questionnaire results

30%

70%

Genders of students that answered

Male Female

10%

90%

Students that would read the school magazine

no yes

27%

73%

students who want puzzels and quizzes

formal fun

Column1

16%

5%

19%

8%4%8%

11%

13%

7%9%

What would students like to read about

Sports Food Studying advice Career options

Horoscope School Fashion School events School clubs

Students opinion Recommendations

Color scheme

Red9%

Orange8%

Yellow9%

Green7%

Pink9%Blue

31%

Purple27%

This typography is in a Serif category. It is more a formal kind of a font that is usually used in very important formal letters or any kind of important writings. It is the most used kind of font these days. It is modern, formal and easy to read which is very important. Very simple yet still a bit elegant and serious.

This font is in the Script category. It is an extremely elegant font therefore it is

used for very elegant events, letters, headings,

etc. On the other hand it is usually hard to read and

understand so it is not very practical. That is why it is

never used in very important serious letters.

This kind of a typography is called Handwriting. It is

a very informal font. It is more used in magazines

or school writings than it is for serious letters or

essays. It gives off a very soft look. There are many

different kinds of handwriting fonts.

This is a very unusual typography, very rarely used. It belongs to Display and Serif category. It is always large and bold. This kind of font is perfect for headings, important words to stand out, billboards, etc. it is very eye catchy and yet very easy to be read. It reminds of serif but Display is always bold and large. As it can be seen there is more space between each letter.

Sans-serif kind of typography. Sans-Serif is the most used font. It is very simple, easy to read

and perfectly enough thick. There are thousands of types of Sans-Serif fonts believe it or not. It is definitely the font that is most used

so there are many kinds for people to choose. It is officially informal, but can sometimes be

used in formal shapes.

The New York Times magazine is a NYC daily papers. It is a graphic serif font. This is the choice for this magazine because it is very rear and yet NYT are world wide famous and read. Now this particular type of letters is ‘OW English text MI’. It is very unique because it gives off this majestic serious look. The font indicates back into 16th or 17th

century and it tells that the magazine is old, like It is, since it was started in 1851.

Peppermint magazine is a home magazine, it writes about interior, families, pets and life in general. The

font used here is Script. It is usually an elegant font so in this case here it is a mix of elegant and childish

style. Childish because it is script but not too serious caused by elegance, it is relaxed. Yet it is bold so it is

more eye catchy. This kind of font gives away a hippie impression.

Vogue. Magnificent VOGUE. Very simple yet very luxurious. It is the most prestige fashion magazine in the world. It is serif font, formal and simple but still not plain. It is always of a same size. It is eye catchy because of its size and it is also recognizes all around the world.

IGCSE; AS; A levelsStudying tips

Quizzes

The effect of

technology on

the world

School canteen

School yard, basketball

court and nature

creativity

Exclusive! Interview with

the school principle.

Front cover draft

Front cover rough draft

Content page rough draft

FINAL front cover design

Final content page design

Evaluation• My task was to design and create a school magazine front cover and a content

page. After researching for school magazine I realized that the front cover and content page have to follow specific design conventions. Most magazines are

composed out of following design criteria such as: Heading, Subheading, Main cover line, Sub cover lines, straplines etc. It is mandatory to do 2-3 front cover analysis and 2-3 content page analysis. After the analysis the questionnaire is done. The questionnaire is there to give me information on what colors, fonts etc. , should I use in my front cover and content page. Media language is very

important to be used in these kind of tasks. It emphasizes the media professionalism. While doing my preliminary task I used semi-formal writing.

While doing my task I have gained many skills that I am thankful to. First of all the skill of very fast typing since I always have limited time to write something

out. My analytical skills have improved tremendously just like my planning, research and production too.

• In conclusion it has definitely taught me a lot and I am very happy that I had this task to complete by a certain deadline.