Preliminary Task- School Magazine

For the preliminary task, I had to research other school magazines, create drafts of a possible school magazine, then design a new school magazine on Publisher.

This is my finished design for the front cover of a new school magazine.

  I chose the title "the Eyes & Ears" because that implies that the magazine includes all the latest news, because it is the eyes and ears of the school, and can find out everything. The font of the title is in a

large green font, with a black outline so it stands out against the lighter green background and catches the buyer's eye.

  The slogan says "All the latest Emrys scandal!" in a different font to the title, and it is also underlined which grab's the reader's attention, suggesting that this magazine is the first for all Emrys' news.

  The graphical feature or logo of my magazine is a cartoon eye which fits in with the title "Eyes & Ears", and it looks as though the magazine is always on the look out for new gossip. It also reminds me of a Big Brother eye, which is constantly watching the housemates and knows everything that is going on in the house, as Eyes & Ears knows everything that goes on in Emrys.

  The price of the magazine is in a star shape, to attract the eye and to persude the buyer to buy it.

  The central image is of a boy looking into the distance in thought, and reaching off the page almost 'into' the magazine, and the anchorage text says "Reach into Joe's World" which fits in with the 'reaching' theme of the picture. This text is written in green and then duplicated and overlapped in white to make its stand out more against the green background. The other piece of anchorage text reads "Joe Gould speaks exclusively to Eyes & Ears about his long journey through High School". The use of the word 'exclusive' makes the reader want to read the article because it is the only magazine that is running that story. This text is alligned to the right and written in black which stands out against the background.
  One of the Puffs 'TEN TOP TIPS ON SURVIVNG YEAR SEVEN' is enclosed in a box and this and the text is overlapped by its copy, which makes it stand out against the black of the top of the boy and the green of the background. Another puff 'News of the football team's greatest victory' is surrounded by a dashed box which draws the eye to it and encourages the reader to read on. The news of how a reader could win a prize is written in bright red and cased in a red arrow which is pointing inside the magazine. The bright red grabs the reader's attention and makes them want to know more about the amazing prize, and therefore read on. The words 'News Gossip Scandal Rumour' underlined by a white arrow suggest that the magazine includes all of these and makes the reader want to read on and discover what all the news, gossip, scandal and rumour is.
 The people who would buy this magazine are teachers or pupils, and they would buy it to be kept up-to-date with all the news of Emrys and to read all the latest gossip concerning teachers, pupils, events etc.  
 

Analysing a Magazine Cover

I analysed the front cover of a well known magazine, to look at how front covers are put together in order to appeal to the buyer. The magazine I analysed was 'The Big Issue'. (below right)

 The title of the magazine does not suggest that it is actually 'big', because it is actually quite thin, but it suggests that the issue which the magazine supports is big. This charity is homelessness, which is definately a 'Big Issue'.

 The front cover of the magazine is very basic, with only one advertised story, and the blurb. The main image is a close-up shot of a red-haired woman's face looking shocked. The way that her face fills the whole page and there are no other pictues suggests that the story of the woman is the main one.

 The blurb states the date and issue number of the magazine in a contrasting colour to the woman's bright hair (green), and above that, the masthead, is witten in a large white font which stands out and makes the name of the magazine easy to read and recognise. The price and the amount which goes to charity is written in a contrasting, eye-catching green at the bottom of the page and the lime-green-text-on-red-background makes it stand out.

 The picture of the woman is anchored by her name "Kathy Burke" in large white text across her face. "I'm just a bit of a scally really!" is the text associated with the picture, which makes the reader want to buy and read the magazine to find out why she regards herself as a "scally".

 People would buy this magazine in order to give money to the people who sell the magazine, to help the homeless. It isn't a very appealing front cover so people may not be drawn to it if it were to be sold in a shop. Therefore people are inclined to buy it just for the charity appeal, even if they do not read it at all.

 The audience most likely to read the magazine are people who are genuinely interested in the cover story, or charitable people wishing to donate money.

 I don't think the front cover of this issue of The Big Issue is very interesting, as it is just the masthead, one picture of a woman's face and the anchorage text. I think the only way this magazine could make any money is to be sold on the street where people know it is for charity. I don;t think it would sell very well were it to be sold in a shop.

 http://www.bigissue.com/