The document outlines 17 tasks for creating a magazine, including researching magazine conventions, brainstorming ideas, creating mood boards for covers and contents pages, planning a photo shoot, defining the target audience, and drafting an article. The tasks provide guidance and examples for conceptualizing every element of designing an original magazine.

1. MAGAZINE TASKS
You must complete the following tasks, print them
off and put in your Research and Planning folder.

2. Task 1
Explain what the codes and conventions of a
magazine front cover, contents page and main
article are.
This will result in 3 different pages that will go inside
your folder.
Front Page Contents
Page
Main Article

3. Front Page Example

4. Contents Page Example

5. Main Article Example

6. Task 2
Brainstorm 10 ideas that your magazine could be
based on.
My
Magazine
Ideas

7. Task 3
Create a mood-board of images of front covers
that will inspire your own front cover .

8. Task 4
Referring to your mood-board choose 3 covers that you
really like and explain what you like about them / how they
will inspire your own front cover.
You should discuss:
• Layout
• Photography
• Colour Scheme
• Use of text / Fonts
• Anything else?
Example: I really like the use of pastel pink for the
background of this magazine cover because it
looks stylish and grabs the readers attention. There
is a lot of creativity in how the model is presented
and the simple layout further makes the magazine
look stylish. The bold fonts are easy to use and the
variety of fonts makes the page more interesting to
look at.

9. Task 5
Once you have decided on the type of magazine you will
create you must research magazine names of that type of
magazine that already exist. To evidence this create a
brainstorm of magazine names that will inspire your own.
Existing
Music
Magazine
Names
NME
Clash
Q Music
Rolling Stone

10. Task 6
Referring to your magazine research create a list of names
that you could use for your own magazine. You can present
this how you want but be creative!

11. Task 7
Evidence research of the different fonts used for magazine
names and create a mood-board or brainstorm to evidence
this.
Find at least 10
example names
to refer to.

12. Task 8
Evidence examples of the different types of fonts you will
use in your magazine, for a higher mark explain why you
think the are effective.

13. Task 9
Create a mood-board of images of contents pages
that will inspire your own contents page.

14. Task 10
Referring to your mood-board choose 2 contents pages
that you really like and explain what you like about them /
how they will inspire your own front cover.
You should discuss:
• Layout
• Photography
• Colour Scheme
• Use of text / Fonts
• Anything else? Example: I really like the simplistic layout of this
contents page and the creativity of the fonts used
in the title of the page. I think the image is
interesting too and the colour within it make the
contents page more interesting to look at.

15. Task 11
Create a mood board of at least 10 images of models that
will inspire your own photography shoot. The inspiration
may link to:
• Models pose
• Models clothes / Props
• Locations
• Use of lighting
• Any other points you can think of

16. Task 12
Plan 10 photos that you will take in your photography
shoot. Highlight the framing and other technical details, you
may also want to comment on location, clothing and the
who the model will be.

17. Task 13
Create a contact sheet detailing the photos you have
collected from a recent photography shoot..

18. Task 14
From your contact sheet decide upon specific images that
you will use in your magazine and explain why you want to
use them.

19. Task 15
You must create a PowerPoint presentation detailing who
the target audience of your magazine is. Within the
presentation you will discuss their Age, Gender, Ethnicity
Social Class and Location.
See the following slides for
guidance on each area

20. TARGET AUDIENCE
GUIDANCE

21. Age
What age group will your product be targeted at? Will it be
teenagers, young adults, middle aged or elderly people?
It may be a very wide audience or very specific
You must explain why you have decided upon the audience
you have chosen

22. Gender
• Will your product target a particular gender or will it target
both genders
• Why is your product suitable to the gender/s you have
specified?

23. Location
• How will your product be distributed?
• Will it a local audience, a British audience (national) or a
International audience (worldwide)
• Remember ideally you will want to eventually reach as
wide an audience as possible

24. Class
Class can be broken into the following areas:
Who will your target audience be regarding class?
Think about who would be most interested in your
product and why?

25. Ethnicity
Does your product target a particular ethnic group? If so
why or why not?

26. Task 16
Evidence a draft version of the writing that will make up
your article. Support this with an explanation of what your
article will discuss and provide evidence of other articles
that are similar to your own.
My article will be made
up of an interview and will
discuss…

27. Task 17
Highlight the difference between a niche and a mainstream
magazine with images. Explain which your magazine will
be and why.