This document provides details on the design elements of a sixth form magazine created by the author. It describes the front cover which features the main image of a school student representative and coverlines on either side. It also summarizes the masthead design process which involved changing fonts and colors to improve readability. Finally, it outlines the contents page layout which links the interior pages to the cover design through consistent colors, fonts, and imagery related to articles.

1. B Y R I T A P R O T A S I E WI C Z
MY SIXTHFORM
MAGAZINE

2. FRONT COVER
• This is the front cover for my
sixthform magazine
• A problem that I struggled with
since the beginning was that
the photograph was taken
landscape instead of portrait. I
overcame this problem by
resizing the image so that it fit
into an A4 page and stayed in
proportion.
• I believe the front cover is
attractive to sixthform students
because it is lively and school
appropriate.

3. MASTHEAD
• I started off with a simple, white typography over my
background. What I noticed was that the masthead was
quite difficult to read over the background.
• The first step that I took to improve the masthead was
changing the typography to one that was bolder and was
easier to read. I enlarged the title and positioned it so that
‘Beyond’ was above ‘the Blazer’. I did this as it looked more
attractive and we read from left to right. Also, I changed the
colour to blue as it stood out against the background. Finally, I
changed the typography of ‘the’ as I wanted the emphasis
on the main words in the masthead.
• In the end, I once again changed the colour from blue to
orange because orange is a connotation of the season
Autumn and that is when I would like this issue to be
published. Complex sixthform magazines are usually
published every season and I wanted it to be the same for my
magazine. Also, Autumn is the new start to a school year and
it would be the most appropriate to represent my magazine
in this way. The final step was to give my masthead a drop
shadow so that it stood out against the background even
more.

4. THE MAIN IMAGE
• For my main image I used a school student
that I believed illustrated a school role
model. I believe this is suitable for a sixthform
magazine front cover as it is who students
look up to. I took the photograph using a
Cannon camera and the aperture priority
setting. I made sure my model was looking
straight at the lens to connect with the
audience. Also, I took a mid-shot from the
waist up. The props I used was a bench, for
the subject to sit on, and a folder for them to
hold. This represented the subject in its
natural environment and what is expected
of a student.

5. ANCHORAGE TEXT
• I included an anchorage
text just below the
masthead to attract the
audience to one of the
main articles in the
magazine.
• I used a tag ‘Exclusive’ to
engage the reader more
and make the interview
sound better than it
actually is.
• To make the anchorage
text stand out more than
the other text on the front
cover I used a drop
shadow.

6. COVERLINES
• I placed my coverlines on either side of the main image. This
goes against the right-hand side rule however, I decided to
do this because one side of the cover would have looked
empty otherwise. I decided to only include the essential
articles from the magazine that sounded most interesting. I
noticed that with a black font it was very difficult to read,
therefore I changed the font to white as this worked better.
However, to improve and make the coverlines easier to read, I
could have created a drop shadow.

7. PUG
• The freebie that I decided to include
with the magazine was an apple
MacBook. This is suitable because
students can use laptops in school to
complete their school work and use
it for research. The explanation mark
gives more emphasis and makes the
prize more exciting. To make it stand
out more and make it more
attractive I used a spiky, orange
shape and an image of the prize.
Once again I decided to use the
colour orange to link back to the
Autumn theme.

8. CONTENTS PAGE
• This is the contents page of my
sixthform magazine.
• I made sure the contents page
linked to the cover page as it is
part of the same magazine. I did
this by keeping the same
typography – to allow in-house –
and the same colour scheme –
house colours.
• The background of the contents
page blends in with the white
background. I though this effect
made the contents page more
interesting and once again
linked back to the green colour
scheme.

9. TITLE
• The typography that I used was Bauhaus 93 and this
was the same font for the masthead for the front
cover page.
• The colour I used was orange to reflect back to the
Autumn theme and the new start to the school
year.
• I started off with only having the title and no effects
on it. I realised later that with the drop shadow the
word ‘Contents’ stood out more against the
background.

10. SUBTITLE + COVERLINES
• I used the subtitle ‘What to expect in this
months issue’ above the coverlines. This is
effective because it introduces a whole
block of text.
• For my coverlines, I made sure the page
numbers were in red so that it did not blend
in with all the text, therefore articles are then
easier to find. Also, I separated the page
numbers with the ‘|’ so that it was not part of
the text.
• I used the same typography as the front
cover page so that in-house was illustrated
all the way through the magazine.

11. IMAGES
• I took all the photographs myself using a Cannon
camera. The school environment was the most
appropriate because, after all, it is a sixthform
magazine.
• I took a before and an after picture that linked to
one of my articles. This was the chair scandal
article where there was not enough chairs in the
common room. However, once more chairs where
brought in, there was not enough tables. I
illustrated this by having a photograph of neatly
placed chairs and then an after picture of chairs
being left all over the place.
• The 3rd image links to the article about county
champions in planking and I got the subjects to
plank.
• The final image is of the ‘Quiet Study Room’ and
this once again links back to one of my articles.
• To make the images stand out against the
background I used a drop shadow.