This document provides guidance on designing the cover of a school magazine. It recommends including key elements like the school name and date, a main cover image, and teasers for inside articles. Pictures are important to engage readers and show school activities. Fonts and layout should stand out and guide the eye around the cover. The target audience is parents and prospective students, so the design needs excitement while appealing to adults. Overall this cover design advice focuses on clarity, visual interest, and audience needs.

1. Louisa Hill

2. Masthead
Cover lines
Secondary
stories/Teaser
stories
Main image
Main cover line
Give aways
Date issued
These are to
interest the reader
into reading the
rest of the articles
in the magazine.
This is to tell the
reader what the
main focus of
the magazine is.
Theses are extra
articles that are
included.
Images make the
magazine appear
more interesting
and therefore they
appeal to the
reader more if
they have an
aesthetically
pleasing image on
the front.
If there are free
giveaways, people
feel more inclined to
buy the magazine as
they are getting more
for their money.
This is the name of the magazine. When people
see this, they know who this magazine has come
from and therefore can decide whether they
want to buy from that company or not.

3. This magazine works well because of the
colours and text used that capture the eye of
the audience. The main story is made clear to
the reader meaning they know straight away
what the focus of the magazine is. Along with
this, they have a few teaser stories which
means the audience are made aware that
there are other articles that they may be
interested in.

4. Picture of the school
A picture of the main
building in the school
makes for a good
cover as it is
recognisable to
students.
The date issued
Name of school
This is key to the
magazine as it
tells the reader
what this
magazine is
about.
Pictures
Adding exciting
pictures to the
front cover mean
people want to
read the
magazine as they
are interested in
the extra
curricular activities
that take place at
the school
Message from the
head teacher
For parents this is good
as it shows that the
head teacher has a
lot of involvement with
the students and
school.

5. What works well with this magazine is the
pictures that are on the front cover. This is
good because it will interest pupils, parents
and other parents who may want to join the
school. It shows what the school do outside of
school as well as inside. Along with this, the
clear heading at the top of the page is good
as straight away you know that you’re reading
about a school and what they get up to.

6. What do you expect to see in a magazine?
Sports results
Reviews of new music
Reviews of new films
Editorial
Articles about school life
Upcoming events
A message from the head
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How much do you expect a school magazine to cost?
Free ||||||||||||
How often should a school magazine be published?
Daily |||

7. This is a good front cover. I like the use of the
different fonts used for the text as well as the
boxes the text is put in as it makes it stand out.
Along with this, I think the positioning of the
image is good as it allows the text and title to
really ‘show off’.
I believe is could make something similar to
this, my only problem would be with the
shapes and text as I’m not completely sure
how they work on photo shop yet.

8. This would be for parents/grandparents/carers so
would have to appeal to adults aged about 30 +.
Along with this, it needs to appeal to new students so
should have an element of excitement.
The progressing students. TPS.
This will be an image of a priory school student. This will
cover most of the cover and there will be various text
around them.
The main story will be about the recent trip the school
went on to Learn to Live.
The other images will be of the main school.
The grades the school have been getting in their
results for the past 5 years. Also I will include the extra
curricular activities that take place during and after
school.
I will include different fonts and colours (red, black,
white) to fit with the schools ‘theme’.
It will have a plain white background as this way all the
focus will be on the images and text.
The main images will be outside the school, the
background of the student picture will also be in the
grounds of the school. This way it creates an idea of
what the school grounds are like.

9. Initial designs

12. What I’ve learnt
Making this magazine, I’ve learnt how to use photo shop slightly better as I’ve been able to work out how
to use different effects that make a magazine more affective and eye catching. The tools I learnt about
meant I was able to change certain pictures along with insert different styles of text to my cover and
contents page.
Along with this, I learnt about what an audience would want in a magazine, especially in a school
magazine. They would expect to have free-be’s along with a lot of information and statistics about the
school.
I also learnt about the layout of magazines as you have to be very precise with where you are placing
things. For example, if the background is dark, you have to think about the colour of the text as it may not
be visible, with this, the magazine is of poor quality.