The student designed a front cover for a school magazine that featured a close-up photo of a student as the focal point with additional text snippets about school-related topics around the edges, and they created a contents page with article titles and page numbers. Audience research informed the design process, and the student took the photo and used Photoshop to edit and lay out the cover. Some areas for improvement include capitalizing cover text, changing font sizes, and adding relevant photos to the contents page.

1. By Emily Higgs

2. Bold heading in bright
red immediately
captivates the reader
The use of slang words
such as ‘you’ for ‘u’
makes the title seem
much more current
and relatable to the
target audience of
teenagers.
Tips and tricks for
revision appeal to
most of the school
population especially
those studying for A-
levels and GCSE’s.
Even includes a few
topics that it will
cover, made more
prominent and
easier to read by the
red box .
Price clearly
displayed.
Website and location of
school, allow people to
receive further
information
Interview with Lorraine
Laternser who could be the
student pictured on the
front written again in bold,
indicating this article may
take up quite a lot of the
magazine or be of higher
importance. Having an
interview with a student
also makes the magazine
much more engaging, as
readers, who most likely will
be pupils, can read an
article from the viewpoint
of someone who they can
relate to.
Date also clearly displayed
in bold font, with small
subheading to highlight the
fact that it’s the new official
magazine for the school.
The front cover is very
word heavy, with
numerous
subheadings ,
making the page
quite hard to
decipher. Some of
the subheadings
could be shortened
considerably to make
the cover much more
visually appealing
and easier to read.
Additionally as many
of the subheadings
are in a bold font, its
hard to tell what is
the main article.
The background makes the whole
cover look over complicated, if
they had used a more plain
background, with the student and
subheadings etc. it would make
the cover look much more
professional and make it easier for
readers to focus on the separate
subheadings.

3. This cover is relatively
simplistic with a fairly basic
colour scheme of red, blue
and black, this makes the
article very straight forward
to read and the reader
immediately aware of what
the magazine is going to
feature.
Bold title instantly
suggests this is a
school magazine and
will be issued on a
weekly basis,
featuring a range of
articles.
Clear date displayed in the
top right hand corner
Main image is of a
school girl holding a
notebook, wearing
her own clothing,
suggesting she is a
sixth former. Also
suggests the target
audience would be
teenagers at school,
as well as their
parents who may
want to know what's
going on at their
child's school.
Cover story
highlighted by bold
blue font, advertising
the year 11 GCSE
grades. Doesn’t seem
to contain many
other stories due to
the lack of
subheadings on the
front cover. Therefore
the reader doesn’t
know exactly what
will be inside.
Rhetorical question addresses the
reader and makes them feel more
involved, leading onto tips on exam
preparation, which would appeal to
the majority of teenagers wanting
to prepare for up coming exams.
There is no price displayed
for this magazine
suggesting it could be
complimentary to being a
member of the school,
again making it more
appealing.
Features some
examples of exclusive
photographs from
the year 11 prom,
captivating potential
readers and making
them want to see
more.

4. The press magazine has a relatively simplistic design, with a striking, eye catching title and
only a few subheadings for featured articles. The heading is written in large font, similar to
that of separate letters cut out from a magazine titles. Due to its large size it immediately
captivates the reader and instantaneously gives the reader an idea of what the magazine
will contain.
The subheadings include; ‘A level results’, ‘6 form transformation’ and ‘Academy OR
Comprehensive’ which suggest the magazine is for a school and aimed at students going
into sixth form as well as students near to finishing sixth form.
The student has made this magazine look quite professional due to its clear, simple layout
and basic colouring, with an central image of what appears to be a student.
The contents page is also quite simplistic and clearly organised, with a bold title, including
images corresponding with their articles and page numbers for all of these.
To improve, they could include some of the prime features of a magazine that they have
missed out, such as price, date, and a barcode. They could also maybe make their colouring
more vibrant, as this would make it much more visually appealing to the reader and in turn
generate more sales. Additionally they could have focused on an image of someone who
looks more like a student, as this is the basis for the magazine and the current man looks too
old to be a student and isn’t dressed appropriately. They could have also maybe included
more subheadings, as currently the cover looks quite sparse.
I would say that they have fulfilled the brief, as the majority of their work follows that of a
regularly published magazine, however they are missing a few key features.
I think I would be able to produce a similar work to this, it would require good skills on software
such as Photoshop, so I would need to practise using Photoshop beforehand.

5. AS Media Studies Preliminary Task – School Magazine Front Page Proposal Form
Target audience:
(age range, interests)
Although it is a school newsletter you still have to think about
your audience and how to appeal to them.
The target audience for my magazine will be school children, and thus it has to have features which
will apply and appeal to them. For example, upcoming events as well as crosswords and other
various types of puzzle.
Possible title ideas:
(masthead / title block)
What is your magazine going to be called?
I have been considering titles which are short and snappy such as Speak, as it sounds very
memorable and also applies to the actual theme of the magazine.
Main image:
What will be the focal point of your front page, remember,
your work “must include a photograph of a student in a
medium close-up”
The main image will be a medium close up of a student.
Main cover line:
What will be the main story?
The main story will be either an exclusive insight to the ins and outs of parents evening, or how to
study effectively.
Additional key images:
What other images will be on your front cover?
Remember, it is a school magazine.
I may put other images relating to the other stories on the front cover and will include a logo of the
school, to make it obvious to which school the magazine is advertising.
Additional cover lines:
Other features, stories or selling points which will be inside the
magazine, these need to be audience appropriate.
Other cover stories will include an interview with a current sixth form student at the school and
study tips.
Typography:
(style, size, colour of copy)
Think about the writing and the style of the writing on your
front page.
The font will be relatively basic and of mono colour, to make it straight forward to read. Stories with
larger featured will be written in larger font, to show they hold greater importance to this specific
issue of the magazine.
Background colour/image:
What will be in the background, remember you don’t want
to take the focus away from the main image.
The background is the medium close up of a student.
Technical considerations:
(equipment, setting, props, costume, lighting)
Be realistic and creative, think about what you have access
to and how you could use it.
Iwill try to take a picture within good lighting so that I don’t have to edit the picture too much,
making It look overworked.

6. Our brief was to design a front cover for a school magazine and having previously
analysed various school magazines, I was able to take inspiration from the
layout/contents and effectively create my own. I firstly carried out some audience
research to give light to any essential features I may have forgotten about, or any
features which did not prove necessary to include. The highest scoring subsection was
school news, which is very self explanatory as it is what you primarily expect to see
within a school magazine, the next rated of high importance was up coming events,
and I got feed back that this was very important to many people as they want a
source that they can rely on for accurate information on events, such as school trips.
The lowest scoring subsection was concerts, which I would assume is because students
expect to see any school concerts advertised around school in the form of posters etc.
I then asked 10 people how much they would pay for a school magazine,
encompassing the fact that all proceeds go to a different charity each month. The
overall view was £1, which I had initially expected.

7. What do you expect to see in a school magazine?
Audience research
Sports results 8
Upcoming events 9
School news 10
concerts 3
Achievements 8
Editorial 7
Message from the head 4
How much do you expect a magazine to cost?
Free 4
£1 6
£2 0
£2+ 0

11.  I used adobe photo shop to do this, and took the central picture myself. I then suitably
adjusted the sizing and colouring of the picture, as the original photo was quite dark.
After this, I inserted text around the outer edges of the picture, all relating to school
themed topics, such as ‘how to revise’. I used solely black and white font, as this was
easy to read off of the background. I also used The priory School Logo on my magazine,
but cut away the background it initially came with, to give a more clean cut
appearance. If I were to make any improvements to the front cover, I would firstly
capitalize all of the first letters of any words to make each title a lot more prominent and
alter the font of the main title.
 I then began to create my contents page, which is only composed of a simplistic
background of the entrance of our school and bold black font detailing what the
magazine will contain. If I were to make any improvements, I would make this page a
lot more detailed, I would do this by placing relevant photos next to the correlating
articles, to give the reader a better idea of what each article will actually contain. I
may also change the colour and style of the font, as currently it doesn’t stand out very
much from its background.

15.  During this process I have learnt and reinforced many skills. Primarily before
this task, I had little experience of Adobe Photoshop, and so my capabilities
were very limited. However after some practise on the software, I am much
more confident in using it to create my work. I have also learnt how to
effectively take and choose the best picture to use on the front cover of a
magazine. Previously I hadn’t considered how much time and thought it
actually requires to take a good photo, how important the lighting and
positioning actually is, although after this experience I feel that this
knowledge will allow me to in the future to do this far quicker and overall
more efficiently.

16.  Overall I am happy with the outcome of my final design for my magazine
front cover, as I believe it looks very visually appealing and fits the brief,
adhering to the typical components of a school magazine and my initial
proposal.
 The colour scheme of black and white is very simple yet very effective as its
clear to what the magazine contains, with the featured articles distinct over
the background and the school logo located at the top left corner
immediately clear to the viewer.
 I also really like the title of ‘Speak’ as its short, snappy and very memorable
and it indicates that the magazine will contain stories from the viewpoints of
various people, students, teachers etc.