Front Covers
· A common colour scheme
· A picture of a student relevent to the magazine
· Articles down the side
· A professional finish
The first magazine has taken a more professional look on things, giving an impression of a higher class school. The picture on the front is a good example for any school magazine photo. The picture is of a girl wearing goggles, indicating she is involved in science in some way. She is smiling while she is doing her experement. This shows us that she enjoys being at the school and learning, giving a positive impression to education. She is dressed all in green to match the common colour scheme of the magazine.
The colour scheme is green all the way through. The girl is wearing green, the schools badge/logo is green, and the background is a mixture of white, red and yellow. All of these colours blend together perfectly to give a professional feel to the magazine. A good scheme of colours is useful to have on any magazine so it is easy on the eyes. If there are too many colours on the cover, the reader will be less inclined to read it due to confusion.
The title is very visable in this magazine. It takes a subtle attempt to catch the readers eye. It does this because it consists of a grey font against a white background. This is good because it catches the eye without stealing the spotlight off all the other magazine elements. The main eye-catcher of the magazine is the girl. This is because it is centred on the cover and is clearly mean to be the first thing we look at. This is a common technique used in magazine covers.
The second magazine has taken a more stylish attempt at a front cover. You can tell this right from the start because of the colour scheme and the layout of things.
The picture is also of a girl, which seems to be common in most magazines I have seen. The picture shows a girl looking into the distance as if unaware that the picture is being taken. Her skin tone and background has been blurred out, while her clothes have been made more vibrent. This sets the colour scheme as a blue/pink. This really draws the eye towards her and is successful at capturing peoples attention. The blue/pink is common throughout the cover, including the articles and title.
The articles are only listed down the right side of the magazine. This is so to as not draw attention away from the picture of the girl, which seems to be the main selling point. Along with the the title stands out very well. The title stands out because it is a deep blue agains the washed-out background.
Both of these magazines are perfect examples of good school magazine covers. They both provide a feel of what the magazine will be like and what it will contain.
This is the third magazine i looked at. It was fairly simmilar to the other two, but it is also quite different in a few ways. As in the others, it has a picture of a girl on the front cover, but unlike the other pictures the girl has not been in clear view. The text has been written over the picture of the girl. This technique is uncommon because usuallly the picture is clear in the magazines and not covered. While this may be true, the picture of the schoolgirl is still the main eye-catcher of the whole front cover.
The main colour scheme is another shade of green, which seems to be common in a lot of school magazines, possibly because green envokes certain emotions and is an interesting colour to look at. There is a secondary colour scheme, which is a pink/purple mixed with a black title. All of these colours blend together well which is unusual because they are on opposite ends of the spectrum. This is a nice change from the usual dull black and whites that are commonly seen in magazines nowadays.
The articles featured are relevent to school life, and are clearly aimed at the younger people, possibly students of the school. The articles contain font colours which are less visable which helps keep the attention focused completely on the picture which like in all the other magazines, is the main selling point.
The title has been made a lot more visable and cooler than in the other magazines. This is because it is a deep black that stands out clear against the clear brick wall of the school.
All of the elements featured in this magazine help to make the cover stylish and interesting. It is quite different from the other two covers i have analysed but is still in the same genre as the others. Personally I find this magazine more interesting than the others just by judgeing the front cover. I am more drawn to this magazine because it looks like it may contain some fun stories and is 'sold' better. If i was to buy any of these then I would be more compelled to buy "Fly" magazine.
Contents Pages
I have decided to analyse two contents pages for the school magazines. This will give me a good idea of what the contents pages should look like, and what mine will look like when its finished.
This is quite a good example of a contents page. It is relevent to the school magazine theme and contains a lot of good elements. It gives a clear view of what the magazine will contain and what the audience can expect by reading it.
The colour scheme in this magazine is a bright pink, which catches your attention easily. The title along with the text boxes and subtitle are all pink. This is good because it keeps the blend of colours running well throughout the whole page. If there were too many colours then it would become too 'Loud' and possible unreadable. Most of the magazines i have looked at contain one theme colour, instead of a lot of colours mixed together.
The page contains a vareity of pictures related to schooling, which help the whole page stay interesting and make it easier to read.
This magazine contents page contains a lot more imagery and colour than the other one I looked at. It has a very bright yellow/violet theme which stands out really well agains the white background. This is obviously aimed at a younger audience and is attempting to be stylish and 'cool'. I think that the colours make it look a lot less professional so I do not think i will use a colour scheme simmilar to this for my magazine.
The text on this magazine is all written at angles which fits in with the stylish theme of the page. This method is not very clear and I believe it makes the page nearly unreadable. The pictures in the contents page are all related to the stories in the magazine and have page numbers above them to indicate stories. This is quite a good method of showing the reader what the articles in the magazine will be like later on.
This magazine contents page contains a lot more imagery and colour than the other one I looked at. It has a very bright yellow/violet theme which stands out really well agains the white background. This is obviously aimed at a younger audience and is attempting to be stylish and 'cool'. I think that the colours make it look a lot less professional so I do not think i will use a colour scheme simmilar to this for my magazine.
The text on this magazine is all written at angles which fits in with the stylish theme of the page. This method is not very clear and I believe it makes the page nearly unreadable. The pictures in the contents page are all related to the stories in the magazine and have page numbers above them to indicate stories. This is quite a good method of showing the reader what the articles in the magazine will be like later on.
Planning
After finishing looking at 3 seperate magazines I have decided to move on the the planning task. This will involve me planning my front cover and contents page for a school magazine of my choice. I have decided to name it.
first I thought of some good names for the magazine. I though of,
- Playground magazine
- Sixth-Teens
- Learnerholics
next i decided which pictures i would use and which ones i did not want to use.
The pictures i decided to use were:
this image for the front cover. I chose this because it represented the typical school children, who looked happy to be there.
i also chose this picture because everybody in it looked happy and like they were in deep conversation. The picture was taken outside near trees and the building. This made the scene seem brighter and happier
Front cover:
My plan for my front cover was fairly basic. I included headings that were relative to the topic it was on. I chose a bright heading that would stand out against the pictures and text I chose.
After making my draft I decided to start on my final cover.
I decided that i should change the background from a plain white to a more vibrant blue. This made it look more professional and did help make the front cover more appealing to the eye.
I also added an image of 4 people looking happy while at school, implying that the magazine was something more special than any other.
The font i added was fairly informal but also stylish, i made it red so it was readable against the image, but also consistant.
Contents:
After that I began to design what i wanted my contents page to look like. I decided it should be quite simple but also eye catching. The design i came up with was:
I did a basic grid format for my contents, and then added page numbers for the stories i had advertised. i also had a quite basic title that stood out clearly from the rest of the page. It was fairly formal and was stylish. The blue made it stand out and would help it catch the eye of the audience
After planning my contents page i had a fair idea of what i wanted it to look like. I then began to design and edit it for my final page. what i came up with was:
I stuck with the idea of a basic page. I thought that this would make it quick to read and would get straight to the point. I believed that this would make the whole magazine look professional while keeping a more dashing effect that would interest the young people who would be reading it.
