Front Cover

This is my finished school magazine front cover and contents page for my preliminary task. The target audience for my magazine are sixth formers that are boys and girls aged 16 - 18. I chose this audience as I myself am in sixth form so I thought it would be easier for me to get an idea of what my audience would be interested in and what they wouldn't be interested in. 

Front Cover

To get an idea of what to do for my school magazine I researched many others before beginning to see what route I wanted to go down. I decided that I wanted to use a green screen so I could use a different plain background to have my main image - the sixth formers, stand out. I took some pictures in front of the green screen using Isabel, Jojo, Kim and Georgia as my model sixth formers for my main image. I decided to use this one for the front cover:

I chose this one as all four of them would fill the front cover and the main image would be central and stand out. I removed the green screen using Final Cut Pro using the keying feature, I had a few problems at first but finally managed to put on a plain background that I had chose. 

As I didn't use a green sheet for the floor I had to crop there feet out so it didn't look out of place. I then cropped it to the size I wanted it to be then I began to put on more magazine features such as the masthead, cover lines and issue date. Using a mix of the web app Fotor and Word I added these features.

Masthead: I created the masthead using Fotor and chose this font as it was bold and it enabled the masthead to stand out against the white background. I decided to go with that colour as the school's logo is red and in order to maintain a house style I wanted to stick with just a few colours. I made the font big as it's the masthead and it needs to be seen. However I could've made it bigger so that it wasn't a close size to the main cover line. I put the word 'times' underneath so I could put the school logo next to 'Southfield' so the masthead and logo would be associated with each other as a brand.

Main Image: My main image takes up most of the cover as it's the focal point of the magazine. I used sixth formers from Southfield school as the target audience are sixth formers at Southfield and it's clear who the magazine is aimed at.

Main Cover Line: The main cover line is in a different colour and font to the masthead and the rest of the cover lines as it needs to be different in able to catch the attention of the customer, as it's the cover line that gets them to buy the magazine. It's central of the magazine above the main image so it's clear and doesn't clash with anything on the cover. It doesn't detract too much attention from the main image and it's in black to show the continuity of house style. 

Dateline: The dateline is in the upper right corner as it's not the dateline that attracts customers. It's not something that many are concerned about so it's not a focal point of the magazine. However it can still easily be found as it's in black that stand out from the white background.

Coverlines: I made the boxes that my cover lines are in a black and transparent in order for them to be clear and easy to read over the main image. I didn't wan't the cover lines to not be seen and blend in with the main image as it's important that the customers can see them as it's what attracts them to buy the magazine. I used red, green and orange to maintain a house style and because some of those colours matched the main image. I used the same font for them all as I didn't want to use too many different ones otherwise it would like untidy and it's important to maintain a theme.

Contents Page

For my contents page I used the same method as I did for my front cover in that I used Final Cut Pro to get rid of the green screen with the keying feature. I used the same background as the front cover to continue the theme. 

For my main image I used just one sixth former Kim, as I needed more room on this page to write about the contents. 

I decided to put Kim on the left hand side of the page to create more space and to make the words more clear instead of putting them on top of the main image. 

I used the same font for the word 'contents' and used the logo as well to show the brand and for the magazine to flow. Also on this page I used the same fonts I'd previously used on the front cover, the same colours and style to incorporate the idea of house style. For all this, similarly to my front cover I used a mix of Fotor and Word.