Preliminary Task- School magazine front cover design

School magazine front cover design analysis

1. From my primary research I found that my target
audience of parents would want to buy the
magazine once a year. Therefore it would be a
yearly issue covering topics from all year round.
Therefore, at the top of the magazine, I will have
the year of the edition- ‘2014 edition’ so that the
audience knows it’s current and up to date.
The masthead will be ‘School Times’
so that the topic of the magazine is
clear. I will have smaller text under
this that describes what the
magazine will be about. E.g. ‘keeping
you up to date and involved with
your child’s education’. This will
make the audience keen to read the
magazine to find ways to help their
children.
The colour scheme of
the magazine will be
dark colours to make
the magazine look
professional and appeal
to the audience.
However, there will still
be bold aspects to
make key topics stand
out. The background of
the magazine will be
white and the text will
be black to contrast
against the background
and stand out. I will
have the headings of
the straplines e.g.
‘achievements’, ‘plus’
and ‘information’ in
metallic coloured boxes
to make them stand
out. This is so that it’s
clear to the audience
what the straplines are
about. Metallic colours
also connote medals
and success which
would further appeal to
the audience.
I will have the web
address of the school
website to show that
parents can also find
information about
the school on the
website. There will
also be Facebook
and Twitter icons to
show that the school
also has social media
pages relating to the
magazine.

I will use a mid-close
up of the head boy in
front of the sixth
form building as the
main image of my
magazine to appeal
to the audience. It
allows the audience
to see the Sixth Form
building a student
with a key role in the
school. The student
will be smiling and
looking happy to
show that he enjoys
school.
I will have the
strapline ‘upcoming
school trips and
events for 2015’ in a
metallic circled colour
to make it stand out
as my research
showed me this was a
topic parents were
especially interested
in.
The straplines ‘student success’ and ‘upcoming
university open days’ will appeal to the audience
as it shows that the school has lots of students
that are successful and high achievers. It implies
that students will go on to university. It also
suggests that the school supports the students
and helps them get into university.