Final School magazine cover

My final school magazine cover

The first change I made from the draft was increasing the size of the title. This made the cover look much neater and by moving the title 'spring update' to the underneath it also looks much more organised. I straightened the images on the left hand side and added borders, I prefer this to the draft because its bolder and stops the images from blending to the background. The text was my next change, I changed the size of the text box so the writing didn't overlap the image, this made it much easier to read. In my previous research I looked at what year seven students wanted in a school magazine, I included bright colours and highlighted changes around school, giving them an interest in the topics. I also included sixth form news again to widen my target demographic. The final change I made was the schools logo which I added underneath the three image, I added this as its a key part of the schools identity.

Rough draft of school magazine

This is my first rough draft of my school magazine. From this draft can quite a lot of different things I can change to make it better and of a higher quality.

• The title
•  Images in the same position/straight
• writing next to images clearer and make vertical so it does not overlap the image
• A logo or a sticker to be added
• borders around the images

Final photos

These are my final images for my school magazine. I chose the art gallery as my main location mainly because of the lighting and perspective it gives the photo.

 I needed an image of a student in a medium close up for my cover photo. This photo is my favorite because its the most natural. I also like the contrast of the black background and the light.

This photo is too busy to use as a cover photo, I like the composition but when headings and other images are added on top of this image it maybe hard to read.

I tried to capture this image while the students were walking and not expecting it, so it looked more natural and not posed.

I also wanted to include something connected to upper school and sixth form to widen my target demographic. This image is of  member of the sixth form council.

Focus group

During class we spoke to a focus group of year seven students as they will be the target audience for this school magazine. During this time we asked them what they would prefer to see in their school magazine.

Year 7 students

Every half term
school trips upcoming
photos of previous school trips
term dates
thoughts on changes around school/opinions
thought for the week
staff department profiles
bright colours
competitions
menus
funny stories about teachers

Photo location ideas

Location idea 

I went on a 'recce' around the school to collect images of possible location ideas for my final photos.

 Common Room stairs














 Art room corridor

 Lockers

 Tech block

 B floor corridor

Art Gallery 

Deconstruction of school magazines

My first piece of work towards the preliminary task is to deconstruct previous school magazine covers.

The Griffin school

This school magazine is a poor example of a school magazine, this is clear due to firstly the colour scheme. A light grey, purple and black colour scheme has been used and makes the magazine look untidy and unprofessional which contrasts the idea of a formal and professional photograph used. The shade of purple used on the sticker is also much lighter than the shade used on the banner this makes the magazine look unorganized. There is a lack of continuity with presentation on this magazine cover for example some of the text headings are in black and underlined and others are not, the font also varies this makes the magazine look put together with little care. The image used on the cover is well cut but the background is plain with only text this leaves quite large gaps with only background so perhaps a image background could have been used instead to make it more interesting and eye catching.


Hampton school

Hampton schools magazine is very different from the Griffins as it is immediately more eye catching. The colour scheme is only two colours which makes it appear very organized and well presented. The magazine also hasn't got any text snippets and instead uses images to show what the magazine is going to focus on. The Hampton magazine cover is a lot busier and has much more information on one page than the Griffin but the layout makes it look more professional.