First school magazine front cover.

After using the results from my survey, I have created my  final design for my magazine front cover.  I will then create a second magazine front cover once I get feedback off my audience. The people who answered my survey told me it is better to not have the logo for the school, therefore I changed where the logo would of been to a PUFF which says 'Free enrichment program inside' This makes the audience more involved as they may want a copy in which they was not able to get before. The audience told me to keep both the masthead and the slogan the same, therefore I did not change the rest of the top third of the front cover.

The audience did say that my main image should be in the middle, however I did not want the cover lines on both sides of the main image, because it would make the front cover look too busy. Again the only problem with my main image, even though it is a mid shot of someone doing their work, which promotes education, I feel the model should look at the camera, with a direct mode of address to show that the audience should feel engaged with the magazine.  

Therefore I went to take more photos that I could link to a suitable anchor text. I chose a mid shot photo of the sixth form students completing their art work as I thought it helps connote to the audience that the school is very serious about their work and it shows that students are allowed to flourish in creativity within this school. 

The cover lines were chosen by the people who completed my survey, they said out of the selection of cover lines I had thought of, these were the most appropriate to the school and the front cover. The colour of the coverlines are all different colours to help each one stand out from the other, keeping in mind that they need to contrast well with the background. I chose the colours red, black and white as they are the colours of the school which makes the front cover more personal to the school. The coverlines help to connote schools passion for education as that is what the majority of the cover lines are about. Even though the cover lines do not have any catchy phrases, I thought it would be stronger to show the audience that these articles are straight to the point instead of trying to reel in the audience through comedy and language features. Also to the audience, it connotes that the school does not just care about their Key stage 3 and 4 students but in fact key stage 5 students as well. 

If I were to improve this piece I may put taglines underneath the cover lines to explain them further. The anchor text is bold and in capitals to show that the audience that this is the most important thing for the audience to read. I used the font ‘castellar’ on both the anchor text and cover lines to help show a sense of sophistication to the audience and as I feel this font is appropriate and clear. In addition I thought using the colour white would create a nice contrast to the background where the anchor text has been placed. I added the tagline I 'come to Plantsbrook on the 22nd October for a look around our school..' This creates a sense of mystery as they need to come and have a look at the article otherwise they are not going to understand what is happening. I used a personal pronoun of 'Our' which helps the audience feel that this front cover was made by someone who is in relation to the school. Similarly using this tag line helps to connote to the audience that we are all connected.

 Finally I used a slogan 'be the best that you can be' As this is the school's motto. To the audience this symbolizes  a positive and challenging attitude towards the students. Making this look more appealing as they are keeping this attitude through their different media platforms.