Prelim Task

I was asked to design and produce the front page, and contents page, of a new school magazine for Acland Burghley. This was for the Prelim task before we started to create our real coursework magazines.

Firstly, before we did any changes on photoshop, My first task was to take a suitable photo that could go on the front page of the school magazine, I think i did this sucessfully because i selected three students from my media class to be in the shot. I chose a long shot rather than a mid shot because i thought it would work better with the layout of my front page as showing the students whole bodies to apply body language would improve the message of the convention used.

Throughout the prelim task, i used codes and conventions which i had taken from my research and knowledge of previous magazines i had studied before hand. For example, the font types are all different in which i have expolored many different text to apply individuality and uniqueness, i got this idea from the Top of the pops magazine which we studied in depth before hand.

I also used a wide range of colours to make the magazine bright and colourful to ensure that the unisex target audience is applied.

My masthead font is called onyx and is a simple however formal font type. I chose this because it looks formal and passes on a message of a sence of seriousness. To suit these conventions, i chose to colour it navy for a number of reasons, firstly, because blue is a colour that Acland Burghley is represented with and it is also a colour of seriousness and is related with a school uniform although Acland Burghley doesnt have school uniform. It generally represents Formality. Personally it think that my masthead is sucessful and sends the correct messages across.

I have used various aspects of lures and puff/earpeice and straplines. I have chosed these specific lures and straplines to relate to the target audience. For example, one of the headlines on the front cover says 'WIN! GO ON THE SKII TRIP FOR FREE' this is clearly directed at all Aleval students at La swap. This is an exreamly sucessful way to target your audience and use aspects throughout a magazine

I began the publication itself by creating the masthead. I titled the magazine 'The Burghley Boom' which is an onematopoeic  form of alliteration. In a way this is to reflect its art college status. I chose to use a font that looks irregular but attractive, and somewhat resembles formality.

At the bottom of the page, is my primary article which is written also in a formal fontype, as the article is about a serious and valuble topic which would benefit students. This also refers back to the target audience. All of the articles advertised on the front page are all aimed at a indetifiable audience.

I tried to follow a similar theme in the contents page by using similar colours and fonts to keep the publication consistent. I began by placing a plain opaqe colour of dusty blue to act as a background, but added a gradient on top of this so it doesn’t distract viewers from the main images on the page. The title ‘Burghley Boom contents’ which is simply introducing the page. This time, however, I used black so it does not get confused with the masthead. Using a found image of a film strip, I edited it so that parts can go at the top and bottom of the page. This indicates the media aspect of the arts whilst the splats of paint around the images indicate the art aspect. These images are trying to show previews of various articles featured in the list of contents to give more information.  The actual contents of the magazine are listed in a large font again with small bite size chunks of text, so it can easily be identified on a first glance. The bright colours, fonts and images I have used throughout the publication reflect the fact the school is an art college and is suitable for the target audience. In future development I may consider slight changes to improve the publication such as experimenting with the fonts a bit more and adding more aspects to reflect other areas of the arts.

When I had finished I had to go back to check for any spelling mistakes. I also printed out a copy to see what it looked like as a magazine. From this, I noticed changes that I could make to the layout and any errors that need correcting. I went back to change these and printed out a final copy to submit. Much of my time out of lessons was spent on these corrections but I managed my time effectively and am pleased with the outcome. To improve the design of my magazine further, I would enlarge the photo I have used on the front page. This photo was intended to be a mid shot; however, I now see that it is a mid-long shot. To change this I would simply enlarge the photo to change it into a mid shot.