BriefBriefI have taken the challenge to produce a school based magazine, based around school life and the progress the school is making, I have targeted parents and children as they will be reading the magazine, this task helped me as it helped me to develop my Photoshop skills to a better level.

Initial IdeasInitial IdeasMy initial idea was to produce a magazine based around school and the progress a school is making, I decided to target parents as my target audience the reason I did this is because it will be parents who will be interested in the progress a school will be making and also they will now about the schools progress as they will have children who will be attending that school

Conventions of Conventions of MagazinesMagazines • Mast head: The masthead of a magazine is usually refereed to be a nameplate of a

magazine; it is usually bold and bright so it stands out to the reader, it’s in a clear big font which makes it stand out, the masthead is usually used on the front cover as well as the contents page. It is made in a style that makes it look unique and different from all other headlines in the magazine.

• Main Image: The main image is quite important for a magazine as it placed in the middle of the magazine and also it is the first thing the readers see when they pick up the magazine. So it has to attract the reader the image has to be of a good size and it has to stand out to the readers

• Cover lines: Magazines use a lot of a cover lines that usually are based around one image, a mistake made with cover lines is that they are aimed at the picture which usually changes colour.

• Main Cover Lines: This is quite large as it takes up almost a quarter of the magazine, the cover line is usually in 3 different colours so that it can stand out, the cover line is usually placed against the models shoulders who is on the magazine front cover.

• Selling line: short, sharp description of the titles main marketing point (for Cosmopolitan: The Worlds No 1 magazine for women).

• Left third: The left third of the magazine is vital for the sales in shops where the magazine’s full frontage is not shown, so the title must be quite recognisable to readers as they will be a lot of different magazines placed there as well. The start of the masthead is important here, as are short cover lines that are easy to read.

• Date Line: A date of publication is very important for a magazine as if it is a monthly magazine it hits the news stands the month before the actual magazine is released. Also a price is meant to be included on the magazine.

My Target AudienceMy Target Audience The target audience for my school based magazine is parents the reason I have chosen this group of people as my target audience is because parents will want to know about the school their children attend and what progress the school is making, this progress of the school will be portrayed through the magazine and what is going to be written in the magazine about the school.

How to use PhotoshopHow to use Photoshop During the beginning of my magazine production stages I did not have that much knowledge and understanding on how to use Photoshop but as I went along my understanding increased and I started to use different tools on the software as you can see by the progression I have made by looking at my preliminary task I have made improvements to what I have done in my music magazine.

As you can see this is the title from my school based magazine, here I have used an effect called stroke, this is quite a simple effect and it isn’t really that effective for the magazine. During the production stages of my school based I didn’t use that many efficient tools, as I didn’t have that much understanding on the use of these tools.

Stroke

This is my title from my contents page here I have used three different effects on the title one called bevel, I also used an effect called inner glow and outer glow on the title to make it stand out.

Inner glow, Outer glow Bevel

Types of fonts – What Types of fonts – What do they meando they mean

As you can see on my finished magazine pages that the types of fonts I have used on my front cover and contents page are quite bold and large, the reason I have done this is so it can show to the readers that this is the title of my front cover, as it appears on the front, it appears bold and big so then the reader can see it, I have done the same with my contents page I have made the fonts quite large so then the word contents stands out, and shows to the readers

Front cover PicturesFront cover Pictures This was the picture that I was going to use for my front cover but as my headline was talking about this years GCSE results I didn’t think it was suitable for the front cover, I then took a picture of another student and used that as my main image.

This is the picture I decided to use for my front cover the reason is because the background shows the how many people have passed and also gives a good image of the school for the students

Contents Page PicturesContents Page PicturesThis is the picture that I used for my contents page the reason I used this is because in my magazine I talk about the sport cricket so I thought that this picture is the best to represent the sport.

I did not use this picture for my contents page as I wanted the person in my magazine to look as if he was playing the game whilst standing, and this picture does not show him move so i decided not to use this picture.

Evaluation Evaluation I believe that my school based magazine is at a good standard I know this as I have followed all the conventions that are to be included in a school based magazine, the content of the magazine tells the readers of the magazine about the progress the school is making, for example in my magazine I talk about exam results. In terms of the quality of the magazine, it is of high standards as it has high quality images of students that are from 6th form. My magazine also has big bold headlines that refer back to key subjects around the school.

My magazine is also appropriate as it targets its audience directly , as this will help parents whose children are attending the school already and parents of children who wish to send their children to the school, this works as people who would want to send their children to the school will see the school image through headlines about exam results. Also parents whose children are already attending the school will just gaijn more information about the school.