School Magazine Front Cover Research

 
     This is an actual example of Castle School’s official magazine. The layout is very simple; the name of the magazine at the top in bold to make it stand out, and the date of the issue at the bottom. It also has ‘The Castle School’ next to the title, and the website address next to the date. The cover is also very simple. No irrelevant information, or any words at all in fact. Only pictures make up the front cover, which makes it easy to look at, but also very striking - there is nothing to distract you.
 
     Here is a previous A-Level student’s work. This is a slightly more complex cover, which (I think) hinders it. Although it is very striking, there are aspects that drag it down. The use of pictures surrounding the main subject is good, the overlaying text is distracting, maybe due to the colour and the alignment (set to the left, where the centre alignment may have been a better choice). There is also a lot of quite small text at the bottom of the cover, which leaves less room for the rest of the material, and it is more of a distraction, because the reader has to look really closely at the text in order to read it. However, is does have brief contact details (phone numbers, web address), and a price. These are things I will try to include in my front cover design.

 
     I found this example on a Google search of ‘school magazines’. I have a feeling this is a professional magazine, because this is quite a common layout for front covers; the title, the singular subject, the main story in bold writing, apart from everything else, with other big stories  at the top. I also recognise the fonts used. Everything about this is simple, and effective, so much so I find it difficult to fault. The colours are simple yet eye-catching, there are no other visual distractions from the main subject (in this case, the woman), and the main story titles are kept brief.

     This is another good example of a magazine cover. The layout is very simple, and easy to navigate. The title looks very simple, but has it’s own unique touch with the two colours in the text. The stories of this particular issue are listed down the right side with a brief synopsis of what’s covered. The subject is very simple, with a medium shot of a student belonging to the school in question. In the top left corner, there is also a little banner, promoting a free handout.

What I learnt:
     From this, I learnt that a magazine front cover needs to be simple, bold and most of all, eye catching. It also needs to include basic information of what the issue covers, and anything else the reader would like to know. I shouldn't try and cram too much onto the same page, and keep the writing big and short.