School Magazine Front Cover

When creating a front cover to a magazine, usually they have a midshot of a person, or for this instance a student, on the page for the centre of attention. This shot will not only draw the eye of the buyer to the magazine but it should also allow the buyer to know what the magazine is about. 

Because this magazine was to do with school I wanted to have someone in the uniform to clearly get across instantly that it is a school magazine. I then went to think about the colour scheme and how I can get everything on the cover flowing together smoothly and not look disjointed. Years 7, 8 and 9 all have red jumpers, which match the colour scheme of Southfield School for Girls.

Photo of a year 8 student in school uniform

For the school photo I took of the student, I used one of the cameras from school and set out around the school grounds to find an ideal spot for taking some photographs. I took some photos outside, but the weather that day wasn't that good so we went to the library. The library is an iconic place within schools as it is the main place of knowledge with all the books available. I took some photos of the year 8 reading for a book and holding some books, but these photos weren't what I was looking for. The images were too busy with books and people in the background. I realised, to create a good magazine I needed it to be simple and clean. This is when I took the image to the left. I used an empty hallway next to a window for good natural light. Natural light is always better for a photograph as the image doesn't then become orange or distorted with colour.

After taking the image, I set out to editing the image. I used Pixlr, and online editing website that I have used before and therefor comfortable in using. The main things I need to add to the image was a colour scheme, a title, logo and snippets to draw people into buying the magazine. The title I was originally going to call ' The Rose' because of the school logo, but after discovering that another magazine had previously been called that, I wanted something that was slightly more original. 

I chose Serif font due to the fact that it gives a more official look and feel to the magazine, because even though the magazine is for students, it  contains information about the school and I wanted to represent that in a more professional way. 

With the snippets I added who was student of the month (the student on the front cover)  and information about the prom. After putting these on the front cover I realised that a magazine needed more information to draw people in.

Now on the front cover, there is the logo, a midshot, important snippets to catch the buyers eye, the school colours and what type of school it is in the bottom left hand corner. After looking at this again, I realised that everything should be straight, unlike the logo, and have more information on the front. Also, this front cover, due to the font, seemed too formal for a student magazine. Finally, the front cover of my school magazine has consistent font throughout, not too formal, short snippets, the logo, a colour theme, and a midshot.