Preliminary Task

Here is my preliminary task.  I couldn't decide which picture would be best for a school magazine, so I did a bit of research and liked the idea of having a main picture with others coming off it. I chose the picture of the boy playing the guitar as I believe Marlwood's main priority is the pupils. I also decided to include the other pictures as I want to show that our school has a brilliant outdoors as well as indoors. I believe having a number of different pictures will help people see all the different sides of Marlwood and will interest people into reading my magazine. It will also make the front page less wordy and more attractive to look at which is good for a front cover.

I chose the title of my magazine to be 'bizzle' as it's a slang word for 'see you later'; so it sounds like they reader is going to walk off into the magazine and get lost in it. I chose a red colour and a blue outline to make the title stand out and to make it a lot more eye catching. By adding this I was hoping it will stand out more than other magazines. I also decieded to put the school motto and what school it belonged to in small writing underneath it. I did this so people will see it when looking at the title but as it's small it wont be concentrated on. I thought it was important to inlcude the motto though as it's Marlwood's key phrase and it will remind people what Marlwood stands for. Back to the title, I wanted it to be jumping off the page as if it was in a magazine rack and was at the back, the only thing you would see is the title. I thought the nice bright red colour and the clashing blue colour shadow made it a lot more fun to look at than the other magzines that didn't have this. I tried the magazine rack out by placing a piece of paper over my screen so it only shows the title and I believe it looks quite effective so I think it was quite successful.

I put the subheadings in line going down the left hand side as I think it makes the magazine look neater and more attractive. I chose to keep the same font as the title as it's easy to read and also it shows that the subtitles relate to the main heading so when people read the title they will also be attracted to the other titles as well. I spent a long time a picking the colours for my magazine front cover. I wanted to have a red colour scheme but I felt that some of the subtitles blended in with the background so I had to change it. I had one yellow, one aqua and one blue. Whilst looking back at my magazine I was unhappy that the subtitles didn't match the heading so I decided to have one of the subtitles red and the others a bright colour so it would stand out instead of blending in with the background. I wanted to have a subtitle matching the title's colour as I feel it makes the magazine look a bit more organised. I still wasn't really happy with the colour scheme as I still felt the subtitles weren't bouncing off the paper like the ones I researched. So I decided to have a look at some of the effects on the writing. I found a shadow which I thought was brilliant as a bright colour on a dark background looks really effective and becomes a lot more eye catching than it would on a bright background.

Some improvements I could have made is:

• Adding more subtitles, so my audience would know a bit more about the magazine and make it clearer what it is about.
•  I also think there was room for extra editing to make the magazine look more professional. Such as, I could have got rid of the sunlight in the picture as it can be a distraction whilst looking at the page. It might have been good to completely cut the whole background of the boy playing the guitar and add a simple colour so the titles and the pictures stick out more.

Front cover ideas

I like this front page because of the fonts and colour scheme although it's not a music magazine.
The font varies in size which is quite fun to look at as subtitles are always in your face. This is good as this is what you want your audience to see. I like the way they made the more important titles in a bigger font to make them stand out more to attract more readers.

I like the colour scheme as they've stuck to pink, white and black. I think 3 is a good number of colours or the colours will make the magazine look busy and it people will lose interest. I will use this in my front cover.

Another plan of a double page for my music magazine

In this double page I like the way the picture and the writing bond together. They do this by using the same colour scheme for each (blue), this shows they are linked together so this is where you read about the picure. I prefer the way it's laid out to other magazine's as instead of having the picture in the back ground it's on the page instead. I prefer this as I believe that it gives the page a bit of range, instead of just all writing. I also think that if the picture is in the background, it doesn't look as important as the writing which might turn people off reading the magazine as it looks too wordy. I will use a picture on the page instead of in the background for this reason.

Research for peliminary task

I am planning on having my setup for my school magazine like this. I want to have a big picture of the boy playing the guitar (picture below) and have the side headings around it. My magazine will look more colourful than this one and hopefully look more eye catching so I can attract a bigger audience.

Plan of action for Premilary task

I am chosing to use this as my background for my school magazine as:

• It represents the school well
• He looks happy working
• Colourful
• Will attract an audience

What i will use for my Music magazine:

Front cover:

• Bright colour scheme on a plain background
• Big picture
• Different styles of subtitles

Contents:

• Simple
• Spaced out
• Nice colours on a dull background

Double page:

• Big picture
• Eye catching font for the title
• Nice use of colours
• Not too wordy

Ideas for contents

This is a contents page that I quite like the look of. The things I like about it is it's uniqueness and how simple but effective it is. I believe a contents page is a vital page in a magazine as it tells its audience what it's about. I think that keeping it simple is vital, as people just want to see what the magazine is about and not rubbish advertisments which will turn them off reading the rest of the magazine. This tells them exactly wha'ts in the magazine and what page it's on. I will try and keep my contents page simple to sustain an audience's attention.
It's uniqueness is very effective as well. It looks totally different to every other contents I have looked at as the contents page looks like a scrap piece of paper on a desk. The ones I have seen are really busy with pictures and advertisments. I liked the fact it was different and it made me want to read the magazine even more. I will try to use this in my magazine but it will be hard trying to create a whole new idea up to everyone else's magazine.

More front cover ideas

 This is a hip hop magazine which is slightly differently layed out to the other ones I've reviewed so far. The page is mainly covered by 50 Cent who is an icon in the hip hop world which will instantly interest 50 Cent fans as they want to read all about him. So having a big picture does the same job as a catchy subtitle apart from it's  alot more fun to look at and a lot more eye catching. I also like the way the picture is layered. His head is in front of the title but behind all the other subtitles. This makes the subtitles and the picture almost look like it's jumping off the page at you to grab your attention.

I dislike the colour scheme in this front cover as I feel it's too basic. The red background looks quite plain which can be good if the subtitles are all different colours and attractive, but it's not. When I do my front cover, I want lots of different colours clashing with the background and different fonts for each to attract more people.

2nd idea for a music front cover

When looking for ideas for my music magazine front cover, I was instantly drawn to this one due to the fonts, colour scheme and also the picture.

The colour scheme is really affective. The black subtitles stand out due to the yellow outlining. So instead of clashing with the background, it clashes with itself! This is used with most of the other subtitles as well. I think having a different range of colours clashing with itself looks very effective and eye catching. I will definitely use this in my magazine to draw an audience straight away.

The fonts used are simple but effective. They stand out due to the colours, but the font makes it easy and simple to read. This is a good method as it looks easy to read and it can be read from far away. So it will also bring in an audience of people who aren't looking for that magazine. The word "SWAGGER" is used with a transparent effect so it doesn't get in the way of the picture and to give the style of the subtitles a range of effects so the front page doesn't look all the same. I will use both these methods in my magazine as it gives the magazine a cool style about it before you've even opened it.

I also like the picture of Usher. His picture is placed in the middle with things dotting around him to give a feeling that he's the centre of attention and he is the most important thing to the magazine. Usher fans will like this and automatically buy this purely because he's in it.

Music magazine pages research

This is a different way of styling the magazine to the one below. It has the picture in the background instead of on one page so they can squeeze more information onto the pages. I will not use this style as it encourages the writing to look more like an essay than an article. I want to keep my audience interested in my writing and I believe that the way to do that is by keeping it spaced out and colourful instead of black and white and have the writing crammed together.

The positive of this though is the font of the title. It looks fun and creative and I know it will appeal to their audience as it grabs your attention immediately. The font isn't the only thing that is good about the style of writing though, the colour is also eye catching. It clashes with the black and dull background to make it stand out even more. I will think about using a font like this in my magazine to draw people to the page. I really like the clashing colours as well, I feel it makes the page look interesting and it keeps your attention to the colourful writing and not the dull background. So I will have to think about placing this in my magazine as well.

Magazine pages research

This is a double page of a music magazine called Vibe. I like the way the picture suits the style of writing and the way it's set out on the page. I will use the way the picture is set out in my magazine as it catches the reader's eye and interests them into reading the information on the page. A negative of this double page is the writing. I think that it looks too wordy and boring. When adding text onto my magazine, I will try to use as little as possible but still include the main points needed. I could do this by adding bullet points, different font sizes or different colours. This will make the writing look more exciting and more enjoyable to read.

I also like the way the the title is styled. I will try and use a font similar to this to make the magazine to draw the audience to read the page as it looks fun. I also like the key interesting point underneath the title, this will give a short summary of what the page is about, which will make the readers mind up to see if they want to read it or not.

Ideas for my music magazine

This is a magazine contents which I like the look of. I like this contents as it is very simple to read due to the layout of the page. My magazine will have have 1 picture and labels as I feel it makes the magazine look more spacious and relaxed. I'm not to sure on the colour scheme in this as doesn't look like a music magazine. I will use more bold colours on a black background to make it stand out more than others.