Task outline and relevant research

The task in which i have been assigned for my AS level Media, is that i have to produce a school magazine front cover, followed by a relevant contents page. In this it must include a mid close up of a student, laid-out text and a masthead.

I am going to begin working on my prelim magazine by looking at the features in which i will have on the front page i am going to create. I believe that the main features should be:

• the sixth form ball, this will be the main feature of the front page




• new horoscope page, this should be a small, yet colourfully presented




• two or more pictures




• information about any events which will be taking place around christmas time, i aim to create this using christmas colours and maybe decoration, of things such as holly etc




• a title, this should be bold

To decide the way in which i will present these features i am going to look at examples of other christmas season magazines, different types of font and sizes for specific texts, pictures which may attract the attention of a potential buyer also pictures that will relate to the articles which will be within the magazine and the way in which magazines tend to be laid out.

Today i have mainly focused on the way in which writing on the front page will compliment the subject in which it is displaying and the page as a whole. For example, i have tried out many different font styles for the word "christmas", to find the one which is best suited, not just for the word but for the presenation of the page. To narrow down the search for the most appropriate one, i decided that the most fitted would be more of an old fashioned, italic style, so therefore i looked at these fonts.

This enabled me to choose one of the ten that i looked at. I decided to choose option d, this is because the writing appeared to be more "christmasy" than others and the writing was readable.

I then went on to look at different types of magazines and the way in which the are laid out. This enabled me to make some decisions as the way i may choose to lay out the front cover of the school magazine. Somewhat of a guide for myself to use, ensuring that i will not produce a clutered or dull front cover. I looked at an aray of magazines; school magazines, christmas magazines and general magazines, and analyised the features i liked from them.