School Magazine Cover, Contents Page and Template

Photo shoot:
Before designing my front cover I carried out a planned photo shoot in order to get the images I needed for my school magazine. Firstly, I designed a template in order to give me an initial idea to start the magazine design process. After completing my template, I arranged a time when a group of friends has a free together so we I could take pictures of them around the school. I took a number of photos around the school in order to produce some photos that I thought captured the school ethos at its best. I chose a number of locations that you would expect to see in a school to take my photos. The places I picked was the life (showing the sixth form advantages), the stair case, and chapel. I selected the photos I liked best and included them within my front cover and contents page.


For my school Magazine we were set to produce, I designed a front cover and a contents page which represented my school. After my photos were in place I used my template to guide me through designing the rest of my magazine using kickers, a  masthead, headlines, colour and font to produce a strong front cover and contents page.

For my Front cover I decided to base it on my school and what it represents. The main image I choose is a medium close up of girls walking down the school ‘enjoying’ the school day to day life. The colour theme of my front cover is black, burgundy/red and blue. These colours are my school logo so I wanted to capture that within the cover. Within the kickers I used the same font but changing the size, style and angle to help break up the page and draw your eye to the different bits of information.

For my contents page I selected my chosen photo from the same set of photos I took for my front cover. I created a moc-up of my contents page to help me when designing the real thing. 

For my contents page I did a simple yet effective layout. I used another photo taken around the school and stretched it across the page. In the dark background I contrasted with the writing using white to allow the writing to stand out. I used the same colours; blue, burgundy, black and white in order to keep the house style occurring throughout the two pages. I also used the same technique with the writing; using the same font but changing the style, size and angle to help break up the different sections.

Overall I tried to produce a front cover and a contents page in which you can see the type of happy school environment portrayed within my magazine. My magazine is targeted at sixth form students, male and female, between the ages of 16 and 18. My audience is the typical studious students that would attend St Gegregory's sixth form therefore my magazine would appeal to them.