Preliminary Task Analysis

We have currently been focusing on a premlim task, of creating a magazine cover for Acland Burghley. Firstly, we created a sketch of what we wanted our front cover and contents pages to look like, and tried to bring this to life on photoshop. We tried out different fonts and special effects, learning how to use all the different tools on the programme, and experimenting with what looked better. 

For my front cover, I decided to use:

•  A mid-shot of a pupil revising, sitting on the sofa in the il@b, with there eyes focused directly on the book, which suggests they are a hard working student. I chose to do a mid-shot as you are able to see their surrounding and the prop. This relates to students as they will have to revise throughout their time in education, meaning it may lure them in to reading it.

Secondly, we created the contents page. I used three different pictures which showed different aspects of the school.

• An image of two pupils laughing whilst socialising in the common room
• A pupil working hard revising
• A pupil standing by the art in the school entrance, highlighting they are a specialist Arts school.

I created the contents page on a programme called 'Pages' rather than 'Photoshop', which focuses more on the layout of a page rather than the editing of images and text. 

In my Preliminary task I overcome many difficulties, and although I believe it was a successful student magazine, there are many features which could have been improved. 

My school magazine overall with the front cover and contents page contained 4 images all relating to student life and all the different aspects of it. In my plan, I decided I wanted the front cover to be a mid - shot of  pupils socialising in the common room and a mid - shot of a student revising in the library. However, I then realised it would be difficult to make the magazine look presentable with two pictures, and it would be more effective to have one picture giving across a message; the revising picture seeming to be most important. However, I decided to use the picture of the two pupils socialising in the common room on the contents page along with my other two chosen images as stated above. 

The name of my Masthead 'Burghley Newz' I chose as it appeals to my target audience. Firstly, it is clear that it is aimed at students attending Acland Burghley, and I chose to use slang to attract my readers. 'Newz' which should be spelt 'News' depicts that it is aimed at teenagers who are commonly linked with slang terms. The font I chose was a curly font; which looked elegant; attracting more the female audience.I used the colour red so it was a colour not specifically related to one gender. However, to make this magazine not limited to girls, I made some decisions with colours and other fonts.

I chose the slogan 'BE IN THE KNOW!' as it implies that if you buy this magazine, you will never be left in the dark, as it tells you everything you need to know. Also, as my Masthead was in an elegant, curly font, I decided to make the magazine more appealing to boys to do this slogan in bold, strong writing. This made it stand out on the page, and as I used the colour blue against a white background, it highlighted this piece of text even more.