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The text on the page is very important because that is partly what attracts an audience to magazine. The masthead is obviously the most important part of this magazine so it is in the biggest writing and also in italics. The title 'Bede's Eye View' is a play on the phrase 'Bird's Eye View' and seeing as my school is called St Bede's, I thought it made a good title. I feel that the name is catchy and with the size of the text, it stands out very well from the rest of the page. Obviously, the main headline is also very important as so I felt that it should be in capitals as I have seen this convention on numerous other magazines, again, I have used a well known phrase which not only relates extremely well to the theme of the article, but also is a phrase which I think would grasp the audience's attention. The text must be used to entice people into reading the magazine and finding out more so I tried to use brief article headlines and descriptions so they are catchy. I have also mentioned features that can attract the target audience, for example when I mention that there is a chance to win cinema tickets, this is something which I think will attract children. Also, by finishing most headings with exclamation marks, it makes them seem exciting and I think this will also attract audiences. as I said with colour, there is a hierachy with the text; its size reflects its importance.
As you can see, colour plays a big part on the cover of my magazine. The colours were very important for the cover because they had to be eye-catching and also relate to the target audience which would be the secondary school children. The red writing shows which parts of the page are important. Not only this, but red is a big part of my school's colour scheme so it was important to show that on the cover; it matches well with the tie and badge of the student also. There is also a sort of hierachy within the cover; as I said, the red writing represents what is most important, the turquoise shows headlines which are slighltly less important, similarly with the white, and the blue acts as a summary which still has some imporatnce and the green shows what is the least important on the cover. Throughout the cover there are running themes, for example, the green of the grass in ther smaller picture matches the text, the student's badge outline as well as the small green band across the maths text book cover. There are a few colours here, all of which are quite bright and dominant, but I think the theme works because they all link into eachother and compliment eachother. It was important to me that the background of the image was white because it allows for more contrast and makes the text stand out much better. It matches the student's shirt well and the shirts of the students in the smaller image.
As with the front cover, the sketch for the contents page was very similar to the finished product
With the contents page it was important that the colours were virtually the same as the ones on the front cover. As you can see, I have continued to use the red for the main heading and also for the boxes around the page numbers which are in the images in order to make them bold and noticable to the audience; I really do think the red jumps out the page at you. The colours used for the actual contents background is the same as the colours used on the cover. The turquoise background proved to be very useful because it emphasizes the black copy. I used the darker green for the sub-headings to match, but at the same time slighlty contrast the turquoise; it makes it very clear that they are the sections and therefore the audience will experience no trouble finding what they want.
For me, the images were an important part of the contents page and so they needed to be right. The images had to be fun and happy as this is a school magazine. I have also used different images to show variety in the magazine. For example, we see the student; based on what he is wearing, we are immediately made aware of his age. We then have the young man wearing quite a casual shirt, again reflecting his age. Lastly, there is the teacher. We can tell he is a teacher due to his outfit but we also see he is older than the other two. I didn't want all the images to be of school children in order to show there is more to the magazine. The colours in the images, similarly to the images on the cover, match the general colour scheme in some way so none of them look distinctly out of place.
There are 3 images on the cover as you can see. It was very important that the cover was not suffocated with too many images; I though that 3 (including the actual background image itself) would be enough and keep the magazine more subtle. I did photoshop all three images but not to a great extent; the main reason I did this was because the original images themselves were slightly dull and by photshopping them, I was able to really bring out the colours and make them stand out from the page. With the largest image acting as a background for the cover, it shows that this is the most important feature of the magazine. The pose for this photo needed to be just right in order for it not to look to false or flat. I therefore thought that by making the student stand slightly side-on, it would make the photo better and give the image "body". The smaller picture of the maths equipment was carefully planned out. I did feel that it was important to make the scene look natural but also include the sort of equipment you would usually associate with maths. As you can see, I included a calculator, a compass, a text book and a couple of other mathematical instruments. I also managed to get a nice stream of light which highlighted the title of the textbook and therefore put emphasis on what the article is about. The second smaller picture was was which I took on the last day of the school term. I liked this picture and therefore decided to use it because it is very natural and relaxed and is a good reflection of teens. As with colour, it must relate to the target audience.
As you can see, it is virtually identical to my original sketch
The layout of the contents page was very important because I really wanted it to look organised to provide easy navigation for readers. I stayed with the usual convention of most magazines regarding the rule of thirds, as you can see for yourself, there are 3 clear columns on this page. I did not want to overload the contents page with images seeing as there is a substantial amount of copy already, so, I thought 3 images were enough. I wanted them to all in two thirds of the page and I did not want them to be out of line with eachother; for me, that was crucial, especially for a school magazine as clear structure is key. Obviously, I placed the main feature image as much in the centre of the page as possible, and seeing as it is by far the largest of the 3 images, it stands out well from the page. Having the page numbers at the bottom left hand side of the images was important becasue I don''t feel that it takes anything away from the images as they are slightly out of the way, but still noticable. I have seen in probably every magazine I have read, pictures with the page numbers attached as this helps to show who/what the article is about and also allows for easy navigation. As you can also see, the contents list has been split into 3 clear sub-sections: Features, Regulars and Sport. Being a school magazine, I did not feel that any more than 3 areas would be required, however, it is important to have some because then the reader can find what they want quickly and easily; it is a typical convention of magazines. I also made sure there was a sufficient enough gap between the different article titles so it overly cramped resulting in the reader not being able distinguish between articles. I wanted to make the whole page seem as spacious as possible.
The copy is one of the most important aspects of the contents page so I had to ensure it was to a good standard. There are certain things on the page that I chose to put in bold to draw more attention to them and therefore highlight them, for example, the word 'Contents' at the top of the page needed to be clearly highlighted. I decided to have the page numbers highlighted also so the reader can clearly see which page matches which article. As for the actual article headings themselves, it was important to use basic language so all children could read the copy with ease. I also tried to make the copy more personalised as well by including features such as 'Your Say' and offering opportunities to win prizes and also get involved with different activities at school. I think, especially with children, they need to feel involved and have some way of engaging with the magazine. It would be easy to just talk at them about different issues but if they feel involved personally or see their friends and classmates involved, they may be more attracted to the magazine and it would serve its purpose in a better, more effective way. I also had to ensure the text was a suitable size to fit into the columns but also made sure it was still visible to readers and I think that I achieved this, mainly because I ensured there was good spacing and also having the black contrasted so strongly against the light background helped a lot.