Evaluation of My School Magazine Front Cover;

In my magazine, I used the masthead “HENRY SPEAKS”. This was the most popular one from my questionnaire results and I thought it would be the most effective one too before I got evidence from others that it was. At first, it was “HENRY SPEAKS OUT” but I narrowed it down to just “HENRY SPEAKS” as it was short/ basic which makes it stand out more and could fit on the page easier making it look more effective and bold.  With it being short and bold, I thought it would grasp the attention of the buyer and instantly give them an Idea about what magazine is about; if it’s HENRY and speaking out, you would think it was news about the school. Again, to pick my colour scheme for the masthead, I used the results from my questionnaire which were black and yellow which overall I think contrast well against each other. I think that these are appropriate colours because they associate well with the new school uniform in the school so is a type of representation for the magazine, relating to the school overall. I feel that the masthead is a sufficient size as it is big enough to stand out which will attract the target audience and is not too small. The font which was ‘myriad pro’ interests the younger generation (the pupils) as it is fun, bold and bright and stretched out to give it a greater length. I am also happy with the fact that even thou overall the magazine front cover is mainly black and yellow, I have still managed to get the masthead to stand out on the page too.

My main image on my front cover is of one 6^th former with two younger pupils in the new school uniform next to her. I think this image is an appropriate size as It is a long shot of them so that you can see the full uniform and outfit on each student. I think this image works for the magazine as it involves each of the two types of children in King Henry VIII; younger ones in uniform and the older ones in sixth form that no longer have to wear it so it shows you the difference between the two sets of people.  Also the fact that I chose a boy and a girl in uniform gives the two different types of uniform and that could be one of the things a reader is interested in, maybe if they are wanting their sons/ daughters to come to the school.  I didn’t want it to be a close up of them because it thought it would be difficult to fit three people in the frame and also the subsidiary images and writing would have covered up some of their face.

On my magazine front cover, there are two only one subsidiary image. Even thought there were meant to be two, one is a bit small on top of the page, but I spoke to Mr Jones and we both agreed that it looked more effective with just one large and one small with some sell lines and writing as it made it stand out more. I took this idea from an example magazine that Mr Jones had. I placed my subsidiary image at the bottom of the page because I couldn’t fit it anywhere else without covering the pupils faces so I made use of covering some pare space by the boys shoe and placed it there. I made it a rounded edged image to give a bit of change to the front cover as overall it is quite square with a few boxes on it, so to give it a bit of variation, I thought a rounded edge would work well with the image. I think it is an appropriate size as it is an extreme long shot of the boys playing football, including the prop of the goal post showing it is a game that they are playing. I didn’t want it too big so it took the attention off the main image.  I don’t think that the subsidiary images give a fully clear indication of what the story is about but again this encourages the reader to read the captions next to them and then want to read more about it.

On my front cover, I used a few strap lines. One on the subsidiary image on about ‘sport success’ which I think will grab male attention more than girls attention and will make them want to read on, also, at the top of the page theres a bit about the new work on the school giving a few words about it but letting the reader know that its carried on inside so it will grab their interest. Also, I have ‘exclusive!’ on the right hand side which is in bold writing and a red background which gets brought out on the page and makes it stand out a lot more and is very bold. I think having a mixture of writing and pictures make it look a lot more like a magazine rather than having a lot of subsidiary images on the cover.  “Change is For The Best” is my main story of the magazine as I thought it brought in a lot about the school as it would be a change to the new year 7s, also a change with the new school uniform and lastly the new work that has been done to the school with the new classrooms and lifts so I thought this was and effective way of bringing in many new aspects of the school and in an interesting way as it is vague making the readers want to know what changes have been made.

On my magazine, all of my spelling is correct and also my punctuation too.  I added exclamation marks to make it stand out well and also added a few commas and inverted commas showing on the top that it is about Mr Oaten. A consistent and appropriate colour scheme was used for all of my sell lines and strap lines; black and white, as it makes it bold and different to the masthead making them stand out well. Also it makes them easier to read as they are clear and bold. I used a mixture of capital and smaller text to make certain words stand out more adding variation to the magazine cover. The only one that has a different colour is the sell line at the top which is red as I thought it would blend in with the background to ‘exclusive’ making it more interesting and not all one colour. I chose black and white as I think it contrasts well with the yellow but also looks presentable.

I feel that the layout of my front cover is quite simple as it included writing and pictures, and even thought there is only one picture I still think the writing makes it look effective and appeal to the reader as it doesn’t look too boring with the writing as it is laid out interestingly with different colours and slants on them and there’s not too many words and some stories left to be carried on inside the magazine so the reader will want to read on after starting to read it. I think the text makes the magazine look more organized and professional because sometimes too many pictures on a magazine will give too much away so with just one and a bit of writing the reader will be more interested with the inside stories. I think it looks more like a magazine with the writing as sometimes pictures don’t fit right on the page. I think my front cover would be recognised as the front cover of a school magazine as it includes the uniform of the school, images of the school and also about Henry so it involves a few aspects of the school in it.

I would say that my masthead is a successful part of the cover as it is an effective font; easy to read and bold and as its been stretched and an Ideal size to fit on the page it stands out and looks organised making the page look neat. Also, I would say that my main image is a success as it includes the only types of pupils in the school; 6^th form and a girl and boy in uniform showing the type of uniform the school has brought in and the main story fits perfectly across it. Lastly, another part of my cover that I think is successful would be the top part of it reading “its coming on well” because the fact it is red pulls your eye to that part of the cover with smaller print under it including a picture which is something like what you really find on covers, I think it really works well, I would say that’s the best part of the magazine, it really makes it look like a front cover.

If I had to improve things on my cover, I think I would add a bit more to the picture of boys playing football as it looks a bit plain compared to the rest of the magazine; maybe a little bit of writing underneath and maybe change some of the fonts so it would create more variation making it more interesting to the reader.

Overall I really enjoyed the whole process of making a front cover; the planning, designing and making, as it opened my eyes up to valuable skills I will need to use in my music magazine and I felt like I ended up with a very successful end product.