<< Front Cover of a School Magazine

<< Contents page 

Analysing the school magazine – preliminary task

The title of the magazine is called “LGS” which has been abbreviated from Lordswood Girls' School. It had been abbreviated because the pupils, staff and visitors refer the school to LGS because the school is well known in the local area. The typeface of the masthead is quite big and is placed at the top of the corner. I did this because it is common to do so and it is one of the conventions of a magazine. If I never undertook this action then it would have meant that I had broken the convention and it would have looked quite dodgy and wouldn’t look like a magazine, people may have thought it looked like a poster rather than a magazine. The name of the magazine is quite important as it is not globally well known therefore the masthead is visual and the main image is not covering it.

The target audience for this magazine is obviously the students in the school and staff; however visitors and other people outside from the school can purchase this magazine. You can tell that the magazine targets this audience because of the main image of the school and the straplines stories affect the students one way or another or their parents. The reader interacts with the magazine by referring itself with the storylines and the images. This is because it relates to the reader – school issues.

The main image of the cover is the school; which is a Dutch tilt shot. This creates an affect because of the camera angle. It makes the main subject more interesting - which is the building of the school. This is used because so the target audience can recognize the school and that other visitors could identify how the school looks like. There is a flow of images on the left side which emphasizes the content of the magazine. This is because each image relates to the straplines and that is why I placed these images in different shots to make it look more interesting which creates a wacky effect. This then enables to catch the reader’s view so they then can stop and purchase the magazine. There is like four colors I had used: purple, yellow, white and blue color scheme which is recognizable to the target audience. I used these colors specifically because the school uses these colors. I think it would have been unprofessional if I used a different color scheme. The mood of the image is quite calm; the colors had contributed for the mood of the image. The connotation for yellow is quite cheerful therefore I used this because it relates to school and it will then target the audience. The blue symbolizes tranquility, serenity and endlessness as this school will continue communication between pupils and school. I used the color purple because it indicates the sophistication side of the school on rules, dress code, and how this school has highly developed and the elegance of it. In addition I had also used Photoshop to ‘Quick Fix’ the images to make it look more appealing

The things that I could have improved were if I had used a different font for the masthead as you cannot see it that much – it looks quite faint.  Maybe, I could have used a different main image like a pupil or someone doing some interesting work. This could have engaged the interest of the target audience more because the image would be interesting as well as relevant. Initially, I wanted a main cover girl image holding a digital camera who would be giving eye contact to the reader. Furthermore, I should have included the barcode, the price and the issue number. This would have made it look more sophisticated and it would have then fitted in the conventions of a magazine.

The contents page of the magazine has just been lined one by another- I did this so it was simple and not over-crowded with information. This would have engaged the interest of parents or other external readers.

The content page relates and links to the front cover as the color scheme is the same – this gives off a professional impression. The main image is two boys working with a digital camera which relates to the school specialist-media.

I could have improved it by laying out the content details spreaded out however I could not do that because of the shot I had took for the contents page. It wouldn’t have looked good if the text was placed on top of the subject area. Originally, I wanted a picture of the headmistress and a note from her as she runs the school and it would have looked professional. This is because other magazines have an editor’s note; this would have made it look more specialized magazine.