In preparation for my music magazine task

to test my skills and make sure I was

comfortable and confident in my use of

Photoshop I made a practice or preliminary

task of a school magazine based around

my school. The masthead and idea was all

original however it kept with the schools

colour scheme and theme as well as stories

which I attempted to give a sense of realism

with current events around the school.

When designing the

preliminary task the look was

most important I wanted to

try and make something

that looked professional

while keeping with the

theme of school

I chose the purple background

in keeping with the school’s

theme colours and the

masthead “The Desk” as it is a

key figure for any student in a

school; as student magazine

straight off the desk

Keeping with the school

theme I then found and

cropped a image of the

school logo to place on

the cover of the magazine

After analysing other magazines

and finding the key features and

concepts they include the puff

was placed under masthead as

it is a student magazine it had to

covey a theme of being written

by the students; “straight off the

desk”

Next came the cover

lines. The content had to

be interesting yet realistic,

exaggerated story lines

would not convey the

style of a student

magazine. New additions

to the school and student

thoughts seemed most

relevant yet still intriguing.

First I added the additional

image at it was easier to

place directly under its

additional cover line. There

was not space for many

more as well as too many

may have made it looked

cluttered. From how the

page had begun to shape

I had enough space to

add the main image and

through the layout

everything else would form

around on the page would

form around the image.

After further analysis

and having taken a

picture for my front

cover my idea had

change to a whole

image as the

background and main

image however the

requirements meant

that I was only limited to

one image.

Further more the person

of my image had to be

change so that it was

taking into account

both genders. The use

of a boy worked better

with the layout but

made the magazine

male dominant.

Even though it cannot fully

be seen I played around

with some of the editing

techniques on the image

adding a glow and blurring

and painting over it. This

was to try out many

techniques in the aim of

achieving a polished

finished look.

The creation of the contents page I found

easier to do as apposed to the front page

as it based on additional cover lines the

only problem I found is when designing a

contents page is fitting it with the theme of

the magazine and front cover while

making a clear and structured layout

which I will remember and improve on for

my music magazine .

To start I set the layout of

the contents still keeping

with the same them colours.

I added a logo to

make it clear that

both these were

associated. My

main aim as stated

before was to

keep with the

theme of the

school colours.

This was the last

bit to add to

make the

layout of the

contents. By

placing the

word in a

shape it now

separated the

page to

include

As it was a

student

magazine I

wanted the

image but

knew that the

colour of an

actual image

would have

cluttered the

page so I used

a silhouette

instead.

The silhouette

of the students

enforce the

idea of a

student

magazine as

from it you can

see what looks

to be a group

of student on

top. They are

backing and

the innovators

behind this

magazine

However the

image was too

small and I had

to duplicate

and flip it in

order to fill the

space. At first I

was weary at

the idea but

the increase in

the number of

students shows

unity, which

helps in the

conveying the

theme of a

student based

magazine.

The cover lines were easy

to add. They have a

direct link to the addition

and main sell lines on the

front cover. The content

was important as this

made it a school

magazine specifically.

Just as important

page numbers.

Even though it

was just as front

cover and

contents page

being created it

still had to look

authentic and

realistic.

Upon adding

an image this

was the final

result. There was

a lack in images

on both my

front cover and

contents page

so I

remembered to

take that into

account for

future

reference.

It is also

important to

note that

because of my

layout from the

beginning in

my opinion the

image added

looked

squashed and

out of place

slightly. This was

another error to

take into

account when

designing my

music

magazine