01 - Initial Ideas Of School Magazines

Today we began looking at different examples of school magazines to gain initial ideas for our music magazines. There were many different ideas and techniques used and some were worse than others. The first one I looked at was a school magazine from King Edward VI High School For Girls called 'High Profile'. The front page was a good example of what makes a good magazine. It had many aspects that meant it was well done. 

Front Page

For example..

- Punctuation to emphasize the points made.

- Clear title to enable people to understand what the magazines about. In this case, the title is the same for each magazine the school make, showing a professional aspect. 
- Colour is used to make things stand out on the picture.
- Picture is used to help establish what the magazine is about, eg; the magazine is Summer 2009, so the picture shows people outdoors enjoying themselves, relating back to time of the year.
Font is easy to read and clear.
Alliteration is used -  "Wet and Wild" and "All Aboard"


The picture shows that the girl is having a good time by her smiling and they have used a naturally photogenic girl to show what the school are possibly about. The font and colours used on the background stand out to enable them to be easy to read against the picture. 


The front cover looks professional so sets a good example of what the magazine may also be like. With the simple layout, its easy for many people to understand and read. 

Contents
This magazine doesn't have a contents page which shows the amateur nature of the magazine. This is because you don't know where to look for things in the magazine and have to search for yourself rather than it being easy to find things. The contents is vital because if people are looking for a certain aspect of the magazine they can find it immediately where as without one they have to search and this can take up time, especially if they just want one part of the magazine. 

Double Page Spread


This double spread is aimed at younger people, preferably people who are in the same age range of the students writing the magazine. The amount of pictures used indicates this because people can see by the pictures what happened and what they did. The pictures also add more colour to the article so it becomes attractive to the audience. 


Once again, the font used is clear, along with the colour used. For example, black on a blue background enables it to stand out. Bright colours in the flags are used to draw attention to the spread. The pictures also introduce a visual aspect to the double page spread, showing that its not just pure text. People can find just text boring and lose interest, especially if the target audience is younger people, they will be less likely to read the text.


However, the content is something they will want to read about because it relates to people their own age and peoples experiences. As its a trip, people enjoy reading about what other people have been through and achieved. Also, because its a school magazine it gives the school a better name showing the opportunities available. 


The pictures used are edited like a collage on top of each other, as if someone is looking through them to cause a good effect. It also shows quite an informal aspect of the blog.