This front cover for a school magazine, is aimed at an audience for school children due to the: font, layout, image, colour and mode of address.

Font: The font for the headline of the magazine FFH is large and bold, trying to grab attention to the title of the magazine. The strapline ‘Achieving Success Together’ is smaller, along with the cover story text, this is due to the text being not as important as the Headline. The final text in the bottom left hand corner, talking about what is in the issue, are even smaller, acting as a contents page. All of the text is in a sans serif font, to make the magazine look relaxed and aim more at comprehensive school children, in appose to having serif font for a more niche type of audience with a higher class of living (ABC1). All of the font apart from the headline is small, because it is less important and just describes what in the magazine, there is however even smaller text for extra information and instructions for example: ‘See back page’

Layout: The route of the eye hasn’t been used in this cover of a magazine, at the

primary optical area you see the headline and logo for the magazine, the strapline and extra information about editors and the issue number. Then your eyes follow across to the cover story, about sport, where your eyes then glance at the image of the children playing sport. Your eyes then flow to the terminal area of the magazine where it gives you the contents of the magazine and also a few pictures matching what’s in the issue. The cover is quite ordered throughout, with nothing getting in the way of anything else, though at the bottom with the contents there are a selection of cluttered pictures, which give the cover a relaxed effect to the magazine. The ratio of picture to text is almost the same, by glancing at it, you don’t think that there is too much text due to there being also a lot of Imagery but not an excesses amount.

Image: The centre main image of the magazine is a mid-shot, it shows a few school kids playing sport from the waist up, passing a ball, and so the image also includes the ball in the air and sky. The image looks quite professional and stands out, showing the natural look of them playing sport and smiling, the ball in the air looks like a focus of the image maybe with a message about team work focused around it. The mise-en-scene of the image includes sport bibs and sport uniform underneath, with the setting of the school and basketball court behind, this has the effect of showing the audience that the cover story is about sport, so without looking at the cover story text you know from looking at the picture what it is based around.

Colour: The colour of the mast head, and bottom pattern surrounding the contents are reds and oranges, which may relate to the schools logo. The cover all follows the similar sort of colour scheme, with dark reds and oranges. The impression the colours give apart from them being the

colours of the school, give the idea that the magazine yet relaxed and aimed at the students will still be school based and still needs to be professional.

Mode of address: The mode of address which is given to the magazine as quite informal, as the fonts are bold, sans serif and look quite laid back, also with there being a natural relaxed photo of school students on the front. Also the language its self is laid back for example ‘Disney here we come’ and also due to there not being capital letters and full stops in places, gets rid of the strict school element and tries to be aimed more at teenagers and there ways of writing when out of school.

Conventions: The FFH cover is conventional when it comes to having sans serif writing throughout the magazine cover, also with the drop of full stops. The mast head is also surrounded by a colour scheme block matching the colour scheme for the school. The use of the symbol ‘@’ in this cover also tries to put the cover back at the student and teenage level. There is likewise a natural photo of school children on this cover, and also a photo matching the cover line on the magazine also matches the centre image on

the cover.

Evaluation of my cover:

My school magazine cover is quite basic, this is to aim it at its target audience of school children. Due to there not being a lot of writing, but a lot of pictures, as teenagers are mostly drawn to items with a lot of pictures and little writing.

Font: The use of font is quite bold and stands out well. The font for the feature article which reads about ‘The class of 14’ has an American high school sort of font. A typical way of writing when associating with schools and school sporting events. The mast head font is very different to the rest, with a drop shadow and a glow around the outside; this is so the title stands out a lot more than the rest of the cover.

The idea of having two very different fonts is so they contrast each other, so eyes are drawn to the different texts and articles. There is also no full stops or full grammar on the cover, apart from the font, which includes only capital letters. This idea is to make the cover more modern and appeal more to a young target audience.

The fonts are also serif as they look more sophisticated and have a more professional look to them, still sticking with the professional school atmosphere.

Layout: The layout does not follow the route of the eye, as you firstly look at the feature article In the centre of the page.

The jumbled less ordered look aims more at the target audience as it does not show full sophistication and gives it a younger, less work place look to it, which teenagers like to see, instead of being surrounded by work and studying all the time. The cover is sectioned into 3, the top section being the name of the magazine, the middle section with the head line and feature story, then the bottom section in red, with other stories in the magazine which could feature in the magazine.

Image: My main centre image is a image which would attract students of the school, and also matches the head line so are related. Although the image is a high angled shot looking down on the students it is effective in the way that everyone can be seen, this is unconventional, as majority of magazine covers as mid angle shot, with a straight on view.

But I took the idea for this picture through researching this FFH magazine, which has a low angles shot, of 3 girls. My cover is similar to this magazine, as having the school logo in the top, though

mine is in the primary optical area, all though it does not follow the route of the eye, I thought it was significant to be at the top of the magazine to follow convention. Also at the bottom of this magazine there are a few photos following the contents on the bottom left. I also used this idea, but followed a few more relevant photos about a particular article.

Colour: My colour scheme of the cover matches the colour of the logo. Firstly the black colour writing stands out from the white and red backgrounds. Secondly, the white boxes at the top of the page and around the writing making everything else stand out, though the idea for the white boxes came from the idea of having some stuff plain on the cover, so it Is not to bright and too much in your face. The red box, as I have already said matches the colours from the logo, and is in fact

the same gradient of red also.

Mode of address: My magazine is aimed at the teenage students of the school and not the adults or parents, the writing, is in a high school type font, though is serif, still keep the formal, but also with a little piece of laid back in their too. The language is quite new and up to date, nothing to formal, as then the mode of address starts to rear off to a different target audience. The headlines and stories in the magazine are also aimed at those of the target audience going to the school, as they include stories about the older children on the front.

My cover is conventional in a selection of ways, and is also unconventional in a selection of other ways: Firstly my logo and name of my magazine is at the top left of the magazine, in the primary optical area.

I also have the mast head with the leading story in the centre of the image, with the text in mine on the left hand side, but with the text on the opposite side, with the magazine ‘Parent and School’.

Finally, the text at the bottom, acting as a contents page, with text about what’s included in the magazine, both magazine have.

An unconventional point, would be that, my cover does not follow the route of the eye, like the cover on the right has, and also, maybe what

the ‘FFH’ cover has. Also, my cover includes a barcode which is very unconventional, due to the magazine being sold in schools, where there would be a set price for the magazine and the barcode would not be needed.

Unconventional for a barcode to be included.

Piece at the bottom, including, what will be in the magazine.

Mast head, at the top, with the logo often of the left, but FFH is on the right, as it is very long, and your eyes follow it from the primary zone.

Unconventional for a barcode to be included.

Piece at the bottom, including, what will be in the magazine.

Mast head, at the top, with the logo often of the left, but FFH is on the right, as it is very long, and your eyes follow it from the primary zone.