Preliminary Task: Researching Conventions of a School Magazine

Front page conventions:

‘Top Terrace’

The designer has chosen to separate the front cover into different sections, clearly showing that each section is filled with different information. The different sections can represent the vast amount of subjects on offer at the school. Each section has a different colour to make it stand out from the one next to it and represent all those different people that take them.  The colours used aren’t contrasting and look well on the page together. I may use an idea like this as it is a sensible way to clearly show what some of the main topics in your magazine are, and point out the important parts, such as the name of the school.

The photographs used on the front cover show a smiling boy and another boy playing a cello. This shows the possible reader of the magazine that the children at the school are extremely happy and that some are even very talented when it comes to playing an instrument. This promotes the idea that the school is good for anyone with a musical talent and an ideal place for those that wish for their child to be happy. One criticism of this is that both models are male and it does not show a fair gender balance in the school, and could suggest that the school favours boys over girls. If I was to use photographs similar to this in my magazine I would ensure I have both male and female models, or one gender on the front and the other gender on the contents page.

The font used on the front cover is very bland and uninteresting. This takes away excitement from the school and suggests that it is too focused on the education side than the creative side, possibly making people less interested in reading the magazine. The font should be interesting and enthralling, encouraging people to read it. Saying this, the use of sans-serif font fits with the conventions of a magazine front cover, as it is rare to see a front cover with serif font.

Contents Conventions:
'Fusion'

The use of a white background could represent a school building. This meaning that it is the different coloured headings are the pupils adding creativity to this ‘background’ and represents the many different personalities in the school. The colourful headings are only successful because of the short summary underneath is a plain grey colour every time, adding sophistication to the burst of colours. This suggests that the school, despite all the creativity, is able to control the students whilst letting them be individual. This type of look may look well on my own contents page as it is fabulous example of how a school magazine, despite being full of important information, can be intriguing to the students, as well as the parents.

A recycling sign is used to point out the fact the school is supportive of recycling, with a little box of the same green colour (showing that it is relevant to the recycling sign) with information in about the schools recycling policy. This sends out a positive sign for the school, encouraging that they are environmentally friendly, another element to attract positive attention from parents. This idea could be useful in my magazine as I would like it to reach a large audience, i.e students & parents, and having something like this will attract the parents attention, whereas the bold colours will attract the students.


The photo used on this contents page is not relevant towards the school or any of the articles in the magazine. This brings up the question, what is the magazine attempting to achieve? Aesthetically the contents page is very pleasant but it does not have a serving purpose for a traditional school magazine. This could make the parents of the school students wonder what the education side of the school is like if the schools own magazine is not relevant. Taking this into account, the photo that I will use on my contents page will be very relevant to the school, thus not causing confusion for readers.