Preliminary task guide

 

AS Media Studies: Preliminary Project

 

Your task is to create a front page for a new Sixth Form magazine.

All of your work must be presented on your blog.

Suggested structure:

1) Review three typical magazine covers (of any genre). Come up with a list of conventions and style features that magazines have in common.

2) Using a screen grab of at least one front cover, annotate the particular features you have identified.

3) Plan your magazine’s target audience (its ‘readership profile’). Think about age range, gender, personalities, interests etc. For higher grades, you should be consulting your target audience on what they want from a 6^th form magazine. An audience for a 6^th form magazine will seem broad, but what do this age bracket all have in common?

4) Plan your magazine- name? Slogan? Any design features, such as colour scheme, dominant font etc, that will run through your magazine? (This is known as the ‘house style’). Reflect on your decisions as you go along.

5) Plan the photography for your front cover- does it suit/appeal to your identified target audience?

6) Do a design/mock-up of your front cover before you start the final version.

7) Plan the features and articles that will appear in your magazine (that will be mentioned on your front cover). Could you use your audience research for this?

8) Create your front cover on the computers, keeping your target audience in mind. All images must be original (i.e. taken by you). At this point, we don’t mind which software you use to put the page together.

9) Analyse your completed front cover on your blog- what conventions have you used or challenged? What was the thinking behind your design choices? How successful was your finished page? What do you need to work on for your main coursework portfolio? Reflect on the whole process, including elements such as time management.

 

DEADLINE:                     12B Thursday 18^th September/12C Friday 19^th September