Firstly i decided to sketch out some ideas of what i wanted the front cover of my school magazine to look like
My first task was to create a front cover and contents page for a school magazine. To begin, i researched a few of the school magazine covers that had been produced by my own school called the “Heathsonian”. I made notes about the layout and the house style that the magazine had used, and also the language, colours and images that were used. I noticed that many of the real school magazines that i looked at, all showed off the best and most modern areas of the school such as: the art block or the ICT suite. I also noticed that many of the images used, were of pupils hard at work, or pupils having a fun time yet still in an educational way. An example of this was an edition of the Heathsonion, which had an image on the front of pupils in the laboratory making experiments, which not only showed off the school’s excellent scientific equipment, but it also showed how much fun the pupils were having, yet in an educational way! It also made me realise that our school is one that specialises in Science and Mathmatics, so this image showed off that part that links in with our school.
This was useful because it made me aware of all the different points that i had to think about and take into account when i produced my own school magazine cover. It also gave me ideas about what looked good and what could be improved, so that when it came to producing my own magazine i could include parts and styles which i liked from my research of real school magazines.
Firstly i wanted to think about what my images were going to be of. I made some notes about what type of photographs i was going to take and of what setting and location i was going to use. I decided to focus on the art block and take photographs of talented students work. This was because i felt it was a way off showing off some of the talent that Little Heath School has and also because the art block is reletively new so the background and location would show what a modern and new school we have. I also wanted to take images of this because within my magazine, i was going to have included the GCSE results, so taking photographs of some of the GCSE work i felt would match with the features within my school magazine. I felt that it would be a good idea to sketch four possible designs for my school magazine. I added colour and showed what kind of layout i would adopt when producing my magazine. I also thought about what to call my school magazine, and i jotted down some possibilities such as; ‘Huge Heath Magazine’ and ‘Littlesonian’ but i finally decided on, ‘Mini Heath Mag’.
I decided to take some images of the art work and some images of the pupils. I wanted to take an image of the sixth form pupils as at the time of creating the front cover of the magazine, i had just started at sixth form so wanted to make my magazine an edition that welcomed everybody back to the school for the new year, and also to welcome the new students that had joined our sixth form from other schools. I chose my favourite pieces of art work from the art buildings at my school, both fine art pieces and textile pieces. I took the images from close up, and i took them from a front on angle so that the photographs captured the texture and material that came from the textiles work.
When taking the photographs of myself and my friends to represent the sixth form at Little Heath School, i wanted the location to be outside with the big oak trees in the background, to portray what lovely grounds that the school is situated on. I wanted the image to have all of us with happy facial expressions to show how fantastic and enjoyable little heath sixth form is. This would also encourage parents that Little Heath School has a good sixth form with hard working and friendly students.
Once i had taken my images i uploaded them onto one of the MACS. I opened the file with photoshop and began to edit them. I have never used photoshop or even MACS before this piece of homework so it was difficult to get to grips with how they worked! I found it difficult to understand and then remember what each of the tools did in photoshop, and i also found it hard to remember about all the layers that consisted whenever you added anything to the front cover. For instance i wanted to blur out some of the the rough edges that had occurred when i had tried to cut out some of the background from an image. Yet i managed to blur out too much, so one of the images of a friend had a very odd looking nose! When i tried to delete the mistake, i didnt seem to be able to! So in the end i was forced to delete the whole layer and begin again. Yet i did learn that when using the blur tool, i needed to be very careful and use it subtly otherwise it blended it far too much so the image looked awful!
After playing around with the tools and effects on photoshop i began to get the hang of it. It was good practice for when i created my music magazine, and i learnt about what looked realistic so that it looked like a real school magazine. The main problem that had with photoshop was inserting text boxes and writing within them. It seemed that when i created a text box i then couldn’t move it into the area of the font cover that i wanted. This was annoying because every school magazine that i had seen, they all showed writing on the front cover that portrayed what was going to be inside the magazine. For example within my magazine, i wanted to have an interview with Mr Ramsden because he is the new head-teacher and many parents would want to find out more about him and the changes and improvements he is going to make within our school, yet when it came to inserting a text-box in the right hand side of the page, i couldn’t seem to do it. I did manage to add a title/masthead on the cover, yet i couldn’t seem to drag the text-box to the top of the page like i wanted to. I didn’t have much time left because i needed to then create my contents page and start on my research for my music magazine, so i had to be content with what my school magazine front cover looked like, even though there were lots of changes that i would have liked to have made. However i made sure that i didn’t have difficulties with that again by watching how other people managed to move things around the page. I noticed that if i wanted o move things around the page then i had to select the move tool and then select what i wanted to move.
Next i had to create my school contents page. I jotted some notes down about what features i wanted to include with my school magazine. I then picked my favourite features and included them on my contents page. I chose “GCSE Results” because i felt that as the GCSE Result broke the records in the school this year, having them included in my school magazine would emphasize this even more. Next i included a “Mr Ramsden interview”. This was because as he is the new head-teacher of the school, most parents and even pupils would want to find out a little bit more about what changes and improvements he is going to make in the school, and also just to find out what sort of person he is. My next feature within my school magazine was “Students artwork”. I decided to make this a feature because i wanted to match and connect my contents page to my front cover which showed off some of the fantastic artwork. I also felt that it was a perfect way of showing off some of the talent that Little Heath School has. For the rest of my pages i decided to dedicate pages to each year. So have four pages for Year 7 which would include all the news that is surrounding their year, and trips and special awards etc. I would do this for all the years so that my school magazine included a range of information from all the years to keep both parents and pupils up to date with all the goings on within the school. I wanted to keep my contents page simple, mainly because i didn’t want to waste too much time creating it as i wanted to start getting my music magazine research done. So i went for one large image in the background of brightly coloured balloons to symbolize the school welcoming everybody back for a new term, and also to celebrate the amazing GCSE results and fantastic art work that the school is host to. I also kept the font simple and made it white coloured so it was lear from the background and could be read easily. If i have any spare time at the end and all the important work on my music magazine is complete, i might think about going back to my contents page and my front cover and making soem improvements on the layout and the images.
This was useful because it made me aware of all the different points that i had to think about and take into account when i produced my own school magazine cover. It also gave me ideas about what looked good and what could be improved, so that when it came to producing my own magazine i could include parts and styles which i liked from my research of real school magazines.
Firstly i wanted to think about what my images were going to be of. I made some notes about what type of photographs i was going to take and of what setting and location i was going to use. I decided to focus on the art block and take photographs of talented students work. This was because i felt it was a way off showing off some of the talent that Little Heath School has and also because the art block is reletively new so the background and location would show what a modern and new school we have. I also wanted to take images of this because within my magazine, i was going to have included the GCSE results, so taking photographs of some of the GCSE work i felt would match with the features within my school magazine. I felt that it would be a good idea to sketch four possible designs for my school magazine. I added colour and showed what kind of layout i would adopt when producing my magazine. I also thought about what to call my school magazine, and i jotted down some possibilities such as; ‘Huge Heath Magazine’ and ‘Littlesonian’ but i finally decided on, ‘Mini Heath Mag’.
I decided to take some images of the art work and some images of the pupils. I wanted to take an image of the sixth form pupils as at the time of creating the front cover of the magazine, i had just started at sixth form so wanted to make my magazine an edition that welcomed everybody back to the school for the new year, and also to welcome the new students that had joined our sixth form from other schools. I chose my favourite pieces of art work from the art buildings at my school, both fine art pieces and textile pieces. I took the images from close up, and i took them from a front on angle so that the photographs captured the texture and material that came from the textiles work.
When taking the photographs of myself and my friends to represent the sixth form at Little Heath School, i wanted the location to be outside with the big oak trees in the background, to portray what lovely grounds that the school is situated on. I wanted the image to have all of us with happy facial expressions to show how fantastic and enjoyable little heath sixth form is. This would also encourage parents that Little Heath School has a good sixth form with hard working and friendly students.
Once i had taken my images i uploaded them onto one of the MACS. I opened the file with photoshop and began to edit them. I have never used photoshop or even MACS before this piece of homework so it was difficult to get to grips with how they worked! I found it difficult to understand and then remember what each of the tools did in photoshop, and i also found it hard to remember about all the layers that consisted whenever you added anything to the front cover. For instance i wanted to blur out some of the the rough edges that had occurred when i had tried to cut out some of the background from an image. Yet i managed to blur out too much, so one of the images of a friend had a very odd looking nose! When i tried to delete the mistake, i didnt seem to be able to! So in the end i was forced to delete the whole layer and begin again. Yet i did learn that when using the blur tool, i needed to be very careful and use it subtly otherwise it blended it far too much so the image looked awful!
After playing around with the tools and effects on photoshop i began to get the hang of it. It was good practice for when i created my music magazine, and i learnt about what looked realistic so that it looked like a real school magazine. The main problem that had with photoshop was inserting text boxes and writing within them. It seemed that when i created a text box i then couldn’t move it into the area of the font cover that i wanted. This was annoying because every school magazine that i had seen, they all showed writing on the front cover that portrayed what was going to be inside the magazine. For example within my magazine, i wanted to have an interview with Mr Ramsden because he is the new head-teacher and many parents would want to find out more about him and the changes and improvements he is going to make within our school, yet when it came to inserting a text-box in the right hand side of the page, i couldn’t seem to do it. I did manage to add a title/masthead on the cover, yet i couldn’t seem to drag the text-box to the top of the page like i wanted to. I didn’t have much time left because i needed to then create my contents page and start on my research for my music magazine, so i had to be content with what my school magazine front cover looked like, even though there were lots of changes that i would have liked to have made. However i made sure that i didn’t have difficulties with that again by watching how other people managed to move things around the page. I noticed that if i wanted o move things around the page then i had to select the move tool and then select what i wanted to move.
Next i had to create my school contents page. I jotted some notes down about what features i wanted to include with my school magazine. I then picked my favourite features and included them on my contents page. I chose “GCSE Results” because i felt that as the GCSE Result broke the records in the school this year, having them included in my school magazine would emphasize this even more. Next i included a “Mr Ramsden interview”. This was because as he is the new head-teacher of the school, most parents and even pupils would want to find out a little bit more about what changes and improvements he is going to make in the school, and also just to find out what sort of person he is. My next feature within my school magazine was “Students artwork”. I decided to make this a feature because i wanted to match and connect my contents page to my front cover which showed off some of the fantastic artwork. I also felt that it was a perfect way of showing off some of the talent that Little Heath School has. For the rest of my pages i decided to dedicate pages to each year. So have four pages for Year 7 which would include all the news that is surrounding their year, and trips and special awards etc. I would do this for all the years so that my school magazine included a range of information from all the years to keep both parents and pupils up to date with all the goings on within the school. I wanted to keep my contents page simple, mainly because i didn’t want to waste too much time creating it as i wanted to start getting my music magazine research done. So i went for one large image in the background of brightly coloured balloons to symbolize the school welcoming everybody back for a new term, and also to celebrate the amazing GCSE results and fantastic art work that the school is host to. I also kept the font simple and made it white coloured so it was lear from the background and could be read easily. If i have any spare time at the end and all the important work on my music magazine is complete, i might think about going back to my contents page and my front cover and making soem improvements on the layout and the images.
emma, can you upload your school front cover and contents page onto this entry.
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