Preliminary task front cover

The image below shows the front cover page of my preliminary task; a school magazine with target audience of new students at the Priory School in Hitchin. 

I decided to name my magazine 'Nouveau', because it is the French word for 'new'. This therefore is appropriate for my magazine, as it is intended for new students. I also thought that the word 'Nouveau' would appeal to some of my intended audience, as often in school students learn French. It is a relatively basic French word, and therefore pupils will recognise its' meaning and hopefully be interested in it, if only to tell other friends what it means; to show off a little! For those that can define the word, the title of the magazine also gives the function of it, and is therefore informative.

I have used a simple colour scheme, including baby blue and bright red. I thought that these colours complemented each other, and neither are particularly gender specific. This reflects the fact that my magazine is not aimed at any particular gender, and the use of these 'ambiguous' colours will hopefully mean that neither boys nor girls will be uninterested due to the colours used. I decided to use this red colour because it is one of the colours featured on the school crest, and some of the school jumpers. I therefore thought that this would give my magazine some sort of brand identity, as people would recognise that it was aimed at students from the Priory School. I also tried to do this by putting the school crest and name on the bottom of the front cover.

The crests, school name and tagline ("the Priory School's magazine just for new students") all help to give some information about the intention of the magazine. I thought that it was important to include this information on the front cover not only because the magazine itself is new, but also so that any potential readers will know what they are about to read. I hope that, by including this information, more people will want to read the magazine, as they will know what it is about before they pick it up.

I tried to make the front cover 'grab' the reader by including pictures. The pictures that I included are all of school students, and I also tried to be informative with the shots that I used because I wanted readers to know what they were potentially going to read. As I needed to include a medium close-up of a student, I used the main focus of the page as the photo of the boy being waved off to school by his father; I thought new students would be able to identify with this image. I put this picture in the middle of the page so that it was in the readers' eye line, and took hold of their attention. I also included three pictures underneath the main photograph, all set in a working school environment. I put them underneath the main photo as I thought they were less important and eye-catching as the main picture.

I also included a snippet of what to expect in the rest of the magazine on my front page. I picked three of the most contrasting and interesting features from my magazine, and advertised them on the front page. I did this because I wanted to once again inform the reader of what they could see in the rest of the magazine. I positioned this writing on the gate of the main photo, in the blue that the background is in. I put it here and in this colour because it contrasted with the dark colour of the gate, and as a result it stands out from the photograph and will hopefully attract the reader's attention.