MAGAZINE DESIGN

A quick point first: I am shortly writing reports on you, so ensure that you have uploaded all your media work to Classroom, please!

Today we are going to learn about the ‘language’ of magazine layout, the terminology to describe them and their layout. Different magazines genres look very different – think of a music magazine and how many variations there are, then contrast these with (say) a sports, cookery, travel or lifestyle magazine.

The term for discussing 'what is usual to any genre' is codes and conventions

To talk about the 'language' of print media, you need the vocabulary: from the top down - strapline, masthead,  sell line, date, cover price, central splash, main cover line, cover lines, plug or promo, bar code, covermount (a giveaway CD mounted on the cover, bottom left hand)

MOJO magazine

 

POP MUSIC MAGAZINE

 

CLASSICAL MUSIC MAGAZINE 

 

ALT MUSIC MAGAZINE - WIRE

Second part of the lesson: 

We are also starting to design a magazine front cover of our own, using the Photoshop template that I have attached. 

Our code for uploading work is here >

This template helps you to understand the size and placement of text.

In your email from me, you will find an interactive magazine template to use which looks like this.

You need to open the psd file that I sent you. Start by deciding the name of your music magazine and type into the word MASTHEAD, then change the date to January 2021, add the cover price, decide your sell line.

Find a good music star photo (A4 portrait, not landscape) as your central splash. Depending on who you picked, write the MAIN COVER LINE next.

Altogether, in your own original magazine FRONT COVER: 

You need an original masthead (title)

You need a strapline (see below).

1 sell line at the top

3 cover lines on the front cover 

as well as cover price, bar code, date (January 2021)

 

Magazines often have additional small images of other stars (see MOJO and We Love Pop). You can pick your own (even your own photo!)

 

Photoshop has layers which means that you can drag a layer higher up the ladder to make it appear over another layer. You can also click the eye symbol on and off when you need to see what something looks like on its own. The layers are on the right hand side of your screen toolbox.

PREP: complete the magazine to the highest standard that you can.

Be sure to align your right and left text with your margins (this is called 'justifying').

Don't have more than 3 colours for your text.

Pick an appropriate font (never ComicSans, for example).

Use CAPITAL LETTERS for the article titles and different sizes of font to distinguish between the article title and the details of the article.

When in doubt, compare your work to a professional piece!