Magazine Practical Task Research And Planning

 Research

1) Create a shortlist of three potential magazines and upload an example front cover from each one. We recommend looking lifestyle magazines or a similar genre as these are more achievable to re-create (Use Google to research potential magazines that you could use as your brand/design for this project.

2) Choose one of the three magazine brands to use for your project e.g GQ, Vogue or The Gentlewoman. Then find three different front covers for your chosen magazine and embed them in your blogpost. Analyse the fonts, colours and typical design. What is the language or writing style? How are the cover lines written? What camera shot is generally used for the cover image? You need to become an expert in the design and construction of this magazine and its branding.

-Red serif font 

-Model covering title which signifies brand loyalty

-Direct address to the camera

-Medium/long shot 

-Summer dress, sunny 

-Star power of famous singer Olivia Rodrigo

-Only 2 cover lines
 

-White serif title 

-Cover line titles in sans serif in red

-White represents purity of the woman 

-Barcode at bottom right 

-Light baby blue background contrasts with the white and matches it     creating an innocent and pure ideology 

-Star power of Kate Upton

-White and pink symbolises femininity and reinforces the female stereotypes

-Vogue title covered by models head which shows brand loyalty as those who buy vogue will already automatically know the magazines name

-Headline of the magazine in bold black to stand out against the pink and white colour scheme

Planning

1) In your blogpost, write your main cover line (also called the 'main flash') - this is the main cover story that links to your central image. It must be 100% original - all your own words.

Style Show

2) Briefly plan the image you will need for the cover - model, costume, make-up, lighting etc. At this point, simply describe the image you need to capture.

-in a studio

-white background

-antonia

-studio lighting

3) Write the cover lines and any additional text you need for your magazine cover.

-best of 2025

-Cocktail or mocktail?

-top 10 places to visit

4) Sketch out your cover on plain A4 paper using your written planning. Take a photo of your sketch and upload it to your blogpost.

Photoshoot

We will do a photoshoot in class next week with lighting and backdrop. However, if you prefer you can arrange your own photoshoot for the cover image in your own time - you can use your phone or your own camera to take an image. If you don't have a phone or camera that is suitable, you can sign out a camera from Mr Ray.

1) On your planning document blogpost, state the date, time and location of your photoshoot and the name of the model or photographer you will use (you can choose anyone to be your cover model or you can be the cover model yourself).

-09/05/25 p5

-EF07 

Photoshop or InDesign?

You will have one Media lesson to create your magazine cover on Adobe Photoshop or InDesign but you will probably need more time than this. In order to complete this work, you will need to work in DF06 when you don't have other lessons or use Photoshop/InDesign at home. You already have access to Adobe at home via our fantastic Adobe Creative Cloud subscription (worth around £25/month!) as long as you have a PC or laptop that can run it.

Online tutorials

The best way to learn Photoshop is simply to start creating your magazine cover and learn as you go. There are thousands of tutorials on YouTube to help you - here are just a couple of examples of Photoshop tutorials: 

You can find an excellent InDesign tutorial here or alternatively try this: 

Publication to blog and evaluation

1) Once you have completed your design you need to save or export a copy as a JPEG image. Then, upload it to your blogpost. 

2) Upload two genuine covers of the magazine you have used and put them next to your front cover. This is a brilliant way to check how professional your work looks alongside the real thing.









3) Write a short evaluation of your work: have you succeeded in your brief to create a new, original edition of an existing magazine? Does your cover stand up alongside the genuine covers of your chosen magazine? How professional is your work alongside those genuine examples?
  

I think I did quite well to create a new magazine

You can tell that I made it though because of the lighting and the text a bit


4) Finally, what would you do differently if you completed this assignment again?

Play more with the lighting