Preliminary Task- Analysis Of School Magazines

We were asked to analyse the codes and conventions of some school magazines and then use them to produce our front cover and contents page for our school magazine.

The Bishopbriggs Academy magazine

Front Cover

• The colours they use in the colour scheme are involved in the logo and are used throughout the magazine. The title of the magazine is effective as they use 3 different fonts and colours to draw the reader’s attention towards the title. The grey colour for ‘The’ which changes into ‘Bishopbriggs Academy’ in blue and then again back into grey for ‘magazine’. But the ‘magazine’ is slanted and diagonally laying out, which is affective because it draws the reader’s attention to it. Although there is a lot of white on the background the colours help to catch the reader’s attention.
• The use of the logo on the front cover is effective because you can instantly recognise what the magazine is about.
• They use 2 small images which are giving you an insight to what is in the magazine, which is slightly unconventional as normally magazines have 1 large image on the front, and then maybe 2 or 3 smaller images near the bottom of the page. These images are of what is in the magazine.

Contents Page

• On the contents page the colour scheme is followed. The colour blue is used again. Although you might usually find images on the contents page, they are not used inside this magazine, but there is a lot of information on the contents page to tell the reader what there is to read.

Fusion magazine

Front Cover

• Again there is 3 colours used on the front cover of Fusion, but are not kept throughout the magazine. The use of white on the red and black background is very effective as it is clear to read and draws your attention to it.
• There is a large image on this front cover, but is unconventional as the image doesn’t really have anything to do with what is inside the magazine.
• The title Fusion has part of it sliced off, which makes you think the magazine is different to the others you may see, I think this is quite effective because it isn’t what you normally see.

Contents Page

• The contents page doesn’t follow the colours on the front page, but I find this effective as the colours they use make the page look cool and different. They again have not used images to show what is in the magazine, but have informed the reader of what each article is about in the magazine. The use of the image at the top of the page with colours falling from it is effective because it looks as if the colours are making up with page and the writing on the page.  

CHiLL magazine

Front Cover

·         Front cover has 4 small images showing what is inside the magazine which is again unconventional as you would expect a large image to take up the front cover. You usually find 2 or 3 smaller images showing what’s inside the magazine as well as a large image.

·         There is also a lot of writing on the front cover, which you don’t usually find on magazines.

·         The colour scheme is used throughout the magazine, but in my opinion the colours used aren’t very good because it just seems too much to me. Although it may appeal to the audience they have published the magazine for, which are the people that go to the school.

Contents Page

·         The contents page is more conventional in this magazine because they have images of what is in the magazine and the page numbers and what the articles are and about.

·         The colour scheme is followed from the front cover onto the contents page.

·         There is also 2 small paragraphs explaining to the reader how they make the magazine, which is found in some other magazines, or the paragraph is something little said from the editor of the magazine.