School Magazine Front Cover "XHIBIT"

I have decided to look through some samples of school magazines that other schools have previously done, by analysing a few different front covers it will prepare and guide me to create my own, I choose this on as I felt it was relatable with the magazine that I will be creating, as I want to focus my magazine on A-level students, immediately from the front cover of this school magazine, I can tell that these students would have just received their results, this gave me lots of inspiration for my actual magazine.

 

School Magazine Analysis

The masthead of this school magazine is called “XHIBIT” The headline is a play on the word ‘Exhibit’ and the shortening of the word makes it more user friendly for younger people. “ Xhibit” has connotations and associations of exhibiting new articles, new thoughts and new developments in the world of young people.  Reading down through the articles one quickly discovers that this is a magazine which specialises in the latest events, developments and shows in the world of art, drama, music and creative activities such as cooking. 

Exhibit essentially means to show or display so the masthead means to display what is going on in the front page or what is to follow in the magazine, so the reader would be enticed to see what articles are going be in the magazine.

 The competition that is highlighted on the front page is also related to this world with the chance to win tickets to a West End show.  This competition is displayed in the graphics as a jagged solid shape Graphics that is commonly used in cartoons and animations.  The typeface that is white letters on the solid orange background ensure that the reader can quickly see the competition prize that is being offered inside the magazine.

The tonal graphics draw the line across the page and the yellow of the ‘x’ is lifted up in the yellow of the GCSE results the yellow connotes a cheery and joyful attitude.  Likewise the orange tones of the ‘H’ are used in the ‘win tickets’ promotion and again provides a balance with the title of the magazine.  The colouring of the clothes of the taller student in the photograph likewise balances out the colouring of the last four letters as she is wearing a pink top and blue cardigan.  This ensures that the reader will look at the cover and recognise patterns of colour and patterns where font is reproduced.

The two students in the cover are situated slightly to the right of the photograph allowing for text to be sited on the left hand side of the page.  This is a very common layout of a magazines front page as we read from left to right in this part of the world and also read from the top of the page to the bottom.  However, the type cast for the article on ‘The GCSE geniuses’ clearly sites the word ‘GCSE’ in the centre of the page and sites it also across the two students which indicates that the two students are the ‘GCSE’ geniuses.  The colour yellow signifies positivity, energy and brightness and is therefore apt for this article and the reader would clearly be drawn to this story to find out more about these two students.  Furthermore, the students themselves are dressed very casually and appear to be very approachable, this means that the magazine’s audience can easily identify with them and would therefore be open to reading about them and how they succeeded in achieving such good results.  The students appear happy and excited with their results and the camera in the photograph would suggest that one of the students has undertaken courses in either media, moving arts or photography.

The articles that are featured on the front page relate to talent, creativity and performances.  ‘Young Talent’ which is featured in orange print – one of the colours used in the mast head describes an event which will feature local students’ art, drama and music.  A play on words ‘Bugsy at Burghley’ provides a link to an article which reviews a play and one would guess that the play is ‘Bugsy Malone’.  This film initially starred young actors playing the part of gangsters and would lend itself to a play which could also be performed and appreciated by young people.

The magazine cover also promotes environmental issues and subtly uses the green colouring on the word ‘green’ in going green as a means of reinforcing the environmental issue.  This is a subtle and yet effective manner in introducing this topic and would attract the reader’s attention. The block across the magazine is used to anchor the page and is divided in to equal parts each denoting sections within the magazine.  The magazine promises something for everyone whether it be art, drama, music, cooking, photography, competitions or events.