AS Media Coursework

Print Production

Preliminary Exercise

Using DTP and an image manipulation program, produce the front page of a new school magazine, featuring a photograph of a student in medium close-up plus some appropriately laid-out text and a masthead. Additionally, candidates must produce a mock-up of the layout of the contents page to demonstrate their grasp of DTP.

Research and Planning

Before you start to create your front page, you will need to research the codes and conventions of magazine front covers. This will involve analysing how front covers are designed and how they communicate with the target audience. You will need to study the layout, masthead, images and text in order to understand how magazine front covers work.

You will also need to carry out some market research into the target audience for your magazine. This will involve creating a questionnaire in order to find out the views of the audience which will enable you to include content that will appeal to the people that are going to read the magazine.

Drafting will also be a very important aspect of the planning stage. You should always come up with a number of different ideas for the layout, images and text that you are going to use to design your magazine page. For example, you might come up with four or five different ideas for the masthead of your magazine, and then find out which is the most popular with the target audience by creating a questionnaire to find out their views.

Any drafting that you do should be presented as neatly as possible.

Create the front page of a school/college magazine.

• Remember, this task is designed to allow you to become familiar with the relevant codes and conventions of magazine layout and design as well as the desktop publishing software Adobe Indesign.
• This preliminary task will prepare you for your main task which is to produce the front cover, contents page and a double page spread of a music magazine.

Use the following elements to create a draft of the front page of a school magazine:

1. Masthead: Think of a name for the magazine.
2. Images: What picture(s) are you going to use?
3. Strap lines or sell lines: What information are you going to include on the cover?
4. Captions: These are used to place the pictures into context.
5. Codes and Conventions: Details you would expect to find on the front of a magazine
6. Layout and Design: The way the words and pictures are organised on the page.

·        You should aim to spend at least 3 hours using the computer during the construction of your front page.

·        You must book your time in the computer room in advance.

Task 1 - Thursday 14th October 2010

Create a draft of the front cover of a school magazine using the codes and conventions listed above. Think about the layout and design of the magazine cover that you analysed when drafting your front page.

Task 2 - Deadline – Thursday 4th November 2010 

Produce the front page using the desk top publishing software, Adobe Indesign. You should demonstrate the ability to use some of the following aspects of Adobe Indesign when you produce your front cover:

·        Using the Object tool (rectangle, ellipse, polygon)

·        Using the Type tool

·        Using at least 3 Layers

·        Using Colour for background and text

·        Using appropriate fonts

·        Creating text effects using Stroke function.

·        Altering the size of text

·        Using the Rotate tool where possible

·        Taking appropriate images

·        Importing images from Adobe Bridge

·        Resizing Images

·        Cropping Images

·        Background Removal of images using Paintshop Pro

·        Creating a Clipping Path for images

·        Using Feathering where appropriate

·        Using Corner Effects where possible