Key Features of a Magazine Cover

Masthead - The title or logo of the magazine which catches the readers attention. The masthead is always printed in the same colour and usually found in the top left hand corner of the magazine.

Main Image - This is also used to grab the readers attention as it is an image linked to the main article within the magazine. The person featured is always well known in the music industry.

Coverlines - Headings which inform the reader of the information or topics to be found inside.

Subheading - Small quotes or further information about coverlines or articles found inside the magazine which intrigue the reader. This helps the magazine to sell as people are prompted to buy it and read on.

Essential Info - This can include the price, date of issue or website of the magazine and is usually found in small print.

Barcode - This is purely for retail purposes and is scanned when a sale is made.

Media Foundation Portfolio Brief

You must complete two linked tasks. The set brief is as follows:

Preliminary exercise: using DTP and an image manipulation program, produce the front page of a new school/college magazine, featuring a photograph of a student in medium close-up plus some appropriately laid-out text and a masthead. Additionally you must produce a mock-up of the layout of the contents page to demonstrate your grasp of DTP.

Main task: the front page, contents and double page spread of a new music magazine (if done as a group task, each member of the group must produce an individual edition of the magazine, following the same house style).

All images and text used must be original, produced by the candidate(s), minimum of four images per candidate.