SCHOOLMAG COMPETITION:YOU'D BE surprised how many Schoolmag production teams leave the front page to the last minute. It's the front door, the first impression, the tone setter, and yet year after year we get enthralling magazines fronted by dull, uninviting covers.
Decide early what you need your front cover to do. Will it inform the reader of what’s inside? Will it feature an image or picture that gives people an impression of your school? Will you use a photo, artwork, design or a combination?
Open your mind about what a cover can be by looking at a range of professional magazine covers. You could hold a competition in school to design the best cover art, or take the best cover picture.
For a great example of student mag covers visit gcd.ie where the journalism students have been making unique and inventive covers for years.
Consider the back cover too – most commercial magazines feature an advertisement on the back – you might decide to offer the space to a local charity or even create a spoof ad. Either way, you want your mag to look the business from every angle.
irishtimesschoolmag.ie
Next week: Writing great features
