Magazine Covers Project

 

 

The purposes of this project are for you to:

  • familiarize yourself with researching in eLibrary
  • consider how magazines market themselves visually
  • practice applying principles of good visual design

During this project, you will take on the roles of magazine editor and cover designer. As the editor, you will write interesting, attention-grabbing titles and taglines for the articles within the magazine. As the cover designer, you will select a cover image and format a visually-compelling magazine cover.

 

Phase 1: planning

 

Select your topic. For simplicity's sake, you should choose a plant or animal to research.

Some possibilities:

frogs, tarantulas, spiders, venus flytraps, orchids, kudzu, kangaroos, deadly nightshade, cobras, giant anacondas, tasmanian devils, cane toads, rabbits, poison oak, naked mole rats, etc.

 
Phase 2: background research

Conduct some basic research on your topic, so that you have a reasonable amount of background knowledge. You will use this background knowledge later, when you craft titles for the imaginary articles that your magazine's authors are going to write.

For this phase, use the "Background Research" worksheet to record your findings.

Phase 3: creative writing

Now it's time to invent titles and taglines for the imaginary articles within your magazine. Here is where you need to come up with creative ways to lure consumers into purchasing your magazine and reading the articles.

Make sure that your titles are not only creative but also sound knowledgeable. Readers will not want to buy a magazine unless they feel like the article authors are experts on their topics.

For this phase, use the "Magazine Cover" worksheet.

Phase 4 : design

Finally, it's time to design your cover. To do this, go to BigHugeLab and use the Magazine Cover Creator. Feel free to play around with different formats, fonts, and colors. You will also need to select a cover image; please remember to enable SafeSearch if you use Google Images.

Design tips:

  • Don't use too wide a range of colors; this will confuse readers.
  • Try to choose a single font and stick with it for the entire cover.
  • Use larger headings for your more important articles.
  • In finding a cover image, the simpler the better. Remember that a lot of your image is going to be covered by text.

Once you are finished with your cover, download the image and e-mail it to Ms. Wolfram (wolfram@townschool.com). You will not receive any Tiger Points for images that you forget to e-mail!

Extra Time?

Finished early? Your options are:

  • Read a book or magazine (a real one this time!) silently.
  • Ask Ms. Alonso if there is any library work that needs to be done.
  • Play one of the educational games listed on the Sixth Grade Class Pages.