WEBSITES Sample sites I've analysed

All of the following have been analysed in some detail - some feature in your mock exam.

[exam sites]

Lady Gaga UK [my blog post]

Lady Gaga US  [blog]

The Doors  [blog]

Pilgrim (student; pop/Indie band) [blog]

[not exam]

LittleMonsters (Lady Gaga fans) [blog]

Sly Antics (UK Indie band) [blog] - note: by unfortunate coincidence, they changed their website almost within hours of my reviewing what is now their old one!

MAGAZINE Some fresh ideas for design features

Having considered the sample range of magazine covers, just some of the ideas we picked up on are:

• allowing the subject to cover part of the masthead; the Look example adds the idea of partly doing this but also bringing the title back on top of the subbject (the 'loo' and 'k' are different layers)
• using 4 colours (more gets messy, but may be appropriate for tween/younger audiences)
• varying font, size, case and colour within a story trail
• using lines to separate story trails - Rolling Stone takes this a step further with nice graphic design effects
• using sticker-style circles, including to highlight price
• using solid shapes (we saw triangles as well as circles and squares, rectangles...) to put trails in
• using colour outlines around fonts
• making a font 'see-through'
• framing the trail linked to the cover star over their body
• creating a shape/3D effect with text, as with the di Caprio Empire cover
• highlight numbers as a means of emphasizing value

MAGAZINE Some sample covers

From a very simple google search of 'magazine front cover' I found all of these - many of which are linked to analysis, and some of which are actually student productions ... do you think your research is as good as it can be?

We learnt a lot from this - look at the font variety: case, size and colour!

An example of a student production - see their blog guide here.