Experimenting with fonts and the layout

I now have my background sorted, which meant I started to design the main features to be displayed on my cover.
From the first practice cover I already had my image cut out and ready to be used. I layered this on top of the pin board and enlarged it to make it fit an blend well. I also previously used the idea of a homework diary to talk about exams. I liked this feature and decided it was worth pursuing.
I ripped out an old page from a homework diary, and wrote the the main title onto it. In order to make it look realistic and old, I curled the edges and scrunched it up lightly.This made an effect which looked believable to be stuck onto this pin board. I then scanned it in making sure not to flatten it.I then added a bit more text to make it look more believable.This is my general idea of what i want to continue in order to make a realistic school magazine front cover.


After spending sometime closely analysing this draft, there were some points which I knew I needed to change in order to make it more believable. The main things were the font of the title and the "essential feature bit" e.g. price and date.
I wanted a font for my title which helped represent school and all the factors included in that. I didn't just want a normal ordinary font. I decided it was worth browsing the Internet to find a font which helped represent my pin board effect. I found one called "urban sketch". I instantly knew this would look effective and after a little more browsing decided this was the only font which worked well.
You can see that the first image is very faint and not very distinctive, to make my title more bold, I duplicated the layer three times to create a bolder more distinctive title. I like this font as it's sketchy. It reminds me of students scribbling and "doodling" in class experimenting with different styles. I think it works well with the pin board background as nothing on a pin board is for certain it can always be removed and this font give the same kind of impression, that it can almost be rubbed of. I kept it in a black colour to help create a pencil effect although making sure that it was bold at the same time. On my pin board it lies next to some colour pins which help makes the black stand out and effective, without looking boring.

Once I had the basics sorted and effective, I thought about all the feature I wanted to advertise on the front. I thought about how I was making it a sixth form magazine , which I wanted to appeal to that age group not just for them to throw away. I looked at my survey results for help on what features my target audience wanted. I decided to talk about the school sport teams and the canteen. I made a little canteen tray which I wrote on top with my title for that feature. To advertise the sports news, I took a picture of a football which I then wrote on top of. The words I used on the football are very persuasive and encourage the sports teams and the readers to be proud of their school. In order to make it fit in with the pin board effect, I took a picture of a pin and edited it to make it look like the football was pinned to the notice board. I then thought of a few more headings which would interest a wide audience and simply wrote them on in effective fonts and colours.
This is a picture of where i am now up to, including all these features.