This document provides guidance on creating a style sheet and flat plans for magazine design projects. It emphasizes that a style sheet allows you to organize stylistic elements like fonts, photography, and color schemes. Example style sheets and flat plans are shown to illustrate potential layouts, fonts, images and color schemes. The document stresses that flat plans allow experimenting with layouts before production to reduce time and ensure a well-thought out product. It concludes by noting the grading criteria includes evidence of layout/design work, presentation quality, and time management.

1. RESEARCH
AND
PLANNING

2. A REMINDER OF THE
MARK SCHEME
A/ B: Level 4 16–20 marks
 Planning and research evidence will be complete and detailed;
 There is excellent research into similar products and a
potential target audience;
 There is excellent organisation of actors, locations, costumes
or props;
 There is excellent work on shotlists, layouts, drafting, scripting
or storyboarding;
 There is an excellent level of care in the presentation of the
research and planning;
 Time management is excellent.

3. Style Sheet
A style sheet allows you to present your ideas for the key stylistic elements of your
magazine quickly and simply.
 It will help you organise your thoughts and ideas
 It will allow others to see what you have planned
 It will let you receive feedback on your magazine without having to make
it
It should contain:
 Examples of fonts you will use for your Masthead, cover lines and body copy
Examples of the kind of photography you will include – these can be found
images for illustration purposes only
Examples of the colour scheme you expect to use in your magazine

4. Example style sheet
Potential fonts for article headings
Blues
This is a font the
main body text
will be written in.
AS Media Studies 2010
These are the types of images I will
use. They are a mixture of live shots
and high quality portraits
4
Colour scheme
Blues
Blues

5. Example style
sheet

6. Example style
sheet

7. Example style
sheet

8. Flat plans
Flat plans are simple drawings of a page layout that show where the
different text, picture and graphic elements will go on a page.
Flat plans give designers the chance to experiment with a wide variety of
different layouts quickly and easily, before coming to a final decision on
page layout.
They will allow you to experiment and try and find a layout you are happy
with before going into production.
This helps to cut down on production time and leads to a product which
has been clearly thought out.

9. Flat plans
9
b

10. Flat plans
From these simple first draft outlines you can then produce a more
detailed plan which incorporates some example content
This will help to give you a better idea of how your page might look.

11. Example Layout
ArticleHeading
Text
Text
Text
Text
Information bar
20
www.bluesmag.co.uk
21
www.bluesmag.co.uk

12. Example Front Cover
MASTHEAD
Main Sell line
Additional cover line
Additional cover line
Additional cover line
Pictur
e
Here is a basic layout
for a front cover along
with an example
image

13. Example Front Cover
This example
brings together
the basic
layout with
examples of
fonts and
pictures to
make the front
cover.
Peter Green
Playing live again
Lightnin’
Hopkins Plaung live again
Rory Gallagher
History
The blues progression
Plus:
Gigs
New releases

14. Getting good marks
In order to gain high marks you must
show that you have drafted a range of
ideas. One single idea will not get high
marks
You need to present your work clearly
and neatly. Badly presented work will
not get high marks
You need to make sure you manage
you time well, so that you hit your
deadlines and you produce a good
range of work
Grading Criteria
 Work on layouts,
drafting, scripting or
storyboarding.
 Care taken in the
presentation of research
and planning
 Time management

15. Over to you
 Now it’s your turn to produce a style sheet and a flat plan / mock up
 Look at what you have found in your research and use it to inform and
influence your design
 Your project should have a clear progression from research to planning
and then to production