Print is still everywhere you stand: an Irish Examiner on a café counter, a free local sheet by a shop door, a poster on the school noticeboard. Before you read a word, the layout has already decided what you look at first.
Today you learn the design moves that steer attention on a newspaper front page and a magazine cover, then annotate both for your Communication Portfolio.
Three ideas drive almost every print piece:
| Term | What it means for you | Real example |
|---|---|---|
| Front-page hierarchy | The size and placement order that ranks what matters most. You spot what the maker wanted you to notice first. | A free local paper with one story huge and the rest in small boxes |
| Layout | How text, image and empty space are arranged so you can say why your eye moved the way it did. | A club flyer with the date alone in a clear band under the photo |
| Call to action | The line that names the next move. You check whether the page asks you to do something. | Buy tickets here on a concert flyer by the door |
Two labels you will also use on the front page:
Here is the same thinking on a short Christmas fair poster (not the pieces you annotate next): SCHOOL CHRISTMAS FAIR sits largest; a photo of string lights sits under it; Saturday 2pm, PE hall is mid-size; Free entry · Bring a tombola prize sits alone at the bottom. Hierarchy ranks the title; layout parks the ask where a hand stops; the last line is the call to action.
Practice first: label the hierarchy on this invented local front page. It is written out from top to bottom, and the note in square brackets above each part says how big it is printed and where it sits, so you can see what the page is ranking. Place each label, then compare with the model. This is warm-up only. Your Portfolio sheet comes in the next step; you will carry these observations forward.
The annotation sheet in the box below is your only Communication Portfolio entry for today, not your practice labels. It covers both pieces:
Before you leave, fill in hierarchy, image and call to action (or strongest cover line) for both pieces. Finish any remaining lines for homework under the same filename.
File it as m3_l68_print_annotation_<your-initials>.pdf (or a clear page in your folder).
Talk this through with the person beside you:
Which single design choice on either piece would you steal for a poster about a real school event, and what would you change so it worked from across a corridor?
Jot the stolen move and your one change on the bottom of your annotation sheet (or in your notes). You will use this sheet when you design your own print piece later in the module.
Longer thinking can go in your Reflective Journal after class if you want it there.
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