Magazine Cover Ideas

Okay, so for the preliminary task I have to make a front cover for a school/college magazine and design the contents page.
So, I've been looking online at templates and such to try and see the best way to do it.
I'm not going to add any images of these yet, as it's difficult to find an actual picture of a school/college magazine, however, all the templates I could find online and all the actual magazines I have seen have a very similar pattern.
It's difficult to explain exactly what they're like, but, it seems to be a background picture with a large title and not a great deal of text, but exciting and text that makes you want to know what it's about.
The cover tends to have quite a bit of colour to it, but colours that mix well together and aren't too different.

I'm getting a good idea of what I want to do for it, luckily, this is just a preliminary task and so it doesn't need to be perfect.
But I still want it to be presentable.

What I decided to do.

I have decided to do a Print for my AS level Media coursework as I believe I could produce a very good and interesting print.
I already have a good knowledge of Adobe Photoshop so I could use that, plus, I feel I could be very creative in using it, without going too overboard.
I'm looking forward to starting this project as I feel I'll be able to do it very well.

First of all, I need to do a preliminary piece, my preliminary piece will be a school/college magazine.
That is still in the ideas stage, however, I already have a pretty good idea of exactly what I shall be doing.
I need to have a look at a few magazines to see how the front page is laid out and also how the pages would be arranged.
Looking forward to making a start!