Transcript Magazine Cover Design - Graphic

Magazine Cover Design
How have magazine covers
changed with the passing of time ?
Early magazines - 1900
Are these covers colourful ?
No – Colour printing as we
now know it wasn’t
available until the 1950s
Are these covers intersting ?
No – The people that bought
them were wealthy and
wanted the new magazines
that became available. Only
since the 1960s have
magazines really fought to get
their market
The 1920s and 1930s
Magazines become stylish.
There is nothing to say what is
inside the magazine.
The covers were ‘posters’ for the magazine itself
Mixing Lettering and Images
• Some magazines did mix images and
lettering – even in the 1920s and 1930s.
This is the style we see most of all today
Recent magazines now need to tell
everyone what is inside
http://aejmcmagazine.bsu.edu/Testfolder/
How to design a cover ….

Masthead The name of the magazine displayed in the typeface in which it is
designed. This is the visual branding of the title and is usually done in a unique
typeface to be very recognisable
 Dateline Month and year of publication, often with the price. Note that a monthly
magazine usually hits the news-stands the month before the cover date
 Main image In the case of this cover there is a single image of the model Shania.
It is used in a classic way, the face is big enough to make an impact on the newsstand, with the model making full eye-contact
 Coverlines This magazine uses a lot of cover lines, which are distributed around the
main image without detracting from it too much
 Main cover line This is very large - taking up about a quarter of the cover area - and
comes in three layers, each with a different colour.
 The title must be easily recognisable in a display of dozens of competitors.
The start of the masthead is important here
 Bar code Standard barcode used by retailers
 Selling line Short, sharp description of the title's main marketing point
http://www.magforum.com/cover_secrets.htm
Type faces (lettering) is often special and designed
for a magazine to reflect what the magazine
is all about. It should be ‘eye-catching.’
What to do next ….
• Make a list of all the features we have to
include in a cover design
• Decide on a magazine that you are
interested in. Magic, Music, Sport, etc
• Design a typeface that suits a magazine
you would like to design for.