Secrets of cover design 3: some finishing touches
(part 1)This page shows how magazine front covers have used the main elements of image and text in terms of:
- Using the face
- Power of words
- Words and pictures
- Someone else's idea
- Evolution of a magazine cover: how Men Only changed over 40 years
- Man About Town: how the name has been used on three continents in 70 years
Using the face
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| Typical use of the face with boxed text on weekly Best | Glamour frames image with coverlines | Full face on Bare – most art editors prefer less of a close-up |
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| Upmarket film star allure for InStyle | Glamour's prison-shot look for Posh | Frank – unusual approach with a very high quality image |
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| Tough look for football's FourFourTwo | Dreamy feel for ICI customer magazine | Jump – fun feel for teen girls in dummy issue |
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| Focus by Tom Wolsey on Edward Heath for Topic (1962) | Classic 1960s Queen: note cover lines | Illustration is now rarely used on mainstream magazines |
The power of words
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| Words shout it out for car buffs |
Note graduated size of type for main coverline | Words are often key for special issues, as with Q (Aug 2004) |
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| Art deco masthead dominated Razzle's cover from 30s to 50s | City Limits first issue (Oct 1981) in David King's constructivist style | Free contract title for Computerland by PR agency Fitzroy (Jan 1988) |
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| For writers with their cheap wordprocessing on BBC Micros and Amstrad PCWs (Oct 1989) | Business used type to say it all (Mar 1990) | Wallpaper design awards issue (Feb 2006) |
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| Words dominate free ShortList (2008) handed out at rail stations, an idea that didn't take off in 1986 | Sky last issue (July 2001): the word 'sex' sells magazines of all kinds | Subject 2001: 'The first rule of men's lifestyle magazines is ... you must have sex on the cover' |
Words and pictures
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| Bystander 1916: colour covers at Christmas were a Victorian tradition | London Opinion used spot colour from the late 1920s (Nov 1927) | London Life, with covers of few words, varied its masthead each week (11 Mar 1933) |
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| Woman's Own 1934. Note coverline: 'Gifts made from jam pots' |
Bystander 1935: cover still devoted to adverts at society weekly |
Woman's Own 1937: full colour on a weekly was a revolution |
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| Wild West Weekly launched in 1938: the war was to set back UK magazines 20 years | Blighty 'Laughs its way to victory' each week (1944) | Lilliput in 1946: man, woman and dog cartoon by Trier dates back to 1937 launch |
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| Vanity Fair (1950) big Nat Mags monthly until killed off by Cosmo |
Blighty switched from humour to pin-ups (1959) |
Woman's Realm 1959: cover looks like an advert |
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| Honey (Apr 1960): main cover line, 'A girl's best accessory is a man', runs diagonally | Nova launch under editor Harry Fieldhouse (Mar 1965 | Mayfair 1966: Mars symbol and Raquel Welch in pink say it all |
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| Flair from November 1967: all about angles | Queen (Nov 1968): note diagonal cover line | Harper's & Queen from April 1971 |
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| Cosmopolitan first issue March 1972: red stands out on the newsagent's shelves | Tatler & Bystander (Jan 1975) still with adverts – look dates back to 1935 and earlier! | Editor Janet Street-Porter chose a flasher to front Time Out spin-off (Apr 1975) |
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| Woman's World, July 1979. Left cover line: 'Exclusive. The agony of being Anna Raeburn' | Nick Logan's The Face first issue in May 1980 | Masthead pun: i-D makes its subjects, in this case Sade, wink (Feb 1984) |
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| Dummy for Capital, which was to be handed out at London rail stations (Jun 1986) |
Educational Computing, (Oct 1987) for teachers coming to grips with computers | Riva (1988) upmarket weekly with contents panel |
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| Coverline 'How to spot a bullshitter' led to advertising for Excel being banned (1988) | Price was vital to Mirabella launch in September 1990 | First issue of Cosmo spin-off Zest (autumn 1994) |
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| Frank – first issue, October 1997 set out to be (too) different | Scene (Dec1998) under Deborah Bee was a visually bold title | Heat named 30 celebs who had 'done it' (June 1999) |
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| Wallpaper spin-off Spruce borrowed parent's * (2001) | IPC couldn't revive the 1960s Nova brand (2001) | Intersection (2001): a different angle on cars |
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| Boxy look for Emap's celeb weekly Closer (28 Sep 2002) |
Jack started with a pocket format but lacked firepower on the shelves (Jan 2003) | Few cover lines for Vogue (Dec 2003): only leading magazines can risk this |
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| Retro keeps it simple and says it all for games buffs (April 2003) | Rip & Burn seem to push Eminem off the cover (Nov 2004) | The last Face with Kelis & Andre 3000 (May 2004) |
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| Cut – bad cover, bad concept, sank without trace (Aug 2004) | Zoo – competing for flesh count with Nuts (Jan 2004) | Grazia with contents strip (February 2005) |
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| Psychologies – for the thinking woman, from France (Oct 2005) | Good Housekeeping – cramming it all in (Nov 2005) | Prima (2006): UK's best-selling domestic women's monthly |
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| Car: relaunches – briefly – with squarish cover (Sep 2006) |
Woman's Own: how busy can a cover get? (2007) | Monocle – a Boy's Own Economist (Mar 2007) |
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| Stunning profile for Sublime cover (Jan 2007) | Clashing cover lines for Kerrang! (6 August 2008) | Buck (2008): editor regretted not following left-third rule |
Someone else's idea
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| Cover by Peter Driben for US title Beauty Parade (Feb 1949) | Private Eye in the cover style it adopted in the 1960s (5 Sep 1997) | A pregnant Demi Moore on the cover of Vanity Fair in 1981 |
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| 'Young love' cover for Oz (issue 37, September 1971) | David Sullivan's porn apologist Private View; editor Miss Doreen Millington (Mar 1974) | Myleene Klass does a Demi Moore (Aug 2007) for Glamour |
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| Arena shows David Bailey's 1965 image of Michael Caine (autumn 1988) | Singer KD Lang being shaved by model Cindy Crawford for Vanity Fair (Aug 1993) | London Opinion sparked Kitchener's recruitment posters (5 Sep 1914) |
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| Jude Law tries to mimic Michael Caine's Alfie for Arena(Nov 2004) | Model Jordan (Katie Price) and Peter Andre pose for Attitude (Sept 2004) | Still being copied 94 years later (Economist, Sep 2008) |
Evolution of a magazine cover: Men Only
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| 1935: launch issue of pocket format Men Only | 1936: illustration on Men Only cover |
1937: relaunch with full-page cartoon, setting 20-year pattern |
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| 1956: celebrating 21 years using celebs on cover |
1957: film stars, in this case Diana Dors, dominate | 1960: photographs of models have replaced illustrations |
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| 1963: last of the pocket format issues | 1965: images now dominate Men Only covers | 1971: first Men Only under Paul Raymond |
Man About Town through the ages
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| 1939: Man About Town launch issue in US | 1955: Man About Town in UK (spring issue) | 1958: Man About Town launched again in US |
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| 1962: Man About Town becomes Town in UK | 1968: Man About Town launch issue in Australia | 2007: Man About Town rides again in UK |
| To part 1 | Other relevant pages:
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