Final Oreintation

The following is my cover orientation for my online Photoshop final magazine project.  I have decided to create a magazine based on TED. TED stands for Technology, Entertainment and Design.  It is a conference held every year during which world class scientists, designers, architects, artists, entrepreneurs, technologists, etc share their ideas.  The tagline of my magazine and of the conference is "Ideas Worth Spreading."  The link to the website ishttp://www.ted.com

Photoshop Final Orientation

Question 4:

i) Early Magazine Covers
Early magazine covers where designed to pretty much look just like books.  There were very few pictures and the pictures that were present on magazine covers at the time either didn’t hint at what could be found inside the publication, but also sometimes didn’t even have anything to do with the articles inside that issue. Later covers started to display what were referred to as “Poster” art pieces.  These were images (painted or photographic in nature) which depicted either symbolically or literally the topics that were going to be discussed within the magazine.

ii) The Poster Cover: Pictures That Need No Words
Poster covers started to come into prominence in the early 1900’s.  In the beginning they were usually paintings or engravings that were more works of art than magazine covers.  They tended to be rather large and the title of the magazine was very seldom placed over them.  Rather the poster art was displayed front and center and the title of the magazine was relegated to the bottom or the top of the cover page.  Many famous artists created magazine cover art.  A few of the more well known ones were: Norman Rockwell, Charles Dana Gibson and Maxfield Parrish.  Johnson and Prijatel define the poster cover as one in which "there are no cover lines, or themes announced, and the image generally is not covered by the logo... Most poster covers between 1890 and 1940 didn't even relate to a story inside the magazine. Rather the poster cover depicted a season or conveyed a general mood" (241).

iii) Pictures Married to Type: The Quest for the Perfect Relationship
Magazines with type as well as pictures on their covers were also present in the early days of the magazine, but they were less common.  However, as the magazine industry evolved new magazines would sometimes take a risk and include cover lines on top of their cover images.  These cover lines ran the gamut from being “sneak peaks” inside the magazine (as to what the articles where about and such) all the way to shocking calls to arms or new and brazen ideas that were displayed front and center.  As time went on magazines began to pursue the “integrated cover” look.  This means that they started to shy away from having a big picture with the cover line relagated to the outside border, and began to combine pictures and words in a way that would better tell their story to their readers.  However, unlike many of today’s magazine covers you can tell that the image had a somewhat more important role than the print.  Things like models heads covering up the name of the publication where more common in the early integrated cover.  Some of the information that was conveyed in these early integrated covers was who the writers of the articles are and what articles could be found inside.  Some magazines even printed suggestions or advertisements on their covers.

iv) In the Forest of Words: Covers at the Turn of the 21st Century
For most magazines at the turn of the 21st century, cover lines were as important as cover art. (http://longleaf.net/coverlines/#anchor8144683)  Nowadays a fantastic picture or painting is rarely enough to get peoples attention.  More and more, vivid and large cover lines are utilized within the magazine industry to capture and hold readers attention.  In magazines today the cover image constantly overleafs with the various cover lines.  A completely new style of posing and photographing models has resulted due to the demand for more space for cover lines.  Also in today’s magazines the images are rarely in the foreground.  The cover lines usually take precedence.  It is possible that this gradual emergence of a cover line dominated magazine publishing paradigm hints at deeper truths about our society.  One of these truths is that we have, as a culture, lost a great deal of our attention span.  Another is that we are now, more than ever, creatures of pleasure and stimulation.  One could argue that the evidence seen on magazine covers from around the world is directly related to our collective desire for stimulation.

Question 5. Go to a magazine section of a large bookstore such as Barnes and Noble or Borders or an independent bookstore with a good magazine selection. Stand a few feet back from the display shelves, and scan the covers of numerous publications and write brief answers to the following questions:

1. Which magazines stand out?
The magazines that stood out to me where:  Time, Sports Illustrated, Vanity Fair, National Geographic, Vogue, Cosmopolitan, Discover, and Popular Mechanics.

2. How visible are the magazine mastheads on the magazines that I can see?
Every single magazine that I looked at in the Barnes and Noble in westgate had an extremely visible masthead.  All of their mastheads where at the top of the magazine so that you could see them even if they where behind another magazine (due to the stadium row like configuration of Barnes and nobles magazine shelf.)

3. Describe three possible strategies in cover design that work to get your attention.
The three strategies that I observed that really worked for me where:  A picture of a gorgeous half naked women, a shocking image, and a brand name magazine with a beautiful photo on the cover.  Personally, I don’t really spend very much time reading magazines.  When I do read them I tend to read the same ones and these where the ones that caught my eye at the store.  Also, all of the magazines that caught my attention where all at eye level, and they didn’t have any magazines in front of them.  In other words I was able to see their entire front covers clearly.  As for the half naked women and the shocking image, well, both of these examples of imagery do a lot more for me than any cover line ever could.  For me, images really are worth more than words.  So, at first, I will always approach a magazine that has an interesting image on its cover rather than a magazine that does not.

4. What do you think makes a successful  cover?
As I alluded to in the previous paragraph, what makes for an interesting cover in my eyes is a beautifully shot, provocative, or unique image.  Don’t get me wrong, I think that certain fonts are beautiful and I think that cover line design and structure and copy are all important, but they don’t even come close to what a great cover image does for me.  It really is as simple as the fact that I won’t pick up a magazine with an uninteresting cover image on it.  Also, the name of the magazine (its masthead) must be clearly visible to me, even from 10 feet away.  Because I don’t read a lot of magazines I will tend to gravitate towards the ones that I already know.  This makes the title of the magazine extremely relevant to me.  If I can see and recognise the title, I am much more likely to walk over and pick up the magazine.