Category Archives: Covers

Metro launches new home-owners magazine

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Metro’s new magazine, First Moves.

The free daily paper, Metro, has launched a new property magazine aimed at would be home-owners in London.

The magazine, which is called First Moves, will be targeted at ‘urbanite home owners’ and will be available at key locations across London from this week.

Around 300,000 copies will be distributed and will include tips and advice for Londoners buying their first home as well as features on interior design. The first issue of the magazine will be a 32-page special edition on shared ownership and how to get onto the property ladder.

Linda Grant, Metro’s managing editor, said: “As we move the Metro brand forward, and into new areas, it is exciting to launch the first in our new series of magazines.”

She added that the magazine will help first-time buyers through this difficult process and offer the opportunity for advertisers to connect with this key audience.

Despite the date of the second edition not yet known, I think it’s clear to say that First Moves will be a welcome addition to the market in what is a tough time for all first-time buyers.

Have you been lucky enough to pick up a copy of First Moves? What did you think? Let me know in the comments box below.

 

InStyle collaborates with top designers

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InStyle’s December issue comes with one of seven special edition front covers for subscribers. Roberto Cavalli, Christian Louboutin, Mulberry’s Emma Hill, Henry Holland, Paul Smith, Zac Posen and Diane von Furstenberg have each designed a front cover.

Each of the designers has also created a short film exploring style, which are to be premiered in London’s The Sanctum Soho Hotel tonight (22nd November). The films will then be featured on instyle.co.uk.

Eilidh MacAskill, the editor said: “Fashion and film are two of InStyle’s greatest loves so we were absolutely thrilled that such incredible designers signed up for Film InStyle, one of our most ambitious projects. Fashion films are fast becoming the new music video and we’re delighted to be at the forefront and championing creativity.”

To read the full press release go to IPC Media.

InStyle November issue, Diana von Furstenberg

Marie Claire’s first issue of 2011

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Having just received my subscriber’s issue of Marie Claire and it was refreshing to see a magazine free from advertising clutter, but filled with picture sparkle in the form of a glamorous looking Dannii Minogue.

Having a subscription, there is no need to adhere to the newsstand market quips that often plague the covers of magazines and detract for the main attraction gracing the cover.  The fact that Marie Claire publishes a subscribers issue in a pocket size not only makes this version beautiful and free from marketing tags, but makes it special and somewhat unique.

I must admit that it was a bti of a shock to be honest to  be greeted with simply the image of Dannii Minogue and a simply message of “Happy 2011. Welcome To A New Decade.”

What I really loved about the design was not the simplicity and not even the fact that they could play with poses for the cover as advertising did not dictate that Dannii should be looking at the camera and addressing the audience.  It was in fact the simple sparkle of Dannii Minogue’s dress.

This sparkle of the dress is everything that you come to associate with a New Year party theme, an excellent example of styling to fit with the current time of year.  Also, what better than to put a star that a turned around her public image as much as Dannii Minogue on the cover of not only the first issue of a new year, but a new decade.

I feel Marie Claire really thought hard about this cover from subject to style.

Design We Love: GamesTM – Issue 87 Cover

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GamesTM's Origami Cover

GamesTM's Origami Cover

GamesTM is a fantastic magazine that shares many of the best design and editorial ideas of my favourite magazine Edge. Issue 87′s cover story was on Heavy Rain, a more mature title which revolves around four people’s lives in the wake of the Origami Killer, a child snatching maniac who leaves origami animals at the scene of the crime.

Issue 87′s cover looks excellent, with a beautiful render of three of the main characters side by side with an origami fold superimposed on top. But what you can’t see in the picture is that those folds are cuts into the magazine’s cover and if you fold the flaps over the central character, Madison, her face becomes the fourth character, Scott Shelby. The cover is actually origami itself.

It’s an excellent tie in to the game and results in a unique, beautiful cover.

Gorgeous Delicious cover

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 I have grown fonder and fonder of Delicious (delicious.) magazine over the last couple of months, and this cover (Januaury 2011 issue, on sale in WHSmiths and other newsstands now) affirms why I like it so much.

Essentially, it is absolutely beautiful to look at and incredibly satisfying to hold and read. Its squarer, book-like feel and use of rich purple and gold colouring gives it the look of a prized possession rather than a disposable item. As per usual, the coverlines promote appealling-sounding articles and recipes within the magazine.

For me, this publication (and this cover especially) confirms that printed magazines will always offer something that internet versions can’t. The tangible, satisfying experience of holding and reading a beautiful magazine is so markedly different to that of reading something on a computer that it should continue to appeal to consumers despite IT advances.

Wired (UK) cover design

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This cover of Wired magazine caught my eye instantly on the newsstand while sitting amongst other titles in the same sector. It’s use of bold, yet minimally used colours (mainly consisting of blue and orange) immediately draws in the eye and makes the coverlines stand out. It also represents the contents of the magazine well in the images used, with an iPad featuring heavily, as well as characters from Aardman Animations productions with Wallace holding a clipboard saying ‘Big Ideas’. This gives the reader the impression that the magazine will focus heavily on technology and design without even needing to read the coverlines.

Wired cover

Unusually for a magazine, it uses a gradient fill for the background which, if not done correctly, could have easily looked unprofessional. However, in this instance, it is done subtly to blend in with the blues used in the title at the top and strapline at the bottom. This also allows for the cover images to be given a clean, white background on which to really stand out. The attention to detail can also be seen in aspects such as the barcode, whose white box is faded into the background to make it much less impeding on the flow and consistency of the cover.

Design We Love – Wired US

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This is the cover from an old US issue of Wired which was guest edited by JJ Abrams and had a ‘mystery’ theme throughout… which all in all was sufficient reason enough that I sought it out on ebay. I love the retro feel to the cover and how there are clues and puzzles to what’s going on inside the magazine all over. If I was design editor for this issue I think I would have got rid of all the headlines and teasers and just had the stark image of JJ Abrams famed Mystery Box though as it says everything you need to know about the issue, sufficient enough to intrigue people into picking it up

Interview Magazine Cover

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 Interview is an art, fashion, film and culture magazine. It is produced monthly and comes in an unusually large format, a bit like a glossy newspaper rather than a traditional magazine. They also have a FANTASTIC website with some unique features, such as an interactive calender where you can scroll over a date and find out what is going on.

The December 2010 cover (pictured left) features Rihanna against a backdrop of flowers. The colour of Rihanna’s hair stands out against the pastel flowers and the simple block of text positioned on her shoulder keeps the image free of excess clutter.

The use of bold colours combined with a larger format makes Interview incredibly powerful on the news-stands. It really grabs your attention and persuades you to pick it up and have a browse through the pages.  Other magazines such as ID, Wonderland, Pop and Love all aim to have the same effect on the magazine shopper when they stand staring at the news stands. Instead of selling itself based on coverlines, like most monthly women’s magazines, Interview focuses on capturing the reader through the cover image.

Some other examples of Interview covers can be seen below:

Design We Love – Time Magazine

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I could post at least ten of Time’s covers in this category, Time magazine having some of the most iconic and innovative designed covers and concepts throughout their 87 year history.

This one is well put together, using the famous photo of American soliders raising the Stars and Stripes on Iwo Jima as its base but replacing the flag with a tree to insinuate that global warming, its effects etc are as much of a threat as any war… which is a great concept but kinda insulting to the memory of the soliders in my opinion. By using a black and white photograph as its base its makes the green border, title and the tree image standout a lot more – of course you can’t overstate the importance of Time changing its iconic red border for green, this having only happened three times during its history